Dayton, Ohio -- Howard Adam Levy has a great post about the attributes of a successful nonprofit at his blog, Wake up Call. Levy provides 12 criteria for donors to use in evaluating a nonprofit organization and argues that non-profits often miss the things that motivate donors.
He's right.
For example, non-profits have always focused on the cost of fundraising, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But when donors look at fundraising ratios, I think what they don't want to see is a high percentage of revenue being plowed back into fundraising. (There are still many non-profits whose primary mission seems to be fundraising. I just got a direct mail package from one the other day.)
In the past, donors didn't want to see a lot of overhead expense either, but they've been comfortable with non-profits increasing overhead to measure program effectiveness.
Donors want results. And if you can prove that you're succeeding in delivering your mission, I don't think donors worry as much about the rest of the numbers. But if you aren't succeeding, they're quick to look at overhead expense and fundraising ratios.
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Tim, Thanks for the mention. I feel pretty passionate about the fact that nonprofits shouldn't be touting their low fundraising expenses as their main benefit (of course, they shouldn't be wasting money either). But the sector has to realize that to solve big problems, it often takes capital. Having a good idea, workable strategy and good team sounds like a winning combination to me. Hopefully, nonprofits will start to look at the bigger picture issues in appealing to donors.
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