Charity Navigator Announces Major Ratings Updates to Support Nonprofits and Charities Across the Country

Impact Reporting Network In Partnership with True Impact and YourCause from Blackbaud will provide
complete and immediate access to critical reports for donors and funders

Charity Navigator's new ratings system will invite nonprofits to participate in providing more accurate and
informed data that will empower donors

NEW YORK, April 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Charity Navigator, the nation's leading nonprofit ratings organization, today announced major improvements to its signature ratings platform. This new platform will provide a more accurate and fairer view of the nonprofits and charities donors are looking to support.

"Nonprofits pour everything they have into their missions and deserve a rating system that works just as hard to accurately evaluate the critical work that they do," said Michael Thatcher, President and CEO of Charity Navigator. "Organizations and their donors told us they wanted a system that objectively reflects the full picture of a nonprofit's work – not just the financials, but their people, their practices and their impact. Expanding how outcomes are reflected in our ratings is a priority for Charity Navigator. We are confident that we have delivered a pioneering system that addresses both the needs of organizations and their donors."

One of the most significant additions to this update is Charity Navigator's participation in the newly launched Impact Reporting Network. The Network, a partnership between measurement platform True Impact and CSR platform YourCause from Blackbaud, addresses the nonprofit industry's burden of creating and duplicating numerous impact reports across various platforms and funders. Nonprofits will now be able to create a single outcomes report and choose to share it directly within Charity Navigator's ratings, as well as across YourCause, Blackbaud's corporate social responsibility and social impact platform. This system will be as powerful as the information nonprofits choose to share. As nonprofits share their information, their scores will reflect their effectiveness.

Charity Navigator has embedded True Impact's guided impact reporting module into its Nonprofit Portal. Nonprofits can choose whether to create reports and whether to share them across the Network.

A complete nonprofit profile will help donors find, validate and fund the charities they want to support. The more an organization includes in its profile –  impact data, workplace policies, etc – the more complete and accurate its rating will be.

The updated rating system introduces several meaningful improvements for nonprofits and donors:

• The integration of new metrics and a recalibrated scoring will create a more accurate rating system and will better reflect a charity's effectiveness while enhancing donor discernment.
• Impact reporting can now be collected for all program types, including advocacy, arts, policy work and more.
• Two new evaluation areas assess fair pay and workplace practices, recognizing that how an organization treats its own people is a strong indication of its own effectiveness.
• Success stories and narrative descriptions will sit alongside raw numbers, because the human story behind a nonprofit's data matters.
• A more intuitive and redesigned ratings page for better comprehension, including new visual indicators of the information donors are looking for to help inform their giving decisions.

Since its founding 25 years ago as a 501(c)(3) organization, Charity Navigator has continually refined and improved how it evaluates nonprofits in service of its core mission: to make impactful giving easier. The latest update – spanning new impact measurement tools, expanded evaluation areas and recalibrated scoring – reflects the same principle that has guided every update before it.

Nonprofits can learn more and update their information through the nonprofit portal: https://charitynavigator.org/portal. Charity Navigator's Customer Success team is available to answer questions and assist nonprofits with this new process. Nonprofits should reach out to [email protected].

About Charity Navigator: Founded in 2002, Charity Navigator is a 501(c)(3) organization that guides intelligent giving with the nation's largest, most comprehensive charity evaluation system. The organization helps donors easily identify U.S.-registered charities making a difference on the issues they care about most while assisting charities to share their impact through data and increase awareness and funding. Learn more at charitynavigator.org.

SOURCE Charity Navigator