What to Say When Your Donor Asks: How Much do you Spend on Overhead?
I’ve been asked this question many times.
One of the ways I’ve answered is with my own questions:
- If you could invest 20 cents to get a dollar, would you?
- If you could invest 50 cents to get a dollar, would you?
- If the dollar you got was old, wrinkly and ripped, would that matter to you?
- If the dollar you got was mint, would it be worth it to you to pay a bit more?
Maybe the return on your invesment doesn’t matter to you. But maybe it does. In the case of the wrinkly vs. mint dollar bill, it would matter a lot if you’re a collector. Change that to 50 cents to buy a bag of fresh, nutritious produce that will last a full week vs. 20 cents to buy a bag of old, rotten vegetables, and you begin to understand.
All things are not created equal.
That’s true, in spades, for what folks consider ‘appropriate’ overhead.
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