About Us

Background

The Foreign Aid Certification and Network is the foremost social-value evaluation agency for non-profits, companies, and governments worldwide. Our aim is a world where private aid exceeds official development assistance, and social value in non-governmental organizations (NGOs), businesses, governments and academia is recognized and rewarded.

Our Mission

1. To create and administer a versatile, intelligent, and consistent social value certfication and rating model for NGOs, companies, and governments. We assess the Social Impact of organizations according to the NGO Star^TM Evaluation System.

A Foreign Aid Rating from D to AAA is issued to each applicant after the interview and rating process is complete. Organizations that receive a rating of BB or above are automatically declared “Foreign Aid Certified.”

2. To produce products including The Africa High-Impact 25^TM, a Rating Report e-Dossier of 25 High-Impact NGOs improving the lives of disadvantaged people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

3. To bring more resources and transparency to the social sector and to revolutionize international philanthropy by giving donors ownership and trust.

Our Motivation: Understanding the strengths and limitations of the NGO sector

There are millions of NGOs around the world. Even in the US, the non-profit sector is the third-largest contributor to the US GDP, surpassing the banking and technology/electronics sectors and the federal government (The McKinsey Quarterly 2001) . NGOs worldwide have the ability to provide custom tailored social services to disadvantaged groups in their community. They have the know-how and the mandate to provide services that the for-profit sector would not be willing or able to provide (e.g. free mobile health clinics to HIV patients in rural areas). NGOs have not only effected local change, but also international change; in 1997,  for example, one thousand NGOs across 60 countries successfully collaborated to urge governments to sign an international treaty banning the use of anti-personnel land mines. The leader of this NGO coalition, Jody Williams, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that same year.

While NGOs contribute so much to our community, they do have their limitations. Given their non-profit mandate, NGOs are often un-focused and/or fiscally unsustainable. Many of them experience high employee turnover, chronic under-investment in organizational infrastructure, and/or fly-by-night fever—which is characterized by numerous short term projects lacking follow-through.  These limitations, along with the occasional headline “1,000 fake NGOs working in Frontier province,” have made people worldwide skeptical of NGOs.

At Development International we know that Local Solutions Demand Local Knowledge. We believe that the NGO sector is doing much more good than bad. Our mission is to help separate the wheat from the chaff. It is our hope that the Foreign Aid Certification will give lay people, foundations, governments, the media, and NGOs themselves a more objective criteria for evaluating the organizations working internationally and at the grass-roots to improve the lives of disadvantaged people.

Foreign Aid Ratings is a proud member of:

 

Evaluation Interest Group

 

Next: Meet Our Team...