Frequently asked questions
- Who are your ratings aimed at?
- Why use our ratings?
- What is the rationale for Development Ratings?
- Why do you focus on relatively unknown organisations?
- Does your analysis place an additional reporting burden on charities?
- Do your recommendations tell me the whole story?
- What makes you different to existing charity rating services?
- Can I fund or partner with organisations through you?
- How do you fund yourselves?
Who are your ratings aimed at?
Our ratings are aimed at donors who want to find little known and high-impact international development charities to support.
Why use our ratings?
We identify and recommend effective development charities using a rigorous analysis that few people or companies have the time or capacity to do.
Our recommendations inspire and make people more confident in choosing which charities to donate to. As there are over 180,000 charities in the UK, it is often a challenge to decide which to give to. We will seek out where we think your money can make a difference with a particular focus on international development.
What is the rationale for Development Ratings?
We believe that an increase in accessible third-party knowledge and research on international development charities will encourage people to give more.
We provide you with the comfort that you are giving to effective organisations that will give you the highest social return on the money you donate.
This also helps the charities. We increase the interest in particular charities by recommending them and increase the transparency around the whole of the sector. This should in turn reduce the amount of money charities need to spend on fundraising, making them more effective.
All in all, we make you more confident that your money will be used to actually foster development where it is needed.
Why do you focus on relatively unknown organisations?
As these organisations are often relatively unknown to the general public, new partners and sources of funding can have a profound effect and this is the area where we believe research is scarce and our services can add the most value.
Does your analysis place an additional reporting burden on charities?
No. We do in-depth research and fact finding before approaching any organisation and will only meet to ask very specific questions. As a result we are able to efficiently produce reports that will benefit both the organisations and potential donors.
Do your recommendations tell me the whole story?
No, measuring development impact is an inexact science. However, our rigorous analytical approach provides a very useful independent view on the impact that a given organisation will have.
What makes you different to existing charity rating services?
Development Ratings is not a charity ‘watchdog’. Our main differentiators are: (i) no narrow focus on financial efficiency; (ii) an analytical assessment of each organisation based on a thorough development impact model; (iii) specialisation in some of the least developed countries.
Can I fund or partner with organisations through you?
Through the Development Ratings Fund, you are able to directly support the charities that we recommend.
We do not charge a fee for this service and we provide this service purely as a way of supporting the charities that we feel should be encouraged. You can also donate to them directly using the links on the Ratings page.
At Development Ratings, we encourage long-term partnerships and that individual donors provide more than their wallet to the charity.
However, we do not encourage micromanagement. While charities may benefit from the skills of their supporters we also urge donors to accept that charity work and especially the work that is being carried out in the developing countries requires specialised knowledge and expertise. Individual philanthropists and companies should not automatically assume that they have this knowledge. Our service exists to increase the confidence that you are giving to capable organisations that are able to tackle the problems that they have set their goals to solve.
How do you fund yourselves?
We seek long-term sponsorship from those who want to support our growth.
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