GuideStar

All that Guidestar (now Candid) measures is the financial transparency of a charity. It does not measure the quality of the charity's services. In other words, Al Queda or Isis might receive a platinum rating were either to have been an American nonprofit, regardless that they are both terrorist organizations. That may seem like an extreme example, but, for instance, one charity I know of has been involved in beatings, used guns, tried to undermine another similar charity and harmed children, but Guidestar gives it a platinum badge. Furthermore, 100% of a charity's money may go towards excessively high salaries, so long as the charity claims (truly or falsely) that those paid performed services that aligned with the charity's purpose. That being the case, Guidestar is pretty useless.

Guidestar is a deep database of information about charities and non-profit organizations. Basic searches will reveal basic data, and anyone can read other users' reviews and vote on them. Registered users get access to more financial data, including a charity's reported revenue and expenses, and information such as the charity's web site address, telephone number and mailing address.

If you're a philanthropist looking for more focused financials, there's a membership tier for you which will cost you $70 a month. And if you're a fund manager or other corporate investor and can find $350 a month, there's even more data on offer, to help you make sure you don't make a bad investment with your clients' cash.

The site also allows grant givers to research specific causes, to find and analyze charities working in those areas.

Overall this is a significant resource for anyone who has a professional interest in the business of non-profit organizations, and even if you aren't a financial professional there's the opportunity for you to review your favorite charities, whether you've donated, or been a volunteer, or just want to sing their praises.

My reason for not giving this one a heart is because there can be very limited information here unless you register, and one page I looked at had so little data I think I would have done better with Google. I know people will think I'm nitpicking and I know registration in this case is free, but I can't see any reason for it here. I've never liked being forced to register for a site and it bugs me that they can't just give me the information and be done with it without collecting any data from me.