Michele May Stephanie Dodson April 22, 2014

Low overhead is a sign of an effective and well- run nonprofit. It is morally wrong for people who are helping people to be paid well. $ spent on fundraising and marketing = fewer people being helped.

IMPACT is the measure of whether money is being well spent… And, high impact requires an investment in capacity and infrastructure. Overhead ratios do not communicate effectiveness.

Overhead costs provides important information to funders…. And, taken in context, are a useful evaluation tool

Unrealistic funder expectations Pressure on nonprofits to conform Misleading reporting …leads to under-investing in infrastructure…and ultimately to serving fewer people less well

Program Services – Activities that result in good and services being distributed to beneficiaries, customers or members that fulfill the purposes or mission for which the NFP exits Overhead – Administrative expenses - Expenses for overall operations and management, e.g. general legal services, accounting, insurance, office management, HR, costs of BOD meetings – Fundraising/Development

Inherently subjective: No IRS spending rules, just disclosure 20 percent norm perpetuated by both funders and organizations Practice of misreporting overhead is tacitly supported Better ratings from online charity advisors for lower overhead ratios

2004 Indiana University study: · When researchers examined the tax forms from 220,000 nonprofit organizations to determine the accuracy of financial reporting, they found “widespread reporting that defies plausibility.” Over a third of the organizations reported any fundraising costs whatsoever, while one in eight reported that they had no management and general expenses. 75 to 85 percent of these organizations were incorrectly reporting the costs associated with foundation or government grants.

ONLY RULE: Must be reasonable and consistently applied EXAMPLES OF ISSUES: What percentage of the ED’s salary is overhead? What portion of depreciation is related to program? How to allocate website costs? How to allocate IT costs?

Traditional foundations – Allowances are typically 10-15% of each grant allocation Individual donors – 2001 BBB survey found that over half of adult Americans felt that nonprofit organizations should have overhead rates of 20% or less Government: – contracts limit the amount of overhead that can be used to between 0 and 15%

Is the organization making an impact? Are they careful about transparency, governance, leadership, results? How does the impact versus cost of this organization stack up versus other organizations I might fund?

Two Examples Rosie’s Place Artists for Humanity Strategic Grant Partners and a Venture Philanthropy approach

Educate your board about your infrastructure needs and how they will impact the effectiveness of your programs Make sure you understand and manage your program costs –good internal systems required Look at Financial SCAN for comparative info Consider growing non-grant funding (i.e. direct mail, events) for stable source of admin expenses