January 21, 2010 | Read Time: 2 minutes
In a sign of the contentious debate about how to measure the work of charities, an effort to look at relief groups in Haiti has sparked some criticism.
This week two charities that provide information about nonprofit groups to donors – Great Nonprofits and GuideStar – created a Web site for people to rate and post reviews of organizations responding to the devastating earthquake in Haiti.
Gayle Gifford, a nonprofit consultant in Rhode Island, questioned the rating site on her blog and on Twitter, focusing much of her criticism on how Guidestar was promoting it.
On its home page, Guidestar linked to the new Web site with a headline, “Top Ten Relief Organizations Working in Haiti,” and a brief description: “Donors, clients, and volunteers have identified these nonprofits as the most effective working in Haiti.”
Ms. Gifford called the wording “absolutely shameful” in part because some of the groups listed had only a few reviews.
Prompted by the complaints, Gudiestar reworked the promotion; it now says, “Most-Reviewed Relief Organizations Working in Haiti. See what donors, clients, and volunteers have said about these relief organizations working in Haiti.”
“I’ll be honest, I put it up pretty quickly and used language we had used before for the heading, just adapting it for Haiti,” says Suzanne Coffman, director of communications for Guidestar. “But the feedback was valuable so we changed it.”
Shari Ilsen, director of marketing at Great Nonprofits, agreed, saying she plans to talk with Ms. Gifford about some of her concerns.
She notes that the Haiti effort has attracted new charity reviews, which will help Great Nonprofits build a more robust rating system.
For her part, Ms. Gifford continues to have concerns and wonders if “most-reviewed” is an accurate term when it really means only a “handful of reviews.”
What do you think of the new rating effort for Haiti relief groups?
