United Way of Pierce County Rated “At the Top” by National Organizations

by Rick Allen, President & CEO

Unfortunately, I’m old enough to remember when cigarette companies were advertising that their cigarettes were “recommended by doctors.” So, like many, I have a very skeptical view when it comes to organizations telling me how great they are.

For me, and I suspect for you, that means that independent third-party analysis and ratings are much more valuable than self-proclaimed excellence.

It’s in that context that I’d like to brag a little about what other people, independent of us, are saying about United Way of Pierce County.

In December, 2008, for the fourth consecutive year, United Way of Pierce County has received the very highest rating from Charity Navigator, a rating of “4 Stars”. Two things stand out about this rating from Charity Navigator, which is an independent firm that evaluates ten times more charities nationwide than their nearest competitor, and attracts more visitors to their website than all other charity evaluators combined.

First, of the thousands of charities Charity Navigator evaluates, only 6% have received 4 Stars over the last four consecutive years. That’s pretty rare air. And secondly, when you look at United Ways all across the nation, and there are about 1,300 independent United Ways, only a total of five United Ways (one of them us) have received the 4-Star rating over the last four consecutive years. So among United Ways in America, United Way of Pierce County is rated in the top half of 1%. I hope you just said “Wow!” in your head on that one.

As Charity Navigator puts it, this means United Way of Pierce County “outperforms most other charities in America” when it comes to fiscal accountability, fiscal transparency, and efficient use of funds.

This is a wonderful affirmation of our work from independent, outside evaluators. I hope sharing information such as this with you helps to give you even more confidence in United Way of Pierce County’s ability to help produce good results for people in Pierce County with the donations you invest.