Updating Certain Rating Metrics
Think you’re missing credit for a policy or information already available on your website? Some rating metrics are based solely on what your nonprofit reports on its IRS Form 990. Learn what can be updated through your website and what requires a new or amended 990 filed with the IRS.
Need to confirm that you have a specific policy in place that you are not currently getting credit for in your rating? Is your 990 posted on your website, but you are not getting credit for that in your rating? Is there a specific policy you have that is noted as missing? Some of our metrics are based solely on what you report on the IRS Form 990 and cannot be updated without a new or amended 990 filed with the IRS.
For example, the following metrics are based solely on what the nonprofit reports on their 990 and can only be updated in our rating once a new or amended 990 is filed with the IRS. Here are a few of the metrics that are based on what is reported on the Form 990:
– Tax form (IRS 990) disclosed on the nonprofit’s website: Part 6, line 18 on the Form 990
– Tax form (IRS 990) submitted to the board before filing: Page 6, line 11a on the Form 990
– Conflict of Interest policy: Page 6, line 12a on the Form 990
– Whistleblower policy: Page 6, line 13 on the Form 990
– Records Retention policy: Page 6, line 14 on the Form 990
– Documents Board Meeting Minutes: Page 6, line 8 on the Form 990
To have the metrics based on the Form 990 updated, you need to complete and submit a new or amended Form 990 to the IRS. An amended Form 990 is a version of the 990 in which you are making a correction to a previously filed return. Although non-amended (new) 990s cannot be submitted to Charity Navigator directly (we must receive those from the IRS), you can submit an amended 990 to us directly via our Nonprofit Portal.
Amended 990s are manually processed in approximately 3-4 months, and new 990s are received and processed on a rolling basis. Rating updates cannot be individually expedited. Please monitor your rating page on charitynavigator.org to see when amended or new 990 data is processed, according to our Ratings Release Schedule.
Below is a list of all assessment areas and the sources we use to compile them:
| Beacon | Evaluation Area | Data source | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accountability & Finance | Financial Health | Form 990 | See metric description for 990 line items |
| Accountability | Form 990 | See metric description for 990 line items | |
| Impact & Measurement | Impact | Nonprofit Portal | Impact (not required until 2027) |
| Measurement | Nonprofit Portal | Measuring Outcomes | |
| Learning | Nonprofit Portal | Measuring Outcomes, Constituent Feedback | |
| Leadership & Planning | Leadership | Nonprofit Portal | Leadership & Adaptability Assessment |
| Program Planning | Nonprofit Portal | Measuring Outcomes | |
| Governance | Form 990, Nonprofit Portal | Leadership & Adaptability Assessment, See metric description for 990 line items | |
| Culture & Compensation | Workplace Policies | Form 990, Nonprofit Portal | Workplace Policies, See metric description for 990 line items |
| Compensation Practices | Form 990, Nonprofit Portal | Workplace Policies, See metric description for 990 line items |