(For an expanded discussion on how we think about vetting, see here.)
In short a nonprofit passes our vetting if: it is doing legitimate work, is effective and organizationally transparent, and is not politically partisan or affiliated with any religious denomination.
Our goal through vetting is to maintain and honor the trust of the Good Today community to provide a meaningful experience that makes the greatest possible positive impact in the world. Every vetting platform will carry implicit or explicit positions and assumptions about the charitable space — and often there is no consensus. Our particular philosophy is grounded at the intersection of the product and vision of Good Today, and there are plenty of excellent nonprofits whose work falls outside those parameters right now (i.e. nonprofits religiously affiliated, or politically-bent).
Operationally, we distilled a myriad of different considerations into a point-based rubric system, with the inputs gathered primarily from online research and phone calls. There are two types of values in the rubric: binary and gradated. Binary values are for criteria when we ask “is this ok or not”? Gradated values are for criteria whose values are taken collectively.
The vetting calculation is if a nonprofit checks the binary boxes and has 40+ points, the nonprofit passes our vetting system. And if there are any red flags the nonprofit will not pass unless there is a sufficient explanation and reasoning otherwise.
Here is what the rubric currently looks like:
There are plenty of edge cases that aren’t easily captured in the above, and we are continuously working to improve how we go about things (which is why we want to build this!). But we thought it would be helpful to summarize the main points of how things look at the moment.
We always love hearing from you, let us know if you ever have any feedback!
-Joe Benun
Team Good Today
