Irrelevant charities, or extra-relevant donors?

Interesting post at The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Prospecting blog: Fund-Raising Lessons: Are Charities About to Become Irrelevant?

Web sites like Kiva.org and ModestNeeds.org, which enable donors to give directly to needy people and then get updates about their progress, are part of a trend that is making nonprofit organizations increasingly irrelevant.... With Kiva, you don't get telemarketing calls and e-mails. The donor controls the relationship.... It's much more fun to give to Kiva than the Red Cross.

I'm not sure it's a question of charities becoming irrelevant. It's a question of charities letting donors become more relevant. You can look at these new-fangled, donor-empowering organizations two ways:

1. A nonprofit can become a virtually invisible pass-through for donor generosity.
   
2. A nonprofit can become a highly visible source of vision, information, and shaping for donor generosity.
   

I think both can work as fundraising models. But #2 is the one that does more good in the world. That's where I'd rather be involved.

Donors are great people. But most of them are not experts in the causes they support. They're looking to you to be expert, to apply their generosity for maximum impact. Or even to invent some new better way to change the world that they'd never dreamed of.

The best nonprofits bring vision and expertise to the table, then set donors free to help them make good things happen.

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Comments

[Ted Grigg]

You have an unusual ability to look at the role of a superior and successful nonprofit organizations when you said:

"They're looking to you to be expert, to apply their generosity for maximum impact. Or even to invent some new better way to change the world that they'd never dreamed of."

This is the litmus test for gift worthy organizations that will allow them to grow consistently and do the most to change the world.