Is your charity meeting donor expectations?

Given the high trust level that charities are expected to measure up to, could you look a donor in the eye and swear that all their donations will go to the mission?  More importantly, should you?

Donor confidence is not just important to your nonprofit, it is critical. If donors get even a faint whiff of something a little off, it can take years to regain that confidence.

In an article on 9/11 of this year, the Huffington Post noted that  even the venerable Red Cross took a hit for misleading donors after 9/11/01. The article noted that in the wake of the problem, donor and public confidence in charities in general dropped from 25% approval in July 2001 to 18% by May of 2002.

Charities that lose donor confidence don't survive intact. Some may not survive at all. The above-referenced article also noted that out of about 300 9/11-related charities started after 9/11, only five were surviving by 2006.

The best way to retain donor confidence is to be able to prove effectiveness and be up-front with the donors regarding the use of funds.

Given what I do, i.e. grant writing and funding research, I see this statement a lot.

"Once we get some grant money coming in, we can use part of it to pay you."

Ah…no, you can't. Nor can you pay the back rent or the overdue power bill. Almost every RFP plainly states that funds may not be used to pay debts incurred prior to the grant award. This is known as "restricted" funding, i.e. the use of the funds is restricted by the donor to certain costs for defined programs.

Most of them also state that "usual and customary expenses unrelated to the delivery of mission-related goods and services" (or words to that effect) are not eligible to be paid out of grant funds. The exception would be any grant funds received that state the use of the funds is unrestricted, or may be used for "general operating support".

But what about those individual donors?  The ones that chip in a few dollars every month, or write one check a year?  Of course you would never outright lie, but should you sort of gloss over the fact that you are paying the utility bills with their money? After all, shouldn't they just know that you have to pay some administrative expenses out of donations?

Maybe they should, but they don't. However naïve it may be, casual donors think that every dollar buys a meal, a coat, a bag of dog food, or whatever else your appeal is highlighting.

The best way to avoid that is to either define the percentage of each donated dollar that goes to the charitable purpose, or state in the appeal that funds received are used for both general and program support.

In the beginning, that administrative percentage could be 50% or more. Once you have your infrastructure in place, it should be reflected in your program-to-administrative cost ratio.

Just don't over-promise. It is usually unrealistic to claim that your administrative expense-to-mission allocation goal is five or ten percent of total donations. If you've done a proper business plan, you should have at least a rough idea of what percentage of the money will eventually be used for organizational support versus program expenses.

Be sure to let donors know about the good things their money has purchased. If your food pantry  fed 100 people every Wednesday of the last year, put it in your year-end report and plaster it all over your website and social media accounts. If your program participants are willing, tell a few personal stories. Have an animal rescue?  Along with all the animals needing homes, have a page for those that found their forever homes.

Like your Mom always said…honesty is the best policy.