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October 15, 2009
National Conference on Philanthropic Planning
Poor Economy Makes Planned-Giving Fund Raisers Feel Defensive
For many of the planned-giving officials in the audience at the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning’s national conference, in Washington, Dan Pallotta’s message may have seemed personal.
Mr. Pallotta, a former fund raiser and author of Uncharitable, said that donors unfairly judge charities by the share of money they spend on programs versus administration and fund raising.
“There’s a notion that overhead somehow steals from the cause,” Mr. Pallotta said.
After the presentation, Brian Overcast, a planned-giving officer at the University of Tampa, let out a deep sigh.
“We are that overhead he is talking about,” Mr. Overcast said. “This was a reminder that too many people think that we are the ones ‘eating up’ the resources instead of the ones asking for, generating, the resources.”
Tanya Howe Johnson, chief executive of the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning (formerly called the National Committee on Planned Giving), said the economy has made many fund raisers particularly sensitive about the perceptions around how charities spend money because organizational belt-tightening often hits them first.
Many nonprofit groups, she said, have cut back on the number of fund raisers, their professional-development opportunities, and the technical support available to them.
“We are sabotaging ourselves because our hands feel tied by the concept out there that program is sacred and administration is wasteful,” Ms. Howe Johnson said.
In an interview, Mr. Pallotta said: “Planned-giving officers are just as integral to — and care just as much about — the cause as the person in the field, working with the children, or on the disease. In fact, they are the ones making sure those people get the paychecks that keep them going.”
— Debra E. Blum
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