GreatNonprofits

This company took 500.00 of mine. I donated $500.00 to the Merrimack Valley Foodbank on May 3, which I got billed for and paid through the charity itself. I made another $500.00 donation at the end of Nov or beginning of Dec. This charge appeared on my credit card recently, along with another charge of $500.00 made on Oct 6 by your scam nonprofit.. This is a scam, as I haven't donated more than $1000.00 to the food bank so far. And I donated through the Merrimack Valley Food Bank. When I called them about the charge by your nonprofit, they had no idea who that was, so none of the money was given through your company. I have disputed this charge of $500.00 on my citibank card, which is a scam by your company. I will be pursuing this. It is disgaceful at this time of Covid that your company would be scamming people. I am in the middle of checking this out with my credit card company.

I recently started making face masks with the sales going to non profits/ministries. I read the article in the Albuquerque Journal and was moved to give to this non profit, Albuquerque Center for Hope and Recovery, because a person was giving from his own pocket for supplies. Having been a teacher for over 40 years, I understood supplementing from our own pocket.

Liliana, born today, July 11th, is the first born child, of the first child sponsored through CARITAS For Children, in 2002, from Warsaw, Poland. We pray for the life of sweet and precious baby Liliana, that she know always, the blessings of God's love, peace, hope and joy. This is an example of the beginning of a second generation of the life of a child born from God's love (Caritas)...for us all. (Jn 13: 34-35) How blessed are we who know this kind of everlasting love...Amen!!!

My next door neighbor, Diane Crust, told me how wonderful this organization is by helping so many people. Diane and her family have been lovely neighbors. I'm making a donation in honor of Diane.

This project began on the advice of a local Malian health care worker who said the rate of infectious disease in his district would decrease significantly if people in the community could be encouraged to wash their hands regularly with soap and water. Barclay Martin and his local partner Teblicoro began by developing a schools-based hand washing initiative in schools in and around Ouelessebougou and the local buy in was so affirmative they have since expanded the program to include soccer and basketball tournaments, digging wells for water, supplying kettles and a motor van for distribution, soap making, Covid 19 mask making, bridge building and gardening. For several years Barclay Martin funded the whole project from proceeds from his own band performing in Kansas City but the program itself has been directed from the start by the local people who have expressed their gratitude with joyous celebrations of song and dance. The work being done by this group is genuinely transformative and simply amazing.

These people need help BADLY! Please help them! TYVM

This non profit organization has without our consent, allowed a submission of a grievous and malicious review on their website. This review is connected to an account that is not active with no followers and is not following anyone. It is a bogus review and it’s intent is to harm the reputation of many years hard work. The only reply great nonprofits has given us is to promote their non profit by inviting our patrons to leave positive reviews to offset the one and only review we received by a bogus account. We have requested our non profit not be a part of this website.

Yes, for years I have gotten the required 10 reviews so that my agency could be a "Great Nonprofits for the year...

This year, I once again started to get my ten reviews and then people started writing about their reviews disappearing or not submitting.

I had not had this problem in previous years so I contacted Great Nonprofits through their Facebook and this is what they responded:
"We can see that there are recent reviews posted on your profile so there's no issue writing a review for your organization. We can, however, check what causing the problem if you can tell us their email addresses, what type of browser and device they were using while attempting to post their review. Also, if you could tell us the steps they have taken and any error messages they have encountered, it would be an immense help.

You can also advise them to make sure they are registered and logged in on our website prior to leaving a review. Please let us know if there's anything else we can help you with!
Thanks, GreatNonprofits Support"

So be aware!
You may have missing reviews and since people are not willing to solve other problems by giving their personal information, we are out of luck. I am going to write guidestar.org and recommend they discontinue their relationship since this agency is not willing to find why it works sometimes and sometimes not for the first time in our multi-year history together.

my wife, with good intentions to help horses, made a donation thru greatnonprofits who did not disclose that the particular horse charity has a 1 star rating by charity navigator, which makes it dubious. Also not disclosed is that they use Justgive which takes 2.2% in addition to the 2.2% taken by STRIPE. Within a few hours i emailed (they don't give a phone number) to ask for a refund so a donation could be made to a top rated horse charity. Next day they replied that "Donations made on our site are final and not refundable"...and this even though the actual charity won't get the money minus the fees for 3 weeks ." A check for this donation will be mailed to the nonprofit on the 15th of January" I have advised my wife to next time deal directly with the charity, and not use a middleman, that takes out 4.4% via smile & justgive, which would not happen dealing directly with a charity,

It amazes and concerns me how an organization, apparently run by one woman named Perla, was able to position itself with places like Guidestar in order to "review" charities. The reviews are about as useful as if they were posted on Craig's List. In other words, anyone can post anything, true or false from an anonymous account that they can create in thirty seconds. If someone wants to undermine or destroy a charity, all they need to do is create a bunch of fake accounts and post scathing reviews. There is no phone number for GreatNonprofits. This is a destructive, horrible organization. It just goes to show that it doesn't matter what you do, just who you know. GreatNonprofits partners with Guidestar, so that all of the fake review become very public.

I am very concerned that this organization takes funding away from the nonprofits selected for donations to pay their administration fees. The deductions are not disclosed on the website. This is an unethical business practice, at best, and a fraudulent collection of funds on behalf of another organization. We must wait until the 15th of this month to ascertain the actual amount of deductions made and to determine the amount actually passed through to the intended non profit. This is unacceptable.

My experience happened when I attempted to make a donation to Cozze Paws Rescue in Portland, OR., but when I notified Cozze Paws, they researched the GNP organization and discovered that several deductions would be made from the funds designated for donation to them. They also had to wait until the 15th of the following month to see how much residual funds would be passed along to their rescue organization. Cozze Paws told me about all this on the same day I authorized the donation to Cozze Paws and I took immediate action to cancel the donation to GNP.

I immediately returned to the GreatNonprofits website and notified them by email. It took awhile to find a phone number for them, but when I did, a few hours later, I also called them, leaving a voicemail, requesting that they cancel my donation so I could ensure my intended non profit, (Cozze Paws Rescue), could receive the full amount intended for them.

The GNP phone number was answered by an unidentified party voice mail and no return call was received. The email was never answered.

My bank could not cancel or put a stop pay on the contribution because it had been processed immediately upon my making the online authorization. Possibly to prevent cancellations from other donors when they discovered the scam. Yes. I believe this organization scams unknowing consumers and the non profits the reportedly serve.

Horrible, worthless one-woman organization. No vetting of any of the reviews. No confirmations to make certain that the reviews are real or from actual persons. One person can use 100 Gmail accounts to destroy the reputation of any charity they don't like or feel might be competitive. Whatever happened to if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all. Great Nonprofits apparently "operates" out of one of those timeshare offices where you can use their address and book office space for meetings to give the appearance that you actually work from there. Bad. Bad. Bad all ways 'round.

The term ‘person with an intellectual disability’ comes from people with an intellectual disability themselves who believe that, “labels are for jars, not people.” People with an intellectual disability do not want to be defined by their disability. We all have gifts, talents and abilities and we do not want to be limited from expressing these gifts because of a label.

This was my comment after my little donations I made to the Lukas Community organization. Please readers, you and I know that in-life, know nobody knows about how and what would happens to our lives from the next munits, the next hours, next days, the next weeks ,net months and the next years.

Therefore there's no limits in any small donation one could make, its actually changes and saves someone's in-needs' life. No-body could and can save this beautiful planet we have, But rather we could only contribute to safe ourselves and our love once and the awesome natures around us, by supporting and encouraging people in-need in and around where-ever you might find yourself in.
If we start to make little little contributions, the world would be a better place as always. take care and much love and peace to all. And remember, little drops of water, makes a mighty Ocean.

I submitted a review about a non-profit I had a negative experience with, and it did not get posted. Ironically, the organization is rated #1 in its field, but clearly is not reflective of all experiences as they monitor and screen reviews. That is not how a viable nonprofit rating organization operates. I am filing complaints with the BBB, the attorney general's office, and every board member. This is NOT the way to do business.

WaZobia Arts offers interactive – artistic collaboration, facilitates cultural awareness, and celebrates diversity lead by Artistic Director Sunny Eselekhomhen. WaZoBia brings together people of all ages and ethnicities to bring awareness through educational programs that reflect rich West African culture. This includes: art workshops, batik- making, rhythmic music, drum-making, school programs, traditional dye, gourd work, poetry workshops, painting, participatory dance, ceramics, traditional food/ medicines, and recycled/ repurposed artwork. In addition to the interactive elements, WaZoBia also offers excursions to diverse African regions, to immerse students and participants in experiences that will enrich and educate them in authentic West African artistic traditions.

I find it ironic that they do not post their 990s on their website. I also find it ironic as a nonprofit is is virtually impossible to speak to someone via the telephone. I would never donate to an organization that does not invite people to freely connect with it in the manner that is most comfortable for the donor/user. Shame on GreatNonprofits.

GreatNonprofits is an excellent source for learning about nonprofits that do great work!

This is a good nonprofit, they really put a lot of effort and care into what they do.

The nonprofit cares deeply about helping other nonprofits. I respect that.

The organization has a lofty mission of helping to inspire donors and volunteers. I appreciate that.

I worked with GreatNonprofits throughout the whole summer. I had a great experience and learned a little bit of everything, from marketing to research. Besides the skills I obtained through my internship, I was also able to be part of meetings with some of our funders such as The California Endowment and The California Wellness Foundation which was really exciting as I was only an intern. Through this internship, I was definitely able to get my hands wet with the nonprofit world. I worked with a team that really valued what they were doing as an organization and are really passionate about philanthropy and charity work.

Was trying to use the website to find help with any organization that might help people who are being bullied. Have to admit, for the greater Omaha area, I am really disappointed that there are no organizations that deal with this topic directly.

Greatnonprofits is an amazing place that is dedicated to helping all nonprofits get vital feedback that they need to improve and resources that can help them get there.

I am a new summer intern for GreatNonprofits. It is a lovely and highly professional team. I am really thankful for the emphasis they put on the personal and professional growth of the interns.

In response to my previous and continued requests for action.

Ms. Ni, I have submitted numerous requests to your customer service and have yet to have this issue resolved. I've sent you messages direct through Facebook and any other possible means to try and convey what is truly transpiring. This is not about public postings for accountability on our nonprofit at your site, but about malicious online bloggers who have no knowledge of our company, services or the work that we've performed in one specific case. The same group of bloggers who have publicly posted they will do all possible to have our company dissolved and reputation ruined. By allowing this performance is giving clear rights to bullying and cyber-harassment and more importantly, giving them the platform to continue their malicious campaign of hate. I'm sure you can understand just how important reputation is to a nonprofit and especially personal reputation when one is continually named publicly in a derogatory manner by cyber harassment? My attorney has already clearly identified their work as libelous and they've been given cease and desist notifications, yet, GreatNonprofits is the only portal that is continuing to allow them to come every 10-days to repost their negative and malicious posts so that they always appear at the top of our page…on your site.

You stated: "Secondly, online feedback ratings and reviews rely on crowd-sourced insights. We don't impose editorial control. Everyone can write a review. "

My response: This is the problem I have. You should be responsible to have control. Allowing multiple negative comments by the same posters over and again is giving the platform for those who are cyber-harassing and creating malicious havoc. You state "everyone" can write a review? Yet, your TOS clearly states that those who write reviews " Not use the Site to threaten, stalk, defraud, incite, harass, or advocate the harassment of another person, or otherwise interfere with another user's use of the Site;" , Yet, your site is allowing the negative posts to remain, in which clear name calling "narcissistic martyr" is stated (and Google Cached to my personal self and reputation) and clearly if you reviewed our entire site you will find that we had 100% 5-star ratings from 2008 - March of 2013 and that the only negatives on our record (at your site) are by a small group of cyber-stalkers (following our posts online in numerous sites and posting libelous and derogatory comments.)…and many of those with the same IP address. (Only one time did your group remove 16 posts , all negative, all done by the same IP address and all names created at your site was specifically targeted towards my autistic son, my Exec Asst whose husband is deceased, our Event Coordinators minor child's name and other names of harassment. The only reason those posts were removed is my email went to your IT person who noticed the same IP address. Your Customer Service has yet to take appropriate action to block the continued negative posters IP addresses from posting, has yet to halt ALL postings (pos or neg) until their actions are under control. ( My attorney advised that I place a public posting asking for cease and desist, in accordance to the letters sent to their Sheriff Depts asking the same...and that is what the "threats" are they are speaking of in some of the posts.)


You further stated, "And nonprofits can encourage their clients, volunteers and donors to write reviews about them. We also provide nonprofits equal voice. You can respond to reviews about you. "

My response: I've learned that responding to the negative postings only encourages more harassment. This should not be a portal for harassment. You also stated nonprofits can encourage clients, donors and volunteers. Not one of those posting are affiliated, worked with, observed, or have any knowledge of our nonprofit. Clearly in what they are writing they have no mission except to continue harassment. At the same time you may ask why? The reason is that they are a handful of people who post on a website theorizing cases of missing people.

The husband of a missing woman came to us to help locate his wife and as the same service we provide to all families of missing, we provided to him and his children. He was recently arrested and charged with her murder; however, he has not gone to trial as yet and has not been deemed guilty or innocent. Regardless of that outcome, it has nothing whatsoever to do with our company, services and work we provided around the clock for 7 weeks to locate his missing wife. His actions, or in-actions, has no bearing on our company…yet these bloggers feel that we should be dissolved as one of our clients "may be guilty?" The very premise of our work is to help families of missing. The entire time of the case we worked with law enforcement and never once during the 7 weeks was he ever named a person of interest , nor was the case a homicide investigation. That all changed once her body was located, however, at the same time…once a body is located our services are no longer needed as the missing person is found. Yet, in the mind of the bloggers…because we sought a "living missing person" they felt that we were wrong as we "shouldn’t have" been looking for a missing person but a deceased one. That group of bloggers had no public knowledge of the case information that we were privy to nor do they know the roles we played in seeking both a living missing person and a possible deceased person…yet they freely post on your sight blatant lies and cruel remarks and pose them as if I, the president of the company, stated or did. I did not state or do any of what they're posting. Trying to clarify our work to those who want to cause disruption and spread false lies are fruitless as they have one mission only and that is malicious havoc.


Again, you stated " People will make decisions based on the totality of information. In this case, it sounds like you have one negative review and the majority are positive reviews. Most readers will expect some negative reviews. They will not expect you to be perfect. "


My response: Your site is now tied on the front page of GuideStar. If one were to go there and look up my organization and scroll down to reviews…the first two reviews of your site appear there. They are always 1-star Negative reviews as no matter how many of those who do write truthfully and post a pos review, the cyber harassment continues and they make sure that their negatives are always on top. They will "lay off" for about 10 days or so…enough time for factual reviews to come and post…and then begin their havoc by posting their negative so that the first impression anyone would have are their posts. If you were to go to GuideStar and need the services of a nonprofit and you scroll down and the very first reviews you see are 3 negatives (1-star) in a row….are you really going to continue to want to pursue that nonprofit? What if you are in the postion to offer a grant? Would you continue to pursue seeing the first 3 reviews are negatives? I wouldn’t.

I would appreciate if you could take a bit more time and seriously look into these problems and concerns. Fact is you also mentioned that you provide us with a "free service" and yet, I never asked for this service? You listed our site and when your site asked us to "claim our nonprofit" , of course we would as we wouldn't want someone who is "not us" to claim it? Never did we come to you and request your services nor would I after this continued experience in which your GreatNonprofits site feel is "just and important" when in fact is lacks very serious enforcements of your very own terms of service? How can you claim that you're team is doing good work when you are merely building a website (blog, in my opinion) and allowing complete malicious havoc to transpire and then to tell the nonprofit, when they report the problems, that they can "learn from the public of their mistakes and grow from it?"

GreatNonProfits is committed and passionate about it's cause - to give voice and credibility to local non-profits and a platform for donors, volunteers, public etc to read reviews about non-profits, they wish to get involved with. It's been an awesome learning experience at GreatNonProfits. I learnt new skills and tools . Also, I got to interact with industry experts. They have a very open, learning and empowering culture. The team is good, helpful and encouraging. I am thankful to Perla Ni, for extending this opportunity to me and making me feel so welcome and part of the group.

I find them generous, honest and helpful. This program really helps my frien and her family.

This program has really helped me out when i had no where else to turn

This site receives participation from fella's from all over the world. I find them generous, honest and helpful. I'm glad I found them and am happy to participate in helping others overcome and adapt.

I know about the great job this organization is doing thanks to a friend who child has this syndrome. She is very thanfull to all they do for her child, information, research...

During a very hard time in my life, I was able to connect with other straight spouses after my husband told me that he was gay and our marriage was over. It was such a stressful time in my life, and not a story I felt I could share with all of my friends and family. Being able to connect with others who had gone through exactly the same thing gave me some much needed perspective, and now I am proud to be a face-to-face contact in my home province of Saskatchewan, Canada.

The GreatNononprofits team is a selfless group of people dedicated to trying to improve the nonprofit sector and increase accountability and transparency to the public. They want to make sure that your donations go to those nonprofits that are truly going to use it to help the world. I have watched this nonprofit grow throughout the years and have been amazed at what they have been able to accomplish. They are a great organization that I am proud to donate to.

An amazing organization that provides services and programs for people with cancer and their families.

This group is amazing now I no people like me

it was an amazing experience. Helping people who are in need and seeing that the tiniest things help is incredible. it was the first time i really saw how healing acupuncture is :)

As a summer intern at GreatNonprofits, I found the staff to be incredibly amiable, flexible, and helpful. Perla Ni, the founder and CEO, is a great boss and gives her interns a lot of freedom to find projects they are interested in and really takes care of us. It truly is a great place to work and I recommend anyone seeking a summer internship in the Bay Area to apply.

While interning at GreatNonprofits this past year, I had the opportunity to learn about and experience great nonprofits everyday, reading reviews and researching organizations as well as working behind the scenes as a staff member. I'm amazed at all that the organization does with such a small staff, and they continue to find ways to grow, improve, and extend their reach. Though the organization still has room for improvement and kinks to work out, I know GreatNonprofits will continue to help organizations get their story told and provide this critical tool to the world of social change.

People want to help others, and that often means getting involved somehow with nonprofits. We want to find effective ones, and avoid the questionable ones.

It helps to find user reviews of nonprofits.

This review is self referential, in part, to get the word out better. GreatNonprofits does a really useful and good job, and more people need to hear about it.

This site is an unmonitored disaster. It has the potential to cause serious damage to legitimate non-profit groups - and probably already has to many. Any psycho with a grievance - real or imagined - can easily create multiple identities and use them to slander the organization and even it's other clients by name with no oversight at all. Take control and monitor this site - or shut it down. You are doing a disservice to all concerned with the mess you have created.

I was disgusted to read some of the reviews and the irrelevant comments that GNP allows to be posted about nonprofits.
How is it that GNP's board and advisers have posted their impressive creds and they are party to decieving the public that GNP is like Yelp or Zagat. That's hypocritical.
It is a review site where there are rants and flame wars, personal information and impersonating an officer of the law, bullying, fake posts, lies, anonymous commenters. GNP is not worthy to even wipe the feet of the nonprofits that are under attack that results because GNP can't even carry out a TOU.
It's terrible that the CEO dramatically describes how nonprofits helped her and then she allows nonprofits to be trashed on her review board. She's a lawyer.
The marketing manager who responds to complaints is a 2008 grad with no nonprofit experience. Thats completely obvious. The board of directors has allowed her to run GNP credibility into the ground with her many smart alec emails about how GNP is not responsible.
GNP is a joke. Use Yelp. They earned the reputation that GNP pretends dishonestly to be like.

I would give this site zero stars if I could. This site allows anyone to register multiple times and to carry out a vendetta against any site they have had a problem with. Members banned from sites can come here and trash the site they were banned from multiple times.

You do not get a true view of a nonprofit based on reviews at this site due to the above. This site is therefore without value.

What a joke!!! No credibility at all. When a review site such as this has no control over what is written on it - it beggars belief.

For more than two weeks, I have been complaining to you that my account was hacked. I sent you three emails and wrote a comment here. I complained to you that at least 4 or 5 accounts with my name had been set up to create havoc on the BCO review site. I ask you to remove the duplicate accounts that you allowed. And for that, I get "my" account deleted. Given the lack of interest and the time that elapsed, there's no telling the extent of the hacking that occurred here. I also ask you to go to the BreastCancer.org website and read the comments posted there not the views - the comments. They brag about setting up multiple accounts, because you do not check if the account name is use before you allowed it to be used multiple times. Others joked that you do not require the terms and conditions to be checked. Others discovered that they did not need valid email addresses and bragged about that in their comments. Others discovered that they did not need to do a review at all - they could just harass with the new userid you had given them. Fortunately, while I was waiting two - three weeks for you to show any interest in this problem, I copied what I needed to copy regarding this and the emails that I sent you. There are no words strong enough for your lack of timeliness, indifference, or your incompetance.

I am pleased to volunteer my time with GreatNonprofits.org. I originally helped to beta-test the website by putting up profiles for me and for the charity I work for and working out the bugs. Next I was a "site monitor" to help ensure that reviews met the standards for civil discourse. I enjoy working with the staff; they really care about helping nonprofits tell their stories through profiles and reviews. After my experience I would not donate to or volunteer for an organization without researching them.

I was initially excited at the prospect of a service for nonprofit reviewing akin to Yelp, which I've enjoyed since 2005. This service has a lot of kinks to work out, though, and I hope leadership arises from within to address its responsibility and accountability to the independent sector.

Specifically, I am referring to the fact that GreatNonprofits will not perform any level of due diligence and reasonable investigation around false, damaging reviews. Let's face it - there are people out there who become upset with nonprofits for any number of reasons and then take it out on the NPO in a public forum to maximize damage. If the complaint is relevant, the organizations I know in the sector (including my own) are usually pretty great about taking accountability. We always want to do better.

In the case of my organization's first review, it was written by someone who wasn't hired for a job. They got upset and wrote a disparaging review of our agency, and of another they were not hired at. The reviews offer no constructive value, they reviewed no other NPOs, nor did the reviewer use a real name (which should tell you something). Based on the "star" rating system, it was our first review, so it made us look like a "one star" nonprofit.

I reached out to the reviewer to get more information and was ignored. I asked the other agency they reviewed to advocate GreatNonprofits to remove the fake reviews. I asked Great Nonprofits twice to at least investigate and remove it, but they merely cited that they were free from liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. They also advised me that they will release the user's information with a subpoena. I don't want their information and our agency can't waste resources on a subpoena! I simply want the review investigated by GreatNonprofits and removed when they see that my complaints have merit. It's simple customer service.

I am all for free speech and all constitutional rights. However, prospective donors and funders look at these ratings and make judgments about nonprofits. Situations like the one we experienced can block potential funding. When libelous or slanderous activities damage the reputation of an organization thereby preventing it from positive business achievements, that is also unconstitutional and can be prosecuted by law.

A lot of other agencies have the same complaint, so it's just a matter of time before a rally cry goes up and GreatNonprofits feels serious pressure to change their tactics. If they organized to be a responsible partner in our sector, they need to understand and practice ethics as they have power to affect growth and progress in our communities.

Great NonProfits is wonderful! I have found working with them was a very pleasant and professional experience.

Youth Journalism International has found Great Nonprofits a wonderful resource for learning more about our own organization and for telling the world about its activities.
We also have to say a word of praise for how quickly its technical staff fixed a glitch not of its own making. These folks are really good.

I had the pleasure of working for GreatNonprofits during the second half of 2010, and I truly believe in this organization's ability to revolutionize the nonprofit sector. I spoke to many nonprofits during my time there that raved about GreatNonprofits and the powerful feedback/storytelling tool it provides. Perla Ni and her fabulous team are giving a voice to those most closely touched by nonprofits -- people whose stories might not be heard otherwise. The GreatNonprofits staff is composed of some of the most dedicated and hardworking people I have ever met; their belief in and commitment to the GreatNonprofits mission is a testament to the organization's value.

I've served on the board of this remarkable organization almost since its inception. Founder Perla Ni is an inspiration, and the organization's mission is close to my heart: offering a viable alternative to the financially-based evaluations of nonprofit effectiveness from the self-appointed watchdog organizations.

This group allows stalkers and kooks to post false negative "reviews" about any non-profit they like. They are allowing people to harass good groups which help children and animals. They do not enforce their own Terms and Conditions, "You may post or submit feedback, materials, information, ideas, opinions and other content ("Content"), provided that your Content does not: (i) violate a third party's rights, including any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, privacy right, right of publicity, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right; (ii) contain material that is false, intentionally misleading, or defamatory; (iii) contain material that is unlawful, including illegal hate speech or pornography; exploits or otherwise harms minors; (iv) contain images of or links or references to tobacco and alcohol products; or (v) violate or advocate the violation of any law or regulation."

This site has high-minded words but its actions DAMAGE many great nonprofits. Any kook can write a bunch of lies about a "real" experience and cause real damage.

Great nonprofits appears to be a politically-motivated group pretending to be a dispassionate, non-partisan charity monitor. The first review received by several very well run conservative groups appear to be merely hit pieces. One on Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, for example, says the group should lose its tax-exempt status just because it doesn't agree with the global warming orthodoxy. It's donors sure know already about its writings on the topic and the suggestion that the group should lose its tax-exempt status borders on libel. After reviewing Greatnonprofit's funding sources, it appears this could be by design. The funders are a veritable Who's Who of left-wing environmental funders... W.K. Kellogg, Hewlett and others. This group has no credibility whatsoever.

I heard about GreatNonprofits today when I read a deliberately mis-leading review you published about the National Center for Public Policy Research. The reviewer claimed the National Center hounded her father, sent repeated junk mail and bankrupted him, and also said the Center wasted its money for personal use. I know from personal contact with the Center and some of its researchers that none of this is true. Their research is impeccable, and they will take the time to talk to me to answer questions. I'm a small donor and get 2 letters a year, at my request. GreatNonprofits makes a big mistake that threatens its own credibility when it does nothing to verify reviews and refuses to delete reviews after provable facts discrediting the review have been given to it.

Great Non-Profits does not appear to be committed to responsible philanthropy. It permits reviewers to post libelous statements about institutions. For example, one anonymous reviewer accuses the two top executives of an institution with which I am affiliated, The National Center for Public Policy Research, of keeping most of the money raised by the institution. Together, their compensation was roughly 3.5% of the expenditures and, according to an independent survey commissioned in 2007, their salaries were substantially below the mean. GreatNonprofits will not take down the numerous libelous statements. This does a tremendous disservice not only to my institution, but to GreatNonprofits as once it was informed of the false information, it incurred legal liability if it continued to post them. This suggests extremely poor judgment. Non-profit reviews from the public can be of great value to donors, if that are responsible. Reviews intended as malicious do not better inform prospective donors, nor, for that matter, do reviews from those with no experience with the institution in question. The reviewer in question was not a donor, but a relative of a donor. Those of us who have been in the non-profit field for a while recognize that there are those who object to charitable giving that will cut into

Your service is turning out to be such a wonderful opportunity. We've never had a good channel for feedback and suggestions before, and the outpouring of enthusiasm and constructive ideas has been priceless. A fringe benefit is that I now have quotes I can use in my next grant proposal!

As much as those of us who run nonprofit organizations believe in our mission, and our ability to communicate the importance of what we do, the simple fact is that we're not the best people to tell our story. The most insightful and credible people to do so are the clients, volunteers and donors who experience the results from a different and understandably less biased perspective. Great Nonprofits has now created a central location for them to share their experiences with potential clients, volunteers, donors, and very importantly, with those who run the organization. Able Flight was an early adopter of the opportunity to be reviewed, and has encouraged those who have real-world, first-hand experience with us to, in their own words, "write from the heart" to allow others to learn of this unique organization that provides flight training scholarships for people with disabilities. With links from our w ebsite and newsletter, we welcome those who are interested in our mission to visit Great Nonprofits to learn about Able Flight from those who know us best.

We're thrilled to have the opportunity to connect and communicate through GreatNonprofits. Just days after completing our profile, we were contacted by a local business that had some resources to give away. They used our GreatNonprofits profile and reviews to determine which organization they would donate to. GreatNonprofits provides an invaluable service and has created a lively, interactive way to spread the good news being done all around us.

GreatNonprofits has established itself as an innovator in the field in a very short timeframe. The Human Services Center is fortunate to have this new vehicle to promote our work to potential volunteers, interns, and donors. The value-add of this service has already been beneficial to our work as volunteers and prospective interns have found their way to our unique agency thanks to GreatNonprofits. Perla and Vivien have been responsive to the needs of agencies in the development stage.

In theory I like the idea of Great Nonprofits. Good, more focus on quality and accountability! But in practice I question if charitable organizations need another entity to comply with. As a development director for a community health center with over 90 grants, I am struck by the amount of justifying we must do in order to get (or stay) funded for something as vital as health care for poor people. I am also struck by how much pressure our staff are under to provide high quality care to our patients. This has been the same for all of the service-oriented nonprofits that I have worked for in the past, or am doing pro-bono work for now, regardless of whether they were well-established with large operating budgets, or small startups. What is the mission of Great Nonprofits? the best I could glean from the website is that they want to set up a website like Yelp for nonprofits...'You already know that reviews by other people who have gone to a restaurant or tried out a doctor are the best way to find out about the quality of those services..' The first question I ask is how many people who are targeted by people who access, let's just say safety-net services, have the time or resources to bother to register to this website and then write a review for a nonprofit? Most are too busy trying to get health insurance or pay the rent. I looked at some of the reviews and the only one I found that was negative was from someone who appeared to be trying to get a job and was disgruntled that the nonprofit only seemed to hire from within. So the website implies that this is a community service...For who's community? The second question is actually for anyone who has dedicated their life to working in the nonprofit sector. Not as an academic or for a foundation -- who seem to be the people that are controlling the public discourse about what we should "do" with the nonprofit sector (Stanford Social Innovation Review is a good example). If you've never actually had a personal connection with a grant/donation funded nonprofit program budget--i.e. it feeds you or sustains the program you care about-- than I don't think your opinion counts for much. Getting back to the question...Do YOU think it's appropriate for another nonprofit, and the people who frequent its website (who may or may not be your patients/clients), to represent the programs that you work to sustain with little stars on their web page, when it is most likely that donors--not patients/clients-- will be judging your program by the little stars? Based on the cast of characters that make up the board and management of Great Nonprofits I am wondering if the organization's core concept was not just a half-baked idea cooked up in some well-funded, good-meaning "community forum" with token nonprofits in attendance. Nonprofits that were actually only there to meet foundation people so they could fund their nonprofit programs that are expected to cover their overhead at no more than 15%...And are very amenable to the bright ideas of the people who give them money. Looking at the Board and staff bios, *very impressive*, with the exception of Bill Jackson and Tom Reis, none of them make any mention of actually working for a nonprofit. They are all either donors or academics. So does internet-based rating of nonprofits hold any value? I guess we'll find out, looking at the kind of backing the organization attests to have on its website. I'm a little concerned that it could just end up creating more barriers for people like me to help nonprofits succeed by creating another bogus way for funders to screen who they give money to. If the method by which Great Nonprofits appears to be attempting to transform accountability and improve quality for nonprofits is suspect, and I would contest that nonprofits ARE NOT LIKE RESTAURANTS (which is a whole other rant), why do it? I don't get it. By the way, I appreciate that Great Nonprofits put itself out there to be rated.

Finally - a way to gain feedback from the people who interact with a nonprofit! GreatNonProfits.org solves provides solutions in so many ways -- (1) listening to those served by a nonprofit's services or products, (2) helping volunteers and staff find a great place to work, and (3) assisting donors with a truthful look at the good and the bad. Each of these is a breakthrough on its own. So glad that GNP is growing fast - this sector needs more information, more ratings and more two-way communications that are honest, direct and spur ideas for efficiency as well as effectiveness. Bravo!

I LOVE this organization. Both the idea of having independent, transparent reviews of nonprofits, and the tool itself. Great Nonprofits is well thought out and easy to use. I know from my own work in the nonprofit sector that it is really hard to get objective information on how a nonprofit or its projects are actually performing without investing in lots of research. This is one simple way of capturing that information, that leverages a trend of greater openness. It is an idea and organization whose time has come!!!