The Rundown - September 17, 2021
The Week That Was in the World of Non-Profit Stuff of Interest
Most of us are pretty familiar with the television show The Office. In one particular episode, Charles Miner is put temporarily in charge of the Scranton Branch and asks series protagonist Jim Halpert to give him a “rundown” of clients. Jim spends the entire episode trying to figure out exactly what a “rundown” is and never gets a straight answer from either Charles or his co-workers.
Well, here is the Pinnacle Strategies rundown. And while I am not exactly sure what a “rundown” is either, this will be a dumping ground for information and ideas that I have had or seen this week in the non-profit and public sector fields. If you have content ideas, please send them to me at pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com.
Donor Advised Funds Make The News
It’s not often the Donor Advised Funds make the news, but there was recently
This story from the Devex Website.
Donor Advised Funds are becoming popular tools where individuals make donations to their own fund that they set up through a brokerage institution or another financial services advisor. Through that fund, the individual that makes the contribution can then choose which non-profits to support. There are two main positives for a Donor Advised Funds.
First, the funds can be deposited in investment vehicles that can grow over time allowing the gift to the non-profit to be potentially larger. If you stick $1,000 in a DAF at the beginning of the year and over the year the investment grows 12%, that can be a $1,200 donation when it is distributed to your favorite non-profit at the end of the year.
Second, individuals that make the contribution get the tax-deductible write-off at the moment they made the contribution; not when the funds are distributed. Want to make a donation but not sure where to make it? Sticking it in a Donor Advised Fund can be a good vehicle to deposit the money and make the distribution later.
But, some of the problems with Donor Advised Funds is that there are no federal laws on when the dollars must be distributed. Right now, there are billions of dollars that are left in Donor Advised Funds that have been distributed to nonprofits. This has caused some debate in the nonprofit world.
To make matters more interesting Donor Advised Funds, are becoming a very popular tool for charitable donations, even among more modest donors (Full disclosure: I have a Donor Advised Fund where I do nearly all of my charitable giving).
Currently, at least 13% of individual charitable giving goes to Donor Advised Funds, and another 15% is going to private foundations. That’s a departure from three decades ago when 95% of individual charitable giving went outright to working charities and only 5% went to private foundations and Donor Advised Funds. Donor Advised Funds are here to stay.
Outputs vs Outcomes
This was a unique op-ed in the Detroit Free Press that talked about one of the most pressing struggles most non-profits face; the distinction between outcomes and outputs. It is part of a larger discussion that not only non-profits have with the communities they serve, but it’s also part of the discussion that non-profits have with themselves.
My take? Outputs are those aspects of our work that we can pretty easily control. They are generally easy to measure and they provide a pretty qualitative analysis of the work we were set out to do. A grantor gives you money to develop and administer a program and the grantee does it. Pretty cut and dry.
My those outcomes are much more trickier. If we are running an education or training program, how do we really know the information we presented or the lessons we teach are actually going to lead to some change in the people we are trying to serve? We don’t. And if it does lead to some change, we are not sure when it would happen. That change could be next week, two months from now or it may take three years.
While outcomes are the goal, we have a much easier time controlling the outputs. Such are the ways of the non-profit world!
What do you want to know?
One of the things I would like to add in these weekly emails is to take some time to answer YOUR questions about the non-profit world; fundraising, leadership, tools, whatever is on your mind, let me know. I’d love to dig into it!
Other Ways to Connect
Did you can also be a paid subscriber to Pinnacle Strategies content on substack? Why would you want to? Through the paid newsletter, each week you will be given a tangible tool or deliverable that YOU can use to help you understand and serve your non-profit better. The first tool is about Giving Ladders. Huh? Well, become a paid subscriber for $7/month and you can learn more!
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Finally, we are on the TikTok! What? Yes, Check out Mr. NonProfit on the TikTok.
Mr. NonProfit! Love it!