Acton highly ranked on Charity Navigator
One of America’s most significant charity evaluators, Charity Navigator, recently gave the Acton Institute a highly favorable ranking. From its June 2016 report, see the ranking breakdown:
- Financial Health: 99.97
- Accountability/Transparency: 100
- Overall: 99.97
The organization gave Acton 4 stars, its highest rating, meaning that the institute “[e]xceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its cause.” Acton is leading the free-market movement in terms of Charity Navigator metrics.
Charity Navigator is an independent, nonprofit organization that helps donors evaluate whether their gifts to charities and nonprofits are being used effectively and appropriately. From its website:
“Founded in 2001, Charity Navigator has become the nation’s largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. In our quest to help donors, our team of professional analysts has examined tens of thousands of non-profit financial documents. We’ve used this knowledge to develop an unbiased, objective, numbers-based rating system to assess over 8,000 of America’s best-known and some lesser known, but worthy, charities.”
“The organization gave Acton 4 stars, its highest rating, meaning that the institute “[e]xceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its cause.”
Charity Navigator receives no funds or support from the organizations it evaluates, ensuring that the data are unbiased. Rather than relying on self-reporting from organizations, Charity Navigator collects data from the organization’s website and IRS form 990. While evaluating all nonprofit organizations, Charity Navigator asks two important questions, “Does the charity follow good governance and ethical best practices?” and “Does the charity make it easy for donors to find critical information about the organization?”
From Our Conference Participants
The University surpassed all of my expectations. I am talking about my experience to anyone who will listen. It was professional, friendly, informative and challenging. The staff went above and beyond to see that my time there was well spent.
—Pete S.
Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvannia
[Acton University] was a most inspiring conference, which opened my mind to so many new avenues. I shall be blogging away and preaching with a renewed emphasis.
—Ed T., Pembury
United Kingdom
Acton updating and redesigning website
The past few years have represented a truly momentous period for the Acton Institute’s online outreach, with record-high traffic of 2 million visitors in 2015 to the Acton website and a dramatic growth of virtually every aspect of the organization’s digital presence. Because of this, Acton has been engaged in a major technical upgrade and redesign of its main site, Acton.org. Acton will upgrade the web publishing system— the actual tool that allows the organization to publish articles, videos and event registration— providing the latest data security for users.
Acton has seen its mobile traffic outpace even the tremendous growth of worldwide usage. In the last few years, mobile use has exploded around the globe—particularly in emerging economies, as devices are relatively easy to manufacture and cheap to purchase. The new website will be more mobile-responsive, allowing people to engage with Acton using their smartphones.
We began this process in mid-2015 with a deep study of how Acton.org users interact with the site, which now numbers more than 4,000 unique pages. When the site launches before the end of 2016, there will be a platform that showcases the content from Acton experts in a much more engaging, easyto-use way. Navigation will be simplified, and the pages will have a brighter, more graphic look.
As a think tank, Acton relies on a robust and userfriendly digital capability. With a new and improved website, the organization will be able to get its work to an even larger global audience. With followers all over the world, Acton also seeks to introduce livestreaming of events so individuals outside West Michigan can enjoy our offerings in real time.
Summer 2016 intern program concludes
During the summer of 2016, twelve interns spent eight weeks at the institute, including two international students, two Koch fellows, one Koch intern, and one Liberty at Work associate. Every year interns provide invaluable service to Acton’s mission. Blog readers were treated to several commentaries, analyses, and blog posts from interns. The tasks and odd jobs interns perform allow Acton’s biggest event, Acton University, to run smoothly year after year.
The goal of the internship program is to help young men and women gain professional experience, absorb the environment of a think tank and increase their understanding of the relationship between religion and liberty. “I hope to be able to share the notions and concepts I learned [at Acton] with the members of Hungarian and European society,” says intern Csongor Patai, a student at Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary. “Although this internship came to an end quickly, this new knowledge will keep influencing the way I think about public policy, economics and my Christian faith,” says Caroline Roberts, another summer intern and rising senior at Grove City College. She says that she was “not only trained in helpful software programs but also exposed to a professional environment that encouraged critical thinking through extensive reading and writing.”
Acton is now accepting applications for fall 2016 and spring and summer 2017 interns. For details, visit www.acton.org/about/internship-opportunities.
New resources available for Acton Alumni
Acton is launching an Alumni Relations program to ensure we engage our alumni long after conferences end. To date, more than 6,000 men and women from more than 100 countries have attended one of our core conferences—Acton University, Toward a Free and Virtuous Society, Thriving Churches: Flourishing Communities, and Liberty & Markets.
Acton takes great pride in looking at some of the major accomplishments of our alumni. They include business leaders, bishops and other clergy, nonprofit leaders, U.S. representatives, foreign government representatives and many others who are all impacting their spheres of influence and applying the lessons they learned at Acton.
Without our group of talented alumni, Acton would surely not be able to achieve its mission. For years our alumni have given back to us, and now we want to return the favor.
Over the next year we will launch some exciting new tools, including:
- Tailored resources and special discounts available exclusively to our alumni network;
- Regional alumni networking events and receptions;
- Regular alumni spotlights in Acton publications;
- Marketing assistance for published or soon-to-be published books and;
- Alumni representatives who are ready to speak with you at all times.
Our goal is for these resources to provide a collaborative environment for alumni to interact more deeply with Acton staff and other alumni, ultimately advancing the world toward greater liberty undergirded by a strong moral foundation.
On September 25 the Alumni Relations Department will host a breakfast at the Liberty Forum in Miami, Florida, and on October 5 it will host a cocktail reception at the State Policy Network Annual Meeting. To sign up for any of the events or for more information, email Patrick Oetting at [email protected].
Acton in the News
“The market economy is a creative engine that has enabled hundreds of millions of people around the world to lift themselves out of poverty. But to play the game you need property rights, and for all too many around the world, property rights are much harder to get than a ticket to the Olympics."
--Excerpted from Michael Matheson Miller’s article
in The Stream
Samuel Gregg
Title: Adam Smith, Economic Nationalism &
the Case for Free Trade
Publication: Public Discourse
Date: 7.20.16
Rev. Robert Sirico
Title: The Catholic Paths of Pence & Kaine
Publication: Wall Street Journal
Date: 7.28.16
Michael Matheson Miller
Title: The Global Poor Desperately Need a
Thing You Can’t Taste or Touch:
Property Rights
Publication: The Stream
Date: 8.22.16
