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Answered the way we answer everything. As the work grows, so will this page.
Getting started.
Yes, and yes. Harness Good is a registered Canadian charity, [BN/REGISTRATION NUMBER]. Every gift is receipted and eligible for a charitable tax credit. We answer that in the first sentence rather than in fine print, because that is how we intend to answer everything.
Not to give to Harness Good. That gift needs nothing but the gift. Membership is optional and costs nothing: your giving in one place, your receipts together, the evidence beside every choice. The Good Rises Fund is different. It runs on the Good Rises platform, where your portal lives, so giving through it means becoming a member.
Never. Causes are chosen by hearts, and we do not grade hearts. We only ever compare organizations within a cause, against their peers, so “is this food bank strong?” gets an answer and “is food more worthy than music?” never gets asked.
Three things.
1. We measure the full picture. Not just the finances: transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness, all the way to what the work achieves per dollar, each graded by the strength of the evidence behind it.
2. We are built differently. AI-native from day one, by people who spent their careers across fintech, digital platforms, and social impact. That is how analysis this deep stays current, and affordable enough to cover organizations of every size.
3. We serve both sides. Education for the people who give, tools for the organizations doing the work, and funds granted on the evidence: our whole job is bringing supporters and for-impact organizations together. Assessment is where we start, not where we stop.
Because “charity” and “not-for-profit” define organizations by their tax treatment, and by what they are not. The organizations themselves are about something: ending hunger, restoring habitats, teaching children to read. So we call them what they are, and keep “charity” for where the law requires it: registration, receipts, and grants all depend on the term.
Our numbers.
Every model starts with the evidence itself: the first stage of our process captures the current best research for each claim and classifies every source on a four-tier hierarchy – the foundation everything else is built on. From there it runs through nine gated stages, tested across ranges and checked against independent benchmarks, before anything is published. And where the evidence is thin, we say so, because a number you cannot interrogate is a number you should not trust. The full methodology will be published for anyone who wants to drill down.
It is in the definition. We measure toward human flourishing: five domains from Harvard, sustained by two conditions. The first is financial and material stability. The second is the living world, and we added that one ourselves.
So this work counts on two routes rather than one. The first is stewardship: caring for what is around us is part of what a good life consists of rather than a means to one, and it already sits inside meaning and purpose, and character and virtue. The second is dependence: a stable climate, clean water, and the living world around us are the ground beneath health and material stability.
Stewardship is declared and the instrument that measures it is not built yet, so nothing is credited to it so far. And we do not claim to measure the worth of a river, a forest, or an animal in itself. Where the model stops, we compare the work within its own cause and say so beside the figure.
Yes, and through the domains rather than a new condition. A life with music, story, and beauty in it is a life going better, and that already sits inside meaning and purpose, inside happiness and life satisfaction, and inside close social relationships, because most arts work is people gathered around something together. We did not have to add anything to the definition to make room for it.
The measurement is the harder part, and we would rather say so. Valuing a concert or a gallery programme in the same unit as a vaccination programme is not something the evidence base supports well yet, and we will not manufacture a number to make that comparison look tidy. Where that is true we do what we do everywhere else: compare the work within its own cause, against its peers, and say plainly what the numbers cannot capture.
Money and your information.
10% of the gift, with everything in it: the research, the measurement, the technology, the payment processing, and the running of the Good Rises Fund. Our actual costs will be published against that number every year, beginning with our first. Most giving looks cheaper because the costs sit where you cannot see them, and we would rather show you the full cost than a flattering one. The question worth asking is the one investors already ask: what does a dollar achieve, after all costs? And the cost is built to come down, because the models and technology are reused edition after edition.
Yes. We do not build our own technology: we pay fair-market-value fees for the platform, the scoring technology, and the Good Rises name, to the company that builds and operates Good Rises. We do the assessment. They build what we do it with, and the experience around it. Our independent board approves those agreements like any vendor’s, and fair market value is the test that protects charitable status: a related company may be paid, but never overpaid.
Not through us. Your gift travels with a clear signal to the charity: no follow-up solicitation mail, no campaigns you never asked for. And we will never call you or knock on your door ourselves. Charities only receive your contact information if you choose to share it – and plainly, once you have, we cannot control what an organization does with it. We set the expectation with every gift, and if one ignores it, tell us. All five pledges live on Protecting you.
As little as possible, and nothing you would not expect. Most people worry about exactly this: when BBB’s Give.org asked donors to imagine giving somewhere new, 69% were concerned their information could be hacked or stolen. So, plainly: we never sell your information, never rent or trade donor lists, and never send junk mail or knock on your door. When your gift passes through to a charity you named, we signal that you do not want follow-up solicitation mail, because a gift should not buy you a year of paper. And your giving records stay yours: portable and exportable at any time. See how we protect you, or read the full privacy policy, written in plain language.
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