Compare Excellence in Giving’s Nonprofit Analytics to Guidestar and Charity Navigator.
Guidestar and Charity Navigator provide about half of the health and performance data summarized in 2-page Nonprofit Analytics. High-capacity foundations and philanthropy advisors use Nonprofit Analytics because of more up-to-date, comprehensive, and results-oriented data in a user-friendly format.
$ = Pay for access
| FEATURES | Nonprofit Analytics | Guidestar* | Charity Navigator |
| Pricing Strategy | Free basic profiles or $1,500 annual subscription | Free basic profiles or $1,500 annual ($250 monthly) subscription | FREE with ads and donate requests |
| FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT | |||
| 3 – 4 years of Financials | $ | view 990 or $ if charity didn’t add | Free |
| Complete Independent Financial Audits? | $ | download audits if available | Free |
| Program, Admin & Fundraising Expenses | $ | view 990 or $ if charity didn’t add | Free |
| Budget (current from last update) | $ | ||
| Debt Level (current from last update) | $ | ||
| Cash Reserves (current from last update) | $ | ||
| FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY | |||
| Revenue & Expense Growth Rate | $ | Free | Free |
| 3-Year Annual Income Trend | $ | $ | |
| Fundraising Efficiency | Free | ||
| 3-Year Number of Donors Trend | $ | ||
| Donor Retention Rate | $ | ||
| Number of Donors Listed By Gift Size | $ | ||
| % Reliance on Largest Gift | $ | ||
| Self-Sustainability % based on Earned Revenue | $ | ||
| Endowment Fund Amount | $ | ||
| ACCOUNTABILITY | |||
| Governance Policies copied from 990 | Free | ||
| Download Form 990s | Free | Free | |
| IRS Registration information | $ | $ | Free |
| Link to Annual Report | $ | download if available | |
| Written Financial Controls | $ | ||
| Perform Annual CEO Evaluations | $ | ||
| Annual Staff Performance Reviews | $ | ||
| Perform Annual Independent Audits | $ | ||
| LEADERSHIP | |||
| CEO Name | Free | Free | Free |
| CEO Compensation | $ | view 990 or $ if charity didn’t add | Free |
| Board Chairperson | $ | view 990 or $ if charity didn’t add | Free |
| Names of Board Members | view 990 or $ if charity didn’t add | ||
| Number of Board Members | Free | view 990 or $ if charity didn’t add | |
| Number of Board Committees & Meetings | $ | ||
| Board Member Terms & Term Limits | $ | ||
| Board Gender Diversity | $ | ||
| Annual Budget % Funded by Board | $ | ||
| Number of Staff | Free | view 990 or $ if charity didn’t add | |
| Number of Volunteers | Free | ||
| Staff Retention Rate | $ | ||
| 3-Year Staff Growth Trend | $ | $ | |
| Number of CEO Direct Reports | $ | ||
| STRATEGY | |||
| Mission Statement | Free | Free | Free |
| Statement of Problem Addressed | $ | Sometimes | |
| Statement of Solutions Provided | $ | view 990 or $ if charity didn’t add | Sometimes |
| Length of Client Relationships | $ | ||
| List of Strategic Partners | $ | ||
| List of Nonprofit Peer Group | $ | Free | |
| 1-3 Year Future Plan with Milestones | $ | if charity adds | |
| Recent Program Improvement | $ | ||
| S.W.O.T. Self-Analysis | $ | ||
| Up-to-Date, Board-Approved Strategic Plan | $ | ||
| IMPACT | |||
| Program Results Statement | Free | if charity adds | |
| Define Clients Served | Free | ||
| 3-Year People Served Growth % | Free | ||
| Number of People Served Last Year | Free | ||
| 3-Year Key Program Activity Growth % | $ | ||
| Exemplary Project Description | $ | if charity adds | |
| Use of Key Performance Indicators | $ | if charity adds | |
| Outcomes Measured against Benchmarks | $ | if charity adds | |
| Independent Evaluation of Programs | $ | ||
| Survey of Beneficiaries about Programs | $ | ||
| Completed progam logic model | $ | ||
| Conducted randomized controlled trial (RCT) | $ | ||
| WEBSITE FUNCTIONALITY | |||
| Nonprofit Contact Info & EIN | $ | Free | Free |
| Nonprofit Website Links | Free | Free | Free |
| Nonprofits in Searchable Database | 500+ | 2.2 million | 1.6 million |
| Free | Free | Free | |
| Ad-Free Website | Free | Free | |
| Integrated Third-Party Reviews | Free (if available) | Free (if available) | |
| Donation Processing | Hidden Fee | Hidden Fee | |
| Search by Keyword, Name, or Location | Free | Free | Free |
| Search by Topic | Free | Free | Free |
| Search by People or Nations Served | Free | ||
| Search by Nonprofit Leader | Free | $ | Free |
| Advanced Search for Registered Users | $ | Free | |
| Automated Email Updates for Favorite Nonprofits | $ | Free | |
| 1-page printable summaries | $ | ||
| Color-enhanced Declining Trends in Red | $ | ||
| Add nonprofits in 60 days of user request | $ | ||
* Guidestar’s “Financial Scan” features are not included above since they require a $2,500 subscription. Complete nonprofit data can be purchased at Guidestar for $125 per report or $1,500 per annual subscription.
Nonprofit Analytics vs. Guidestar vs. Charity Navigator
How do Nonprofit Analytics compare to Guidestar and Charity Navigator? Great question. Although Excellence In Giving appreciates the contribution of both platforms to the goal of funding effective and efficient nonprofits, we needed more than reformatted or rated IRS data to make informed giving decisions. Since Excellence in Giving advises clients on over $25 million of grants every year, we require up-to-date, comprehensive information focused on effectiveness. Excellence in Giving needs current financials, leadership structures and performance trend lines for impact and sustainability. Excellence in Giving needs deeper insight into organizational strengths and weaknesses and strategy. That is why we created Nonprofit Analytics with all these additional capabilities.
Finances. Since no investor would make investment decisions based on 2-year old annual reports (the equivalent of using 1-2 year old IRS data that Guidestar and Charity Navigator essentially reformat), Nonprofit Analytics provides up-to-date financials including the current year budget, cash reserves, and debt level. In the financial and growth trend sections, Nonprofit Analytics highlight declining trends and budget shortfalls in red font so you can tell where the organization is in decline and how many of the last 3 years they have ended in the red. As more nonprofits begin to earn revenue rather than solely rely on donations, we track each organization’s Self-Sustainability %.
Leadership. All 3 charity evaluators name the board chairperson and CEO, but only Nonprofit Analytics help you determine how engaged board members are by listing the number of board committees, annual meetings, and the institution of an annual CEO performance review. Nonprofit Analytics get detailed information about Board member term limits, gender, and familial relationship to the founder or CEO so you can determine if the Board is biased or stagnant. Only Nonprofit Analytics provide the 3-year staff growth rate and the annual staff turnover rate to determine the consistency of program leadership and leveraged impact through volunteers.
Strategy & Impact. Apart from the mission statement all platforms provide, only Nonprofit Analytics guarantee a Program Results statement, a checklist of “best practices” in program outcomes measurement maintained by the charity (Charity Navigator plans to integrate a judgment of impact measurement practices into their ratings eventually), a recent program improvement, the growth rate in people served and a summary of strategic future plans.
User-Friendly. Nonprofit Analytics fit 175 data points into an easy-to-save, view, and print 2-page PDF for paid subscribers and 16 key data points in a 1-page charity performance profile available for FREE. Guidestar’s “print report” button creates prefabricated sections spanning 2-20 pages that may or may not have any content and requires $125 to populate certain fields.
Search Function. The Nonprofit Analytics search sidebar can explore the database of charities by topic of interest, by nations served, by type of people served, by HQ location in the USA, by organization name, or by the name of an organization’s leader. Although Charity Navigator has advanced capabilities to search by budget size, CEO compensation, ratings, etc., no other platform can search by nations served or type of people served.
User Requests. The Nonprofit Analytics platform will add or update Nonprofit Analytics when paid subscribers make requests. Guidestar has some IRS data on all charities but no process for users to request charities complete or update the posted IRS data. Charity Navigator no longer accepts requests from users for rating new charities. The Nonprofit Analytics “request-based model” for adding charities also ensures no charity’s staff takes time to communicate up-to-date performance information unless a real donor is interested.
CONCLUSION
In essence, the platforms have significant differences. Guidestar and Charity Navigator have a bigger database of nonprofits, but Nonprofit Analytics provide more relevant data on nonprofit infrastructure, health, and impact than any other platform–2x more performance data than competitors offer. Every astute giver, foundation staff, and financial advisor should be using it to make informed giving decisions.
