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One standard · every 501(c)(3)

Give where the money reaches the mission.

See how much of every dollar actually reaches the mission — and how little stays with insiders. Scored straight from IRS Form 990 filings. Vet any tax-deductible 501(c)(3) and give with confidence.

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An adult and two children work through a lesson together at one table. Young people help themselves at a long table of shared food outdoors. Volunteers kneel in a roadside bed, setting flowers into the soil. Teenagers in hard hats assemble a wooden frame beside an instructor. A crew of young volunteers cheers behind the tyres and scrap it cleared from a river bank.
—990 filings analyzed
—501(c)(3) charities scored
—data last updated
Your gift & your taxes

Every dollar you give goes to work at the charity. Four quick answers show what your gift also does for your federal taxes.

Everything you earn in a year, before deductions.

Mortgage interest and state and local taxes, added up. If you’ve never itemised — and most people never have — leave this at $0.

An estimate of federal income tax only — not state tax, and not tax advice. It assumes a cash gift to a public 501(c)(3). Nothing you type here is sent anywhere: the maths runs in your browser, and we never see it. Tax year — · IRS figures

A volunteer sitting with an older neighbour, reading together.
Why it matters

Behind every filing is a neighbor.

A 990-EZ isn’t just a tax form — it’s a food bank, a free clinic, a scholarship fund. In the evidence-first spirit of evaluators like GiveWell, GiveScore reads the numbers so your generosity actually reaches the people a nonprofit exists to serve.

Follow the money, not the marketing. Every score comes straight from the filing — never a charity’s own claims.
Small charities, real communities. 990-EZ filers are the local groups the big rating sites overlook.
Honest about the limits. We measure stewardship — and we tell you plainly what a tax form can’t.
How the score works

One 0–100 number, four honest parts.

Every charity is scored only on what its Form 990 or 990-EZ actually reveals: where the money went and how it was held. The weights are fixed and public, and each part is ranked against charities of a similar size by annual revenue, so a small charity is never measured against a hospital system.

A screen, not a verdict.

GiveScore measures financial stewardship, not charitable impact. A tax return tells you how a nonprofit spent and saved money — it says nothing about whether the work changed a life. Low overhead is a debunked proxy for quality (the sector’s own 2013 “Overhead Myth” letter). Use this to shortlist and to ask sharper questions — never as the final word.

70+Strong steward— money moves to the mission
45–69Mixed— worth a closer look
0–44Watch— red flags in the filing
Top stewards

Charities that pass the money on.

The highest-scoring nonprofits in the database — most of every dollar reaches grants or programs, with little kept by insiders.

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Research

Find a charity to vet.

Filter and sort the way a careful donor would — then open any charity for its full financial picture.