How About This, Nonprofit Friends: I'm Not Sorry After All

Nonprofits spend a lot of time in apology about money.

Not surprisingly, I have an opinion about this – and do lots of coaching in this area. It’s not actually just too much time in apology; it’s a thing that oozes through the culture way too often and keeps organizations from doing their best work.

Here are but a few examples:

·        We in the nonprofit world work for less – sometimes jaw-dropping amounts – than our for-profit peers.

·        We are told by some (but in a very loud voice) to keep operating costs down, as if our power bill could be paid by good will rather than with money.

·        Are we really at our most productive with hand-me-down computers that don’t stay connected to our Zoom meetings?

·        We sometimes trip over ourselves in deference to people with money, also known as donors. 

Awkward.

What is it that has us believing we should be able to live without currency to run our organizations? That doing more with nothing is noble, rather than actually not going great?

Is it possible that whoever said nonprofits should only spend 10 percent of their budgets on administrative costs went “viral” just like the MSG headache that turned out to be only a myth, based on no science? Whose idea was this? How does this one-size-fits-very-few number get so broadly applied? And since no one would ever tell a successful business that it should pay its employees less, pay less for rent, market less, or negotiate for a lower power bill, why do we at nonprofits tap dance to these standards?

Here’s what I believe: if you are running a good operation, and you could be doing more if you were fully resourced, why are you apologizing? Dan Pallotta gave a GREAT TED Talk on this topic. He challenged listeners to consider that the way we talk about charity actually undermines the causes we love.

What would be possible if you didn’t apologize for what your organization needs to do its best work? If you didn’t have tap dance around the hard costs in your budget?

Want to double-click on your money story? Here are two ideas:

1.       Log onto my office hours, this Thursday at 9 a.m. mountain time with your questions and concerns, and let’s talk!

2.       Reach out for support for you and clean up your relationship with money.