Did you know that approximately 83% of the nonprofit organizations in the United States have operating budgets of less than $1 m?
These are the very organizations operating within your communities – providing free health care to the uninsured, taking up the slack where public education fails, feeding the hungry and homeless when no one else will, providing housing and support for abused women and children, enriching lives through the arts, providing legal assistance to those without a voice … and so much more.
These organizations provide the glue that holds our communities together in an increasingly fractured society.
But charity ranking systems, such as Charity Navigator, often base their ratings solely on “overhead” ratios – AND Charity Navigator only reviews 5,000 of the 1.1 million nonprofit organizations in the United States.
Yet well-intentioned individuals, wanting to make a difference, often rely on these systems when making decisions as to who will receive their donations.
The result? The big get bigger and the organizations doing the vital work of holding your own community together get lost in the shuffle.
I’m asking you to join the new “Supporters for Effective Community-Based Philanthropy” Facebook Group.
Then, read the document “Ready to Choose a Community-Based Organization to Support?” here.
Learn why overhead costs are a critical and always downplayed component of operating a nonprofit (imagine running your business without employees or supplies) and how a “one size fits all” doesn’t apply to nonprofit organizations any more than it would apply to a business.
Then make your feedback known directly on the “Supporters for Effective Community-Based Philanthropy” Facebook page before April 30th.
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I can’t wait to meet with you personally.
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