Salk Institute receives Charity Navigator’s highest rating for fifth consecutive year

December 8, 2015

Salk Institute receives Charity Navigator’s highest rating for fifth consecutive year

Only six percent of nonprofits receive top rating five years running

December 8, 2015

LA JOLLA—For the fifth consecutive year, the Salk Institute’s sound fiscal management practices and commitment to accountability and transparency has earned it a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent charity and nonprofit evaluator. Receiving four out of a possible four stars for five straight years puts Salk in an elite group of nonprofits.

“Only 6 percent of the charities we rate have received at least five consecutive 4-star evaluations,” says Charity Navigator’s President and CEO Michael Thatcher, “indicating that Salk Institute for Biological Studies outperforms most other charities in America.”

As the nonprofit sector continues to grow, savvy donors are seeking quantifiable results from the charities they support. Last year alone, Charity Navigator’s website received more than seven million visits. “In this competitive philanthropic marketplace,” Thatcher says, “our goal is to provide donors with essential information needed to give them greater confidence in the charitable choices they make.”

In FY15, the Salk Institute received $50 million from foundations and individual donors through gifts, grants and bequests, which accounted for 40 percent of revenues.

“In recent years, private philanthropy has become ever more critical to the Institute’s life-changing science,” says Salk Institute Vice President of External Relations Rebecca Newman. “To receive a four-star rating from Charity Navigator for five straight years is a real feather in the Institute’s cap.”

About Charity Navigator:
Charity Navigator is the largest, independent, expert charity evaluator in America and its website attracts more visitors than all other charity rating groups combined. The organization helps guide intelligent giving by evaluating the Financial Health and Accountability & Transparency of 8,000 charities. Charity Navigator accepts no advertising or donations from the organizations it evaluates, ensuring unbiased evaluations, nor does it charge the public for this trusted data. As a result, Charity Navigator, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization itself, depends on support from individuals, corporations and foundations that believe it provides a much-needed service to America’s charitable givers. Charity Navigator, can be reached directly by telephone at (201) 818-1288, or by mail at 139 Harristown Road, Suite 101, Glen Rock, N.J., 07452.