Some of the Worst Charities in America 2024

To help you with your year-end giving decisions CharityWatch has put together this list of some of our lowest-rated charities. Ratings are based on how efficiently each charity raises donations from the public and how much each spends on overhead like fundraising and management relative to what it spends on programmatic activities. See Our Process for more information on how ratings are calculated.

In addition to financial metrics, CharityWatch also publishes qualitative information on a charity’s governance, transparency, and privacy policy, as well as notes from our analysts. The latter include issues of concern we identify during our evaluation of a nonprofit such as any pending lawsuits, insolvency, details about contracts with for-profit professional fundraising companies, related party transactions, excess benefit transactions, employment contracts, and more.

These F-Rated charities receive favorable ratings from nonprofit trade associations

The List

Front Range Equine Rescue , a Florida-based charity, spent only 39% of its cash expenses on its programs in 2022, earning it a D rating for financial efficiency on CharityWatch’s A+ to F rating scale. In addition to not operating very efficiently with respect to overhead spending, any cash donation you send to the charity now may not be used for many years. CharityWatch downgraded Front Range Equine Rescue’s rating from a D to an F due to the amount of assets the charity holds in reserve. Based on our analysis of its fiscal year ended 12/31/2022 audited financial statements and IRS tax Form 990, Front Range Equine Rescue could continue to operate at 2022 spending levels for 7.3 years without raising another penny of revenue.

Dreamchaser PMU Horse Rescue and Rehabilitation, a Missouri-based charity, spent only 33% of its cash expenses on its programs in 2022 and spent $62 to raise each $100 in cash contributions from its donors. These two factors earned it an F rating from CharityWatch on our A+ to F rating scale. The charity reports in its 2022 tax filing that it lacks basic governance policies related to conflicts of interest, whistleblowers, and document destruction and retention, thus failing CharityWatch’s governance benchmarks as well.

View CharityWatch’s List of Top-Rated Animal Charities

Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation does not encompass the entire Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, but is rather its separately incorporated, national 501(c)(3) public charity arm. Its financial statements do not include the financial activities of its locally organized chapters or grassroots organizations. With this in mind, the Foundation spent only 47% of its cash expenses on its programs in fiscal 2023, as computed by CharityWatch upon our analysis of its IRS tax Form 990 and audited financial statements for that year. In addition to earning a D rating on our A+ to F rating scale for low financial efficiency, CharityWatch has expressed other concerns about the organization such as its lack of adequate governance and its involvement in multiple lawsuits.

Children’s Cancer Research Fund, a Minnesota-based charity, spent only 47% of its cash expenses on its programs in 2022, and it cost the charity $45 to raise each $100 in cash support, earning it a D rating from CharityWatch on our A+ to F rating scale. The charity reported just over $4 million in fundraising expenses that year, and another $4.4 million in Joint Costs, which is the accounting term used to describe activities that include both educational and fundraising components such as direct mail or telemarketing. It raised just over $18.6 million in cash contributions that year, according to CharityWatch’s analysis of its audited financial statements and IRS tax Form 990.

View CharityWatch’s List of Top-Rated Cancer Charities

Committee For Missing Children, a Georgia-based charity, spent only 9% of its cash expenses on its programs in fiscal 2023 and a whopping 91% on overhead. It cost the charity $83 to raise each $100 of cash support. The charity published a “Going Concern” audit for its fiscal year-ended 8/31/2023, stating in an audit note that if its net assets were to continue to decrease in 2024, its “cash could be at risk of being extinguished.” The Committee For Missing Children also reports in its audit that it contracts with certain professional fundraising companies to solicit funds, the majority of which are compensated based on percentages of contributions collected. CharityWatch’s analysis of the charity’s audit and tax filing for the same fiscal period determined that the total portion of “Net Fundraising” received by the Committee averaged only 16% of aggregate revenues collected by 4 professional fundraising companies that solicited funds on its behalf.

Feed The Children is a charity whose former leader appears on CharityWatch’s Charity Hall of Shame for the numerous scandals that took place under his leadership. While the charity is now operated by different management, its financial efficiency has improved very little over the years. CharityWatch analyzed Feed The Children’s consolidated audited financial statements and IRS tax Form 990 for its fiscal year ended June 30, 2023 and determined that it spent only 41% of its cash expenses on its programs, earning it a D rating on CharityWatch’s A+ to F rating scale. CharityWatch’s evaluation of the organization’s financial reporting identified a business transaction between the charity and a board member; Feed The Children paid $270,000 to Jordan Associates for “Brand and marketing services.” Jordan Associates is a company in which a Feed The Children board member owns a 35% interest, according to Schedule L of the charity’s fiscal 2023 tax filing.

Learn Why The Government Cannot Protect You From Bad Charities

Kars4Kids, a New Jersey-based charity known for its popular jingle “1-877-Kars4Kids,” has been criticized by CharityWatch and others for its marketing and fundraising practices which are not always transparent about the charity’s true mission. A significant portion of Kars4Kids’ program spending each year consists of grants it makes to its related organization, Oorah, whose focus is on operating programs for Jewish Youth in specific geographic regions, not on helping children in need more generally. In fiscal 2023 Kars4Kids reports granting more than $34 million in cash to Oorah. CharityWatch analyzed Oorah’s fiscal 2023 tax filing and identified $16.5 million in grants made to “The Middle East and North Africa” to “promote religious education.” In addition to concerns over its marketing and fundraising practices, Kars4Kids does not raise and spend its donations very efficiently. Based on CharityWatch’s analysis of its 2023 consolidated audited financial statements and IRS tax Form 990, we determined that it spent only 41% of its total expenses on its programs that year, which included its grants to Oorah. In addition, it cost the charity $48 to raise each $100 in cash support. These two factors earned it an overall CharityWatch rating of D on our A+ to F rating scale.

St. Joseph’s Indian School is considered a “church” under IRS rules and is therefore exempt from mandatory disclosure of its financial statements to the public. In our article, “St. Joseph’s Indian School: 25 Years of No Accountability,” CharityWatch details our efforts over more than two decades of attempting to discern how efficiently this popular charity operates and how it uses its donations. (We mailed our first request for financials to the charity in 1997). Its official CharityWatch rating is currently a “?” which indicates that we have specific concerns about its financial reporting but are unable to rate it due to lack of information. Many years ago an individual who donated to St. Joseph’s Indian School was able to obtain a copy of the charity’s fiscal 2004 audited financial statements and mail them to CharityWatch. Based on our analysis of this document we assigned the charity an F rating at that time on our A+ to F rating scale for its low program spending and high fundraising costs. Though we have been unable to obtain a copy of its independent audited financial statements since that time, a marketing document that the charity labels as a “Financial Report” is formatted similarly to the one we analyzed in conjunction with its audit back in 2004. As explained in our above cited article, we suspect that the charity continues to spend significant portions of its annual budget on fundraising and promotion based on our review of this document.

TREA Senior Citizens League, a Virginia-based social welfare nonprofit, spent only 30% of its cash budget on programs in 2023, according to CharityWatch’s analysis of its audited financial statements and IRS tax Form 990 of the same year. The nonprofit spent $52 to raise each $100 in cash support. While 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofits differ from 501(c)(3) public charities in some important ways, spending 70% of all expenses on overhead still warrants a failing grade in the opinion of CharityWatch. In addition, TREA Senior Citizens League fails CharityWatch’s governance and transparency benchmarks. The charity even states in Schedule O of its tax filing that it “does not make its governing documents, conflict of interest policy, or financial statements available to the public.

For The Troops, a California-based charity, spent only 36% of its cash budget on its programs in 2022 and the remaining 64% on overhead. It cost the charity $74 to raise each $100 in cash donations that year. These two factors earned it an F rating on CharityWatch’s A+ to F rating scale. In addition, it failed CharityWatch’s governance and transparency benchmarks, in part for not having an independent audit of its finances conducted that year, and in part for not having a conflict of interest policy. CharityWatch analysts also noted that 2 of the charity’s 7 board members are reported in the charity’s tax filing as having a family relationship. Of the 2 board members cited, 1 is reported as also being an officer of the charity in the role of President.

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