Previous Topic: Fiscal Responsibility
Now that you’ve got some tools to evaluate the historical financial health and decision making of prospective organizations, you now need to figure out whether you’re dumping your money down a black hole long term. The buzzword here is “sustainability”, and we’re going to use it in 2 senses: program sustainability and financial sustainability. To make this simple, I’m going to lay out a handful of sample questions you can ask an organization. One quick note, though: These really only apply to long term organizations. If you are interested in giving toward short-term relief efforts such as those for hurricanes and other natural disasters, you can probably skim through this quickly.
Program Sustainability:
Financial Sustainability:
While this is by no means an exhaustive list, it should at least get you thinking about the long term viability of the organization to whom you’d like to give. You’ve worked hard to earn what you have, and so it matters that it will be part of a program that affects change for years to come.
Next Topic: Impact