What is BBB Charity Seal, How it Helps?

The BBB Charity Seal is a trust mark that manifests the high standards of any charity to the potential donors.  The major objective of Better Business Bureau (BBB) is to develop a marketplace where there would be trust between buyers and sellers.

Objective of BBB Accreditation

BBB Accreditation is an honor and it is offered when businesses meet the high standards for trust.  The standards for trust are an extensive set of policies and best practices emphasized on how businesses should deal with public at large. BBB evaluates businesses against the set standards – and those standards clearly speak of competence of any organization.

The BBB Charity Seal is a comprehensive recognized and trusted sign, displaying that the charity had satisfied all the BBB's 20 Standards, which includes all the important charity best practices like governance, financial management, effectiveness of self-assessment, how to use donor dollars, privacy issues, fundraising, and host of other.

How BBB Charity Seal Used ?

The BBB Charity Seal can be displayed on the website and in solicitation materials utilized by charities. Participation in the seal program calls for a license agreement and a minor recurring fee, which is driven by the charity size.

What BBB Does?

The Better Business Bureau enables the people like employees, friends, customers, and your loved ones to get business and charity reliability data, dispute resolution solutions, complaints for more than one million times each year.

Apart from offering pre-purchase data and relevant information about business and charity reliability, the Better Business Bureau also assists you in these aspects:

  • Sort out customer dispute without litigation
  • Intimate businesses about customer service related issues
  • Provide educational analysis and reports on a comprehensive spectrum of topics, starting from smart travel tips, renting or purchasing a car, prudent  shopping manoeuvres, along with home improvement and other related issues , to senior issues
  • Alarm individuals and enterprises to scams that affect them
  • Educates consumers and businesses regarding responsible e-commerce and advertising practices
  • Markets self-regulation of business

How Businesses Get BBB Charity Seal

Businesses that approach for accreditation have to undergo a comprehensive review. Those businesses that satisfy the established guidelines and standards and score and retain a grade of ‘B’ or higher on the BBB rating system of letter-grade are considered to be qualified for BBB Accreditation. After obtaining this accreditation and upon approval of their application, they are evaluated an annual BBB Accreditation fee.

Companies which obtain charity seal of the BBB are eligible to display the BBB Reliability Seal as per the policies of BBB, i.e., at their website, place of business and on print advertising, promotional articles, and business collateral, thereby establishing their dedication and commitment to the BBB Standards for trust in terms of marketplace ethics and nurturing consumer confidence. Given the trust the businesses have in the BBB as a quality source of legitimate information in terms of trust and reputation of businesses, the seal manifests integrity to prospective customers.

Parameters for Rating

The business rating of BBB algorithm is considered following 16 aims and elements that are facilitated, in spite of a companies’ accredited status. BBB assigns ratings in the following categories:

  • Type of Business
  • Duration in Business
  • Competency Licensing
  • Number of Complaints
  • Unaddressed Complaints
  • Unresolved Complaints
  • Major Complaints
  • Complaint Evaluation 
  • Delay in Complaint Resolution
  • Inability to Address Complaint Pattern
  • Government Action
  • Advertising Review
  • Background Details
  • Clear understanding of business
  • Mediation/arbitration
  • Annulment
  • Charity Seal Holders

There are total 233 charities which are proud seal holders of BBB charity and participate in the BBB Accredited Charity Seal program.