Comparison of Intelligent Philanthropy, Guidestar, and Charity Navigator.
The key distinction is Guidestar and Charity Navigator rely on 2-year old IRS data whereas Intelligent Philanthropy is up-to-date, comprehensive, focused on organizational effectiveness, and more user-friendly. See further explanation below.
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FEATURES
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Intelligent Philanthropy
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Guidestar
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Charity Navigator
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FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
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3 - 4 year old Financials
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✔
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$1500 Premium
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✔
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1 1/2 - 2 year old Financials
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✔
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✔
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✔
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Current Financials
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✔
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Current Debt Level
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✔
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Current Cash Reserves
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✔
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SUSTAINABILITY
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3-Year Total Funding Trend
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✔
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3-Year Number of Donors Trend
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✔
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Donor Retention Rate
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✔
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# of Donors Listed By Gift Size
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✔
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LEADERSHIP
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CEO Name
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✔
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✔
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✔
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Board Chairperson
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✔
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✔
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✔
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Board Members
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✔
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Annual Budget % Funded by Board
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✔
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Highest Paid Staff Members
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$1500 Premium
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✔
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Number of Staff
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✔
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✔
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Number of Volunteers
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✔
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✔
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Staff Retention Rate
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✔
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3-Year Staffing Level Trend
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✔
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STRATEGY
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Mission Statement
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List of Key Partners
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1-5 Year Plan
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Recent Program Improvement
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✔
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S.W.O.T. Self-Analysis
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✔
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IMPACT
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Program Results
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✔
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3-Year Trend in # of People Served
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Exemplary Project Description
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✔
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How Results Are Tracked
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WEBSITE FUNCTIONALITY
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Nonprofit Website Links
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Ad-Free Website
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Great Nonprofits Integrated Reviews
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✔
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✔
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Donation Processing
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✔
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✔
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Search by Keyword, Name, or Location
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✔
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✔
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✔
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Search by Topic
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Limited
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Search by People or Nations Served
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✔
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Easy to print and save 2-page PDF format
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✔
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Adds nonprofits in 30-60 days of request
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✔
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Intelligent Philanthropy VS. Guidestar VS. Charity Navigator
How does Intelligent Philanthropy compare to Guidestar and Charity Navigator? Great question. Although Excellence In Giving uses and greatly appreciates the contribution of both platforms, there was room to improve. Since Excellence In Giving has advised clients on over $120 million worth of grants in the last 10 years, we require more up-to-date, comprehensive information focused on organizational effectiveness. Excellence In Giving needs current data on financials and leadership and performance trendlines for impact and sustainability. Excellence In Giving needs deeper insight into organizational strengths and weaknesses and strategy. That is why Excellence In Giving created Intelligent Philanthropy.
Financial Information
Guidestar and Charity Navigator essentially reformat IRS data from Form 990s that are about 1.5 to 2 years old whereas Intelligent Philanthropy provides you up-to-date financials including a current year budget. Using Guidestar or Charity Navigator to make decisions about your giving would be the equivalent of making investment decisions based on 2-year old annual reports. No investor would do that.
|
FEATURES
|
Intelligent Philanthropy
|
Guidestar
|
Charity Navigator
|
|
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
|
|||
|
3 - 4 year old Financials
|
✔
|
$1500 Premium
|
✔
|
|
1 1/2 - 2 year old Financials
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✔
|
✔
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✔
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|
Current Financials
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✔
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|
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|
Current Debt Level
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✔
|
|
|
|
Current Cash Reserves
|
✔
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|
|
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SUSTAINABILITY
|
|||
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3-Year Total Funding Trend
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✔
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3-Year Number of Donors Trend
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✔
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Donor Retention Rate
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✔
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# of Donors Listed By Gift Size
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✔
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Leadership Information
All 3 charity evaluators name the board chairperson and CEO, but only Guidestar and Intelligent Philanthropy list the number of staff and volunteers. Since Guidestar's information is extracted from Form 990s, they are able to provide names of board members and a few major program descriptions. If you happen to know one of the board members, this information can be valuable. If you want to see compensation levels for top staff members and names of officers, you will pay $1,500 for a premium membership on Guidestar. Charity Navigator actually provides the highest paid staff members as part of their free subscription. However, only Intelligent Philanthropy provides a 3-year rate of growth or decline in staffing levels and calculates the annual staff turnover rate.
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FEATURES
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Intelligent Philanthropy
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Guidestar
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Charity Navigator
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LEADERSHIP
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|||
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CEO Name
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✔
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✔
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✔
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Board Chairperson
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✔
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✔
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✔
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Board Members
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✔
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Annual Budget % Funded by Board
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✔
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Highest Paid Staff Members
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$1500 Premium
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✔
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Number of Staff
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✔
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✔
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Number of Volunteers
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✔
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✔
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Staff Retention Rate
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✔
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3-Year Staffing Level Trend
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✔
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Strategy and Impact
Neither Guidestar nor Charity Navigator provide information on organizational impact or strategy. You won't get a snapshot of an organization's best project or a summary of results with a corresponding explanation of how those results are tracked. Only nonprofit Analytical Overviews from Intelligent Philanthropy provide Program Results, 3-year trends in People Served, key partners, and a near-term strategic plan.
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FEATURES
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Intelligent Philanthropy
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Guidestar
|
Charity Navigator
|
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STRATEGY
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|||
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Mission Statement
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✔
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✔
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✔
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List of Key Partners
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✔
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1-5 Year Plan
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✔
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|
|
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Recent Program Improvement
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✔
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S.W.O.T. Self-Analysis
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✔
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IMPACT
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Program Results
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✔
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3-Year Trend in # of People Served
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✔
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Exemplary Project Description
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✔
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How Results Are Tracked
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✔
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Functionality
Intelligent Philanthropy is more functional and user-friendly than either Guidestar or Charity Navigator. All organizational information is provided in a concise 2-page PDF that is good for printing or saving to your local hard drive. When you click on the "printer friendly" button on Guidestar, you get a document with a bunch of prefabricated sections. The organization’s contact information and IRS registered categories are filled in at the top, but half of the other sections are either blank or require a $1,500 premium membership to access. The printer-friendly document always exceeds 2 pages because of the wasted space so you cannot print one page back and front and take it with you.
In contrast, Intelligent Philanthropy’s nonprofit Analytical Overviews summarize 150 data points in 2 pages for ease of printing and viewing. In the financial and 3-year trend sections, nonprofit Analytical Overviews even highlight declining trends and budget shortfalls in red font. In a glance, you can tell where the organization is in decline and how many of the last 3 years they have ended in the red.
The Intelligent Philanthropy search capabilities make it a superior user experience. Using the search sidebar, you can explore the database of organizations by topic of interest, by nations served, by type of people served, by HQ location in the USA, by organization name, or by the name of an organization's leader. This far exceeds the advanced search capabilities of Guidestar or Charity Navigator that only include searches by keyword, organization name, HQ location in the USA, or other enigmatic IRS codes.
The Intelligent Philanthropy platform adds new nonprofits to the database within 30-60 days of a user’s request. Although Guidestar already has some level of information on every IRS-exempt charity, Charity Navigator requires a $1,000 donation to sponsor the rating of a new organization!
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FEATURES
|
Intelligent
Philanthropy
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Guidestar
|
Charity
Navigator
|
|
WEBSITE FUNCTIONALITY
|
|||
|
Nonprofit Website Links
|
✔
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Ad-Free Website
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
|
Great Nonprofits Integrated Reviews
|
|
✔
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✔
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|
Donation Processing
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|
✔
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✔
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Search by Keyword, Name, or Location
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✔
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✔
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✔
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Search by Topic
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✔
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Limited
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Search by People or Nations Served
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✔
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Easy print & save 2-page PDF format
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✔
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Adds nonprofits in 30-60 days of request
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✔
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Conclusion
In essence, the platforms do not compare. Intelligent Philanthropy provides more relevant data on organizational infrastructure, health, and impact than any other platform out there.
For all these reasons, we believe Intelligent Philanthropy is a superior product that is worth the small annual fee to become an all-access user. Intelligent Philanthropy is up-to-date, comprehensive, focused on organizational effectiveness, and more user-friendly.
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