Under the section Measuring the Impact of Foundations, Prewitt referenced the Civil Rights Movement. He stated that the famous social movement was “organized principally by churches” (373). This fact is true. However, I was not pleased with the undertone suggesting that foundations do not make a major impact on social movements. The NAACP may argue "you never know what you have until it’s gone".
For some people, the Civil Rights Movement and the NAACP are synonymous. As noted in the infamous Harvard Business School’s NAACP case, Ford Foundation is a major donor. In fact, the foundation’s financial withdrawal contributed to the NAACP’s crisis in 1995.To overturn the crisis, one of the first actions the organization’s new CEO did was reconstruct the relationship the organization had with major donors like the Ford Foundation. A CEO of a nonprofit in a crisis would not focus their energy on factors that are insignificant. Therefore, the NAACP immediately mending its relationship with the Ford Foundation proves that foundations can serve as a major factor in social movements. The Ford Foundation has been a major donor for the NAACP since the peak of the Civil Rights Movement. If Ford would have withdrawal their support in the late 1960s, the nonprofit leader at the time would have probably attempted to restructure or renegotiate a deal with the foundation.
I think this is a good example of financial risk management. If an organization is relying that heavily on funding from a single source, they need to diversify their revenue sources.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that could be part of the capacity rating system for Charity Navigator - how many sources of funding does the organization have?
Since the 2.0 project we are currently working on doesn't calculate any scores yet, I can only guess what they are going to do with the info they have us collect - It looks like the revenue sources might be taken into consideration.