If charities can’t show results, they should shut their doors, says “Tom Belford,” the veteran fund raiser and author of The Agitator.

Too many charities are competing to solve the same problems, he writes. And too many of the under-performers are sucking resources away from the others to achieve any good.

His solution? The Internal Revenue Service should force organizations to prove every five years that it has has expanded its financial and other resources; otherwise, it will lose its nonprofit status.

“I’m not pushing the ‘all nonprofits should be more business-like’ line,” Mr. Belford writes. “What I am pushing is ‘perform or die’ … and figure out a way — your way — to establish that your nonprofit actually is performing … performing in the sense of achieving substantive goals, not just processing stuff.”

Do you agree? Should charities have to prove results to maintain their tax-exempt status? Click on the comments link below this post to share your thoughts.