Methodology
This page documents the exact criteria, sources, and aggregation logic the tool uses. Nothing is hidden: a reviewer or auditor should be able to reproduce any verdict by reading this page and clicking the cited sources on a candidate's report.
The qualification gate
Fifteen criteria drawn from the Church partnership rubric. Each returns Pass, Watch, or Fail. Criteria marked manual depend on outreach calls and stay pending until a reviewer confirms them.
501(c)(3) status
- Pass
- Active 501(c)(3) in IRS Pub 78 + BMF.
- Watch
- Application pending OR group-exemption parent verified.
- Fail
- Not 501(c)(3) OR revoked.
Years operating
- Pass
- >=5 years.
- Watch
- 3-5 years.
- Fail
- <3 years.
Charity Navigator (or equivalent) score
- Pass
- CN overall score >=80% OR CN 4-star OR Candid Gold/Platinum OR BBB Wise Giving accredited.
- Watch
- CN overall score 70-79% (3-star bottom end) OR Candid Silver.
- Fail
- CN overall score <70% AND no BBB accreditation AND no Candid seal above Bronze.
Admin expense ratio (org-wide)
- Pass
- <20% of total expenses (Form 990 Part IX Management & General only, per Church PDF wording 'overall administrative expenses').
- Watch
- n/a (hard cap, no Watch zone).
- Fail
- >=20% (M&G only).
Geographic fit
- Pass
- HQ in service area AND primary beneficiaries local.
- Watch
- Regional org with confirmed local chapter in service area.
- Fail
- No physical local address OR beneficiaries not local.
Faith neutrality
- Pass
- Public mission explicitly serves without regard to race, religion, or nationality.
- Watch
- Faith-based org with mission that serves all in practice.
- Fail
- Serves only members of one faith OR requires religious adherence to receive aid.
Humanitarian defensibility
- Pass
- Programs align with mainstream humanitarian standards (food, shelter, hygiene, education, medical).
- Watch
- Niche but defensible (advocacy + direct service mix).
- Fail
- Cannot be defended as humanitarian; advocacy-only.
Immediate need + future capacity
- Pass
- Provides direct aid AND builds beneficiary self-reliance.
- Watch
- Direct aid only OR capacity-building only.
- Fail
- Pure cash regrants with no programmatic logic.
Item cards: broad public appeal
manual- Pass
- Proposed items are tangible, varied, visualizable.
- Watch
- Items skew abstract or service-heavy; needs coaching.
- Fail
- Cannot produce 5 tangible items even with coaching.
Item cards: price distribution across 5 tiers
manual- Pass
- Spans all 5 tiers (<$20, $20-40, $40-60, $60-80, $80-100).
- Watch
- Spans 3-4 tiers; willing to adjust.
- Fail
- All items >$100 OR all items in one tier with no flexibility.
Promotional capacity
- Pass
- Active website + social channels with engaged followers + email newsletter.
- Watch
- One active channel only.
- Fail
- No web presence OR dormant channels (no posts in 12+ months).
Org capacity (Goldilocks)
- Pass
- Mid-sized: >=1 FTE responsive staff, <50 FTE; clear point of contact.
- Watch
- Very small (volunteer-led but responsive) OR very large (responsive but slow).
- Fail
- No responsive point of contact after 2 attempts OR org too large to prioritize.
Engagement & collaboration willingness
manual- Pass
- Returns calls within 2 business days; commits to one planning call.
- Watch
- Slow but eventual response; conditional commitments.
- Fail
- Non-responsive after 3 attempts OR refuses commitments.
E-deposit capability
manual- Pass
- Has business banking; can complete W-9 + ACH form.
- Watch
- Needs help setting up but willing.
- Fail
- No business banking; cannot or will not accept ACH.
Accountability reporting
manual- Pass
- Has produced annual impact reports in the past 2 years.
- Watch
- Produces ad-hoc reports; willing to commit.
- Fail
- Refuses or cannot commit to a 1-year accountability report.
How the 15 criteria roll up
The aggregation is deterministic. The same set of criterion verdicts always produces the same overall verdict. Items still pending an outreach call do not count toward the watch tally.
All 15 criteria pass, or only pending manual items remain.
One to three real watches, no fails.
Any fail, or four or more real watches.
Items in the "needs outreach" state are not counted toward the watch tally.
The deep vetting
Qualified candidates move to a 10-dimension structured research pass. Each dimension has a disqualifier, a defined set of primary sources, and a numeric score that aggregates into the executive summary.
Requirements compliance
501(c)(3) status active, 5+ year track record, admin overhead under 20%, geographic fit ({service_area_description}).
Not 501(c)(3) OR admin > 35% OR < 3 years operating
Reputation
News mentions (last 3 years), tone, donor reviews, BBB rating. Includes per-person Brave queries for every enriched individual: '<full name> <org>' and '<full name> controversy OR lawsuit OR fraud OR investigation'. Any confirmed negative coverage in mainstream press lowers the score.
Active fraud or embezzlement allegations in mainstream press in last 24 months
Political lean
Stated mission ideology, board political donations (FEC), federal lobbying disclosures (Senate LDA), partisan endorsements. Per-person FEC queries: every enriched individual is disambiguated via /names/individuals/ then their itemized contributions are pulled via /schedules/schedule_a/; party-split is aggregated across all enriched people.
Org primarily exists to advance a partisan political agenda; flagged if board donations > 80% to one party AND org engages in advocacy
Legal
Pending litigation, recent judgments, state AG enforcement actions, IRS enforcement, lobbying violations. Per-person CourtListener queries: every enriched individual is searched first scoped to Arkansas (ared/arwd/ar), then broadened nationally if no AR hits. 7-year lookback. Captures federal civil + criminal cases where the person is defendant or named party.
Active federal litigation as defendant in last 24 months OR IRS revocation OR state AG enforcement action open
Financial health
Form 990 last 3 years: revenue trend, reserves, program ratio, executive comp reasonableness. Hunter.io corroborates the executive roster used for comp checks.
Reserves < 1 month OR program ratio < 65% OR exec comp > 25% of total expenses
Governance & board quality
Board size, independence, term limits, conflict-of-interest policy, whistleblower policy, document retention policy. Three rosters are cross-checked: (a) Form 990 Part VII officers, (b) website board/leadership page, (c) Hunter.io findings. A leadership-role person who appears in some sources but not others is recorded as a `governance_disclosure_gap` synthetic source that lowers the score.
Board size < 5 OR no independent board members OR no COI policy disclosed
Transparency & accountability
Annual report published, audited financials available, Form 990 publicly linked from website, donor privacy policy.
No public Form 990 link AND no audited financials in last 2 years
Brand-safety alignment with Light the World
Mission, methods, and public stances compatible with LDS Church values and the Light the World campaign tone (service, family, hope, hands-on help).
Org's primary mission directly contradicts LDS values (e.g., abortion provision, anti-religious advocacy, anti-family advocacy)
Beneficiary protection policies
Background check policy for staff/volunteers working with children/vulnerable adults, safeguarding policy published, mandatory reporter compliance.
Org serves children or vulnerable adults AND has no published safeguarding policy
Local presence & community ties
Physical presence in {service_area_label}, length of local operation, local board members, partnerships with other {service_area_label} orgs, recent local press coverage in outlets like {local_press_examples}.
No physical address inside {service_area_label} OR national-only with no local chapter
Where every fact comes from
| Source | What it provides |
|---|---|
| IRS Publication 78 | 501(c)(3) status |
| IRS Business Master File | Subsection, classification, ruling date |
| ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer | Form 990 totals and historical filings |
| GivingTuesday 990 Data Collective | Form 990 Part IX functional-expense breakdown (M&G, fundraising) |
| Charity Navigator | Overall score, financial and accountability ratings |
| BBB Wise Giving Alliance | Accreditation status against 20 standards |
| Candid (GuideStar) | Transparency seal tier |
| FEC | Political contributions, org and per-person |
| CourtListener | Federal litigation, Arkansas-scoped first, national fallback |
| Senate LDA | Federal lobbying disclosures |
Claude, with logged tool use
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the default; Opus 4.7 is used for deep-dive runs. Both run via Anthropic's Claude Code CLI. All web research uses the agent's WebSearch, WebFetch, and Bash tools. Every tool call is recorded in the run log.
Any finding can be overridden
Any criterion or dimension can be overridden by a reviewer. The override re-aggregates the verdict, and the change is written to the audit log with timestamp and reviewer email. The agent's original finding is preserved alongside the override.