How do Tunnel to Towers' program expense ratios compare to peer charities?
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Executive summary
Tunnel to Towers reports and independent charity analysts show the foundation directs roughly 90–93% of its budget to programs, placing it well above many large U.S. charities on the program-expense metric; CharityWatch and the foundation itself both report a 93% program-spend figure while a tax-return-based calculation shows 90.4% for 2023 [1] [2] [3]. Differences among those numbers are mainly methodological — cash-only vs. totals that include in-kind items and varying fiscal years — and ratings from Charity Navigator and CharityWatch indicate Tunnel to Towers outperforms many peers on the measure that donors often use to judge efficiency [4] [2].
1. Tunnel to Towers’ headline ratio: what the charity and watchdogs say
Tunnel to Towers publicly states a program-service percentage averaging 93 cents of every dollar to programs and emphasizes low fundraising and administrative costs, a claim repeated on its financials page and fact sheet [1] [5]. CharityWatch independently corroborates that figure, awarding Tunnel to Towers an A+ and citing that the foundation spent 93% of its cash expenses on programs in its analysis of audited statements and IRS filings [2] [6]. A separate calculation by Charities for Vets using the 2023 tax return produces a slightly lower but still strong 90.4% program share — showing that year-to-year accounting and inclusion rules can shift the headline number by a few percentage points [3].
2. Why reported ratios differ: accounting choices and “cash vs. in-kind” treatment
Analysts explicitly warn that program percentages depend on how non-cash donations and certain line items are treated; CharityWatch excludes in-kind expenses from its program percent calculations to create a cash-focused metric, which it says yields Tunnel to Towers’ 93% program ratio for the period it analyzed [2]. The foundation’s own presentations use a similar 93% figure but do not always spell out every accounting adjustment in public summaries, and third-party calculators that rely strictly on the Form 990 may show 90.4% or other adjacent results depending on the fiscal year and which expenses are categorized as program versus overhead [1] [3]. That methodological variance is the primary reason small discrepancies exist among reputable sources.
3. How that compares to peers and large national charities
Independent ratings place Tunnel to Towers above many charities on program expense ratios and overall transparency: CharityWatch’s A+ and Charity Navigator’s repeated four-star evaluation signal that Tunnel to Towers “outperforms most other charities in America,” according to a Charity Navigator release cited by the foundation [2] [4]. By contrast, some large veterans and veterans‑adjacent charities have program ratios closer to 70–75% in certain years; an online forum post cited Wounded Warrior Project as an example of a larger charity with roughly 70.5% to programs in one recent fiscal snapshot, illustrating how Tunnel to Towers’ 90%+ program share sits above many big-budget peers [7]. The caveat: peer comparisons require consistent methodology and contemporaneous fiscal years, which the available sources do not uniformly provide.
4. Ratings, donor signals, and what the numbers don’t show
Third-party ratings and a high program percentage are useful donor signals, and Tunnel to Towers’ repeated four-star Charity Navigator rating and CharityWatch top grade reinforce the program-ratio picture [4] [2]. However, program percentage alone does not measure impact per dollar, the sustainability of programs, or governance nuances; CharityWatch notes its process and exclusions (like in-kind treatment), and Charity Navigator’s metrics also incorporate accountability and transparency beyond raw program spend [2] [8]. The sources provided do not include a comprehensive peer-average table across sectors, so while Tunnel to Towers scores high on program ratio relative to many charities, a precise percentile rank against all U.S. charities cannot be computed from the available reporting [8] [2].
5. Bottom line — where Tunnel to Towers stands on efficiency metrics
Based on the foundation’s disclosures and independent watchdog analyses, Tunnel to Towers consistently directs roughly 90–93% of its budget to programs — a level that rates well above many large national charities and earns top grades from CharityWatch and Charity Navigator — but small differences between sources are driven by accounting choices and fiscal-year snapshots rather than substantive disagreements about the organization’s operational emphasis [1] [2] [3] [4].