Yet only 26% ($19.1 billion) are from program revenues and 4.7% ($3.574 billion) in investment income. Together their revenues total about $75 billion. Take a look at the Nonprofit Quarterly’s 100 biggest nonprofits. Consider:įirst, the top nonprofits in the US still rely on a combination of funding including grants and government support. Here’s the issue: This magical land of nonprofit financial self-sufficiency does not exist, and funders’ and donors’ unwillingness to admit this perpetuates an inefficient funding system that stymies us nonprofits’ abilities to tackle society’s most challenging problems. ” Many funders and business people seem to believe that if nonprofits just try hard enough, they’ll reach this state of funding Nirvana and be self-sufficient and “sustainable.” And if they’re not actively working toward reaching fiscal enlightenment, they shouldn’t be supported. The concept of sustainability is ubiquitous, overbearing, and frustrating, as I explained earlier in “ The sustainability question: Why it is so annoying. I mean, if my kid comes back home to live with me after grad school, I would make it as miserable as I can for him in order to encourage him to break out on his own and not become a leech that’s called good parenting. Because of this fear, most foundations give one-year grants, usually restricted. Like those Millennials who move back home to live with their parents after grad school and refuse to leave. Many foundations (and some donors) have this horrible fear that we nonprofits will become dependent on them. Then I hung up and unwrapped a bar of dark chocolate and ate it, both me and the chocolate 72% bitter. I waffled something that sounded intelligent-“We are building up our base of individual donors, establishing relationships with local businesses, and using the Synergistic Paradigm Action Matrix in order to find the nexus between our strategies and adaptive advantage”-like a good grantseeker is trained to do.
So how about 50K from you all?”Īll right, I didn’t say that. Think about it: the Seahawks logo on your incisors! We will open a teeth tattoo parlor, and it will generate literally billions of dollars, enough to fund the project forever.
Have you heard of teeth tattoo? No? You will! Dental adornment is going to be the latest thing, believe you me. “Well,” I said, “I have a great plan for that. “That’s a great idea,” said the program officer, “but what’s your sustainability plan? We don’t tend to support projects unless we know they will be financially independent in the future.” A few weeks ago I called up a program officer of a foundation to discuss my organization’s amazing idea to bring more immigrant and refugee leaders into the nonprofit field.
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