The Real Challenges Facing Environmental Groups

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor:

Having followed the debate in your pages on the shortcomings of fund-raising and administrative-cost ratios as measures of nonprofit efficiency, I thought readers of The Chronicle would be interested to hear about the parallel situation in the United Kingdom. We have been wrestling with similar issues here.

Comparisons between organizations based on simplistic ratios abound with ill-informed and misleading media reports, serving only to damage public trust and confidence in the voluntary sector and to actively discourage public support as a consequence.

Recent research conducted at the Bristol Business School tells us that over 90 percent of the U.K. public believe there should be stronger controls over fund raising and the percentage of gifts that should be applied to the cause. This perception has been driven in no small measure by a continuing focus in the press on the cost of fund raising.

The irony is that we also know from research that the public greatly overestimate the costs of fund raising and believe that it actually costs twice as much to raise £1 than is actually the case. When asked what they believe would be an acceptable pattern of performance, it is interesting that this does not differ significantly from the actual pattern of performance achieved today by the overwhelming majority of charities.

The nonprofit sector and the U.K. government have responded to adverse media coverage primarily by focusing on regulation and self-regulation. The government has also become the main funder of Guidestar UK (linked to its namesake in the United States), which will make accounting data on U.K. charities available online later this year.

While this is welcomed as making charity information more accessible, it will not provide a serious and meaningful analysis of fund-raising activity.

I and several colleagues have developed a new Web-based initiative, Charityfacts.org, in an attempt to fill the gap that remains in the U.K. with regard to providing detailed information to donors about what to expect from the organizations they support and to dispel some of the current myths about fund raising and giving.

The goal of Charityfacts.org is to provide an authoritative source of information on this issue and others that have a critical impact on public trust and confidence in the U.K. voluntary sector. Providing a wealth of information on everything from the rationale for expenditure on administration to why charities sometimes include pens in their mailpacks, the site is designed to build trust and stimulate confidence in giving.

Adrian Sargeant
Professor of Nonprofit Marketing and Fund Raising
Bristol Business School
University of the West of England
Bristol, England