Top 100 Nonprofits on the Web

There are thousands of great nonprofits, but do you ever wonder which nonprofit organizations get the most traction?

I do, which is why I have put the time into creating the world’s top 100 nonprofit organizations list.

These nonprofits cover a whole range of range of missions from international development and disaster relief, animal welfare, to museums.

Note: Colleges, universities, and individual churches are not included on this list. For a legend explaining how the rankings are computed, scroll down past the list.

Top 100 Nonprofits on the Web

as of April 3rd 2013

Rank	Name	Facebook Likes	Twitter Followers	SEOmoz Domain Rank	SEOmoz Linking Domains	Alexa Rank	Google PR	Charity Nav
1	National Public Radio - NPR	2,602,299	1,652,726	97	22,921	926	8
2	United Nations Children«s Fund (UNICEF)	2,533,277	1,674,845	95	65,866	19717	8
3	Smithsonian Institute	194,678	871,984	95	13,603	8980	8
4	Kiva	184,665	501,102	90	18,335	11325	7
5	World Food Program USA	263,666	385,504	90	8,885	51769	8
6	American Cancer Society	361,461	364,041	95	1,266	11890	8
7	Human Rights Watch (HRW)	311,338	576,976	94	904	31376	8
8	ACLU	151,740	162,111	95	11,766	37421	7
9	Feeding America	394,803	106,501	88	7,310	65039	7
10	Save the Children	416,486	573,106	88	1,505	67833	7
11	Humane Society of the United States	1,676,385	184,523	86	446	34704	7
12	Natural Resources Defense Council	198,307	83,616	91	9,954	65300	7
13	Sierra Club	187,743	60,946	90	9,342	36712	7
14	Doctors Without Borders	509,641	278,037	87	1,834	84856	7
15	Livestrong	1,718,606	478,221	85	6,930	86228	6
16	American Museum of Natural History	151,950	135,839	89	9,778	62342	7
17	Sea Shepherd Conservatory Society	509,551	133,664	80	5,606	67980	7
18	Charity: water	249,358	1,385,645	86	6,671	57659	6
19	Do Something	324,876	604,778	83	779	46424	7
20	Rotary Foundation of Rotary International	214,201	188,001	91	933	50001	7
21	Museum of Modern Art	1,325,546	1,323,393	91	19,097	24102	8
22	Invisible Children	3,015,429	309,487	82	4,356	107696	6
23	USO	447,161	55,686	84	3,654	93733	7
24	American Red Cross	505,827	915,432	97	89,887	19230	9
25	Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation	652,896	58,341	90	399	135540	7
26	Monterey Bay Aquarium	237,119	26,577	88	6,179	120782	7
27	Oxfam International	67,025	352149	88	5,537	101613	7
28	Environmental Defense	102,192	36,881	89	5,343	100288	7
29	New York Public Library	81,105	261,741	89	386	20850	7
30	Planned Parenthood Federation of America	45,266	77,486	89	7,203	25740	7
31	Make-A-Wish America	431,187	98,579	84	407	154901	7
32	Best Friends Animal Society	301,024	81,671	84	9,218	117450	6
33	The Trevor Project	256,500	132,010	85	4,604	556950	7
34	World Wildlife Fund	664,467	237,009	91	6,095	32847	7
35	Nature Conservancy	447,078	167,127	94	11,224	54847	8
36	Teach for America	68,293	85,082	84	4,716	109396	8
37	Zoological Society of San Diego	221,323	27,465	86	333	41025	7
38	United States Olympic Committee	2,442,438	268,279	89	4,650	69748	7
39	St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital	1183690	247,866	87	7,540	57329	7
40	Metropolitan Museum of Art	838,182	548,961	91	624	14703	8
41	Special Olympics	669,686	37,549	85	163	174753	7
42	Human Rights Campaign	1,191,209	211,055	86	6,268	94829	7
43	World Wildlife Fund	1,149,197	941,999	89	227	40666	7
44	International Rescue Committee	110,586	35,908	80	3,152	156060	7
45	American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals	1,177,767	155,573	90	797	19392	7
46	United States Fund for UNICEF	366,125	132,529	81	1,223	170572	6
47	Partners In Health	90,386	183,771	83	3,262	540559	7
48	Conservation International Foundation	63,660	31,213	86	3,795	198204	7
49	Wounded Warrior Project	1,104,842	47,650	88	10,241	114748	7
50	Samaritan's Purse	614,672	51,603	83	256	173930	6
51	Oceana	84,481	65,142	80	1,002	123982	7
52	GlobalGiving	40,352	57,440	83	2,917	93331	7
53	Goodwill	67,520	14,845	82	5,632	43959	7
54	Habitat for Humanity	220,750	50,534	90	16,732	70295	7
55	Compassion International	178,249	115,282	81	1,426	55151	5
56	William J. Clinton Foundation	977,249	183,926	82	2,265	84015	7
57	WaterPartners International (Water.org)	57549	549,108	77	2,793	135317	6
58	American Heart Association	312,367	61,067	92	366	17988	8
59	United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees	209,784	1,304,676	90	117	55764	8
60	Ashoka	29,968	395,673	81	411	99683	7
61	Ronald McDonald House Charities	254,861	19,958	77	1,947	384840	7
62	Oxfam America	66,122	154,936	83	189	244003	7
63	Mercy Corps	62,099	23,506	80	5,095	195106	7
64	Ted Talks	2,823,807	1,511,994	97	41,934	1234	8	Not rated
65	National 4-H Council	384,348	10,555	80	2,656	394061	7
66	JFK Center for Performing Arts	47,533	23,192	87	458	71581	7
67	World Vision USA	1,000,446	50,214	85	8,791	51437	6
68	Art Institute of Chicago	146,923	56,935	87	7,047	83158	7
69	Public Broadcasting Service	1,311,970	1,575,900	99	16,590	1614	8	Not rated
70	Acumen Fund	22,787	407,764	76	1,865	179790	7
71	CARE	100,874	516523	85	2,225	115688	7
72	Room to Read	45,733	591,918	75	2,480	301617	6
73	Green Peace	151,982	674,481	95	15,732	12607	8
74	Boys & Girls clubs of America	82,452	16,116	87	227	297354	7
75	National Wildlife Federation	123,004	129,031	90	359	77854	7
76	Shedd Aquarium	141,405	15,578	79	109	185449	7
77	National Audubon Society	75,018	31,113	88	6,524	69445	7
78	Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation	569,459	904,160	91	9,220	42555	8	Not rated
79	Creative Commons	91,846	498,052	100	32,253	3368	9
80	Museum of Fine Arts, Boston	118,073	33,670	84	6,043	124132	7
81	Amnesty International USA	461,510	603,109	86	3,810	64929	7
82	World Bank PNGO Project	315,725	298,966	96	27,453	5305	9	Not rated
83	People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals	1,695,844	374,623	89	758	13449	7
84	Food & Water Watch	67,589	22,726	79	2,338	238664	6
85	AARP	1,029,924	61,568	94	20,732	2336	8	Not rated
86	WikiLeaks	2,188,506	1,780,911	81	7,572	20064	7	Not rated
87	Heifer Project International	100,695	159,681	84	550	116852	7
88	Focus on the Family	797,907	34,005	84	216	34152	6
89	Girl Scouts of the USA	147,617	26,595	85	259	38976	7
90	National Center for Missing and Exploited Children	36,101	8,628	92	235	109118	7
91	Lincoln Center for Performing Arts	41,420	31,016	79	125	231822	7
92	National Multiple Sclerosis Society	153,687	22,728	87	326	54781	7
93	The Center for Strategic and International Studies	178,134	13,219	86	3,444	114955	7
94	Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation	103,739	55,690	70	1,523	656729	6
95	International Justice Mission	77,146	56,527	75	355	327711	6
96	Council on Foreign Relations	67,783	75,956	88	181	40391	7
97	United Way	49,802	18,197	83	1,355	1559078	7
98	Saint Louis Zoo Association	332,343	12,223	72	2,110	522700	6
99	World Vision	1,001,080	274,397	74	1,292	197568	6
100	Lions Clubs International Foundation	81,388	46	87	5,371	98120	6

 

FAQ :: CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE METRICS?

Social – Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers
Though follower counts aren’t a perfect measure of social media authority, they are certainly a great indication and are the easiest to understand and measure. These numbers can be found by going to the primary facebook and twitter pages owned by an organization. If an organization owns multiple accounts on a single social network, we only count the largest as this eliminates inflation caused by duplicate followers.

Buzz Depth – SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer Domain Authority
Predicts the website’s domain ranking in search engines based on an algorithmic combination of the number of sites linking to it, the total number of links, Facebook shares & likes, tweets, and Google +1s.

Buzz Scope – SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer Linking Root Domains
The number of unique root domains containing at least one url linking to the website’s homepage.

Traffic – Alexa Rank
Alexa’s traffic rankings are based on the usage patterns of Alexa Toolbar users and data collected from other, diverse sources over a rolling 3 month period. A site’s ranking is based on a combined measure of reach and pageviews. Reach is determined by the number of unique Alexa users who visit a site on a given day. Pageviews are the total number of Alexa user URL requests for a site. However, multiple requests for the same URL on the same day by the same user are counted as a single pageview. The site with the highest combination of users and pageviews is ranked #1.

Google’s Opinion – Google PageRank
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”

Responsibility and Transparency – Charity Navigator Four Star Rating Scale

Charity Navigator rates organizations based on a complex series of fiscal responsibility and transparency metrics. The final score is then mapped to a 4 star rating scale. One limitation to this metric is that not all organizations on our list are currently rated by Charity Navigator. Still, in this edition of the list we chose to include it when calculating our top 100 because of the value they bring.

FAQ :: HOW THE LIST IS COMPUTED

• Thousands of nonprofit organizations are reviewed in a preliminary screening to determine if their statistics are competitive enough to be ranked.
• 300 organizations are then selected to be ranked.
• Data is collected for each nonprofit from all 6 measured criteria (i.e., Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers, SEOmoz Domain Rank, SEOmoz Linking Root Domains, Alexa Rank, Google PageRank, and Charity Navigator Rating).
• For each of the 7 measured criteria, each organization is ranked in comparison to all other nonprofit organizations being evaluated.
• A composite rank for each nonprofit is determined by giving by 1/3 to social media (Likes and Followers), 1/3 weight to overall website rankings (Alexa, Domain Authority, Linking Root Domains, PageRank) and 1/3 to Charity Navigator Rating.
• The top 100 organizations are published.