It is our job to help donors to change their thinking on this. See the National
Council of Nonprofits
<https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/misunderstanding-overhead>
for a list of blogs on this very point.
One way of pointing out that % is a meaningless measure:
Sample 1 - spend $1M on fundraising and raise $4M, where you have a 25%
fundraising cost but have $3M to spend on your programs.
Sample 2 - spend $600K on fundraising and raise $3M, where you have a 20%
fundraising cost but only have $2.4M to spend on your programs.
Which would you and the donors prefer?
There needs to be a better measure, that looks at the whole picture of
the health and growth of the fundraising activities of the NPO.
On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 10:15 AM, arnie draiman <ajdraiman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
not sure i exactly understand the question, but i usually recommend
looking at it from a different angle: total cost of overhead including
fundraising. and i usually recommend 10%-15% as an upper limit.
other options include some formula to see "for every shekel spent on
fundraising, we bring in X shekels" or, perhaps, even better, "for every
shekel spent on fundraising (and/or overhead), we accomplish X shekels
worth of program"
arnie draiman
On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 8:09 AM, FreeLists Mailing List Manager <
ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
frforum Digest Tue, 11 Jul 2017 Volume: 03 Issue: 082
In This Issue:
[Fundraisers Forum] Re: Cost of fundraising as a
percentage
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Rachelbeth Canar <rachelcanar@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2017 21:19:36 +0300
Subject: [Fundraisers Forum] Re: Cost of fundraising as a percentage
I think 25% sounds like the highest you would ever want. I would aim for
like 20%.
Also, it is funny that is what your CFO says. All the small organizations
that I work with spend way less than 10% and they are running their
organizations into the ground because of it.
Well you could figure out your score from Charity Navigator's system.
https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=48
Or read what the Association of Fundraising Professionals has to say.
http://www.afpnet.org/files/AFP%20Chapters/CN4/MeasuringandR
eportingFundraisingCosts%20AFPCC.pdf
On Tue, Jul 11, 2017 at 7:06 PM, Elliott Cahan <elliottcahan@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I recently had a major donor ask me what our organizations cost ofand
fundraising was versus what we raise. Our CFO tells me that ours is 25%
that he feels that is low. The donor, feels that this is high, buttells me
that he will be asking all organizations that he donates to, to report.I'd
be very happy to hear any input that anyone has on this or can directme to
any studies that have been done that show what industry standards are.
Thank you in advance.
--
Elliott Cahan
Director of North American Development, Yeshivat Hesder Elon Moreh
972-8-971-7401 (h)
972-54-803-1954 (m)
917-319-1049 <(917)%20319-1049> U.S. cell
www.yhesderelonmoreh.org
------------------------------
End of frforum Digest V3 #82
****************************
--
arnie draiman
050-515-6776
www.draimanconsulting.com
RANKED #1 ON GOOGLE: Arnie's Tzedakah Adventures
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Are you giving your money away properly? Be careful:
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=295713
