October 29, 2008
Charity Uses a Blog to Disclose Its Financial Woes
Kjerstin Erickson’s charity is in financial trouble — and she’s telling the world about it.
On a blog, Ms. Erickson is disclosing the money woes facing Forge, an African aid organization she started in 2003.
Due in part to a failed direct-mail campaign, Forge is facing a $100,000 budget shortfall, she writes on Social Edge, a Web site run by the Skoll Foundation.
“The pressure can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially as people are making the sacrifices now for hopes of the future. Through it all, I find myself taking solace in what I’ve always taken solace in with tough decisions: that the pain now is for the best in the long run,” she writes.
Sean Stannard-Stockton, author of the Tactical Philanthropy blog, and others are discussing Forge’s “radical transparency,” questioning whether it will appeal to donors.
What do you think of Ms. Erickson’s approach? Does such public disclosure hurt or help during an economic crisis?
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It’s a brave move, one that puts Forge’s cards on the table.
By doing so, Kjerstin also puts the “concerned citizen” in an interesting position. When a valuable mission is about to go unmet, and the nonprofit is publicly transparent about the state of affairs, then we the people have a choice to act or ignore.
I hope people act to help Kjerstin keep Forge afloat. She is courageous to be so honest.
— Qui Diaz Oct 30, 11:30 AM #
I think her level of disclosure can serve as a great case study for nonprofit leaders and students to take lessons from, but I doubt most potential donors would take the time to read through the pages and pages of material she has posted online.
— kg Oct 30, 01:31 PM #
Desperate times call for desperate measures. I’m sure many would do the same to keep their organizations afloat. The question is, who will have the courage to be so transparent when times are good?
— limeduck Oct 31, 07:01 AM #
It’s a double-edged sword. When we advised participants that percentage returns on several of our AIDS Ride events would be low back in 2002 – because of low registration for the event, and in the interest of total transparency, we were brutally criticized. Until society has a deeper understanding of the realities of nonprofit business operation, i.e., until it dispenses with this ridiculous notion that 100% of funds should go to the cause, and that no charity should ever fail at anything, even in the interest of learning, like the giant film studios do, too much information can be detrimental to the cause. That’s why so many organizations fold their real accounting into larger summaries, making it impossible to discern the accounting on events and specific operations. I think that’s a shame, because it obscures the data pool. But let’s face it, society still has very Puritan ideas about charity, and that’s what we need to change.
— Dan Pallotta Oct 31, 01:59 PM #
I, too, appreciate the honesty and forthrightness. Obviously it’s a strategy you can only use once in while – any more frequently, your stakeholders may sense there are bigger issues than the economy.
— Kirsten Cherry Oct 31, 03:41 PM #