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| Video | Transcript |
The second installment in the Nightly Business Report Guide to Giving series revealed an interesting question: What’s the point of being efficient if you’re not effective?
When we’re choosing a charity to support, low fundraising and administrative costs are not the whole story. The NBR segment included a clip from the CEO of Guidestar — a well-known web resource for nonprofit financial information. He noted that open books are important, but so are having a clear mission and producing measurable results.
So measures of efficiency may be relevant, but as a donor, don’t you really want to know whether a nonprofit organization is fulfilling its mission? While your head might be attracted to the numbers, what warms your heart? True satisfaction most likely comes from knowing what your gift of time or money has accomplished — bringing hope and opportunity to others or meeting a pressing need in the community.
What do you think? When choosing a charity, where does your heart lead you? What attracts you to a cause, and then how do you make your giving decisions?
- Wendy Wehr, MCF vice president of communications and information services
