Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Foundations Should Fund Risk and Growth - Dan Pallotta - HarvardBusiness.org

From Harvard Business Blog

Foundations Should Fund Risk and Growth - Dan Pallotta - HarvardBusiness.org: "But we expect charities to bat 1,000 — if one attempts a $5 million fundraising event that doesnʼt produce a 65% profit to the cause in the first twelve months, people want a crucifixion. So charities are petrified to initiate large-scale revenue-generating ideas that carry risk. And they routinely leave incremental revenue on the table because theyʼre uncertain if it can be raised at 35% cost or less. This is but one of the donating publicʼs restraints that leave nonprofits unable to scale up to anything near the size of the problems they are chartered to confront.

Itʼs critical that we change this public thinking — get donors to understand that investment in risk is investment in growth and without growth the nonprofit sector, and all those it exists to help, donʼt stand a chance. That change may take a while."

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