More than three-quarters of local charities evaluated by the Education and Research Foundation of the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York met all of the BBB Standards for Charity Accountability in 2013, a new report finds.

Based on responses from 526 charities in the metro New York area that agreed to be evaluated against the BBB Standards for Charity Accountability, the report, 2013 Review of Metro NY BBB Charity Reports (4 pages, PDF), found that 404 (77 percent) of the charities met all twenty standards, while 122 (23 percent) did not. The most commonly unmet standards were in the areas of transparency and governance. For example, nearly 55 percent of the 122 organizations that did not meet the standards did not have an annual report available to all upon request; 41 percent did not have a board-approved policy of assessing their organizational effectiveness at least once every two years; and 40 percent were not in compliance with the BBB standard on governance, which requires that a charity’s board provide adequate oversight of the organization’s operations and staff.

"We're gratified to see that more than three-quarters of the charities we evaluate meet the twenty BBB Standards for Charity Accountability," said Claire Rosenzweig, president and CEO of the BBB of Metropolitan New York and the BBB Education and Research Foundation. "We believe that charities meeting BBB Standards inspire donors to give with trust and confidence. Research results released in 2013 showed that charities meeting all BBB Standards achieved higher fundraising results."