good discussion.
a) hi elliot,
i love what you wrote here: "However, show me a leader and a visionary who
is willing to take risk and invest so that they can really grow their
organization and further their cause. That's the person I want to work with
and that's what we should be doing."
those are the types of places i work with. danny siegel calls them Mitzvah
heroes. here are a few:
Shachen Tov (Good Neighbor Association) started and run by students of
Hebrew University, providing food
Jenna Elbaz and Shaked Karp of My Piece of the Puzzle - having high school
kids at risk work with special needs kids and well, magic happens to both
population groups!
Dr. David Portowicz, Jaffa Institute, at risk kids in the poorest sections
of Tel Aviv, Jaffa, and Holon
Yehuda Kohn, Beit Elazraki, a real home to 250+ kids who can't live with
their parents/families
Crossroads, outreach to English-speaking street kids
Reut Sderot, our main contact for taking care of needs in the Gaza border
town of Sderot
Alice Jonah, old Diplomat Hotel, working with elderly Russians and their
needs
Avshalom Beni, HAMA ISRAEL, Israel's foremost animal assisted therapist
Rabbanit Kapach's family who continues to provide food for hungry people
Phyllis Heimowitz, IDF girlfriends, a non-profit that works with
girlfriends (and boyfriends) of IDF soldiers who have fallen
Miriam Freier, Shalheveth, providing independent housing for people with
physical disabilities
Moshe Kot, Lev Ramot, providing food to families in need
Linda Mosek, Click, working with elders who are producing arts and crafts
kits for sale - in addition, there are programs for Shoah survivors and
others
b) harold - you wrote "Obviously if there are two organizations doing
equally good work and one has lower overhead then that one is a better
investment. Just that using overhead alone as the sole measure, as many
donors do, isn't always so productive."
i agree completely. and as for organizations that lie or misuse statistics
and numbers....well, why even work with them?
arnie
On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 12:24 PM, Elliott Cahan <elliottcahan@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I hope that I'm not beating a dead horse here, but I just want to make
another point. Some of you know that prior to making aliyah I was a nursing
home administrator in the state of Maryland. I was part of a state
oversight committee on quality of care in nursing homes. As you could
guess, our charge was to serve as a body that would measure the quality of
care in the state's nursing homes. I can assure you that trying to
determine what constitutes quality of care to the frail elderly with
multiple chronic and acute health care issues is not an easy task. There
are a lot of different stake holders with a lot of different perspectives.
One thing we did have, for better or for worse, were various matrices that
were used to measure quality of care and outcomes. In the discussion that
has followed my initial question, there's really been only one matrices
that has been discussed and that's the percentage of fundraising expenses
to overall fundraising. I feel like we're all talking in the air, without
any real benchmarks or any real presentable data besides for their own
personal experience.
On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 11:56 AM, Elliott Cahan <elliottcahan@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Pallota makes a very strong point, which is that charitable giving as a
percentage of GDP in the US has not changed from 2% since what? 1970? When
you combine that with the other information that has been shared here,
falling donor retention which leads to increased fundraising costs doesn't
that equal trouble? Pallota's point is start focusing on increasing the
overall pie and stop focusing on bean counting. Anyone can cut costs. It's
easy to tell someone to fly through Europe instead of taking a nonstop or
why did you spend so much on food and the list goes on and on. However,
show me a leader and a visionary who is willing to take risk and invest so
that they can really grow their organization and further their cause.
That's the person I want to work with and that's what we should be doing.
On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 11:23 AM, arnie draiman <ajdraiman@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
nirit,
indeed you have sent that before, and indeed, i have responded to it
before! so, just to be sure:
a) there is good overhead and bad overhead. pallota doesn't
differentiate, so as charasmatic as he is, and as much sense as he seems to
make, he misses the point. (he never talks about "reasonable" overhead)
b) i can highly recommend 70-80 israeli non-profits, none of whom go
over those percentages (10%-15% of expenses being total overhead)
why have a donor "lose" 25% of a donation to overhead when they can get
the same results (or better) with only 14% overhead? what am i missing? and
yes, i understand: if and only if it is the same or better results. i have
been doing this for 20+ years, and rarely - very rarely - need to go above
the 15% - 19% threshold. usually, it's much lower.
and hence, more precious tzedakah shekels for more non-profits to help
more people in need.
ayelet -
the example you use shows it is meaningless. but the example is flawed.
why not examples where the percentages are much lower, period.
arnie
On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 11:12 AM, Nirit Roessler <
nirit.roessler8@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
it's never redundant to be reminded of Dan Pallotta's classic TED talk
<https://www.google.co.il/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj22-jvpYPVAhXDShQKHXX2APwQ3ywIJzAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ted.com%2Ftalks%2Fdan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong&usg=AFQjCNGaO6FpLoa2bvhL2rf901urNuLciw>
2017-07-12 11:05 GMT+03:00 arnie draiman <ajdraiman@xxxxxxxxx>:
hi ayelet -
why are those my only two choices?
your basic assumption is misleading.
i would rather work with an organization that spends $500,000 in total
on overhead and has $5,000,000 to use for projects.
arnie
On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 10:59 AM, Steve Solomon <smsolomon22@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Ayelet make a very important point. Percentage alone is a poor measure.
Many large organizations have hugh overseas operations to do their
fundraising. American Friends of places like Jerusalem Foundation, Yad
Vashem , Hebrew University and JNF/KKL to name just few do not tally their
costs along with the Israel based Amuta for which the funds are being
raised. Likewise, Federation costs are not reflected in the cost of
raising money by the Jewish Agency for Israel or the JDC.
All in all, be careful with these measures. ...
Steve
Steve M.Solomon, MSW
Expert Consultant
Organizational & Resource Development
(972) 054 309 6444
On Jul 12, 2017 10:50, "Ayelet Myers" <ayeletmyers1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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 ofis 25% and
fundraising was versus what we raise. Our CFO tells me that ours
that he feels that is low. The donor, feels that this is high,but tells me
that he will be asking all organizations that he donates to, toreport. I'd
be very happy to hear any input that anyone has on this or candirect me to
any studies that have been done that show what industry standardsare.
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
http://www.draimanconsulting.com/draiman_tzedakah_adventures.html
Member, GuideStar's User Advisory Panel
http://www.guidestar.org/rxg/about-us/user-advisory-panel.aspx
Are you giving your money away properly? Be careful:
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?
id=295713
--
Ayelet Myers
052-399-2781
--
arnie draiman
050-515-6776
www.draimanconsulting.com
RANKED #1 ON GOOGLE: Arnie's Tzedakah Adventures
http://www.draimanconsulting.com/draiman_tzedakah_adventures.html
Member, GuideStar's User Advisory Panel
http://www.guidestar.org/rxg/about-us/user-advisory-panel.aspx
Are you giving your money away properly? Be careful:
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=295713
--
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Nirit Roessler
Director of Professional Development
JCU- Jerusalem Culture Unlimited
www.jcu.org.il
054-6585260
Independent Consultant and Trainer to the Non-Profit Sector
"You need a break in order to get to a breakthrough"
02-6431380
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
--
arnie draiman
050-515-6776
www.draimanconsulting.com
RANKED #1 ON GOOGLE: Arnie's Tzedakah Adventures
http://www.draimanconsulting.com/draiman_tzedakah_adventures.html
Member, GuideStar's User Advisory Panel
http://www.guidestar.org/rxg/about-us/user-advisory-panel.aspx
Are you giving your money away properly? Be careful:
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=295713
--
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
--
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
