Impact Rating

Golden West College Foundation

Impact: $1,700 increases income for a scholarship recipient in need by$1,700.

Scholarship Program meets the benchmark for cost-effectiveness. The nonprofit increases income for a scholarship recipient by between $0.85 and$1.50 for every $1 spent. Note: The impact of this program may not be representative of the entire operation of Golden West College Foundation. Governance: Passes checks Mission The Golden West College Foundation was organized to solicit and manage gifts to benefit the college and its students. The foundation is dedicated to supporting the College's mission of providing comprehensive academic opportunities to the community for lifelong activities. Cause Education Rated Program Scholarship Program Program Geography Huntington Beach, CA Donations processed by the nonprofit. Cause Education Rated Program Scholarship Program Program Geography Huntington Beach, CA Impact Calculator: I'd like to give$ 0

Impact Calculator:

Rated Program

Program

Scholarship Program

Activities

Golden West College Foundation grants scholarships to beneficiaries.

Program Type

Postsecondary Scholarships

Beneficiaries Served

People living in poverty
Students

Geography

Huntington Beach, CA

Outcomes: Changes in people's lives. They can be caused by a nonprofit.

Costs: The money spent by nonprofits and their partners and beneficiaries.

Impact: The cost to achieve an outcome.

Cost-effectiveness: A judgment as to whether the cost was "worth" the outcome.

Outcomes

Outcome Metric

Increase in income for a scholarship recipient

To calculate impact, we estimate how many outcomes the nonprofit caused.

Data Source

Output data collected during the program. Golden West College Foundation publicly reports data on the dollar value of all scholarships it grants and the number of scholarship recipients, which we use to calculate the additional income that the nonprofit's scholarship program generates.

Time Period of Data

July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017

Ratings are based on data the nonprofit itself collects on its work. We use the most recent year with sufficient data. Typically, this data allows us to calculate direct changes in participants' lives, such as increased income.

Method for Attributing Outcomes

We estimate the increase in income caused by a nonprofit's scholarship program in two steps. First, we compare the estimated postsecondary graduation rate of its scholars to that of comparable students who did not receive a scholarship (the “counterfactual”). Our estimates are drawn from rigorous social science studies of similar scholarship programs. The result is the number of scholars whose graduation was caused by the nonprofit. Second, we compare the earnings of graduates to non-graduates based on publicly available census data, matching on student demographic characteristics. We apply the earnings boost owing to a degree to those scholars whose graduation was caused by the nonprofit. Both steps are necessary to properly net out counterfactual successes from observed successes. Otherwise, we would be attributing changes (increase in graduation rate and increase in earnings) to the nonprofit when they would have happened anyway. Few nonprofits estimate the counterfactual themselves, so we construct our own counterfactual estimate based on research and publicly available data.

We don't know if the observed changes were caused by the nonprofit's program or something else happening at the same time (e.g. a participant got a raise). To determine causation, we take the outcomes we observe and subtract an estimate of the outcomes that would have happened even without the program (i.e. counterfactual outcomes).

Cost

Data Source

Cost data reported by Golden West College Foundation and data and assumptions about partner and beneficiary costs.

Cost Calculation

$462,482 program costs + -$5,548 partner costs + -$5,548 beneficiary costs =$451,387 total costs

After estimating the program's outcomes, we need to determine how much it cost to achieve those outcomes. All monetary costs are counted, whether they are borne by a nonprofit service deliverer or by the nonprofit’s public and private partners. In-kind donations, of labor or supplies, are not counted.

Impact

Impact Calculation

$451,387 total costs /$453,871 additional income = roughly $2000 increases income for a scholarship recipient in need by$2000.

Numbers may not divide precisely due to rounding and time discounting.

We calculate impact, defined as the change in outcomes attributable to a program divided by the cost to achieve those outcomes.

Rating

Benchmark for Rating

Impact ratings of postsecondary scholarship programs are based on income generated relative to cost. Programs receive 5 stars if they increase income for a recipient by more than $1.50 for every$1 spent and 4 stars if income increases by more than $0.85 for every$1 spent. If a nonprofit reports impact but doesn't meet the benchmark for cost-effectiveness, it earns 3 stars.

Determination

The nonprofit increases income for a scholarship recipient by between $0.85 and$1.50 for every \$1 spent.

Why We Could Be Wrong

We welcome your suggestions for improving our methodology. Our methodology section includes explanations of how we mitigate these issues.

• The outcome could oversimplify total impact. Using “increased income” as the metric of analysis may not intuitively convey the potential downstream benefits of receiving a scholarship, such as reduced financial stress. Additionally, our methodology may simplify the differing effects a scholarship has on different populations, such as refugees or people with illnesses.
• There could be multiple important outcomes not captured in our analysis.
• Golden West College Foundation may be spending additional money in order to serve harder-to-reach and/or particularly valuable populations.
• In the absence of better data, we assume uniform counterfactual rates for programs, at the risk of masking variation across nonprofits.
• Our estimates rely on data made public by Golden West College Foundation on its website, annual reports, financial statements and Form 990s.
• We only analyze programs that meet our criteria. As a result, this report may not fully reflect the impact of Golden West College Foundation.
• We do not assess what explains the nonprofit's cost-effectiveness.

We assign a rating to the nonprofit using the rubric:

• There are indications of governance or financial health issues at the nonprofit.

• After being given an opportunity, the nonprofit chose not to publish impact information.

We are not yet issuing this level of star rating.

• The rated program does not meet our benchmark for cost-effectiveness.

• The rated program is cost-effective.

• The rated program is highly cost-effective.

Nonprofit Comment

Not provided. This may be because we lacked contact information for Golden West College Foundation or it chose not to comment. If you are a representative of this nonprofit, contact us to review and comment on your rating.

Before publishing, we ask every nonprofit we can to review our work, offer corrections and provide a comment.

Analysis Details

Analysis conducted by ImpactMatters and published on November 22, 2019.

An ImpactMatters analyst searched the Form 990s, annual reports, audited financials and the website of Golden West College Foundation to calculate impact and rate cost-effectiveness. A second analyst conducted quality control.

We welcome corrections. If you are interested in exploring applications of ImpactMatters data, contact us at partnerships@impactmatters.org.

Governance Check

Golden West College Foundation passes our governance check.

Overhead spending is reasonable (<35% of total spending)

Charity Navigator has not issued a fraud or mismanagement advisory

Golden West College Foundation itself has not reported any material diversions of assets

Golden West College Foundation itself has not reported any excess benefit transactions

Source: Golden West College Foundation Form 990 and Charity Navigator

How We Calculate Impact

This rating is based on ImpactMatters analysis of the impact of Scholarship Program relative to costs. Impact is the change in the social outcomes of people served by the program, net of the change that would have happened even without the program (the “counterfactual”); divided by cost. Learn more.

A guide to our process for analyzing nonprofits and assigning ratings.

Learn about best practices for reporting impact for different program types.

Our collected guidelines on how we analyze impact of nonprofit programs.

Rating is a complex exercise and we urge you to read our frequently asked questions for details of how and why we issue these ratings.