Why we won’t ever pick the best cookie, or charity for that matter
Selecting the ideal charity for your business' philanthropic efforts can be as subjective as choosing the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Hear us out.
A friend of mine bakes the BEST chocolate chip cookies I have ever eaten. They have a touch of salt, bits of coconut, and are best eaten right out of the freezer; hard, cold, and delightful. I would pronounce them the best cookies of the year were it not for my own modesty and recognition that your cookie criteria are different than mine. Frankly, I realize that what sounds delicious to me, may sound quite the opposite to you.
But the futility of deciding what is “best” with regards to chocolate chip cookies has not stopped various experts from attempting to do the same with charities. Their approaches differ but the attempt is the same. The numbers-oriented will tell you it comes down to the finances. So, we see all sorts of financial and metrics analyses (ratio of fundraising expenses to program expenses, salaries of top leadership as a percentage of revenues, etc.) that don’t necessarily seem to understand how individual charities run their business. They often take no account of the cost differences between organizations that receive hundreds of small gifts versus just a few large ones, or charities that have a large number of staff providing one-on-one services versus those that outsource the services they provide. They will conclude that one charity is “riskier” or less cost-effective than another – with little regard to how it all truly works on the inside in the real world. Wild!
Maybe you like your chocolate chip cookies soft and chewy, not crisp and crunchy. Same problem with charities.
The “impact” people will tell you it is all about program effectiveness, or how good a charity is at addressing a certain societal or environmental issue. Perhaps you (for example), believe you know just how to address chronic unemployment, despite being a newbie on the scene of economic opportunity. Or you, as a former titan of industry, believe that being a nonprofit means that the charity may never operate in the red. You’ve got the answer for what a “good/high performing/high impact” charity should look and act like, and how they can best address the cause.
Well, step back for a moment. The people on the ground in your community likely know better how to address chronic issues in your community – they are likely to see and live the experience daily. As it turns out, chronic unemployment might best be addressed by distributing bus fare rather than teaching computer skills (true story!). Nonprofit professionals have devoted their lives to figuring out how to make a difference. And, as it turns out, they also likely know best how to raise money to balance their budget because all of them are involved in fundraising whether it is in their formal job description or not. Operating a lean, effective organization is part of that fundraising culture.
Whether we’re looking at financial overviews, or viewing cause-specific efforts from the outside, we have to temper our impressions with the fact that those impressions are all, in fact, our impressions (and not necessarily any or everyone else’s).
This brings us around to the definition of “best” for charities.
We believe that the best charity is the one you want to support. Given your charitable intentions, be it esteem-building in girls or creating more community gardens, it’s you who decides whether we are talking about chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookies.
So how do we tackle the hardest question about deciding what is “best" when it comes to a business’ charitable giving? It all depends on which community you mean. Yours? The community or communities of your customers? Or is it about something else entirely?
The criteria is entirely yours to create, and your approach to deciding it will be vastly different than that of your neighboring business. Which is why, at Simple Generosity, we do not, and will not ever, list the “best” charities of 2023 (or 2024 or any other year for that matter).
But here is what we will always do.
We’ll get to know you.
We’ll get to know your business.
We’ll discuss, probe, interview and ask questions. We’ll take the time to get to know your mission and your values. And from there, we’ll find the very “best” charity or charities for you to support, knowing that what you have is alignment and the perfect kind of cookie for you.
This blog was brought to you thoughtfully, by our CEO, George Stevens, and edited by the Simple Generosity team.
