Florida's Best, Worst Charities

Just as increasing productivity is a key to success for businesses, the best charitable organizations find ways to do more with less. Keeping fund-raising and administrative costs low means more money for the organization’s mission — whether that’s feeding the poor, helping the elderly, performing the arts or providing other services.

Charity Navigator (charitynavigator.org), a non-profit group that evaluates charities on their organizational efficiency and how well they can sustain their program and services over time, gives 107 Florida charities the highest four-star rating. That’s more than 38% of the state’s 277 charitable organizations included in Charity Navigator’s database.

The Florida School Choice Fund in Tampa, also known as Florida P*R*I*D*E, is Charity Navigator’s top-rated organization. The group gives K-12 “Step Up For Students” scholarships to low-income students using private-sector money donated by corporations that get state tax credits for their donations. The Florida School Choice Fund spent only a penny on fund raising for every dollar raised; expenses grew by 24.4%, but revenue rose by 60% from 2005 to 2006, the most recent numbers available. The Community Foundation of Tampa Bay, which also spends only a penny for every dollar it raises, grew revenue by 23.6% while expenses grew 12.9% in 2007.

Sometimes, charitable organizations with names that sound alike use their money in very different ways. The Diabetes Research Institute Foundation in Hollywood, for example, has a four-star rating and spends a nickel for every dollar raised. On the other hand, the Defeat Diabetes Foundation in Madeira Beach has zero stars and spends 75 cents for every dollar raised.

A number of well-known charitable organizations, such as the Boys & Girls Clubs and Habitat for Humanity, have several regional groups in Florida with four-star ratings. Most of the four-star charities, however, are single-location operations that serve local, regional or national interests. Here is a sampling of top-rated Florida charitable operations with very different missions.