Accountability

Bad things happen to good nonprofits. During my career in nonprofits, I have been involved in handling a client's death during my organization's program, a product tampering that threatened our biggest fundraiser, an athletic scandal and a mass shooting on a campus.

I was naive until the first time. After that I became obsessed with being prepared.

Here are my suggestions for better crisis management by your nonprofit: Don't wait. Realize that crises take many shapes. Develop a logistical plan and communications plan. Get your social-media house in order. Prepare to speak. Provide media training.

How do you respond when donors ask about how much of their dollars go to funding your overhead? For many folks, this can be a tricky question and one that brings some tension to the conversation. In this week’s episode, Peter Drury from Splash shares a terrific tip on answering the question about your overhead ratio. And perhaps after you watch the video, you will actually want donors to ask you that question.

Some news we read or hear seems far removed from our jobs as fundraisers — but is that true? There are headlines that may not seem relevant, but they need to stir you to action so you can make sure your nonprofit avoids being the headline story next month or next year. Anything that potentially can impact fundraising has to be the business of fundraisers. You don't have to run it or repair it, but you have to understand it enough to give your donors assurances and to make certain it remains a priority for the organization. So what are these headlines?

No one likes a crisis. Especially nonprofit leaders like you. With life already overly busy, increased demand for your services, a constant push to increase funding and more ideas being suggested than you can possibly implement, when do you have time for a crisis? Never.

Alas, that’s the nature of crisis. Things happen when they happen, and usually when you’re least expecting it. So what do you do? Push the worry away and deal with problems if and when they happen? No, instead, you should plan. Here’s a high-level view to get you started.

Your nonprofit’s credibility is directly tied to your reputation. The more credible you are the better reputation you have. Strong credibility is especially important when asking for donations. An integral part to a donation decision lies in whether an individual feels an organization is credible or not — essentially asking, will my hard-earned money be used legitimately? Donors assess your credibility as a way to manage risk. Here are six ways to build your nonprofit's credibility …

Donors are recognized in many forms from handwritten thank-you notes to names on buildings. As the recognition level increases in permanence, the stakes are higher for potential problems.

True confession from this old dog — I hadn’t looked at the Donor Bill of Rights in a while. It seemed like a good assignment to give to students of fundraising. But it ended up being a good assignment for me, too. Maybe today is when you need to put some working clothes on your genius and read it over with a fresh set of eyes.

Open data and transparency can make a significant difference in the success of an organization. Sharing meaningful data and collecting feedback strengthen the work and the long-term impact, allowing organizations to address what is working and what is not and making them agile and able to correct course early on.

Companies do this all the time. In the for-profit world, customer feedback drives business development and innovation — think Amazon and Yelp. Companies that neglect customer feedback often stagnate and shrivel over time.

Will we ever be rid of the idea that nonprofits can somehow achieve a nirvana where very little (or no) money goes to boring things like salaries, technology, infrastructure, fundraising, leadership development, planning, R&D? I wonder if we could gain more traction by talking less about the negatives of an overhead myth and talking more about the positives of nonprofit organization building.

The great debate on overhead costs and charity watchdog ratings continues to evolve, and the Direct Marketing Association of Washington is tackling this issue with a panel discussion.