This is how organizations raise more and do more at the same time. You are as strong as your weakest department.įurthermore, an organization’s donors are often their very best advocates and force multipliers, and as donors increase in numbers and giving, the organization becomes more effective in executing its mission. Mission effectiveness is the totality of all of your organization’s efforts. There is a strong correlation between good fundraising and effective programming. Rarely, if ever, does one find an organization with excellent programming and weak fundraising, despite the claims of many organizations’ leaders. Good fundraising and effective programming are correlated.

In other words, organizations that achieve effective programming outcomes have successful fundraising efforts: the two are intertwined Successful nonprofits know that fundraising must be thought of in relationship to every aspect of the organization. More often, however, the two cultures collide, creating institutional silos that frequently foster suspicion and animosity and degrade mission effectiveness.

At best, the two cultures exist side-by-side, going about their own business separately, hardly noticing each other. In many nonprofit organizations, two cultures develop: a fundraising culture and a programmatic culture. In many nonprofits, two cultures develop: a fundraising culture and a programmatic culture, creating “silo mentality” that fosters suspicion and degrades mission effectiveness.

Define silo work style