Donors: 5 Things Nonprofits Want You to Know

Published by: The Center for Effective Philanthropy. June 2018, USA. 8 pages.

This resource looks at what CEP has heard through candid, anonymous feedback from more than 100,000 nonprofit leaders about what they believe donors can do to best support nonprofit organisations to do their most effective work. When it looked at what it had learned from analysing this perception data, collected over the past 15 years, it saw five distinct themes for what nonprofits wanted their donors to know, but may be unable to tell them directly due to the power imbalance between the two:

Understanding the needs of the constituents that nonprofits are serving is essential for donors and nonprofits alike.
Strong relationships between donors and nonprofits are grounded in understanding and openness.
Generous, unrestricted financial support best enables nonprofit leaders to strengthen their organisations.
Most nonprofits want to assess their performance so they can learn and improve, and they could use more support to do this.
Providing support beyond money can help nonprofit staffs strengthen their skills, make important connections, and better pursue their missions.