Charity watchdog Charity Intelligence Canada has given Gospel for Asia Canada a C- “based on the charity’s public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.” Beginning in 2012, CIC rated 453 charities operating in Canada on the following dimensions:
Charity Intelligence scored charities on answers to 26 questions covering strategy, activities, outputs, outcomes, and learning. We modeled the scorecard on charity sector resources developed by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, New Philanthropy Capital in the UK, Global Reporting Initiative, and Queen’s University Centre for Governance.
Charity Intelligence used a matrix of questions focusing on how well a charity reported:
1. The problem it addresses (Problem/Need)
2. The programs and services it provides to fix the need (Activities)
3. Quantifying its programs and services (Outputs)
4. The results it achieves (Outcomes)
5. The reliability and clarity of reporting (Quality)
6. The learning and changes made (Learning)
Ci scored charities in these six areas and covered seven indicators: timeliness, balance, consistency, clarity, reliability, forward-looking, and accuracy. The final score is a measure of the charity’s social reporting. This scoring does not assess the strategy, the quality of activities, the level of outputs or the impressiveness of outcomes. All it does is assess if enough information has been disclosed, such that any reader would have the opportunity to make those assessments.
I have been asserting since May of this year that Gospel for Asia has refused to disclose basic information regarding their operations and financial dealings. As this rating demonstrates, GFA doesn’t rate well on providing donors with sufficient information to assess the accuracy of GFA’s claims.
According to CIC, the C- rating puts GFA in the bottom 20% of organizations rated (for the sake of comparison, World Vision gets a B+).
Weeks have gone by and no one from Gospel for Asia has explained why GFA India auditors have not disclosed Canadian donations on government reports. In Canadian reports, GFA Canada disclosed that it sent $15 million dollars (CAD) to India but this is not disclosed as required on Indian reports. Donations from other countries (e.g., United States, Germany, Australia, etc.) are disclosed but the funds sent from Canada are not.