Is The Borgen Project Legit? Yes. The Borgen Project is highly ranked on the top charity watchdog sites. For nearly 20-years, the organization has been advocating for the world’s poor and is very respected in it’s field.
Unfortunately, the deliberate spreading of misinformation is something that impacts the nonprofit world just as much as it does politics, business and all aspects of life today. As with most high-visibility organizations, The Borgen Project gets targeted by online trolls. As an organization that advocates for people in Africa, the attacks are often done by individuals with racist or anti-foreign aid views who want to discredit the organization. The links below are meant to give you the facts and provide supporting data. Feel free to reach out to us directly with any questions at 253-300-0451 or [email protected].
Topics
Do a web search of any nonprofit and you will see nearly identical themes when people are trying to discredit the organization. Below are common themes with links to help you do your own research.
Office Address
Despite our physical address being listed on the contact us page, complete with a looped video of some of our staff working at our headquarters and petting our beloved office dog Bailey, someone decided to spread misinformation online that the organization only has a P.O. Box. This was news to everyone who works at our office. The organization’s P.O. Box handles our large volume of mail, but the organization’s physical address is:
708 Broadway, Suite 201
Tacoma, WA 98402
If you’d like to visit the office, please email [email protected] to schedule a visit. Not only do we exist, but we also enjoy meeting people who are interested in learning more about The Borgen Project, and we welcome visitors!
Financial Information
The Borgen Project publicly shares its financial data and our annual IRS 990 filings on our site’s financial page. This isn’t a requirement, but we do it to be as transparent as possible. Whenever you hear of a registered nonprofit accused of being a scam, please keep in mind that the IRS reviews financial information submitted by nonprofits every year (990’s). In other words, the judgment of IRS Accountants specialized in monitoring nonprofits is probably a better indicator of a nonprofit’s validity than an anonymous person posting a negative review.
Among the checks and balances in place, The Borgen Project’s accounting is handled by an outside accounting firm (not a staff member). The Borgen Project’s Board of Directors also reviews the organization’s financials, as well as the President of The Borgen Project. The charity rating website Guidestar has ranked the organization as Gold Star for its commitment to transparency.
Pyramid Scheme/Scam
Most online attacks come from people with racist leanings who don’t want the U.S. assisting people in Africa. They often target discussion boards or company review sites. You can listen to the callers in a recent C-SPAN interview with the President of The Borgen Project to get a better sense of the types of people who troll humanitarian organizations.
Remote Internships/Unfavorable Reviews
The Borgen Project offers remote internships that provide individuals experience in the nonprofit field and the opportunity to play an important role in our efforts to raise public awareness and bring political attention to extreme poverty. As with all organizations, we encounter situations where people have to be let go. More often than not, those who have been let go are the ones posting to review sites. One thing to know about review sites is that most have a business model based on giving people a platform to anonymously smear companies/organizations and then the review sites try to get those companies/organizations to purchase extremely expensive “brand management” solutions on those sites to hide the negative reviews. We also frequently hear from people who tried posting a positive review, but those reviews often go unpublished. There are always areas The Borgen Project needs to improve on, but be cautious when using anonymous reviews to gauge any organization.
Unpaid Internships
As with most nonprofits, The Borgen Project’s internships are unpaid. In a perfect world, small to mid-sized humanitarian organizations would have the resources to offer paid-internships. However, there are financial realities faced by nonprofit organizations compared to for-profit businesses. It should be noted that prior to establishing our remote internship program, the organization frequently heard from college-aged volunteers who wished they could get internship credit for their volunteer service. That outreach is what prompted the organization to explore remote internship programs. Our best advice for those who don’t want an unpaid internship is to not apply for one. Our primary purpose as an organization is to help the world’s poor, and we only want people on our team who are first and foremost wanting to have an impact in fighting global poverty.