Nonprofit organizations are ranked and rated by many independent observers, watchdog groups, and consumer advocates. Over the past year, Direct Relief again has received among the highest ratings of any U.S. nonprofit from the American Institute of Philanthropy (“A”), Charity Navigator (“four stars”), Forbes (“100% fundraising efficiency”), Consumers Digest (“99.1% Program Spending Efficiency”), and The Non Profit Times (53 in “America’s Top 100”). Direct Relief also remains a member of the Better Business Bureau’s “Wise Giving Alliance.” Each evaluator uses a different method, but their common general approach is a review of nonprofit’s finances and the percentage of income devoted to various categories of expenses – typically fundraising, general administration, and programmatic activities.
In recent years, Direct Relief has spent less than one-half of one percent of our annual support on fundraising and less than one percent on administration. That simple math is why Direct Relief’s efficiency and expense ratings are consistently among the best in the U.S. The support we receive includes donations of medicines, supplies, and equipment from healthcare companies. And Direct Relief’s accounting for the value of these products always has been conservative, using independently established wholesale prices as the basis – not the donor companies’ higher retail prices.