From humble science beginnings, Charity Navigator’s Sandra Miniutti studied and applied her skills for the benefit of others from an early age. We jumped at the chance to sit down with her and pick her brain. Here’s what we learned:

How does Charity Navigator help individuals evaluate charities they might wish to make donations to?

Charity Navigator rates the financial health of more than 5,400 of the largest charities in America in order to help donors make informed giving decisions. Specifically, Charity Navigator’s rating system examines two broad areas of a charity’s financial health:  1. how it functions day to day, and 2. how well positioned it is to sustain its programs over time.

Each charity is then awarded an overall rating, ranging from zero to four stars.  To help donors avoid becoming victims of mailing-list appeals, each charity’s commitment to keeping donors’ personal information confidential is assessed.  Among the site’s many additional features are listings of the CEO’s salaries, opinion pieces by Charity Navigator experts and donation tips.

What are the challenges facing charities that can be easily overcome?

Many charities have room for improvement when it comes to their relationship with donors. It is surprising how many donors never receive a timely thank you for their gift. Other donors are thanked with excessive, expensive follow-up appeals for more funding.

Charities need to stop harassing donors with endless solicitations as a reward for donating. A quick, thoughtful thank you goes a long way in cultivating a donor. Furthermore, charities should communicate how the donor’s gift helped the charity pursue its mission before asking for the next gift. Simply thinking of the donor as a partner would help nonprofits improve in this area.

What regulations have been implemented that will make nonprofits more accountable?

Not much. There is little oversight of nonprofits in America.

Specifically, nonprofit regulation resides in the hands of the IRS at the federal level and typically the Attorney General at the state level. The IRS, by their own admission, lacks the necessary resources to adequately monitor the 1 million nonprofits. And each state is different in their oversight- some much better than others.

That said, with the redesign of the Form 990 (informational tax return charities file annually) the IRS is pushing for charities to implement what it considers to be best governance, accountability and management practices.

Here’s a video we shot on the topic.

Charity Navigator has reported that special event fundraisers are inefficient.  For those charities that have been successful, how can they help others?

We need to find a way to share the information so that other nonprofits can replicate that success. I believe this is the essence of Vivanista’s mission.

Vivanista believes it is good for the nonprofit world to have watchdogs like Charity Navigator.  How can Vivanista members help?

The most important thing your members can do is be smart donors. They can use our free site to make informed choices about the financial health of the charities requesting their support. And in the very near future, Charity Navigator will also provide information about each charity’s accountability, governance and management policies.

We hope that Vivanista members that believe our site is an important resource would share our site with others and consider making a financial contribution to Charity Navigator (a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit itself).

How do you decide which charities to cover?

Charity Navigator is a national service. We seek to help as many givers as possible, regardless of where they live or what kind of charity they wish to support. We celebrate and evaluate charities of all types, in all regions of the country, and whose work impacts all corners of the globe.

As we expand our database of charities, we welcome charity suggestions from our users and from the charities themselves, provided they meet our criteria for inclusion. In addition, we consult the IRS master list of charities.

There are nuances between your ratings and actual outcomes.  What do you recommend to a reviewer in their decision-making process?

We believe that there are three components to making an informed giving decision.

• First, make sure that the charity is financially healthy by reviewing our free website.

• Second, review the charity’s governance, management and accountability practices.  We are in the process of expanding each of its charity profiles to include this information.

• Third, evaluate the charity’s ability to deliver social value (a sustained change for the better for people and communities who receive services).

Although Charity Navigator will one day evaluate each charity in this area, for now, donors must assess the charity’s outcomes for themselves by visiting the charity’s website and contacting the charity directly.

The current economic challenges for nonprofits are daunting.  How have your ratings been able to foreshadow any charities that may go away?

How can a donor tell if their favorite charity is prepared to deal with a dip in contributions and weather the current economic climate? By taking a close look at the charity’s working capital ratio as displayed on its Charity Navigator ratings page. Often referred to as a ‘rainy day fund,’ this metric helps illuminate how vulnerable a charity is to changes in giving patterns. Those with 6 months to a year’s worth of working capital are well positioned to sustain their programs while those with very limited working capital are at risk.

The good news is that 60% of the charities we’ve reviewed have at least 6 months of working capital on hand. The bad news is that 9% of the charities have less than a month’s worth and thus are at risk of having to cut programs or staff.

Vivanista is chartered with helping members share best practices in fund-raising.  What recommendations do you have for members interested in sharing their successes without divulging their ‘secret sauce’?

The intention of this platform is to share best practices at a high level. Vivanista isn’t looking for you to share your vendor specifics or your donors’ information (in fact, nothing angers donors more than having their contact information shared with other groups). Rather, the idea is to share information at the macro level as to what works best.

Maybe you learned that a Save The Date invitation sent via email was just as effective as sending a more costly printed version. Sharing that information could help many other charities save money. You may learn from others on Vivanista that in this recession, charities have to cut ticket prices in order to fill their tables. Knowing that in advance of planning your event will help you cut expenses upfront and ensure that your event brings in the same net revenue as last year.

You devote your time and money to the nonprofit sector because you care about making the world a better place. That spirit of goodwill that brought you to the sector in the first place should motivate you to share your tips with others.

The best charities are those that work in collaboration with their peers, not those that operate in silos with a very competitive stance.

How did you personally get involved in the nonprofit sector?

I started my career as a scientist. But since high school I had spent countless hours volunteering and contributing to various causes. So, early in my corporate career I began to think that the nonprofit sector was where I belonged. I met with executive directors at several local nonprofits and explored a variety of graduate school programs. I settled on an MBA, rather than something such as a museums studies program, so as not to limit my nonprofit career opportunities. However, I tailored my work within the MBA curriculum to the nonprofit sector as much as possible. I even worked with a Rutgers professor to develop a business plan for the creation of a new non-profit called GlassRoots (I’m now a Board member of this group).

My first nonprofit position was working at a local art, science and history museum where I was initiated into the world of non-profit marketing and fundraising. Not many surprises there. We struggled to make payroll while producing quality exhibits and educational programming. The work was exhausting, but fulfilling. I quickly outgrew my position at the museum and I jumped at the opportunity to work at the newly launched, Charity Navigator.

What are the rewards you receive from your efforts?

Not only do I enjoy the day-in-day-out duties of my job, but I have the added benefit of knowing that my contribution to society is greater than just making widgets. I get to have a hand in making the world a better place.

If a Vivanista member wanted to leverage her experience in fundraising to create a profession in the nonprofit world, what steps should she take?

Effective fundraisers are always in demand. The Chronicle of Philanthropy and Idealist.org (among others) always have listings for development jobs.

It is important to broach those openings with professionalism. Give concrete examples of how you’ve helped raise money and keep costs down as a volunteer. Get recommendations from the management teams at the charities that you’ve assisted.

It is also critical to understand that most nonprofit jobs are not 9-5. Pay and benefits are often significantly less than what someone would find in the for-profit world.

Behind The Scenes

Do you have a role model?

Pat Kettenring, one of my MBA professors and the Executive Director and Founder of GlassRoots.

John and Marion Dugan, Charity Navigator’s founders, who have so generously supported so many nonprofits.

What is your life motto?

I don’t know that I have a motto, but the best compliment I ever received was that I am always willing to work hard to learn new things. So maybe, “relentless pursuit of knowledge” should be my motto?

What is your idea of perfect bliss?

Spending time with my husband and kids.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Sleep.  My 13 month old will not permit my husband or me to get a good night’s sleep. On the rare occasion that she’ll sleep through the night, my son will wake up with a bad dream or the dog will want to go out in the middle of the night.

Obsolete item you won’t toss?

A telescope. Mine is very old and I never seem to find the time to use it, but I keep it around in the hope that it will inspire my children to love science and the pursuit of knowledge.

Greatest misconception about you?

That I’m shy.

ABOUT CHARITY NAVIGATOR

Founded in 2001, Charity Navigator has become the nation’s largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. In their quest to help donors, their team of professional analysts has examined tens of thousands of non-profit financial documents.  They’ve used their knowledge to develop an unbiased, objective, numbers-based rating system to assess the financial health of over 5,000 of America’s best-known charities. www.charitynavigator.org.

Charity Navigator makes their evaluations easy to understand and available to the public free of charge. By guiding intelligent giving, they aim to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace, in which givers and the charities they support work in tandem to overcome our nation’s most persistent challenges.

Charity Navigator is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization under the Internal Revenue Code and does not accept any contributions from any charities they evaluate.