Welcome to ChangePath, Australia\u2019s only charity rating organisation. We\u2019re launching a lot of big changes today (including, in a metatextual twist, the blog this is being written on), but before I outline those let\u2019s talk about what ChangePath is.<\/p>\n
ChangePath exists, at a basic level, to help Australian donors and charities find each other. We\u2019re here to help people who want to donate, but aren\u2019t sure who to.<\/p>\n
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Aside<\/strong>
\nI should note, at this point, that ChangePath isn\u2019t about finding the absolutely most effective way to donate funds to save lives. For that, we\u2019d recommend GiveWell<\/a>, Giving What We Can<\/a>\u00a0or The Life You Can Save<\/a>, which assess charities worldwide to figure out exactly which ones are most effective. On that note, ChangePath is a rating organisation, not a ranking one. The distinction is subtle, but effectively we\u2019re not here to pick the \u2018best charity\u2019, rather we just want to show that some charities are more transparent than others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nChangePath fills a niche for those of us that want to donate to a particular cause in Australia, but aren\u2019t sure how to go about it. Or perhaps you want to find out more about a charity you might want to donate to. ChangePath is here to give you confidence that the organisation you\u2019re giving to is transparent, financially well-managed, and will keep your personal information safe. For charities, we help those that are well-run to stand out from the pack and promote their good virtues.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s changed<\/h2>\n
To help achieve this, we\u2019ve launched a whole range of changes to the way ChangePath works, ranging from the cosmetic to the fundamental. Here\u2019s a quick rundown:<\/p>\n
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- 300 more charities<\/strong> listed, with more to come.<\/li>\n
- Charities now have four years of financial information<\/strong> (where available), including expenses, assets and liabilities.<\/li>\n
- We\u2019re now giving ratings on financial management and privacy<\/strong>. They\u2019re fairly easy to pass \u2013 don\u2019t lose too much money, have enough assets to pay for your expenses in hard times, and have more than you owe.<\/li>\n
- You can now donate to ChangePath<\/strong>. Why would you do that? You\u2019ll need to look at the donate page<\/a> to find out.<\/li>\n
- We\u2019ve launched a bunch of new content<\/strong> including this blog, a page for charities, a media page, and a revamped home page.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
And they\u2019re just the big changes. We\u2019ve also launched a host of little ones like tags, charity groupings, linking to ACNC listings, and a revamped transparency rating. ChangePath, when it launched, was very much a proof of concept. It did exactly what it needed to do and no more. With this new version, we\u2019re much closer to the full functionality of what the site should have.<\/p>\n
Onwards and upwards<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Of course, we\u2019re not done. There\u2019s a lot that still can be done to help donors, and we have a range of interesting ideas on how to improve our reporting. Aside from the obvious imperative of always staying up-to-date, we have a number of plans for how we can measure new parameters, do more interesting data analysis, and create a better snapshot of charity performance. We\u2019ll talk about those in a future blog post.<\/p>\n