Felt kinda curious lately about how the Salvation Army actually stacks up, you know? Where does the money really go when you drop stuff into those bins? Saw some folks online arguing about their ratings and thought, heck, why not dig into it myself? Wanted to see for myself what these charity scorekeepers really say.
So yesterday afternoon, coffee in hand, I fired up the laptop. Typed something like “salvation army charity rating” right into the search bar. Boom, tons of results popped up. Three big names kept showing up over and over: Charity Navigator, Charity Watch, and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance. Figured these must be the main places to look.
Started clicking around on Charity Navigator first. Their site is pretty busy with info. Scrolled down, scanned for the ratings section. Found it! Looked for a familiar shield symbol – that’s how they show the score. They broke it down into two main things: financial stuff (how much dough actually goes to the programs vs paying the bosses or begging for more cash?) and being accountable (like, are they open about what they do?). Seems simple enough.
Poked around some more trying to find where they actually scored the Salvation Army. Their search got a bit annoying, gotta say. Finally found the page. Not too bad, they gave it a decent three stars out of four for both finance and being accountable. Better than I thought it might be!
Switched gears and headed over to Charity Watch next. This place has a rep for being tough. Seriously tough. You gotta dig deeper to see the grade without paying, which is kinda frustrating. But from what I could glean, they use letters, like a school report card. They seemed mostly focused on how much of every buck donated actually helps people directly. “Program Percentage” is what they call it. Not sure exactly what grade they gave SA, but I saw mentions that Charity Watch generally expects charities to spend way more money on programs than on admin or fundraising.
Last stop, BBB Wise Giving Alliance. They got this long list of things charities should do. Like 20 points! Everything from keeping a decent board to how they spend money to being honest in their ads. Clickety-click, searched for Salvation Army. Found it! Scrolled down the page… Green checkmarks! Looked like they met all, or almost all, of those demanding standards the BBB set. That felt solid.
Okay, so after an hour or so clicking back and forth between these sites, here’s what kinda stuck with me:
- Ratings ain’t the whole story, just one angle.
- Each place looks at things a bit differently – Charity Navigator grades kinda broad, Charity Watch drills hard into costs, BBB checks boxes on ethics.
- The Salvation Army? Across the board, seems like they generally meet the basic rules these watchdogs set for being decent and spending okay.
- These ratings mostly focus on how they handle the money, not really on whether their stuff actually works on the ground helping folks.
- They spend a fair chunk on running things (admin) and asking for more donations (fundraising). That’s normal, but Charity Watch especially keeps a sharp eye on it.
So yeah, my little deep dive. Seems okay on the basic money handling side according to the big rating sites. Would I trust them? Based just on this quick look at the ratings… Yeah, I guess so. Makes me feel a bit better the next time I stuff an old coat into that red bin. But like anything else online, maybe take it with a tiny grain of salt too.