A charity needs to create an environment where staff can succeed. Calm is the ideal state of a well-organized workplace, while stress is pervasive where chaos reigns.

When staff fully understand the expectations placed on them, (and the reasons for those expectations) they can maintain a productive system where they succeed, the charity succeeds and the donors feel they are achieving their philanthropic goals.

Situations undermining these goals result from too little training and lack of organizational knowledge and history, and no accountability.
Does a charity have a responsibility to its donors?

As a donor, I (and many others) want to know that a charity’s staff can use their time effectively, as well as understanding and meeting each individual donors’ goals

In many cases, however, this may not be the case. So, who ensures these responsibilities are met?

With board members and staff moving through the charity regularly, practices are often at the whim of new hires who may not have the proper guidance from the charity nor perhaps the credentials, motivation, or knowledge of the organization to enact change.

A charity must define its requirements clearly, but how can this be done with such a fluid situation? Methodologies can be ignored or lost, and accountability is nowhere to be found as job descriptions are also not clearly documented.

• Existing problems are often not identified as problems but instead described as “We’ve always done it this way.” Is this adequate from a donor’s perspective?
• When staff take 2 or 3 times longer to do a task, is that considered dollars well spent or time wasted that could have focused on more critical goals?
• Guessing has become preferable to learning, and best practices are non-existent. Staff with poor practices are moving from charity to charity. What are they sharing?
• Thinking has gone the way of the smartphone. The search for solutions does not build skills—a requirement for a high-performance staff. When a learning experience is needed, we often hear, “I don’t have time.” The question to ask is: “If this is your job and you do not have the time to learn it, why are you here?”
• We have interviewed high-value donors who expect the charity to manage its staff to ensure the best outcomes, only to discover there was little management involved.
• Training is often considered a cost yet trained staff take less time to perform jobs and make better decisions. How is this costly?
• The physical organization of electronic tools is another problem, with folder upon subfolder for endless searches, only to find not one but several copies of the same document or file. This time-wasting leaves staff feeling frustrated, especially when there are no apparent solutions in place.
• Turnover in the charitable sector runs about eighteen months between new fund development hires. How satisfied are donors speaking to someone new who they barely know, and yet the charity continues to ask for support?

Is there a solution? We think there is.

1. Organization of all electronic tools. As one client stated: “A place for everything and everything in its place.”
2. Rules-based procedures so that staff members can be effective. Knowledge is power in a knowledge-driven organization.
3. Assemble a Knowledge Base where valued information is accurate and accessible.
4. Accountability to ensure all team members are working towards the same goals.

Publish a statement of a “Charity’s Obligation to its Donors,” a quality environment where donors know their contributions have value.

Charities can no longer rely on a volunteer-based approach to fundraising. Now is the time for the professional approach donors deserve.

Billions of dollars funnel through Canadian charities annually. We have yet to hear any one of them say, “We have enough money to meet the needs of our clients.”

The time has come to do better for charity clients, staff, and more importantly, our donors. 

Sharron Batsch BSc is the developer of @EASE Fund Development Software and the author of "From Chaos to Control  - Build a High Performance Team Using Knowledge Management" Contact her, sharron@batschgroup.com.