Impact Recommendations
Goodnation is committed to helping donors find and fund the most high-performing nonprofits serving the communities they care about.
Nonprofit Selection
Goodnation’s nonprofit partners fall under more than 35 cause areas, enabling donors to find a curated selection of the most impactful organizations addressing the issues that matter most to them. Cause areas include COVID-19 response, education, women and girls, environment, arts, health, homelessness, civic engagement, racial justice and more.
To ensure that we recommend organizations that demonstrate financial health, responsible stewardship of donations and a proven track record of impact, Goodnation gathers data from professional foundations, nonprofits, databases and publicly filed tax documents to score nonprofits on the following categories:
Foundation support
The top 10 foundations by size in the US spend over $1B annually on research, due diligence and ongoing monitoring of nonprofit grantees; Goodnation is built on this substantial body of work. Each nonprofit must have at least one active grant from a professional foundation, which indicates that the nonprofit has passed a careful review process.
Financial health
We consider:
Program expense and revenue growth year over year
Budget surplus and balanced budgets
Positive assets to liabilities ratio
Stable liquidity
Governance
We consider:
Board composition
Compliant and following best practices
Prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion
Nonprofits who pass our scoring process are invited to submit information directly to Goodnation on their mission, leadership, impact and what sets their work apart.
Nonprofits interested in joining us can learn more and apply here.
Foundation partners include:
All Hands and Hearts
FoodCorps
Power of Two
Root Capitol
Smartfunds
Goodnation donors gain access to Smartfunds, high-impact giving opportunities built to effect change across an issue area with one single gift. With a single gift to a Goodnation Smartfund, you’ll be able to fund exemplary direct service, empower organizations to be more effective and work to scale solutions. Each gift will turn into a diversified set of strategic grants that help directly and move the needle overall.
Why fund this way?
Our experience in philanthropy advising has taught us that when donors give, they are generally compelled by the immediacy of issues affecting communities today. That’s why the majority of every dollar into a Goodnation Smartfund goes out to direct service providers whose work will alleviate suffering and provide for those in need today.
However, we also know that donors are seeking long term change, which is why we also dedicate a portion of each Smartfund gift to leveraging the efforts of direct service providers by funding groups working to spread the solutions they engineer across communities and to enshrine them in public policy.
Every dollar given in this way will generate both a significant immediate impact, and results that grow over time.
How Smartfunds create impact
Through a portfolio approach, your gift to a Smartfund turns into a diversified set of strategic grants that directly help those in need while also addressing the underlying issues that require long term strategies to solve. You also join a community of donors who, like you, care deeply about the issue at hand. By pooling the resources of this community, together we can create a greater impact.
When you give to a Smartfund, you receive regular impact reports detailing the services provided and goals met as a result of your Smartfund gift.
5% of gifts to Smartfunds are held at the Goodnation Foundation to support research, oversight and reporting.
CitySquash
Extreme Kids and Crew
Echoing Green
Hot Bread Kitchen