OKLAHOMA CITY, November 6, 2006—Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest charity evaluator, has once again awarded the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation its highest possible rating.

Charity Navigator was created in 2001, and the service has awarded OMRF four stars in each of its annual evaluations since then. OMRF is one of only four Oklahoma charities to earn Charity Navigator’s top rating for five consecutive years.

“This ‘exceptional’ designation from Charity Navigator differentiates Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation from its peers and demonstrates to the public that it is worthy of their trust,” said Trent Stamp, executive director of Charity Navigator. According to Stamp, only 12 percent of the more than 4,000 nonprofits evaluated by Charity Navigator have received even two consecutive four-star ratings.

Using publicly available financial information, Charity Navigator promotes intelligent giving by providing report cards for national and international charities. The nonprofit organization measures charities’ performance in seven categories: fund-raising efficiency, fund-raising expenses, program expenses, primary revenue growth, administrative expenses, program expenses growth and working capital ration. It then assigns each charity a score from zero to four stars.

OMRF was one of 100 medical research organizations nationwide evaluated this year by Charity Navigator. Only one-third received a four-star rating, and OMRF was the sole medical research organization in Oklahoma to earn this score.

“We know that donors have a dizzying number of giving choices,” said OMRF President Stephen Prescott, M.D. “Tools like Charity Navigator are a great way of promoting intelligent giving. The more information donors have, the better decisions they can make.”

For OMRF, says Prescott, “It’s nice to be recognized for our commitment to financial accountability. This rating should remind our supporters that when you give to OMRF, those dollars are not going to overhead—they’re going to fund life-saving research on human disease.”

Charity Navigator’s evaluation of OMRF and more than 4,000 other charities can be found at www.charitynavigator.org.

About OMRF:
Celebrating its 60th birthday in 2006, OMRF (www.omrf.org) is a nonprofit biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding and curing human disease. Its scientists focus on such critical research areas as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, lupus and cardiovascular disease. It is home to Oklahoma’s only member of the National Academy of Sciences.