Why Can't I Find GallantFew on Charity Navigator? and other questions.

Happy New Year!

Run Ranger Run is amping up, and with new participants come some new questions.  I am very glad that people are asking these questions, and far too many donate to nonprofits without investigating what they do with the funds.

Here are some of the questions:

Q:  How does GallantFew rate on Charity Navigator?  I can't find anything about your organization.

A:  GallantFew isn't large enough for Charity Navigator to evaluate us.  This quote is from the Charity Navigator website:

"Sources of Revenue:  Because our goal is to help individual givers, we evaluate only those charities that depend on support from individual givers. Specifically, we require public support to be more than $500,000 and total revenue more than $1,000,000 in the most recent fiscal year. And we do not review charities that receive most of their funding from government grants, or from the fees they charge for their programs and services.

Length of Operations: We require 7 years of Forms 990 to complete an evaluation."

In 2013, GallantFew raised less than $200,000 and in 2014 less than $250,000 so we are about a fourth of the minimum required.  Also 2015 marks our fifth year in operation, and will be the fourth year we file a 990 (the first year our revenue was so small we met the postcard requirement).  So it will be three years before we've been around long enough to make their site.

Q:  Where does the money go?  What's your percent of overhead?

A:  GallantFew's Executive Director is paid a salary of $50,000 per year.  The other two full timers are paid less than that.  The only overhead expenses are those items not tied directly to providing veteran services, and in 2013 that was 3% - leaving 97% to go towards mission.  We have been very cautious about expenditures, because we are very new and Run Ranger Run is in its third year - so we've saved $100,000 to ensure we can operate unimpeded.  Our plan is for RRR to do as well or better than last year, which means we will expand our capacity (meaning hiring) to cover the ever-increasing volume of veterans seeking assistance.

There is detailed information on the GallantFew website:  Five years of performance and all our financial reports.  Please share them.

Please feel free to email Karl with any other questions you might have, and thank you for your support.

Karl