Following Warren Buffet’s announcement that he would be giving a substantial chunk of his wealth — worth nearly $37 billion — to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes foundations, nonprofits and other charitable organizations successful as agents of change in our society. Is their impact primarily related to the amount of funding they have, or it is demonstrated by the spirit, mission and creativity used in implementing their mission?
I can only speak from limited experience in the nonprofit world, but I believe that the way an organization implements its mission speaks volumes and is almost more important than how much funding they have. Don’t get me wrong; funding is important — often critical — to the work and existence of many charitable organizations. I’m also not trying to belittle organizations with huge amounts of resources — when, in fact, many are doing amazing groundbreaking work all over the world.
At First Book we pride ourselves as being forward thinking and entrepreneurial in our approach to our mission. We try to use our resources in order to get the greatest impact from every dollar that is donated. Did you know that every dollar donated to First Book results in $10 dollars worth of new books for children in need? Or that more than 97% of First Book’s budget goes directly to serving our mission - less than 3% of our revenues are used to cover our administrative costs? Or that First Book has been recognized for our innovation and using creative cause marketing campaigns to accomplish our mission?
First Book has certainly grown by leaps and bounds in our approach to our mission over the last 14 years and hope that in the coming weeks and months we can continue to share more of our thoughts and philosophy on the fields of social enterprise and cause marketing. Be sure to stay tuned for more.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Joe // Jul 6, 2006 at 5:07 pm
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on cause marketing. You can read mine at http://www.selfishgiving.com.
2 Jen Robinson // Jul 9, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Hi Katie,
I agree that the way that an organization implements its mission is important. FirstBook leaves people with a good impression of what the organization is doing, and how the money is spent. This in turn makes people more willing to be involved with, and donate to, FirstBook. And so on. You get a positive cycle going. Keep up the great work!
3 Katie B. // Jul 11, 2006 at 5:46 pm
First Book is constantly trying to get smarter about how we accomplish our mission as well as how we engage the public and get them involved. From our experience, we’ve found that cause-marketing campaigns are a great way to do this - and are often a lot of fun, too!
As we continue to post about these subjects, I’d love to hear your feedback about our campaigns as well as other individuals or organizations who are also doing creative cause-marketing.
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