Which charities were listed on CharityWatch’s full Top-Rated list in 2024 and what were their Program % and Cost-to-Raise-$100 figures?
Executive summary
CharityWatch’s public materials make clear what qualifies a charity as “Top-Rated” — generally a Program % of 75% or higher and a Cost to Raise $100 of $25 or less — but CharityWatch’s full, per-organization Top-Rated list and the detailed Program % and Cost-to-Raise-$100 figures for every entry are behind its detailed reports or require visiting the Top-Rated page for each charity [1] [2] [3]. The sources provided do name a handful of organizations as Top-Rated or highly efficient, but do not supply a single, complete 2024 roster with the exact Program % and Cost-to-Raise-$100 for each charity in a single accessible list in the material provided here [4] [5] [6] [3].
1. CharityWatch’s threshold: what “Top-Rated” means and why numbers matter
CharityWatch states that groups included on its Top-Rated list generally spend 75% or more of their budgets on programs and spend $25 or less to raise $100 in public support — thresholds that drive inclusion and that CharityWatch calculates after in-depth adjustments, following a “follow the cash” approach that typically excludes inflated in-kind valuations [1] [7] [2]. CharityWatch explains its Cost to Raise metric as the dollars spent to raise each $100 of contributions and emphasizes its own adjustments to audit and tax-report figures to reach those end calculations [7].
2. Names available in the reporting and partial figures
The reporting provided here identifies certain organizations as Top-Rated or highly efficient: CharityWatch lists Folds of Honor and PetSmart Charities among “just a few” Top-Rated examples in a 2024 holiday post (naming without full numeric detail) [4]. Save the Children is presented with an A- from CharityWatch and is reported to have 84% of expenditures directed to program services in 2024 in its own materials, a figure CharityWatch cites on external charity pages but which is not the CharityWatch-adjusted Program % shown in a consolidated CharityWatch Top-Rated table in the sources provided [6]. Direct Relief is noted as having an A+ from CharityWatch in an external press release, but the CharityWatch source set here does not include Direct Relief’s CharityWatch-calculated Program % or Cost-to-Raise-$100 in a single, verifiable CharityWatch list accessible in these documents [5].
3. Why the full roster and precise CharityWatch ratios aren’t deliverable from the provided sources
CharityWatch’s site and blog describe processes and criteria and list top-rated charities, but the searchable CharityWatch reports and the full Top-Rated list with CharityWatch’s adjusted Program % and Cost-to-Raise calculations for each charity are behind individual charity report pages that require navigating the site (and in some cases joining) to view the detailed rating pages; the material provided here does not compile a single, complete 2024 Top-Rated roster with every charity’s final CharityWatch Program % and Cost-to-Raise-$100 figure [3] [1] [2]. CharityWatch also documents the adjustments they make — for example excluding overvalued in-kind gifts — which means charity self-reported program percentages (such as those listed on an organization’s own site) may differ from CharityWatch’s adjusted figures [7] [8].
4. Methodological caveats and differing perspectives
CharityWatch’s assertive adjustments and reclassifications are central to its ratings but have been the subject of commentary that philanthropic accounting is “slippery” and that some reclassifications (e.g., advocacy in fundraising) can alter appearance of fundraising costs — observations CharityWatch itself highlights and that critics have raised [9] [7]. CharityWatch defends its approach by following GAAP and excluding related-party and inflated in-kind values, yet alternative charity-rating organizations may report different program and fundraising ratios because they accept charities’ reported numbers or use different transparency thresholds [7] [10].
Conclusion: what can be stated, and where to go next
Based on the available source set, CharityWatch’s Top-Rated criteria and several named examples (Folds of Honor, PetSmart Charities, Save the Children, Direct Relief) are documented, and CharityWatch’s definition of Program % ≥75% and Cost-to-Raise-$100 ≤$25 is explicit [1] [4] [6] [5] [2], but the complete 2024 Top-Rated list with CharityWatch’s final, adjusted Program % and Cost-to-Raise-$100 figures for each charity is not present in the documents provided here — obtaining that authoritative roster and each charity’s CharityWatch-calculated ratios requires consulting CharityWatch’s Top-Rated page and individual charity reports on CharityWatch.org [3] [1].