Rule #2. The more conflicts of interest a nonprofit faces, the less you should trust it.

Conflicts of interest cause bias. Much like smoking and lung cancer, the relationship isn't perfect. Nevertheless, financial and political interests are clearly "risk factors" for biased research and advocacy. While it rarely causes straightforward lies, it often causes ommisions of facts, rhetorical spin, and other manipulations.

Often, nonprofits ask that you trust them until you prove them biased. But this is misguided. You must decide whether to trust them precisely because you can't conclusively judge their work as either objective or biased.

Bottom line: Conflicts of interest cause bias, and biased research and advocacy is untrustworthy.

Rule #3. If a nonprofit does not publicly declare its funding, history, and personnel, you should assume there are major conflicts of interest.

It's tempting to think that nonprofits do not have the same financial interests that for-profit corporations have. But unfortunately, many high-profile nonprofits have deeply embedded financial and political interests.

In fact, the public relations industry in the last decade has created an innumerable list of nonprofits (such as the "Employment Policies Institute") that are solely designed to improve the profits of their clients through influencing public opinion. Don't fall for it. Ignore nonprofits that are not adamantly transparent in their funding, history, and personnel.

Bottom line: Nonprofits do not have less conflicts of interest--just less transparent ones. Demand transparency from nonprofits, and until they provide it, ignore their work.

Rule #4. Do not use one biased or untrustworthy source to balance out another.

It's tempting to think that one biased source can balance out another. Reporters especially tend to think that an article is balanced if they quote people from "both sides." But two wrongs don't make a right--and two biased but opposite findings don't make the truth.

Why? Because bias is invisible to the layperson, and therefore there's no way to determine how or when it is "balanced out." Trying to do so simply makes a morass of public debate on any issue.

Bottom line: Bias is invisible, and therefore can't be successfully balanced out with other bias. Don't try to balance or battle biased research or advocacy--just ignore it.

Rule #5. Make nonprofits earn your trust, rather than just lose it.

All of these rules point to one larger rule: do not trust nonprofit research or advocacy until it the nonprofit has proven it trustworthy. It is not up to reporters, policymakers, or the public to refute or verify research or advocacy. Rather, it is up to nonprofits to prove that their work is done in as an objective and responsible way as possible.

The responsibility of the public is not to determine who is right, but only who is trustworthy. Pay attention to those organizations that seem the least biased, including those with the least conflicts of interest. Simply brush aside the rest until they have proven themselves worthy participants in a responsible debate.

Bottom line: Make nonprofits prove their research and advocacy is not biased, and unencumbered by financial or political conflicts. Until then, focus on those nonprofits that have.

Not bad, smart guy. Do you have any other suggestions?

Definitely. There are other important things to remember as well when deciding which nonprofits deserve your trust:

• No evidence of bias does not mean no bias. Bias is generally invisible to the layperson--it involves research methods, spin, factual omissions, and so on. Proving that bias exists is very, very difficult.

• There are degrees of bias, and less is better. It is important to realize that not all issues have clear answers: we should expect more disagreement over what "welfare rights" exist than what causes air pollution. Perfect agreement or objectivity should be less expected for some questions. Nevertheless, while there are degrees of objectivity, more is better.

• Bias doesn't mean the organization is *bad*, just that it does bad research. Often, nonprofits aren't trying to "tell the truth" or be fair in the advocacy. These nonprofits can nevertheless do fine work. Despite their fine work, you should not trust such nonprofits in their research or their advocacy.