I posted recently about a nonprofit who turned down a donation from a donor because he wanted his money to support their golf tournament and not “those people” the organization served. Calling this guy a donor is probably too generous. He was all about the recognition from the tournament. (here’s the original post: http://www.getfullyfundedblog.com/?p=660)
I fully support the organization’s decision to say No to the gift. Sometimes it’s the right thing to do. Sometimes taking a gift like this causes more problems than it’s worth.
There’s no way to make a generalized statement about when to say Yes and when to say No to a donor. You must look at each situation individually.
Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog has taken issue with this organization’s decision to dump the donor. Here’s what he said about it:
“As far as I’m concerned, the organization in this anecdote deserves a big, fat, wet raspberry. They’ve tainted their cause with their holier-than-thou purity. Shame on them.”
I normally agree with Jeff, but I think he’s missed it with this one. I’m thinking that if Jeff had the experience of fundraising for a small nonprofit in a small community, he might better understand this situation.
I’d love to know what you think. Would you say No to this donation? Post your comments and weigh in on this one.
Every organization should reserve the right to refuse donations that do not support the mission. It’s not something that happens often in my experience, and with a donor who is misguided but genuinely wants to help, it’s usually easy enough to steer them in a more productive direction. It sounds to me as if accepting this donation might have been counter-productive to their cause.
I would not turn down this donor. I would use this as an opportunity to educate the donor about the people served and let him make the decision about whether he wants to donate. Turning him down may also cause him to bad mouth your organization to many others!
Often we do not really know the motives of our donors and I would not want to make judgements about the worthiness of people’s motivations. At least this person was upfront about his motives.
There are times I think people donate only to see their names in lights and when we are looking for event sponsors we are capitalizing on this. And I am in a small community.
I believe it would have to be on a case by case basis. While some people may view money as money, I have to think more about where it comes from at times. I work with animal rescue groups. If one of them was given money from a puppy mill… what kind of message does that send to our other donors, to those who value our work, and what does that say about the values/ ideals of this nonprofit organization and what the group’s members stand for? Would they be willing to overlook something so horrible just for a few bucks?
It would certainly have to be a case by case basis to turn down donations, though. Some animal groups have had to consider whether to turn down money brought in from a car wash hosted by some animal-loving waitresses from a local Hooters restaurant. The groups feared it may upset other donors in a highly conservative area. I can see the reasoning here, but in this instance it doesn’t seem that bad.
Clearly, in the original case, the donor only wanted his name involved with the gold tournament, and did not want to support “those people,” as in whoever the cause supports. Perhaps some more education is needed with the donor, to show why the need is so great, and how the need affects the donor. If the donor can’t be made more aware, then perhaps it is not a good fit to work together. And, it’s rather selfish of the donor to take that stance to begin with, in my opinion.
Thanks to you all for your thoughtful comments. This is clearly not something with a “one size fits all” answer.
Sandy