Title: Unpopular view that happens to be true.

Subtitle: I don’t make the rules so don’t shoot the messenger.

Inflammatory Statement: For nonprofit organizations, Money is equally if not more important than Mission.

Logic: Nonprofits exist for the sake of a Mission, but taking steps to impact that Mission requires resources. The unfortunate truth is that the bigger and the more ambitious the Mission is, the more resources it will consume.

Another way of thinking about this is that nonprofits without self-generating sources of funding and access to deep pools of talent are charities, and most charities have capped upside because it’s difficult to do big things when you’re reliant on annual donations to stay afloat.

Therefore, the Boards of successful nonprofits know that until the nonprofit is self-sustaining (if this is even possible), they have to focus on the goals of their sources of funding as well as the needs of the talent working day in and day out on the Mission.

Without resources, there would be no impact. Any nonprofit Board that doesn’t understand this is living in an ivory tower.