March 6, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Who “owns” a nonprofit group?
Jeff Brooks, who writes Donor Power Blog, says the owners are the clients and the donors. “Compared to those two groups, everyone else is a bystander.”
Mr. Brooks, creative director at Merkle/Domain, a fund-raising consulting firm, was responding to a comment by the head of an antihunger group, who said “owners” included “the people in the region who care about hunger issues,” including educators, health professionals, and government officials. But Mr. Brooks argues it’s the donors who make the good work possible. “Your work needs to be effective at shaping the world in the ways your donors want to shape the world,” he says.
One reader, Bob McGinnis, took Mr. Brooks to task. “I have seen charities venture down the ‘donors shaping the world in the ways your donors want to shape the world’ only to see them either fold because of unrealistic demands or implode because their mission has become so diluted,” he wrote.
Who do you think “owns” a nonprofit organization? Click on the comment link just below this posting.
