Sights for Hope, Endowment Earn Platinum Transparency Seals for Second Straight Year
Sights for Hope and the Sights for Hope Endowment Foundation have earned platinum seals for transparency from Candid, the world’s largest source of information about nonprofit organizations, for the second straight year.
Sights for Hope and its affiliated endowment have earned the highest transparency rating by providing extensive up-to-date information on the GuideStar by Candid digital platform. This information includes financial information and qualitative data related to goals, strategies, capabilities, progress, and results.
The seal program is designed to advance confidence among philanthropists about the organization they support. Organizations that earn the platinum seal are considered among the top 1% of American nonprofits with respect to transparency.
“The earning of platinum transparency seals for two straight years reflects our commitment to achieving the greatest possible stewardship of the philanthropic support that drives our mission,” said Dennis Zehner, Executive Director and CEO of Sights for Hope. “We appreciate that people and groups who furnish us with resources have expectations of us, and this distinction demonstrates our willingness to meet and exceed them.”
GuideStar, which was founded in 1994, merged with the Foundation Center, which formed in 1956, to create Candid. GuideStar by Candid has up to 10 million users and shares information with networks including AmazonSmile, Network for Good, and Facebook. Approximately 13,000 nonprofit organizations provide information to the platform. Candid’s seals do not reflect its endorsement of an organization.
Sights for Hope blends a service tradition inspired by Helen Keller nearly a century ago with contemporary practices to remove the barriers to independence and success caused by visual impairments. Sights for Hope transforms the lives of people with visual impairments in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley and Monroe County through life skills education, specialized technologies, individualized support services, free vision screenings for children, and community education programs. Sights for Hope services impact more than 10,000 people in a typical year and are provided at little or no cost. A total of 85% of Sights for Hope clients with visual impairments are from low-income households. Sights for Hope, known formerly as Center for Vision Loss, is an independent member of the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind (PAB) and is affiliated with the VisionServe Alliance, a network of North American agencies that serve people with visual impairments.
The Sights for Hope Endowment Foundation is an independent nonprofit corporation that is affiliated with Sights for Hope and governed by a separate Board of Directors. The endowment foundation was established in 1980 to provide funding opportunities based on best investment practices to ensure Sights for Hope’s sustainability.
Image: A person holding a tablet computer with a graphic of the Candid Platinum Seal of Transparency on the screen