Initial Information 

• Contact Information 

• Other Names 

• Tax Status 

• Website

• Social Media

• Stated Mission and Vision (i.e. bio)

• Type of Organisation 

Ratings & Metrics

• Cost to Raise

A charity's Cost to Raise 46,500 NAIRA represents the amount of money that the charity invests into fundraising in order to earn 46,500 NAIRA of contributions. 

• Program Percentage

This is the percentage of the charity’s financial budget that it spends towards their programs. This is calculated by dividing the expenses towards programs by the charity’s total expenses (65% is meet standards).

• Government Funding 

Does the charity receive funding from the government in any form? This criteria will just be stated as “yes, the charity receives funding from the government

• Financial Documents

Listed here are the tax forms and audited financial statements that we reviewed for the fiscal year analysed. 

Governance and Transparency

• Governance Benchmarks

• Transparency Benchmarks

Transparency

A transparent charity must publish a copy of its most recent, independent audited financial statements for public viewing. The charity must also provide [equivalent of IRS FORM 990] to the Wise Giving Project which will be subject to analysis. If need be, the charity must also answer any queries/questions pertaining to their finances and expenses and provide any other documents that are necessary for TWGP to make a conclusive statement of the charity’s transparency. 

Governance: Policies

The Wise Giving Project reviews a charity’s tax form and other information to see if the charity has certain policies in place which are regularly enforced and are firmly maintained. Furthermore, TWGP uses this information to understand the governance of the organisation/charity in order to gauge whether or not they meet the basic standards of governance. With this in mind, The Wise Giving project realises that although a charity might meet or exceed the standards for good governance, they might not be effectively utilising the donations they receive. 

Governance: Financials 

When analysing a charity’s financials, TWGP reviews:

• Documents that support that the financial statements were audited by independent auditors, and there is no conflict of interest

• Reports of annual budgeting and projected expenses which are mandated by the board or highest authority in the organisation. 

• Expenses towards Charity Programs

Governance: Board of Directors 

• Board Oversight 

TWGP analyses the function and involvement of the board of directors of the charity(if applicable). TWGP reviews the involvement of the board by seeing if the board conducts regular performance reviews for the staff and the charity’s general operations. Additionally, TWGP finds evidence of board oversight by looking for involvement in the budgeting, fundraising, policy making and financing of the charity. 

Privacy Policy

Fiscal Year:

Does the charity’s published financial information align with the current calendar year?

Joint Costs:

Oftentimes charities claim that they spend a certain percentage of their financial budget on programs, however this percentage is inclusive of money spent towards telemarketing, consulting or any other joint costs that aren’t directly associated with the programs being conducted. For example a charity might say that they spend 80% of their budget on programs, whereas in reality, only 60% of it goes towards programs and the other 20% is what is known as “joint costs”. As a result, TWGP takes this into account when providing the financial analysis and excludes such “joint costs” out of the reported program expenditure. 

Report Issued Date

This is the exact date (month/year) in which TWGP finished the analysis of a charity and published the results on our website. However, some of the criteria are susceptible to updates.