In a conversation at church today, a member told me of a
year end gift she did not give to a charity which had been on her giving list
previous years. Her reason made me
smile. In May she attended a session I did with
Cheri Freeh, President of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified PublicAccountants where we emphasized that nonprofits should have a link on their web
page to their IRS 990. This nonprofit did not, so the potential donor didn't waste her time...the dollars went elsewhere.
I’m all for the demands for the new transparency. It is a wonderful way of
holding ourselves accountable, being more accessible to our communities, our
staff, board and funders. There is no
sense trying to hide your organization's
990's. They are online on a number of websites right now, and those forms are being
interpreted in good and bad ways, in fair and unfair ways, by both the websites
and their readers.
Get your information out first, and get it out fully. Since your information is
online anyway, put it on your site along with a commentary about the
information within. Turn transparency into a marketing asset, by making the
disclosure into an annual report that talks more fully about overhead
percentage (see my comments on Charity Case) as well as mission-accomplishments.
Big Data is here to stay.
Research by donors is growing. If
you make it hard for them to find key information, they’ll take their money
elsewhere. Remember, the idea that openness is a good thing has to start with
the Board. Create a culture of openess: on your
board, within your staff, with you funders and with your clients.
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