Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest and most utilized evaluator of charities, has named two Pennsylvania food banks to its 10 Top Notch Charities list. Central Pennsylvania Food Bank and Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania are ranked number seven and nine respectively on the 10 Top Notch Charities list.
Charity Navigator ranks high-performing charities for excelling in three areas: financial, accountability and transparency and results. The 10 charities ranked not only earn Charity Navigator’s highest four-star rating for Financial Health, but also earn four stars in Accountability and Transparency. The 10 charities on the 10 Top Notch Charities “adhere to good governance and other best practices that minimize the chance of unethical activities, and they execute their missions in a fiscally responsible way.”
“Feeding Pennsylvania is extremely proud to have two of our members recognized in Charity Navigator’s 10 Top-Notch Charities,” said Jane Clements-Smith, executive director, Feeding Pennsylvania. “We commend Central Pennsylvania Food Bank and Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania on their excellence in financial health, accountability and transparency. This honor truly reflects the commitment demonstrated by all of the members of Feeding Pennsylvania who are working to provide food assistance to our neighbors in need.”
“It gives me great pride to see that two of the top 10 charities that made the list are from our own food bank members at Feeding Pennsylvania,” said Kris Douglas, CEO of the Westmoreland County Food Bank, who chairs the Feeding Pennsylvania board of directors. “It is a testament to how we operate both individually and collectively in the fight against hunger in our great state. I congratulate them both on this wonderful achievement.”
Central Pennsylvania Food Bank scored 99.82 and Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania scored 99.80 on Charity Navigator’s rating system. The rating system examines two broad areas of a charity’s performance: their financial health and their accountability and transparency. The ratings show givers how efficiently Charity Navigator believes a charity will use their support today, how well it has sustained its programs and services over time and its level of commitment to good governance, best practices and openness with information.
Charity Navigator provides these ratings so that charitable givers/social investors can make intelligent giving decisions, and so the nonprofit sector can improve its performance. Charity Navigator’s team of professional analysts has examined tens of thousands of non-profit financial documents and has developed an unbiased, objective, numbers-based rating system to assess more than 8,000 of America’s best-known and some lesser known, but worthy, charities.
To see the entire 10 Top Notch Charities list, visit www.charitynavigator.org. To learn more about how you can help fight hunger in your community, visit www.feedingpa.org.
