Charity Navigator

While Channel Surfing I saw some tsunami vicitm footage on a station I rarely stay on for more than two minutes. It was the Christian Broadcasting Network and the show was the 700 Club, with Pat Robertson having a fundraising telethon. He was using the tsunami victim footage as part of his fundraising pitch, implying that funds contributed would be used for tsunami relief. I seriously doubt that even a small portion of funds sent would ever be used to help those victims.

The Charity Navigator rates CBN at two out of four stars in its financial analysis at http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/search.summary/orgid/3498.htm , indicating it underperformed most charities in its cause category in terms of the amount of money that ends up going to the cause, rather than to fundraising and administrative expenses.

The CBN website includes a tsunami victim story along with donation solicitations, but does not give details on the connection between making a donation and aiding the tsunami vicitms. The site does mention Operation Blessing, a relief organization rated at three stars by Charity Navigator. But, using the Charity Navigator search functions to find International Relief charities that are most efficient in using donated funds for the actual relief work, I found 81 given the top four star rating.

For helpful advice and comparisons of the fiancial efficiency of various charities under your consideration for donations, check out the Charity Navigator at http://www.charitynavigator.org/.