Band-Aids are Good; Preventing Bleeding in the First Place is Better

It should have been about impact all along. But now, especially, in light of governmental belt-tightening and an economy that is causing donors to think twice about how they allocate their resources, nonprofits are finally realizing that they need to emphasize outcomes to increase their funding chances.

Heart of Florida United Way needed 18 months and $50,000 in research to come to that conclusion, but at least it got there. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the chapter has refocused its funding in hopes of “going after ‘root causes’ of hunger, homelessness, crime and family violence instead of ‘putting a Band-Aid’ on the problems.” It also will seek “to collaborate with other agencies … and to focus on a handful of issues rather than spreading the funds so thinly that they have little impact.”

This new approach should help not only to increase the effectiveness of its funding efforts, but also to make a stronger case to its own donors. Of course, such an outlook — preventative maintenance, really — would help all of us, and in ways that stretch far beyond nonprofit impact. Financially, medically, and more, tackling the root causes of our problems, individually and societally, would make us far healthier and happier than addressing the symptoms that crop up later. That we don’t do this routinely could serve as a warning sign to Heart of Florida about potential difficulties in implementing its system. | 501(c)