NPO CONVERSATION

Nonprofit leaders are accustomed to justifying their continuous need for operating support in appeals to potential donors. In a “proposal letter” written in June of 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart makes his case to benefactor Johann Michael VonPuchberg :

“If you will do me this kindness, I shall primo (being thus provided) be able to make necessary payments when they are due and therefore more easily, whereas I now continually delay and must then often pay out at once all I have received, and that at the most inconvenient moment. Secondo, I shall be able to work with an easier mind and a lighter heart, and thus earn more.”

While Mozart may not be a model of good nonprofit management, his second point still resonates: funders do tend to favor financially secure organizations whose leaders are able to lead with “easy minds” and “light hearts.”

However, requests for unrestricted support have long made foundations uneasy. In the first place, private foundation resources are no match for the nonprofit sector’s operating needs, which are vast and growing. Secondly, by giving up control over exactly how a grant is spent, the connection between the investment and its results can be obscured. How should today’s funders think about the potential impact of grants for operations?

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