BBB Serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming Charity Review

BBB’s Charity Accreditation Review Program promotes high standards of conduct among organizations that solicit contributions from the public.. The free program evaluates 501(c)3 charities that solicit the public for funds in Northern Colorado and Wyoming against BBB's 20 Standards for Charity Accountability - a baseline set of best practices that review four key areas of interest to donors. These areas include:

• Financial management
  
• Fundraising and information materials
  
• Governance and oversight
  
• Measuring effectiveness 
  

Better Business Bureau Serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming Foundation launched the local Charity Accreditation program in the spring of 2014 and since has accredited more than 100 local nonprofits. 

In 2015, BBB joined forces with United Way of Weld County to ensure that nonprofits funded through their Collective Impact Fund first met BBB’s 20 Standards for Charity Accountability. The partnership was created to minimize redundancies of effort and to create efficiencies that would ultimately benefit donors, charitable organizations and the causes they support. A similar partnership launched with United Way of Larimer County in 2019. 

Also in 2019, BBB partnered with the Estes Park Nonprofit Resource Center where a group of Estes Park based nonprofits committed to a 10-month cohort where they learned about and worked towards achievement of the standards over 10 monthly lunch n’ learn sessions. 

Similar cohorts have been hosted by BBB staff at our office in Fort Collins for nonprofits interested in an accelerated program in a group learning format. 

Some of the benefits of becoming a BBB Accredited Charity include: 

• Your BBB Accredited Charity Report  listed on both bbb.org which gives donors confidence before they donate
  
• Opportunity to license the use of the BBB Accredited Charity Seal for your marketing and promotional materials and inclusion on give.org national list of BBB Accredited Charities.
  
• Access to reserve meeting room and/or private office space in BBB’s Community Center free of charge
  
• Accreditation recognition in our Charity Standard e-newsletter and through a plaque presentation at a board/staff meeting.
• Opportunity to compete for the annual BBB Torch Awards for Ethics
  
• Promotion of your events through BBB’s newsletter and social media accounts
  
• Workers’ compensation premium discounts for organizations that qualify through the Safety Group Program sponsored by Pinnacol Assurance
  
• Opportunity to invest in highly discounted display ads on Google’s Display network
  
• Access to BBB’s educational seminar series offered both in-person and virtually
  

Interested in learning more? Contact Jennifer Hahnke, Education and Outreach Manager at jhahnke@wynco.bbb.org or 970-488-2033.