Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last, Third Edition

A Sad Truth

“Is there something in society’s subconscious that expects nonprofits to operate in ‘poverty-like ways’?” That question was a showstopper in the Cohort 20 classroom (Master of Arts in Philanthropy and Development, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota), summer 2010.

We were talking about the starvation mentality in so many nonprofits. You know, things like: really old, rather dysfunctional computers; such poor wages that employees cannot afford a reasonable mortgage and may have to visit the soup kitchen for a meal. We talked about the chronic underfunding of necessary infrastructure and overhead. We ranted against Guidestar, Charity Navigator, and their ilk that rate nonprofits based on spurious ratios. We recognized that inadequate infrastructure causes employees to work excessively long hours with poor tools and insufficient professional development. And we realized how hard it is to explain this to boards that make decisions.

There in the classroom, members of Cohort 20 explored why this happens. Who decided that 90 percent of the charitable gift must go to direct service, thus starving the organization and its employees of necessary resources? Who decided it was okay to pay less than a living wage to people who work in nonprofits?

One cohort member asked: “Does society think nonprofit employees should be paid low wages because then the employees will relate better to the clients?” Another cohort member observed: “Why does a willingness to accept lower wages (much ...