Putting your donations to work

Charity Navigator: Highest 4-star rating

AKF's strong financial health, ongoing effectiveness and reliability have helped us earn another four-star rating from Charity Navigator. We are proud to report that we have received more than 25 consecutive four-star ratings! This rating designates AKF as an official "Give with Confidence" charity, indicating that we are using donations effectively based on Charity Navigator's comprehensive criteria that go beyond financials to reflect the work charities do.

Charity Navigator is the nation's largest charity evaluator, providing donors with thorough and credible ratings of more than 240,000 organizations. As part of the evaluation process, Charity Navigator analyzes nonprofits in four key areas:  leadership and planning; accountability and finance; culture and compensation; and impact and measurement. 

Consumer Reports: Best charities for your donations

The American Kidney Fund has been named one of the "high-rated" charities and "best charities for your donations" in the Health category by Consumer Reports. Consumer Reports publishes examples of the best-rated charities in various categories, as assessed by consumer watchdog agencies.

Candid., formerly GuideStar: Platinum Seal of Transparency, 2024

For multiple years, the American Kidney Fund has earned the Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar, now Candid., the world's largest source of nonprofit information. By sharing these metrics, we're helping the sector move beyond simplistic financial ratios to assess nonprofit progress. We're proud to use our Platinum Seal to share our full and complete story with the world. To reach the Platinum level, we added extensive information to our Nonprofit Profile: basic contact and organizational information; in-depth financial information; quantitative information about goals, strategies, and progress toward our mission.

CharityWatch: A+ Top-Rated Charity

CharityWatch has designated the American Kidney Fund as an A+ Top-Rated Charity. Groups included on the CharityWatch Top-Rated list generally spend 75% or more of their budgets on programs, spend $25 or less to raise $100 in public support, do not hold excessive assets in reserve, have met CharityWatch's governance benchmarks, and receive "open-book" status for disclosure of basic financial information and documents to CharityWatch.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy: America's Favorite Charities

In October 2018, The Chronicle of Philanthropy released its new ranking of the 100 charities that Americans are most willing to open their wallets to support. The American Kidney Fund, at No. 66, joins a list of respected nonprofits and universities (including Harvard and Stanford in a ranking based on an institution's cash support – the total value of money and stock it received as gifts from individuals, corporations and foundations.