No application, no fee, no favors: how thedotgood finds, scores and ranks social good organizations
How thedotgood Rankings Are Set, and How Your SGO Can Build on Them
If your organization appears in thedotgood rankings, here is what it means and how to turn that into greater strength and reputation. A Portuguese version is available: Como as classificações do thedotgood são definidas.
Congratulations on being listed
“We don’t recall signing up. How did we end up being listed?”
As a media company, thedotgood has been ranking SGOs for more than a decade. We scout the web, receive emails and tips, read articles and learn more about each new SGO we find. It’s an ongoing process all year long. Scouting, scoring and ranking are our job. We do them independently, and we charge no fee for them.
Finding an SGO does not mean we score it: some basic data requirements may not be met. Sometimes we are wrong about that, and we apologize for the good catches we miss. That’s why we opened an optional channel that guarantees your organization will be scored. It’s included in our Leader membership, our premium annual membership. It guarantees scoring, not ranking: a score does not always translate into a place in a ranking. So: no application, no fee, no favors, but an option to enter the scoring process. Newcomers should apply early in the scoring season, which runs from January to the end of April. Scoring an SGO for the first time takes longer.
“What information do you take into account?”
Our scoring is based on what you make public: your website, reports, accounts and social channels. We weigh it against our methodology, score each SGO and rank them by score. Rankings are published every year at the end of June. Every month, we also check for new documents and update our records.
“What do you expect from us?”
Nothing is required, but being proactive is welcome. As long as your information is publicly available, you’re on safe ground. There are exceptions. In countries with limited or no democratic freedoms, publishing some information can be an existential threat to an organization, and we take that into account. Where conditions allow, any organization can publish what it considers appropriate.
Leader members can use their thedotgood profile to strengthen the quality of their public data and the timeliness of its publication. Timely publication naturally affects scoring. We also encourage every SGO to date its key annual documents: it helps us assess the health of its financial reporting and communication.
“What’s in it for us?”
An independent, accurate, dated and sourced public record of your organization. Being part of the thedotgood community is a strong signal, a signal seen by search engines in most countries. Leader members can use their badges, their profile and its SEO value when they communicate, campaign and fundraise.
Scouting, scoring and ranking are our job. We do them independently, and we charge no fee for them.
When you want more
Beyond scoring and ranking, thedotgood helps your organization shine with dedicated services, which also help keep our funding independent. Our services fall into two categories. They are always optional and paid, and never a factor in any ranking.
- Be proactive. Take charge of your SGO profile and open it to every reader by removing our paywall. Carry thedotgood’s short independent view of your organization, and use your profile and your SGO badges as smart communication tools. All of this comes with the Leader membership.
- Optimize and build strength. Request thedotgood’s Accuracy Report to see how your SGO performs on its key publicly available data. Call for a Strategic Stress Test to assess your SGO’s strength and key assets, and where thedotgood sees room to build, drawing on our benchmarking experience and connections. Read thedotgood’s Quarterly SEO Report: it optimizes your SGO profile on thedotgood and helps you build a stronger search presence to grow your reputation.
How we think
Ratios hide more than they reveal. A program-expense ratio says little about management, people, sustainability or strategy. We look at the whole organization instead.
We don’t judge causes. Every cause deserves its champions. We ask whether an organization knows where it’s going, whether it has the people and skills to get there, and whether what it does matches what it says.
Where we look. Your website, LinkedIn and Instagram (sometimes Facebook), search results and, now and then, the press.
Three pillars, nine sections. Impact, innovation and governance, assessed across nine sections: ability to innovate; economic model and financial data; governance; human capital; impact information; knowledge management; outreach and communications; strategy and sustainability; transparency.
Why innovation weighs most. An intellectual choice, and a political one: the ability to reinvent is what lets an organization thrive over time, and it means size alone never buys the top spot. Read more: Innovation and Disruption: The Way of the Social Good Organization.
Questions: info@thedotgood.net · Full methodology: thedotgood.net/methodology
Related articles
Innovation and Disruption: The Way of the Social Good Organization
The Definition of an NGO: History, Non-Governmental Realities, and Current Limitations
In June 2012, The Global Journal commissioned an independent review of its own NGO ranking methodology — a candid, self-critical examination of how the Top 100 NGOs list was built, what it could and couldn’t claim, and where its real limitations sat.
About the 2013 Methodology Paper
Published in February 2013 and authored by Cecilia Cannon, then completing her PhD in Political Science/International Relations at Geneva’s Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), the paper situates the ranking within a broader shift: after decades of largely unquestioned goodwill, NGOs entered a period of genuine public scrutiny in the years following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, as their scale, credibility, and accountability came under closer examination.
What the ranking set out to do
The paper outlines four stated aims behind the ranking: to showcase the genuine diversity of organisations operating under the “NGO” label; to evaluate them comparatively, across geography and activity; to stimulate real debate around impact, innovation, and sustainability; and to track how the sector changes year over year.