4Star 125x125SAN JOSE, CALIF. – February 13, 2017 – RAFT – Resource Area for Teaching, the leading solution center helping educators to transform a child’s learning experience through hands-on education, is proud to announce earning the coveted 4-star rating for demonstrating strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency for another successive year

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, we upgraded our methodology for rating each charity’s’ financial health with CN 2.1. These enhancements further substantiates the financial health of our four star charities.

“RAFT’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 RAFT 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 RAFT.”

“It’s important our donors trust that we’re using their donations wisely to accomplish dynamic resources for teachers and hands-on education,” said Grainger Marburg, RAFT CEO.  “Our 4-star Charity Navigator rating demonstrates to our supporters our good governance and financial accountability.”

RAFT’s rating and other information about charitable giving are available www.charitynavigator.org.   More-detailed information about RAFT’s rating is available to Charity Navigator site visitors who become registered users, a free service.

About Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator, www.charitynavigator.org, is the largest charity evaluator in America and its website attracts more visitors than all other charity rating groups combined. The organization helps guide intelligent giving by evaluating the Financial Health and Accountability & Transparency of more than 8,000 charities. Charity Navigator accepts no advertising or donations from the organizations it evaluates, ensuring unbiased evaluations, nor does it charge the public for this trusted data. As a result, Charity Navigator, a 501 (c) (3) public charity itself, depends on support from individuals, corporations and foundations that believe it provides a much-needed service to America’s charitable givers. Charity Navigator, can be reached directly by telephone at (201) 818-1288, or by mail at 139 Harristown Road, Suite 101, Glen Rock, N.J., 07452. 

About RAFT (Resource Area For Teaching)
RAFT – Resource Area For Teaching is a non-profit, which helps educators transform a child’s learning experience through hands on education to one that inspires the joy and discovery of learning. Founded in 1994, RAFT focuses on providing educators of all types – classroom teachers, after school educators, home-school educators, scout leaders, early care and education professionals – with effective, engaging, affordable hands-on learning resources aligned to national curriculum standards. RAFT, believes the best way to spark a love of learning for the next generation of thinkers, innovators, problem-solvers, and creators is through hands-on learning. RAFT supports some 7,000 educators in enriching and improving the education of more than 500,000 students young year.

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