Charity Evaluation

It's that time of year again, and many people are hashing out charitable donations prior to the end of the year.  To that end, so-called "charity watchdog" sites can be helpful in ascertaining where to spend one's philanthropic capital.

• Charity Watch - The former American Institute of Philanthropy's charity watchdog rates fewer charities, and is more apt to skewer someone's sacred cow.  They only have 550 or so charities rated, and require a $40/yr donation to see the actual analyses.  However, there does seem to be a difference in the quality of the ratings relative to CN and BBB.
• Charity Navigator - The claim is that they rate 5500+ charities, but are less stringent than Charity Watch and have suspended adding new charities to their list.
• Better Business Bureau - The BBB is even less strict on their criteria than Charity Navigator and require a fee (somewhere in the order of $15k) for "accreditation".
• GuideStar - Has the most comprehensive database of the review sites listed here, albeit limited coverage of each one.  Definitely a useful resource for organizations not listed by other watchdogs.  I read that over 640k charities are cataloged.
• Give Well - A minor review organization focused on international charities.  While they appear to be quite liberal, at least they have a page chronicling their past mistakes, which seems to be a good-faith effort in accountability.
• Charities Review Council - A Minnesota-based charity review site.

Another site, GiveSpot, has some interesting vectors as well.

What I really want is a list of gun-friendly and anti-gun charities so I can be sure to steer my money away from the latter and toward the former.  Amusingly, the NRA rates well on multiple sites, whereas the Brady Campaign and VPC don't rate so well.  And I wish organizations like 2AF were more transparent: while I am absolutely for the cause, one wants to make most effective use of one's resources.