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"This consistency in your rating is an
exceptional feat, especially given the economic
challenges all charities have had to face in the
last year," wrote Matt Viola, a program
analyst with Charity Navigator, when notifying
Domestic Violence Solutions of its new rating. Domestic
Violence Solutions’ rating for
organizational efficiency is based on an analysis
of its fundraising costs and administrative
expenses as a percentage of its operating budget.
DVS spends only three cents of every dollar¾or 2.2
percent of its annual budget¾on fundraising.
Administrative expenses consume another 7.2
percent of the agency’s budget, leaving 90.5
percent for program expenses.
“Charities
exist to provide programs and services, not to
raise money,” Charity Navigator’s
website explains. “They fulfill the
expectations of givers when they allocate most of
their budgets to providing programs.”
Domestic Violence Solutions ranks at the top of
its peer group in organizational efficiency,
according to Charity Navigator’s analysis.
Domestic Violence
Solutions’ rating also reflects its
organizational capacity, which, according to
Charity Navigator, indicates “how well it
has sustained its programs and services over
time, and whether it can continue to do so, even
if it loses support or faces broad economic
downturns.” Domestic Violence
Solutions ranked at the top of its peer group in
this area, as well.
“We are very
pleased to have Charity Navigator’s
independent confirmation of our fiscal health and
our commitment to families affected by domestic
violence,” said Rebecca Robertson, DVS’
executive director. “A four-star
rating by Charity Navigator helps to assure our
donors that the money they give to us really goes
to the people and programs for which it is
intended.”
Domestic
Violence Solutions (DVS) is the county’s
only full-service domestic violence
agency, committed to ending the
intergenerational cycle of domestic
violence through prevention and
intervention services and through
challenging society’s attitudes,
beliefs, and behaviors to effect social
change. DVS provides the county’s
only 24-hour shelter service for battered
women and their children, as well as the
county’s only transitional housing
program for domestic violence survivors.
DVS also operates four 24-hour hotlines;
works to prevent domestic violence
through teen outreach and education
programs; and provides comprehensive
counseling services to men, women, and
children affected by domestic violence.
DVS programs serve Santa Barbara, Lompoc,
and Santa Maria.
Agency
History
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