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 Seventeen area charities have been named to a new Better Business Bureau “honor roll” under a program set up to identify non-profit groups that have met an exacting list of national accountability standards, the BBB will announce today.
The program allows designated charities to use a BBB seal on their Web sites and on printed materials, local bureau officials say. They say the seal is similar to a “Good Housekeeping Seal” or a “union bug” and is a way for potential donors to pick out those charities that have met strict financial, reporting and governing standards.
The national BBB has operated a similar program over the past year for national charities, but local officials say the St. Louis-area BBB is one of the first to take the seal program to the local level.
Michelle L. Corey, president and chief executive officer for the BBB serving eastern Missouri and southern Illinois, says the seal program is a response to a “rising number of inquiries about charities.”
Last year, the BBB office here received some 7,500 inquiries from potential donors.
Corey said the BBB was not trying to use the seal to steer donors away from organizations that do not meet the criteria, but was “simply trying to make donors better informed.”
To use the seal, the charity must meet all 20 standards created by the BBB’s national office. The standards cover such areas as adequate oversight by a board of directors, how charities raise and spend their money, and their willingness to make public annual reports and financial statements. The BBB charges no fee for use of the seal.
Jim Judge, director of charity review for the BBB here, said the 17 charities appear to be the cream of the local charity crop when it comes to “holding themselves to a higher standard and being as transparent as possible with their donors.”
He said those charities meeting the standards will be re-evaluated once each year and could drop from the list if they are unable to meet even one of the BBB’s standards. He also said several other charities were very close to receiving the honor roll designation.
Judge said that some 500 area charities were evaluated as part of the program.
One of those charities receiving the seal designation is Willow’s Way Inc., a St. Charles-based, $4.2 million-a-year nonprofit group that provides independent living services to disabled adults in St. Charles and St. Louis counties.
Stephen Phelps, development director for Willow’s Way, said the designation was crucial at a time when reports of charity abuse and scandal are rampant.
“We want people to know that we are good shepherds of their financial investments,” he said.
Joseph C. White, president of the American Red Cross of Greater St. Louis, which also is among the elite group, said the Red Cross would display the seal as a “public indicator of BBB compliance.”
Corey with the BBB said because the seal designation was fluid, charities would not be allowed to use the seal in long-term advertising such as the Yellow Pages.
The list of 20 national standards is available through the local Better Business Bureau or through the BBB’s national Web site at www.give.org.
Reports on local charities are available online at www.contactbbb.org or by calling the BBB’s automated inquiry line at 314.645.3300.
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