Make-A-Wish® New Jersey Earns Coveted 4-Star Rating From Charity Navigator
MONROE TOWNSHIP, NJ – Make-A-Wish New Jersey continues to prove its strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency, and therefore has once again earned a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent charity evaluator.
Since 2002, using objective analysis, Charity Navigator has awarded only the most fiscally responsible organizations a 4-star rating. In 2011, Charity Navigator added 17 metrics, focused on governance and ethical practices as well as measures of openness, to its ratings methodology. These Accountability & Transparency metrics, which account for 50 percent of a charity’s overall rating, reveal which charities operate in accordance with industry best practices and whether they are open with their donors and stakeholders. On June 1, 2016, Charity Navigator upgraded its methodology for rating each charity’s’ financial health. These enhancements further substantiate the financial health of recognized 4- star charities.
“Make-A-Wish New Jersey’s exceptional 4-star rating sets it apart from its peers and demonstrates its trustworthiness to the public,” according to Michael Thatcher, President & CEO of Charity Navigator. “Only a quarter of charities rated by Charity Navigator receive the distinction of our 4-star rating. This adds Make-A-Wish New Jersey to a preeminent group of charities working to overcome our world’s most pressing challenges. Based on its 4-star rating, people can trust that their donations are going to a financially responsible and ethical charity when they decide to support Make-A-Wish New Jersey.”
Make-A-Wish New Jersey was founded in 1983 and has granted more than 11,000 wishes to children in every county, town and municipality of the Garden State. Their home is in Monroe Township, at the Samuel & Josephine Plumeri Wishing Place. Opening its doors in December 2011, the Wishing Place is a magical and whimsical wish-granting castle, and the only one of its kind. It provides an environment that is free of limitations, confinement, and stress. It stimulates the imagination and reveals to children with critical illnesses the imaginative possibilities of a wish.
“Donor trust is essential to achieving our mission of granting wishes to children with critical illnesses,” shared Tom Weatherall, President & CEO of Make-A-Wish New Jersey. “It is important that our supporters know how their gift is spent. Our four-star Charity Navigator rating is just one way we demonstrate our excellent governance and highest priority in our board and staff’s fiduciary responsibilities to our supporters.”
In the fight against a critical illness, a wish serves as a catalyst for renewed strength and encouragement for every child and family. A wish helps kids look past their limitations, families overcome anxiety and entire communities experience joy.
Despite the global pandemic, life-changing wishes continue to be granted daily in New Jersey, across the country and around the world. The impact of a wish and the mission and vision of Make-A-Wish have not wavered, because hope cannot – and will not – be cancelled.
The rating for Make-A-Wish New Jersey, and other information about charitable giving, are available on www.charitynavigator.org. More detailed information about Make-A-Wish New Jersey is available to Charity Navigator site visitors who become registered users, another free service.
For more information about Make-A-Wish New Jersey and how you can play a key role in creating hope for the future, visit nj.wish.org.