Charity Navigator Gives People for Puget Sound "Three Stars"

I recently signed up with Charity Navigator, an online service that provides financial information about and ratings for specific charities. I'm starting a new mini-feature in which I'm posting about the results of my research into some of the groups I support.

Yesterday, I contributed to People for Puget Sound, a local organization that works on protection of Puget Sound and the Northwest Straits. We live in Seattle and I think it's very important to remember our oceans and the life that reside there.

Anyway, they received three out of four stars. Here is a snapshot of their 2007 budget breakdown. The key is how big their program expenses are. Effective charities should spend the majority of their revenue on programs, not overhead.

Alley Cat Allies Wins Recognition for Financial Efficiency

We've been supporters of Alley Cat Allies for years, ever since we rescued a feral cat colony living in our apartment building's parking lot 14 years ago (5 of those clowns are aging nicely with us with us now...including Charlotte who's on the masthead).

They do excellent work on feral cat issues, but I'm glad to see that they are recognized for their financial efficiency too. They do a good job of using donations for actual programs instead of bloated overhead.

Here's a Charity Spotlight article on them from MainStreet.com.

Yay!