Charity in Difficult Financial Times - Pt. 2

If anyone is doing well these days - I think it is the Veterinarians.  Why?  Because my 9 year old Lab just had surgery and between that, the special food, the tests, the post surgery visits and the "little extras" this minor day surgery is not so minor.  So, in difficult financial times, I advise going to Vet School.  If nothing else, people will always have pets that they consider part of their family!  Oh - she's doing well and other than walking around dazed and confused - she will be fine.

On to the topic for today - 

My post leads off with a personal request - check out Denise Deveau's article in the Financial Post, Spirit of Giving May Be Cautiously Strong. Denise interviewed several Canadians who are working in the charitable sector as advisors and she presents an optimistic view of where things are headed for the sector.

I was listening to CBC's The Current and Anna Maria Tremonti, the host was interviewing three gentlemen who work in the financial sector as analysts, economists and advisors.  At one point during the interview the charitable sector came up as to how foundations are cutting back and corporations are cutting back and woe to the non-profit organizations that are seeking funding.  I got to thinking, is this really the case?  Should it be woeful to be in the charitable sector right now?

Jim Collins wrote in his book Good to Great (which you can order through this website be clicking here - makes a great gift!), that the corporate world could take a page out of the non-profit sector book.  Here are, for all intents and purposes, businesses, that are forced to be innovative because they run on shoe-string budgets.  You wouldn't see the United Way going to either the American or Canadian governments seeking a bailout because of mismanagement, poor planning and lack of innovation.  In fact, my hunch is that if one of the largest charities in North America were faced with that dilemma the donors would probably hunker down and ask the tough questions (which, if they were good donors they would have been doing all along - SHOW ME THE MONEY?  Where did you spend it?  How did you spend it? What impact has been achieved?). 

As I write this, perhaps our own government should look at what happens when charities fail.  There is so much duplication of services in the charitable sector that shrinkage is actually a good thing.  As long as it is controlled shrinkage.  What do I mean by this?  If donors were to start giving as investments into organizations that not only have fancy marketing materials but rather, into charities that may or may not have that budget, but have proven results the sector would be running more efficiently, more effectively and as a result with greater synergies between organizations, partners, corporations, government and individuals (users and donors).

I cannot tell the future, but what I can say is that this too shall pass.  Hopeful charities have learned from their mistakes and will start examining the "turf issues" that have cropped up over the past decade or so (since the last major boom) and decide if having 50 organizations in one city dealing with homelessness is really the best use of donor dollars, government resources and corporate sponsorship.

As donors and community investors, it is your time to lead the way by holding these organizations accountable and asking if there are others who are doing the same thing but better.