Unrestricted Support Part 2
Continuing on this theme, how effective are nonprofits at making the case for unrestricted support? Rather than bemoaning the lack of unrestricted funds, what can we learn? An article in last Sunday’s New York Times, “Here’s My Check, Spend It All At Once”, connects the current financial challenges at the American Red Cross to their Donor Direct policy established in response to the fallout about the use of funds donated after the September 11 attacks. When the Red Cross commits to direct all of your donated funds wherever you choose, what donor wouldn’t take the opportunity to be the master of their own philanthropy? The long-term results, though, may be the kind of deficits that the American Red Cross is facing. Was the Donor Direct policy an extreme reaction – did the Red Cross go too far as a reaction to a communications and PR problem?Following the references in the Times article, I compared the online fundraising messages of the American Red Cross and of Doctors Without Borders. The choice of how to direct donations is the first question for a donor at the American Red Cross. While the option “Where the Need is Greatest” is the first choice offered, specific funds are immediately listed below. The FAQ section even offers more options:
I don’t see the fund that I wanted to donate to. What do I do?
Due to space limitations, we are limited in how many funds we can make available for online donations. If you would like to donate to a fund that is not listed, please contact Donor Services.
Contrast this with the Doctors Without Borders website, which provides a concise summary of how funding is used to carry out their programs. Note that the information doesn’t offer the donor a choice to designate their funds to a specific use. In the FAQ section, in fact, Doctors Without Borders makes the case for unrestricted gifts:
Can I earmark my donation for a certain area/project?
We appreciate your interest in supporting our programs. While it is possible to have your gift directed toward a specific program or country where we are currently working, we ask that you contribute unrestricted funding. By not restricting your contribution for a specific emergency or project, you will enable us to allocate our resources more efficiently and where the needs are greatest.
All of these appeals and messages rely on trust, of course, and donor trust is what the American Red Cross must rebuild. Every nonprofit should care about this, because the public’s perception and confidence in the Red Cross is a good indicator of confidence in all nonprofits.
Excellent post that contrasts how different these organizations are.
One comment….I think some orgs have had decades of the luxury of being a preferred organization to which to donate. This is mostly a function of being the only organizations that had the extra funds to craft public campaigns that solicit donations for a cause. TV spots and print ads are expensive and out of the reach of many smaller nonprofits.
However, with the advent of social media, easy webpage publishing, and very affordable internet marketing (not to mention the new social enterprises that are developing innovative technologies and courting nonprofits to use them), getting the word out and campaigning about an organization has easily come into the reach of these smaller organizations. Subsequently out of necessity, they have had to make the case of why they can be trusted as much or more than the superhuge nonprofit that comes to mind when a donor thinks about a cause.
From the donor’s perspective—now more than ever, they have an unlimited variety of causes and organizations to which to contribute. Once the donor decides to give, they have to invest some time in figuring out which organization to which to contribute. In the forefront of many donor’s minds is the issue of trust. Organizations are recognizing this and must do something to convey a message that they can be trusted. When trust is addressed by a nonprofit, it appeals to the donor’s ego and conveys that the organization is concerned with the desires of the donor. When done exceptionally well, it can convey an organization’s thankfulness, gratitude, the importance of the donor, and the desire to be responsible with the gift. It is these organizations that find a way to convey responsiblity to the donor as well as gratitute that will ultimately win the giving game.
Comment by Carol Kirshner — March 5, 2008 @ 9:28 am