CAN NONPROFITS AND DONORS REALLY GET ALONG?

Increasingly, as donors accompany financial backing with hands-on involvement, they are joining forces with organizations to help leverage contributions and advance the mission. But getting to an honest, effective donor-charity alliance built on trust and understanding takes time and compromise. Such partnerships often throw up tensions and the strain typically stems from misunderstanding the other side’s motivations.

Dependent on contributions and grants, development officers and fundraisers may put a rosy gloss on programs and outcomes and may skip past some real challenges and difficulties. Unsurprisingly, this can offend donors, who may know better. Or, the cheery overview may cause donors to feel the organization is less than competent or, worse, hiding something. No one wins in such circumstances, and, thankfully, such happy talk is fading from the field.

More frequently these days, charities simply cannot command the specific details that directly address donor questions – for a variety of reasons. Many nonprofits, even large, established institutions, don’t define goals. Yet choosing goals is what connects you to assessing results. Such organizations have trouble figuring out what’s working and what’s not. Next, there’s no accepted way to measure charitable impact, like business profits or ROI. Then, too, measuring impact depends on the resources you have, which we all know are tighter than ever. So that requires weighing social good versus grants out the door. Another challenge is that one organization rarely is the sole funder for a program. And if a nonprofit funds only 35% or 20% of a project, how do you measure your particular impact?

Painting this complex picture to expectant donors who are considering contributing $1,000 or $1 million isn’t easy, particularly when the donation will only flow if the nonprofit can clearly explain how the money will be spent and the precise result it will have.
What you need is lots of goodwill and honest conversation—as well as ongoing donor education. Yes, nonprofit must devote time and resources to donor education, not just donor cultivation, no matter what).

On the other side, once the check is cashed, donors can turn intrusive or overbearing, feeling they’ve purchased the right to express opinions and direct decisions. While they certainly should have a voice, too many donors don’t take the time to become knowledgeable before weighing in. They also may not bother to tap the nonprofit’s expertise to learn where or how they can be most useful. Before wading in, make sure you know as much as you can.

Last, there’s the troublesome challenge of novelty. Entrenched, familiar social problems aren’t nearly as interesting as fresh, trendy ones. Donors so like to support new ideas, but we already have too many nonprofits to sustain. When an organization shifts gears or missions to respond to a big donor’s interest in the Next New Thing, we lose ability and momentum in meeting ongoing challenges. Organizations then end up spending more time and resources on fundraising than on delivering on their programs. Donors need to help organizations succeed. Nonprofit need to be straight up and transparent with donors.

Imagine that impact.