How to recognise a foundation that receives donations safely

You want to donate and the thought of it ending up in the wrong hands holds you back. That distrust is reasonable; what is not useful is letting it paralyse you.

There are concrete signals you can check before moving any money.

The five characteristics

1. Current legal registration with accessible documents

The first thing and the quickest to check. If it is absent or suspended, that is the end of it.

2. Financial transparency

Financial statements and management reports available. And — this is what really distinguishes them — without you having to push hard to get them.

When asking for that information turns into a process of evasive answers, you already know something important about how they work inside.

3. Impact reports with data

How many families they served, what changes they achieved, which targets they met and which they missed.

That last part separates an organization producing change from one administering intentions. A report where everything went well is a marketing document.

4. An identifiable team

Who runs it? Do they have a traceable track record in the sector? Do their names appear on other serious projects?

Reliable organizations have public teams. Doubtful ones hide their leadership behind a generic website.

5. Diversified funding

An organization depending on one large donor is fragile to any external change.

Those with several sources — individual donors, companies, institutions, earned income — tend to have better governance, because they must answer to different audiences with different expectations.

One external signal that helps

Organizations that have been through international cooperation audits carry an additional filter they did not set for themselves.

It does not guarantee quality, but it does rule out anyone failing minimum standards, and that is information.

What size tells you

Large national — formal structure and solid processes, with higher administrative costs.
Mid-sized regional — usually the best combination of efficiency and professionalism.
Small local — less formality, more tangible direct impact, more vulnerable to anything unexpected.

There is no correct size. Each plays a different role and it is worth knowing which one you are supporting.

The small-donation test

Before committing a significant amount, give a little and watch:

Do they issue a formal receipt?
Do they include you in their communications?
Do they invite you to see the work?
Do they tell you afterwards what happened to it?

Those four answers tell you whether it is worth scaling.

Then stay a year

The most discerning donors give to a single organization for a year before reassessing.

That lets you see cumulative results and understand how it really works. Switching foundations every month dilutes the impact and makes it impossible to know whether anything is changing.

Keep reading

Characteristic three on this list is why Corag publishes two numbers rather than one: received, and used with evidence. The distance between them is the uncomfortable part, which is why it is the one that matters.