Helping Donors to Better Understand You

How it helps
The intent is to promote transparency and to give donors pertinent information and metrics about your organization in an easy-to-understand format, so donors can clearly understand what you are accomplishing and at what cost. It will even include a link to the GuideStar-hosted Charting Impact.

This puts the knowledge and the power in your — and your donors’ — hands.

An added bonus is that next time a donor, reporter or foundation questions your fundraising costs or a watchdog score, you can reply with confidence, “Our organization adheres to the DMA Nonprofit Federation ethical standards, and we publish an annual dashboard showing exactly what we do and how we measure it. Would you like me to send these to you? Then if you have any questions, I’d be happy to discuss it further with you.”

Instead of allowing others to frame the issue, you can use established industry guidelines to explain
your work.

Tom Harrison is chair of Russ Reid and Omnicom's Nonprofit Group of Agencies. He is also chair of the FundRaising Success Editorial Advisory Board. Reach him at tharrison@russreid.com or follow him on Twitter at @THarrison53