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29-498: Green Corps was founded in 1992 by Leslie Samuelrich and Gina Cummings with the financial backing of U.S. Public Interest Research Group in response to the momentum created by Earth Day 1990. Green Corps was created to channel young talent into environmental advocacy causes. Green Corps is hired by non-profits such as the Sierra Club to manage their campaigns in the field. Campaigns Green Corps has worked on include: In 2014,

58-462: A national lobbying presence in Washington, D.C. In their first two decades, PIRGs worked on a variety of issues: PIRGs on college campuses have historically been funded through the use of automatic billing with a portion of student activity fees in the form of a labor checkoff or in the form of automatically enrolled dues to the association. Students may elect at some institutions to have

87-490: A Money Management Innovation for "helping millions of people become philanthropists", and it was on Time magazine 's top 50 websites of 2006 list. In a 2014 Chronicle of Philanthropy interview on the nonprofit sector, journalist Nicholas Kristof identified it with a trend he deplored: "There is too much emphasis on inputs and not enough on impact", Kristof said. "This has been worsened by an effort to create more accountability through sites like Charity Navigator. There

116-472: A ballot initiative at the University of Oregon to double their student automatic billing of dues at the expense of other student activities. As of 2024, the U.S PIRG Education Fund is rated a four-star charity by Charity Navigator , with an overall score of 92%. Charity Navigator defines a four-star review, as "Exceeds or meets best practices and industry standards across almost all areas. Likely to be

145-410: A charity's efficiency can be graded based on a tax return. Particularly relevant to Charity Navigator's methodology in 1999 was that 59% of the 58,000 charities receiving public donations in 1999 failed to report any fundraising expenditures, illustrating a potential problem with relying on Form 990 figures alone when analyzing an organization. Charity Navigator rates the 6% of charity organizations in

174-606: A donation of $ 200,000 was given by Green Corps to the Center for Public Interest Research, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. In 2015, Green Corps paid $ 240,480 to the Fund for the Public Interest for “program and fundraising support”. Executive Directors of Green Corps have included: The current Green Corps Board of Directors includes: Public Interest Research Group Public Interest Research Groups ( PIRGs ) are

203-455: A federation of U.S. and Canadian non-profit organizations that employ grassroots organizing and direct advocacy on issues such as consumer protection , public health and transportation. The PIRGs are closely affiliated with the Fund for the Public Interest , which conducts fundraising and canvassing on their behalf. The PIRGs emerged in the early 1970s on U.S. college campuses. The PIRG model

232-665: A highly effective charity ." U.S. PIRG's consumer protection work includes financial and product safety reforms. U.S. PIRG lobbied for the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau , an independent U.S. government agency which was founded as a result of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act after the Great Recession and the financial crisis of 2007–2008 . U.S. PIRG helped win passage of

261-550: A number of legal challenges. In 2014, students at Macalester College in Minnesota voted to end their relationship with MPIRG due to the group's revenue structure, which relied on MPIRG automatically receiving a cut of student activity fees. The Fund For the Public Interest has been subject to lawsuits and accusations of unfair and exploitative labor practices, and it has resisted unionization efforts by its canvassers. In 2016, U.S. PIRG joined conservative groups in opposing

290-433: A revised rating system would also include measures of accountability (including transparency, governance, and management practices) as well as outcomes (the results of the work of the charity). In July 2010, Charity Navigator announced its first major revamp. This revamping began what the organization stated is the process to move toward CN 3.0, which is a three-dimensional rating system that would include what they consider

319-497: Is so much emphasis now on expense ratios that there is an underinvestment in administration and efficiency." A 2014 survey of attitudes toward charity evaluation indicated positive results for Charity Navigator in six of seven categories. In October 2020, Charity Navigator acquired impact-based charity evaluator ImpactMatters . In August 2023, Charity Navigator acquired Causeway, a philanthropy technology startup. Using publicly available tax returns ( IRS Form 990 ) filed with

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348-533: The Credit CARD Act of 2009 , protecting consumers from certain predatory practices by credit card companies. Product safety work includes warning consumers about potentially unsafe products in the marketplace, such as recalled baby products and food. U.S. PIRG has called on major restaurant chains including McDonald's and KFC to end the use of meat raised with antibiotics, a practice that contributes to antibiotic-resistant bacteria in people. During

377-601: The Illiana Expressway in Illinois. U.S. PIRG actively lobbied for passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act in 2007, which reduced interest rates on student loans and increased funding for Pell Grants . It supported the expansion of open educational resources on campus and of campus food banks . Some PIRGs are members of a larger network of non-profit organizations called

406-552: The Internal Revenue Service and information posted by charities on their web sites, the Charity Navigator rating system bases its evaluations in two broad areas—financial health and accountability/transparency. Based on these criteria charities are awarded one to four stars. In the early years, the group's methodology was the subject of some criticism for its approach at the time. This method

435-527: The Obama Administration 's rules that expanded worker overtime pay, which resulted in criticism against the organization in the popular press. In 2022, the PIRG campus affiliate was shut down at the University of Connecticut after an effort by the local chapter to separate itself from the state and national organization failed to meet legal requirements. In 2023, Student PIRGs successfully used

464-619: The Public Interest Network. While part of the same organization and often staffed by the same individuals, these affiliates are often presented in publications to imply they are different. In the past, they have also helped to launch a number of other independent public interest non-profits, including: Twenty-five U.S. states have a statewide PIRG that is directly affiliated with the Public Interest Network/U.S. PIRG. Other state PIRGs that are not part of

493-623: The United States that have over $ 1 million in annual revenue (these 6% get 94% of the revenues that come into the nonprofit sector each year). In December 2008, President and CEO Ken Berger announced on his blog that the organization intended to expand its rating system to include measures of the outcomes of the work of charities it evaluated. This was described in further detail in a podcast for The Chronicle of Philanthropy in September 2009. The article explained that plans for

522-409: The United States, operating as a free 501(c)(3) organization . It provides insights into a nonprofit's financial stability, adherence to best practices for both accountability and transparency, and results reporting. It is the largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities in the United States. It does not accept any advertising or donations from the organizations it evaluates. Charity Navigator

551-639: The chief executive of GuideStar . Form 990 categorizes a charity's expenditures into three broad categories that are open to accounting manipulation. The nonprofit sector does not have the strict financial regulation and transparency required from public corporations (under the Securities Act of 1933 , the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 , and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act , among others), creating limitations on how accurately

580-531: The coronavirus pandemic, U.S. PIRG organized medical experts to speak about the U.S.'s response to the COVID-19 pandemic . The group of 150 sent a letter to political leaders urging them to shut down the country and start over with strategies to contain the surging coronavirus pandemic. U.S. PIRG and individual state PIRGs have taken positions against highway expansion or new construction projects as wastefully expensive and unneeded, helping to stop projects such as

609-493: The critical elements to consider in making a wise charitable investment After collecting data for more than a year, in September 2011 Charity Navigator launched CN 2.0, which is a two-dimensional rating system that rates a charity's: (1) financial health, and (2) accountability and transparency. In January 2013, Charity Navigator announced another expansion to its rating methodology, "Results Reporting: The Third Dimension of Intelligent Giving". Because mission-related results are

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638-537: The director of the New York Public Interest Research Group in 1973. The Minnesota Public Interest Research Group , founded in 1971, was the first state PIRG to incorporate. It was followed by Oregon (OSPIRG) and Massachusetts ( MASSPIRG ). By the late 1990s, there were PIRGs in 22 states with chapters on more than 100 college campuses. U.S. PIRG reported 1 million members by 2000. The state PIRGs created U.S. PIRG in 1984 to have

667-576: The fees refunded to them or opt-out, although many students are unaware that this is the case. At some institutions, opting out of the fee only lasts one academic term, requiring students who do not wish to be members and pay dues to have to opt-out. In 1982, the PIRGs established the Fund for the Public Interest (commonly referred to as "the Fund") as its fundraising and canvassing arm. The student fee system of PIRG funding has been met with controversy and with

696-516: The network include the New York, Vermont, Alaska, and Minnesota PIRGs. The state PIRGs are: Not affiliated with the Public Interest Network.* In Canada, many PIRGs exist as province-wide networks, on university campuses, and as community organizations. A non-comprehensive list is below: Charity Navigator Charity Navigator is a charity assessment organization that evaluates hundreds of thousands of charitable organizations based in

725-423: The organization to increase the total number of rated nonprofits from 9,000 to 160,000 at launch. The rating system launched with the first key indicator, Finance & Accountability, with a plan to release additional indicators over the next 18–24 months. Some charities, in response, began to supply more information. The New York Times reported in 2010 that one non-profit began "reporting on its finances using

754-474: The very reason that charities exist, Charity Navigator developed this new rating dimension to specifically examine how well charities report on their results. The new rankings now include "various criteria, including ... privacy policies". In July 2020, Charity Navigator announced an additional nonprofit rating system, Encompass. The new Encompass Rating System analyzes nonprofit performance based on four key indicators: This alternative methodology allows

783-543: Was criticized in a 2005 article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review for (at the time) taking into account only a single year's IRS Form 990. This approach can lead to significant fluctuation in the ranking of a charity from year to year. Also, the focus on the IRS Form 990 has itself been criticized, as the accuracy and reliability of IRS Form 990 data may be questionable, according to

812-534: Was launched in spring 2001 by John P. (Pat) Dugan, a pharmaceutical executive and philanthropist. The group's mission was to help "donors make informed giving decisions and enabling well-run charities to demonstrate their commitment to proper stewardship" of donor dollars. Over the years, the group grew from 1,100 to over 200,000 charities. As of 2009, four percent of the charities it evaluated had earned at least five consecutive 4-star ratings. In 2011, Kiplinger's Personal Finance selected Charity Navigator as

841-405: Was proposed in the book Action for a Change by Ralph Nader and Donald Ross , in which they encourage students on campuses across a state to pool their resources to hire full-time professional lobbyists and researchers to lobby for the passage of legislation which addresses social topics of interest to students. Ross helped students across the country set up the first PIRG chapters, then became

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