My Nonprofit Reviews
Mac B.
Review for St. Joseph's Indian School, Chamberlain, SD, USA
A few days ago, I received an extravagant packet from this organization, including return address stickers, notepads, a dreamcatcher keychain, and more. Never having heard of nor received an solicitations from this organization before, I considered making a donation until I started checking them out. The only info I could find was from the American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) (http://www.charitywatch.org/articles/not-accountable-not-commandment.html), which had info only from audited statements of 2004. These showed that St. Joseph's Indian School used roughly 34% of its budget on programs that directly benefited those whom it purports to help. Based on this info, AIP awarded them an F rating, noting that the majority of the organization's donations are used for fund-raising.
Armed with this knowledge, my decision to donate or not became quite easy, because I refuse to contribute to any organization that uses such a paltry portion of its donations to actually help people.
More Feedback
Was your donation impactful?
No
How likely is it that you would recommend that a friend donate to this group?
No
How likely are you to donate to this group again?
No
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2013
St. Joseph’s Indian School is accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA) regarding our finances. We believe it is a better use of time and resources to submit to a comprehensive review of our organization, rather than the limited assessment provided by the Better Business Bureau. The evaluation with COA includes visits to the school, interviews with staff and families of the children, and evaluates more than just our finances. More information can be found at www.stjo.org/bbb. In terms of contributions and each dollar raised, 71¢ goes to caring for the children and their needs and the remaining 29¢ is invested in donor development and fundraising. Please contact us at 1-800-341-2235 if you have any additional questions.
