An article in the Wall Street Journal this morning
Doing Due Diligence On Your Donations
(subscription)
As Charitable Giving Grows, So Do Services for Donors Who Want Evidence that Their Money Is Having an Impact
“Donors can readily compare charities from a financial perspective: how much an organization spends on administrative costs or fund raising, for instance. But givers, especially younger, business-minded ones, now tend to want more information on how successful a charity’s programs are in addressing the issues the charity sets out to resolve…”
The article goes on to debate methodology. I would contribute that simply making a commitment to communicating your ROI – however you do it – is imperative – even if only (in some cases) it can only be done anecdotally. The challenge (currently) is not how we evaluate and communicate impact but if.
I’m reminded of double training camp alum – Tracy Elliott. Before committing his life to the For Impact sector he was a banker. In his current role as executive director he sends out quarterly bank (impact) statements to investors. These ‘bank statements’ include total number of lives saved/impacted, families served, and other stats. The statement then outlines ‘your investment results’. Pretty cool, pretty powerful and pretty effective in demonstrating how money is having an impact.
