“The emperor has no clothes!”
Somebody’s got to say it. Why aren’t lots of people saying
it?
Here’s the story: The Charity Defense Council of Cambridge,
MA, is strongly pushing a siren call for non-profit organizations to think more
like for-profit organizations, and spend whatever they think they need for
marketing and salaries in order to have “big impact.”
The Council wants non-profits and their leaders—and you and
me—to forget that nasty old-think about non-profits keeping “overhead” to a
minimum so the maximum amount of contributed dollars
go to charitable purposes.
Here’s the Council's website, judge for yourself.
The Boston Globe recently reported that Dan Pallotta, who
heads the Charity Defense Council, has “insisted for years that nonprofits
should adopt a more corporate model of doing business. That includes spending
more on themselves, an expense traditionally viewed by donors and watchdog
groups as wasteful.”
I don’t buy it. For one thing, the corporate model for doing
business has turned out really crappy results for America and Americans in the
past several years. Think about it. Think about all the big companies and
corporate leaders that you look up to. Think about the ones who have done
things that turned out to be good for you.
Here’s another thing: I believe that as soon as any
organization’s leaders and directors start to think it’s open season on paying
themselves bigger (and, eventually, truly big) bucks, many of them are going to
start doing it. You are welcome to cherish your own opinion on this point.
Finally, I just want to aim at the current, very public billboard
advertising campaign of Mr. Pallotta and the Charity Defense Council:
Billboard space (worth about $66,000) has been donated by
Clear Channel Outdoor—Clear Channel owns lots of billboards, and I guess Clear
Channel would love to sell more billboard space to lots of non-profits who
might be tempted to increase their marketing budgets.
Pallotta’s own company, Advertising for Humanity, did pro
bono design work for the Council’s billboards. Advertising for Humanity,
according to its website, is a “full-service brand and inspiration agency for
the humanitarian sector,” that is, it sells planning, marketing and advertising
services to non-profit organizations. Pallotta is president and “Chief Humanity
Officer” of his company.
I presume he’s a heck of a salesman, but I’m not buying.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment