NewTithing Group

NewTithing Group's

How To Assess Non-Profit Accountability and Performance

What exact non-profits merit your investment? Posing the following questions to development officers at several prospective charities each year can:
strengthen your evaluative skills;
help you decide where to invest your donations;
provide new insight into furthering your causes;
encourage non-profit accountability.

1.   What is your organization's mission and how has it changed in the last five years?

2.   How do you plan to surmount the main obstacles to achieving this mission?

3.   What are your organization's main strengths and weaknesses, and how do you plan to compensate for the latter?

4.   To what degree have you achieved your annual goals in the last three years?

5.   If some goals have not been achieved, what has hampered you?

6.   What were your annual expenditures and revenues for each of the last three years? Are they expanding, contracting, or stable – and why?

7.   How do you control costs and what new cost efficiencies do you expect to achieve?

8.   How do you differ from similar non-profits, and how do your results compare with theirs?

9.   Have you considered a merger or collaboration with any similar non-profits? If not, why not?

10.   How much employee turnover has your organization experienced in the last two years?

11.   Has there been turnover of top management? If so, who has left, and why? Who has replaced them?

12.   What change has occurred in your Board of Directors over the past two years? What are the term limits for directors?

13.   In the last full year, what percentage of donations came approximately from: A. Individuals and Family Foundations? B. Public Foundations? C. Corporate Foundations? D. Government Agencies? [Note to Donors: Don’t be surprised at the dependence of most non-profits on contributions from individuals. Contributions by individuals comprise over three quarters of all donations to public charities. Foundations contribute scarcely more than ten percent, and corporations even less.]

14.   A. To what degree has your board assigned day-to-day management responsibilities to one or more individual managers? B. What are some of the tasks your board is handling? C. How often do board members review your organization’s progress and financial statements? [Note to Donors: Boards should: A. Make key governance decisions (such as approving and monitoring a fund raising strategy); B. Remain well informed of the organization’s progress in fulfilling its mission; and C. Insure that the organization adheres to internal policy and external laws. However, boards should not micromanage affairs and hamper management from making day-to-day decisions.]

15.   What percentage of your board members made donations to your organization in the last three fiscal years? [Note to Donors: All board members should donate to the organization each year. Donation size should be relative to giving power, since some board members of relatively modest means make excellent policy decisions. Yet all board members should be so committed that their donation to the organization represents one of the largest grants they make to any non-profit that year.]

16.   What portion of your fundraising comes from fundraising solicitation companies? What percentage do you receive of the donations that they produce? [Note to Donors: some fundraising solicitation companies (often telemarketing companies) keep over half of the funds they raise for a charity. If such companies raise substantial funds, then much of the donors’ “contributions” do not go to the non-profit to which they ostensibly donated.]

17.   Has your organization’s tax status changed since the last tax filing (e.g. public charity, operating foundation, private charity…etc.)? If so, please explain how the change affects operations and/or the tax advantages for donors.



   Private Monitoring Groups

       If you strictly seek assessments of specific charities, consider inquiring at the growing number of private monitoring groups, for example: the American Institute of Philanthropy, in Bethesda, MD, BBB Wise Giving Alliance. These groups review the financial and fiduciary performance of a limited number of charities. Another evaluation source is Guidestar, a resource of Philanthropic Research Inc. (PRI) of Williamsburg, Guidestar currently maintains comprehensive reports on the programs and finances of the over 700,000 501(c)3 organizations registered with the IRS.

	1.	What is your organization's mission and how has it changed in the last five years?
	2.	How do you plan to surmount the main obstacles to achieving this mission?
	3.	What are your organization's main strengths and weaknesses, and how do you plan to compensate for the latter?
	4.	To what degree have you achieved your annual goals in the last three years?
	5.	If some goals have not been achieved, what has hampered you?
	6.	What were your annual expenditures and revenues for each of the last three years? Are they expanding, contracting, or stable – and why?
	7.	How do you control costs and what new cost efficiencies do you expect to achieve?
	8.	How do you differ from similar non-profits, and how do your results compare with theirs?
	9.	Have you considered a merger or collaboration with any similar non-profits? If not, why not?
	10.	How much employee turnover has your organization experienced in the last two years?
	11.	Has there been turnover of top management? If so, who has left, and why? Who has replaced them?
	12.	What change has occurred in your Board of Directors over the past two years? What are the term limits for directors?
	13.	In the last full year, what percentage of donations came approximately from: A. Individuals and Family Foundations? B. Public Foundations? C. Corporate Foundations? D. Government Agencies? [Note to Donors: Don’t be surprised at the dependence of most non-profits on contributions from individuals. Contributions by individuals comprise over three quarters of all donations to public charities. Foundations contribute scarcely more than ten percent, and corporations even less.]
	14.	A. To what degree has your board assigned day-to-day management responsibilities to one or more individual managers? B. What are some of the tasks your board is handling? C. How often do board members review your organization’s progress and financial statements? [Note to Donors: Boards should: A. Make key governance decisions (such as approving and monitoring a fund raising strategy); B. Remain well informed of the organization’s progress in fulfilling its mission; and C. Insure that the organization adheres to internal policy and external laws. However, boards should not micromanage affairs and hamper management from making day-to-day decisions.]
	15.	What percentage of your board members made donations to your organization in the last three fiscal years? [Note to Donors: All board members should donate to the organization each year. Donation size should be relative to giving power, since some board members of relatively modest means make excellent policy decisions. Yet all board members should be so committed that their donation to the organization represents one of the largest grants they make to any non-profit that year.]
	16.	What portion of your fundraising comes from fundraising solicitation companies? What percentage do you receive of the donations that they produce? [Note to Donors: some fundraising solicitation companies (often telemarketing companies) keep over half of the funds they raise for a charity. If such companies raise substantial funds, then much of the donors’ “contributions” do not go to the non-profit to which they ostensibly donated.]
	17.	Has your organization’s tax status changed since the last tax filing (e.g. public charity, operating foundation, private charity…etc.)? If so, please explain how the change affects operations and/or the tax advantages for donors.

		Private Monitoring Groups
		If you strictly seek assessments of specific charities, consider inquiring at the growing number of private monitoring groups, for example: the American Institute of Philanthropy, in Bethesda, MD, BBB Wise Giving Alliance. These groups review the financial and fiduciary performance of a limited number of charities. Another evaluation source is Guidestar, a resource of Philanthropic Research Inc. (PRI) of Williamsburg, Guidestar currently maintains comprehensive reports on the programs and finances of the over 700,000 501(c)3 organizations registered with the IRS.