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November 06, 2009

Balancing the Need for Flexible Support With Donors' Desire to Measure Results

Donors increasingly want to see the results of their giving. That desire has contributed to the success of Kiva, the Web site that matches lenders in the United States with small business owners in poor countries.

And it has posed challenges for groups like Doctors Without Borders, the international medical charity, which typically does not raise money for specific programs or emergencies.

Doctors Without Borders emphasizes the importance of unrestricted support because the group doesn’t want to end up with more than it needs for one disaster and not enough for another, says Jennifer Tierney, director of development.

This year, the charity developed some fund-raising approaches meant to appeal to results-focused donors while also helping to maintain the organization’s independence and emphasis on flexible support.

They include:

• Giving donors the chance to support broad causes, like nutrition or HIV/AIDS. Doctors Without Borders determined that it could accept gifts for such purposes without hampering its ability to respond effectively. The response so far has been good: Morgan Stanley recently approved a $250,000 grant for Doctors Without Borders’ nutrition programs.

• Sending e-mail messages to supporters about its work helping victims of a disaster. After the recent disasters in the Asia Pacific, Doctors Without Borders contacted its supporters, not to ask for restricted gifts, but to inform them of the work its doctors were doing in those places. The solicitations resulted in about $70,000.

• Creating an online tool that allows donors to better understand how Doctors Without Borders responds to disasters, and why it needs flexible support. The Be There 1st campaign raised $25,000 in its two weeks. (For more, see this Chronicle article).

What are your thoughts on the tension between unrestricted money and showing results? What potential solutions has your organization identified?

— Caroline Preston

Friday November 6, 2009 | Permalink

Comments

1. I applaud the creativity and flexibility of Doctors Without Borders. They’re addressing a very important donor communication challenge head-on. Donors want specifics. Donors want to see results and KNOW they’re making an important difference. They don’t want ambiguity or sweeping statements about fighting world hunger.

   Their “Be There 1st Campaign” is great. These really are unrestricted funds because they can be used for any disaster. Yet donors are right in the thick of it. The online solution shows donors the results – the good – that their donation is achieving (i.e., receiving personal updates and situation reports). And the site also shows their top grassroots fundraisers via the social communities.

   When I’m writing fundraising appeals for clients this “debate” almost always comes up. I naturally want to be specific and show donors exactly what $25 will achieve; $50 and so forth. For example: $50 buys enough medicine to treat diabetes for a mother in Guatemala for 3 months. And the nonprofit staff is understandably concerned that they’ll mislead donors into thinking that’s what their donation will actually be used for.

   It’s an on-going challenge because response is always higher when we get specific. This is the information donors want so it needs to be communicated. But of course the nonprofit needs unrestricted funds in order to function efficiently and with flexibility. Therefore I always add language near the closing to make it clear the donation will go to the greatest need. But this approach is a form of compromise. It also makes it challenging for nonprofits to update donors on specific progress.

   I think what Doctors Without Borders has done is something thousands of other charitable nonprofits could model. And I think they’ll see positive response from their donors too.

   Karen Zapp, Nonprofit Copywriter
   http://www.PKscribe.com

   — Karen Zapp    Nov 10, 12:13 PM    #

2. I do think that donors must be empowered adequately to make a choice between deciding how they wish to give – as a non profit, the best that one can do is to provide all the tools and information that will lead to informed decision making- use those tools that significantly impact on giving for the long run. Also, think its helpful to distinguish between institutional donors and individual donors- I beleive that the approach for both would be somewhat different.

   — Aarti    Nov 11, 08:58 PM    #

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