Making the World a Better Place

I’m getting a crick in my neck trying to keep my eye on the ball and understand all that is taking place.  It’s wild, it’s whiplash inducing….and to be perfectly honest, much of it feels absolutely insane (not to mention illegal, unethical, and just downright nasty).  Usually when things get like this (ok, so they’ve never been like this, but shades of….), I write about my dogs, my gym habit, things that are pretty anodyne.

But today that feels too much like burying my head in the sand.

I’ve worked in this sector—specifically with 501C3 organizations—for almost 40 years. I have felt good about what I do—both as a staff member and as a consultant.  Mostly, we do good things.  I don’t always agree with the way some organizations go about their business, and I have long wished it was harder to become a 501C3 organization, but I’ve always felt that mostly our missions made the world a better place.

I still feel that, and like so many of my colleagues and clients, I worry that too many of us will not longer be able to serve those missions.  Money—always scarce for the vast majority of nonprofit organizations—is harder to get.  Government funding?  So much it gone.  Foundations are trying to keep up, but they are being pulled in too many directions.  Individuals—long the bulwark of fundraising—are giving less.  Fewer families feel they have the wherewithal to make charitable gifts.  And while those with great capacity are still making mega gifts, the reality of that is that only the largest, wealthiest organizations benefit from their generosity.  Given that approximately 92% of nonprofits have operating budgets of under $1,000,000, most of the work of the sector is underfunded, under-resourced, and trying valiantly do much much more with less.

Twenty years ago, 75% of families in this country gave charitably.  Today, less than 50% of families give.  While there are a number of factors that contribute to this, the most important one is financial pressures on most of us.  The vast majority of us who are not wealthy, struggle to keep our proverbial household heads above water.  I remember too many years when each purchase had to be considered—and some other purchase not made.  For families in this sort of situation, charitable giving—especially when the charity does not show their donors why their generosity matters—is one of the expenses that doesn’t get spent.

As a sector, we must join together to ensure that our important missions are robust.  I truly think this means that smaller nonprofits—that means most nonprofits—must join together to ensure that they have enough resources to make a difference.  If your nonprofit is one of the 92% with operating budgets under $1M, what do you need to do to get to a minimum of $5M?  I submit that for most it means mergers.  Things are too dire for vanity projects.  Organizations must consider what they are unable to do well, and reach out to each other to create stronger, more robust, and sustainable organizations.

As a consultant, what frustrates me the most is the number of organizations who truly want to do more, to do better, to make a bigger impact but don’t have the capacity to do ore than what they are doing.  They come to my workshops, hire me or my colleagues to help them fundraise or market or do any of the outreach that is so needed.  And when we check back in 3, 6, 9 months after our assignments have ended, we find that nothing much has changed.  Not for lack of desire, but, rather for lack of resources (human and otherwise).

I believe that despite everything, we have the ability to make this world better, safer, more secure. But to do that, nonprofits need to be realistic about what it takes to truly make a difference.