[IMPACT]PHILANTHROPY

CHARITY ALL-STARSThese 5 standouts from the FORBES list of 100 Largest U.S.Charities merit your attention and, perhaps, dollars. Behindeach: an efficient organization trying to malœ sure thatdonations go where they'll do the most good.

BY ABRAM BROWN

Who deserves your charitable dollars? To help you decide, we've calculat-ed the financial efficiency of the 100 U.S. charities that received the mostprivate donations last year. We've also picked five all-stars—charitiesthat are reasonably efficient (compared to their peers) and do fine workin their areas. In our tables, fundraising efficiency shows the percentageof gifts left after the expense of soliciting them. Charitable commitmentsubtracts other overhead, too. Donor dependency? That's the share of do-nations needed to break even; charities with a ratio above 100 had to diginto reserves and really need your dollars.

Brother's BrotherFoundationRun from a graffiti-scarredneighborhood in Pittsburgh,Brother's Brother deliversmedicine and educationalsupplies worldwide, a mis-sion that hasn't changedmuch since its start in 1958.This is a family-run af-fair: Luke L. Hingson, thecurrent chief, is the son ofthe organization's found-er. Brother's Brother hasbeen leading a push amonggift-in-kind charities—nonprofits that receive moreresources as donated goodsthan they do cash—forgreater truth when account-ing for those donated goods.(Among the problems, asreported by FORBES lastyear, some charities werewildly inflating the value ofdonated pills, making theiroperations look deceptivelyefficient.) Brother's Brotheris efficient, with only 16full-time workers. Dona-tions ($241 million last year)were steady through therecession, even as donorspulled back from manycharities. "We haven't hada lot of financial pressure,so it's allowed us to take onsome harder projects," saysHingson. It's now deliver-ing supplies to 100 Africanhospitals, up from 4 twoyears ago.

JDRFSome single-disease chari-ties spend a lot of moneysoliciting contributionsby mail. JDRF (it recentlyrenamed itself from theJuvenile Diabetes Research

102 I FORBES NOVEMBER 19,2012

FORBES

[ IMPACT] PHILANTHROPY

Foundation to refiect the varied agesof Type 1 diabetes patients) holdsdown costs by relying on a network ofvolunteers—everyone from Interna-tional Chairman Mary Tyler Mooreto "advocates" who lobby Congressfor diabetes funding to elementaryschool kids taking part in the fund-raising walks that helped it raise $198million last year. CEO Jeffrey Brewer .touts new Web tools for volunteers.Meanwhile, JDRF directs its bigbucks to medical research.

Boys & Girls Clubs of AmericaAds featuring celebrity alumni, in-cluding Denzel Washington, MagicJohnson and Cuba Gooding Jr.,helped the clubs raise $658 millionlast year relatively efficiently. "Theyhave a real-life story to tell," saysJim Clark, the group's CEO. "Andwe've capitalized on that." BGCAis now building a national track-ing system—based on surveyingkids when they join and before theyleave—to help clubs use money mosteffectively, by figuring out whichprograms have the most impact.

InternationalRescue CommitteeThis New York-based charity wasformed in 1933, after Albert Einsteinasked Americans to help refugeesfrom Hitler's Germany. GeorgeRupp, a former Columbia Univer-sity president, became president andCEO of the relief group in 2002 andhas tripled its total budget. IRC nowoperates in 40 countries, helping tocare for (and sometimes resettle)refugees from conflict zones. Thekey to affording such expansion, saysRupp, is training local hires to do thework. "It's much cheaper to oper-ate with locals than it is to supportexpatriates or an entire internationalteam," he says. As conflicts drag on,savings mount. The IRC first startedhelping Afghan refugees in 1980 afterthe Soviet invasion; today it's still inAfghanistan, with a 99% local staff.

United WayThe largest charity in the U.S. by dona-tions ($3.9 billion last year) United Wayhas a built-in efficiency edge, since 57%of its donations come through payroll

withholding and another 20% fromcorporate donations. Still, when CEOBrian Gallagher took over a decade ago,the sprawling organization was recov-ering from a nasty scandal (a previousCEO went to jail) and suffering from alack of focus (it was simply sprinklingmoney around to every group). Gal-lagher has turned what was a "looseconfederation" into something moreakin to a global franchise operation,with 1,800 chapters worldwide, in-cluding 1,200 in the U.S. The domesticchapters, and later foreign affiliates,were required to agree to independentreview boards, audits and limits onmarketing tactics. "Just as McDonald'swould, we needed to ask ourselves,where do we have to be consistent andwhere do we allow innovation on theground?" says Gallagher. U.S. chaptersnow pay 1% of funds raised to the par-ent organization. About a quarter ofwhat United Way takes in domesticallyis directed by donors to other charities.Money that stays with United Way isnow used for one of three focus areas:education, income and health (par-ticularly obesity prevention). Q

50 LARGEST U.S. CHARITIES, BY THE NUMBERSThis tabie shows the financial efficiency ratios-and the trends in those ratios-for the largest charities, listed alphabetically. For all 100 charitieson the 2012 list, the highest pay at each charity and more explanation of our methodology, go to www.forbes.com/charities.

BY WILLIAM P. BARRETT

NAME HEADQUARTERS

PRIVATE

DONATIONS

($MIL)

TOTAL

REVENUES

(SMIL)

CHARITABLE

COMMITMENP

FUNDRAISING

EFFICIENCY'

DONOR

DEPENDENCY'

ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION CHICAGO IL

AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY ATLANTA GA

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION DALLAS TX

AMERICAN JEWISH JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE NEW YORK NY

AMERICAN KIDNEY FUND ROCKVILLE MD

AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS WASHINGTON DC

AMERICARES FOUNDATION STAMFORD CT

BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA IRVING TX

BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF AMERICA ATLANTA GA

BROTHER'S BROTHER FOUNDATION PITTSBURGH PA

CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST INTERNATIONAL ORLANDO FL

$208

896

494

279

212

946

663

394

658

241

474

$250

1,014

657

269

213

3,646

665

905

1,458

242

519

75 •

72 •

78 •

92 •

97 •

92 •

98 T

86 T

82 •

100 •

85 T

81 A

77 T

91 •

98 •

98 •

87 T

99 •

86 T

88 •

100 •

92 •

88 T

93 T

88 T

117 •

98 T

76 •

100 T

92 •

95 •

97 •

101 •

104 I FORBES NOVEMBER 19.2012

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