Charity Navigator, a national charity assessment organization, has awarded San Antonio-based Acción Texas a four-star rating for the third year in a row.
Acción Texas started 20 years ago with the mission of providing access to capital to small biz owners that cannot get start-up loans from traditional banks. President and CEO Janie Barrera said one reason for the high peer rating from Charity Navigator is that Acción provides ongoing resources to the clients who borrow money for their businesses.
“What we do is provide the business development piece that helps small businesses so that eventually, they can graduate and go into a bank," Barrera said. "What we’re doing is leveling the financial playing field. We have seminars throughout the year to talk about marketing, talk about pricing, making sure that they’re reporting their taxes correctly.”
The high rating is key to Acción’s continued ability to help small businesses. Philanthropists and donors to nonprofits typically search for high-rated organizations when they seek to make large contributions.
“We’ve actually gotten a family in College Station who have put us into their will," Barrera said. "We did not know them from Adam. But they looked at Charity Navigator, they saw our mission, they saw what we were doing, and so they put us in their will.”
Barrera said she believes Acción received the honor for the third year in a row because her company consistently performs well in several key areas, including transparency.
