In response to Ms. West's comment, "it seems to be AIP's policy to give any charity that does not register with AIP an F," she is completely incorrect. Planet Aid receives an F grade solely for being financially inefficient, with only 23% of their income going to program services. The remaining 77% goes to administrative or revenue generating expenses. Any group that spends less than 35% of its charitable budget on bonafide charitable programs receives an automatic F.
Furthermore, with groups such as Planet Aid that do not volunteer their complete audited financial statements, we go to public sources to obtain the information to evaluate the charity. The criteria that AIP uses to rate charities is clearly described at: http://www.charitywatch.org/criteria.html. As stated here, AIP's grading criteria is not affected by a charity's registration or willingness to provide information to us.
I've spoken directly with Ms. West in the past and explained AIP's criteria to her. With her blatant disregard for the truth regarding AIP's rating criteria, it makes me wonder about the accuracy of her other statements.
[size="3"]- Daniel Borochoff, President, American Institute of Philanthropy

Thank you Mr. Borochoff for that information. It would have been nice to have seen that in the article.