Ask the Experts: Vendor/Client Relationships, Part II

You can always view a situation like this from two points of view: the charity’s and the vendor’s. Since I work with a vendor, let’s start there. Our company works exclusively for the nonprofit sector, and we work hard to be part of the nonprofit community. We know the nonprofit sector carefully shepherds its donors’ contributions, and we therefore work for our nonprofit clients on slim profit margins that most self-respecting commercial firms would consider embarrassing.

In addition to doing our best to control costs on an everyday basis, we also make contributions to the nonprofit sector as a whole, as well as to individual charities. Our staff contributes its time as volunteers, and through various company and staff events, we make monetary contributions to nonprofits — not only to clients, but also to worthy non-client charities that come to our attention for various reasons. And sometimes our clients have special events like anniversary dinners, to which we are invited, and with which we always try to participate. These have always been invitations, though, not command performances.

As we see the world, we believe donations from our company and staff should be voluntary, not a condition of doing business. If a charity started “asking” us for donations, with veiled threats of terminating our business relationship if we didn’t come [through], we would probably be glad to part ways and wish them well. Once you mix “everyday low prices” with “blackmail,” slim margins become negative, and the idea of a partnership loses all meaning.

I’ve had this conversation at professional roundtable events with people from the charity world, so I know a bit about how they see the world. Many charity fundraisers believe their vendors should be willing to donate to their cause as a “good will” gesture in return for the nonprofit’s business. They also believe that vendors are fungible, highly competitive, making a lot of money, and anxious enough to have their business that they should and will acquiesce to expectations for major donations. And if not, they will go to a different vendor.