The recent Globe and Mail series examining philanthropy and the nonprofit sector is a good start at making a necessary change: namely, we’ve long had a huge nonprofit sector in Canada, but lacked a culture of giving. But what, exactly, does the Globe hope to achieve? Presumably the intention is to make citizens aware of the shifting burden of responsibility for giving; government isn’t going to hold the bag any longer for the social services. Which is, on one hand, fine: we live in a rich country and people should give more. Time for us all to bear more responsibility for others.
But guilt isn’t how to build a strong nonprofit sector in this country, we need to focus on good management. The Globe’s focus on our culture of giving – making it the public’s fault – has the unintended consequence of absolving organizations from doing anything different about their own approach to marketing and fundraising. Too many nonprofits have long been satisfied to complain Canadians don’t freely open their wallets, but aren’t willing to turn the lens on their own management practices: how do they overcome their culture of expectation? Why do nonprofits continue to steadfastly believe governments, foundations, and the general public know who they are, understand how they serve, and that these groups will be ever-willing to support their work? It just ain’t so.
Traditional approaches to fundraising have become hidebound and ineffective and so, the nonprofit managerial mindset needs changing: what responsibility do these organizations have to make themselves more engaging to potential donors? Where is the imagination to appeal to audiences other than by hosting galas or holding lotteries – tactics which organizations rely on too heavily at the exclusion of other more meaningful activities? Some of these activities, of course, generate short-term windfalls, but are they sustainable? Will people support these same activities endlessly? I’ve lost track of how many 10K runs are held in our cities every year.
And what do any of these tactics do to contribute to the perception of the organization’s leadership? Ultimately the sameness of tactics contribute to the wrong set of identity associations being communicated: namely, “we’re desperate for money and we don’t know what else to do.”
The so-called “best practices” need replacing. Nonprofits have forgotten that fundraising should be an identity project, not merely about separating people from their cash. If the Globe helped them solve this management problem instead of making us feel guilty, we’d all be better off.
For more on the topic of nonprofit management and community building, have a look at our archived Contrabrand article from 2001, “New money, new demands and the arrival of the venture philanthropist” at: http://su.pr/2knchP
