Understanding Your WellCheck
How your report is generated, what the findings mean, and what to do if something doesn't look right.
How a WellCheck is generated
A WellCheck isn't built from a single data source — it draws from multiple layers of information simultaneously.
The foundation is your CRA T3010 filing data: financial history, governance structure, staffing, and program descriptions. On top of that, we analyze the documents you provided during your submission — annual reports, audited financials, strategic plans, theories of change, and more. Where applicable, we also incorporate peer benchmarking data from comparable organizations in your subsector.
This material is processed through an AI-assisted analysis pipeline that evaluates nine distinct dimensions of your organization. Before your WellCheck is published, a member of the WellFunded team reviews the output. This is not a fully automated process — a human being reads your report before it reaches donors.
Why we don't use a score or rating
You may notice there's no grade, star rating, or numeric score in your WellCheck. That's deliberate.
Unlike accounting — which has GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) — or law, which has the bar, the charitable sector doesn't have a universal set of standards that everyone has agreed to follow. Governance practices, impact measurement approaches, financial structures: these vary enormously by organization size, model, and mission. A scoring formula that works for a $10M national charity may be meaningless applied to a $400K grassroots organization.
Because no universal standard exists, WellCheck draws on peer analysis, sector best practices, and commonly accepted frameworks — and we try to be honest about the judgment calls involved. Our findings use three indicators: Good, Warning, and Info. These aren't grades. They're signals designed to orient donors, not to rank your organization against others.
We ask questions more often than we make statements
One of the deliberate choices in how WellCheck is written: wherever possible, we frame findings as invitations to inquiry rather than verdicts.
You'll often see language like "donors may wish to ask about..." rather than "this organization lacks..." That framing isn't hedging — it reflects our genuine belief that good giving decisions come from conversation, not from a report alone. The charity sector is nuanced. Context matters. A finding that looks concerning on paper often has a reasonable explanation that a donor and charity can work through directly.
That said, we don't abstain from taking a position when the evidence points clearly in one direction. Our donors are the primary audience for WellCheck, and they deserve real guidance — not just a list of open questions. The goal is to be curious and rigorous at the same time.
What "Limited Evidence" means
Some findings will note that evidence is limited in a particular area. This almost always reflects a data gap, not a failure.
If your WellCheck notes limited governance documentation, it likely means the supporting material wasn't included in your submission — not that your governance is weak. The quality of your WellCheck is directly tied to the completeness of what you've provided. The best way to improve a "Limited Evidence" finding is to upload additional documents and request a re-analysis.
If you think something is wrong
Factual errors — If something is objectively incorrect (wrong financial figures, wrong staff count, an accreditation you hold that isn't reflected), contact us at support@wellfunded.io. We'll review the source data, and if there's a genuine error, we'll correct it.
Missing documents — If you've since uploaded materials that weren't available when your WellCheck was generated, you can request a re-analysis of specific sections. Include the relevant documents and a note about what changed.
Interpretive disagreements — If you believe a finding mischaracterizes your organization and you have documentation that supports a different interpretation, we want to hear about it. Send us the specific finding, your explanation, and the supporting evidence. We'll review it carefully.
To be transparent: we can't guarantee we'll revise every finding you disagree with. WellCheck exists to serve donors and the DAF administrators who rely on it, and we have a responsibility to present information accurately to them. But we take every submission seriously, and if we've gotten something wrong, we want to fix it.
What we won't do is remove an accurate finding simply because it's uncomfortable. A finding that surfaces a risk isn't a criticism — it's information a donor deserves to have, framed as constructively as we know how.
Questions?
Reach us at support@wellfunded.io. If you're writing in about a specific finding, it helps to include the section name, what you believe is incorrect, and any documentation you can point to. That gives us what we need to respond quickly and thoughtfully.