Recent scandals have cast a pall over the charitable sector. But if you’re wondering about the wisdom of making a donation to some established charity in our city, don’t be fooled by the media hype. My guess is that ninety-nine times out of a hundred, your mailing that check will do our community substantial good.
Over the past twenty years or so, I’ve visited hundreds of community-based nonprofits and examined their financial statements and audits (this is what people who work at foundations do). In my experience, most of these organizations are scrupulously honest. Their staffs work very long hours for very short pay. They know the communities they serve and serve them effectively using very modest means. They multiply the value of your donation by enlisting the help of volunteers who donate countless hours of their time for charitable work.
High profile scandals in the charitable sector undermine the public’s trust. But this isn’t the whole story. America’s charities—especially smaller community-based organizations—sometimes do a poor job of communicating how effective they are at feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, and healing the sick. Generally overworked and overwhelmed by the demand for their organizations’ services, nonprofit leaders underinvest in their organizations’ communications capacity. Perhaps if they invested more, they’d draw fresh criticism for spending donated funds on public relations rather than on direct charitable work—who knows?
In our region in particular, we need to acknowledge and celebrate the key role that our nonprofit sector has had in our recovery and in helping us to create something even better than before. Now’s not the time for us to retreat from our commitment to them.
