Welcome to our tenth and final installment of our Charity Series Blog.
Over the past few months we’ve been blogging about worthy national charities. It’s been pretty easy finding quality charities, as sites like The Charity Navigator which evaluates and rates thousands of charities on a four star system, based mostly on the charity’s efficiency, operating costs and the CEO’s salary. It’s a great way to do charity research.
But not every charity gets reviewed by the Charity Navigator or other similar sites.
Recently such a charity came across my desk, and it’s been selected as the tenth and final charity in our series. The brainchild of TV personality Frank McKinney, The Caring House Project Foundation is a charity that focuses on providing shelter to the poor and needy inside and outside the US. Most recently, CHPF has been extremely hands-on, both in rescue efforts and rebuilding efforts following Haiti’s devastating earthquake. Even prior to the earthquake CHPF has done the majority of its work in the poorest of countries in the Western Hemisphere.
McKinney’s blog had some fascinating footage of post-earthquake Haiti, as well as an interview with the principal about being intimately involved in the rescues of rubble-covered Haitians just after the quake.
I was definitely intrigued by the man and his mission, so I searched the Caring House Project Foundation on the Charity Navigator. There was no entry.
Instinctively, a red flag went up. Was this charity not legit? Was this one of the many scams out there? Was Frank like Wyclef, paying himself 6 figures to speak at his own charity’s event?
Turns out the Charity Navigator is quick to admit that it cannot review every charity that is out there. And as that is the case, it also gives a person a pretty easy way to evaluate a charity on one’s own.
By following the Charity Navigator’s evaluation advice, I was able to track down the Caring House Project Foundation’s “Form 990,” which is required by law to be made public if the charity receives over $100,000 in contributions and has assets totaling over $250,000. By reviewing the CHPF’s Form 990 I was able to determine the program’s assets, expenses and allocations that they made to other charities and organizations in 2007. For example, they gave $125,000 to the Haitian Health Foundation and over $460,000 to Food for the Poor, a four-star rated Charity Navigator charity. Clearly the CHPF was legitimate and doing good in the world.
Which is why we’ve made the Caring House Project Foundation the tenth and final charity in our ten-part series. Frank and the gang are doing selfless and important work, and they need our help. Consider making a donation to this worthy charity.
Be sure to check out other charities from our ten-part series:
KaBoom!: building playgrounds across America
Homes for our Troops
Family Promise: helping low income families achieve financial independence
National Alliance to End Homelessness
Rebuilding Together: repairing and restoring low-income homes
HandsOn Network
Keep America Beautiful
Farm Aid
