[1] As of November 2011, Charity Intelligence had two staff members working from a condominium in Downtown Toronto, having declared $207,000 in operating costs for the previous year.

[4] Organizations that have received a high ranking have quoted and linked back to Charity Intelligence's website in their press releases and fund-raising efforts, as well as to promote partnerships with for-profit enterprises.

[5][6][7][8] In March 2015, One Drop and Cirque du Soleil leveraged Charity Intelligence's endorsement to partner with American multinational conglomerate Colgate-Palmolive.

[16][17] As a result, Charity Intelligence was prohibited from issuing tax receipts and was required to pay a $500 penalty before reapplying for charitable status.

[17] The Globe and Mail's Paul Waldie quotes Charity Intelligence's managing director Kate Bahen as saying, "Yes, the optics aren't good.

"[17] Charity Intelligence's approach has been characterized as effective altruism, a term coined by William MacAskill which attracted broader public attention with Sam Bankman-Fried and the collapse of FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

[19] In a 2019 interview with The Globe and Mail, founder and managing director Kate Bahen, who had formerly worked as a Bay Street equity analyst, called effective altruism the "new frontier in charity evaluation".

"[18] Professor and philanthropy expert Devin Penner of Trent University commented, "It's inevitable that you'll get a lot of methodological biases about what impact even means.

"[21] Association of Fundraising Professionals chair Andrea McManus credited Charity Intelligence's work with raising donor awareness, but said that its analyses can be misleading.

Aga Khan Foundation of Canada's director of public affairs, Jennifer Pepall, said that Charity Intelligence's assumptions about its finances and motivations were inaccurate.

[21] The War Amps of Canada wrote, "The numbers [Ci] associated with The War Amps are misrepresentative of our charitable activity", specifically rebutting Charity Intelligence's allegations that it uses professional fundraisers, receives government grants, solicits by phone or door-to-door, sells or trades donor's names and addresses, spends more than 10% on administration or puts funds towards long-term investments.

Pointing out that its financials were publicly available in its annual T3010 returns, it called Charity Intelligence's claim that it refused to provide the information misleading.

"[21] In early May 2016, a wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta provided an opportunity for Charity Intelligence to increase its media presence by criticizing the Canadian Red Cross, which had been coordinating relief operations in the region.

[22] The Globe and Mail's Janet McFarlan pointed out that the Red Cross had moved quickly following flooding in Calgary and southern Alberta, distributing $5.9 million of aid within the first three weeks, and that aid distribution in Fort McMurray was moving even more quickly, with large upfront sums gifted to fire victims to cover the costs of relocation.

[2][28] Bahen had alleged in numerous high-profile interviews that the charity was on the brink of insolvency before the Trudeau government selected it to administer the proposed Canada Student Service Grant program.

"[2] MP Francesco Sorbara asked why in 2012 CI had lost its own charitable status, to which Bahen responded, "It was a hard lesson learned well".

Sorbara alleged that one of CI's team had donated what he called "substantial sums" to the Conservative Party, and asked Bahen about her formal apology to True North Youth Foundation.