I have recently finished a thought-provoking book on
philanthropy. Jimmy LaRose wrote this book to encapsulate the advice he has
been giving his clients for a number of years. It is advice that does not go
down easy and it is advice that does not always make him popular in the
non-profit industry. LaRose, who is based in Lexington, S.C., titled the book
RE-IMAGINING PHILANTHROPY. His is a
challenging message that I have to believe has received a good bit of blow back
in much of the non-profit world.
Why the blow back? Well, LaRose is telling non-profits they
need to do a better job of serving their primary clients while at the same time
telling them the primary client is not the person receiving the non-profit’s
services but the person and the people supplying the funds to sustain the
non-profit’s work.
Throughout his book and the videos and other materials in
which he shares his ideas, which are bed rocked in the statement, “Money is
more important than mission (or Ministry).” (p 30)
With his unblinking focus on money, which he terms the
oxygen of the non-profit system, he then concludes that “donors are more
important than causes or people.” (p 33)
Who is the actual "client"/ "customer?"
And as he continues to build his argument in that first chapter of his book,
his next major position is that the customers, clients or non-profits are not
those who are served but those whose money pays for the services. His
in-your-face statement in positive terms is: “Successful nonprofits understand
that donors are the object of their mission and must be served before people in
need.” (p34)
Reading this as the executive director of a grant makingorganization (a donor organization) it immediately struck me that LaRose was
choosing a very provocative frame around which to discuss how philanthropy
might work. As a donor organization we work with non-profits to help them
achieve amazing goals and succeed in making a positive difference in the life
of people and the structure of community. I am not sure we have ever thought of
ourselves as the customers of the non-profit.
As I process the
information from this book, I am still not sure on which side I come down but I
can say it provokes thought and new ideas for strategy and tactics in both fund
raising and organization management.
Example of Mission Statements Changing
In this blog I am not going to try to provide all the
arguments or assess the arguments. In this communication my goal is to make you
aware the argument is out there. And to
show you a little about the direction the argument takes here is an example LaRose
gives of a typical mission statement: “Harvest Town Food Bank exists to provide
our community’s hurting, hungry, and homeless the clothing, food, and
nutritional care they so desperately need.”
(p 35) Now, here is that mission
rewritten with a new audience as focus:
“Harvest Town Food Bank provides donors, volunteers, and advocated the
organization they require to serve our community’s hurting, hungry and
homeless.”
Opening New Discussion
Once you begin to see what reimagining philanthropy means in
terms of mission it begins to make more sense and lead onto multiple paths of discussion
– if not understanding – that may need to be part of building stronger, more
sustainable non-profit organizations.
I have an extra book and am willing to share with anyone who
would like to read it. And, you can find much of the Jimmy LaRose message in
video on his website www.JimmyLaRose.com.
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