Season 4 | Episode 10
“Sometimes it's necessary to upend things. Sometimes it's necessary to, question why things have been done a certain way. Sometimes it's necessary to make some very unpopular choices because it's not about you or me, or the egos; It's about the cause.”
In this highly anticipated episode, Matt talks to his Envision Consulting co-founder and nonprofit expert, Allison Fuller. The pair discuss their long history with nonprofit and each other, relaying hilarious and poignant stories.
Listeners are also treated to an expert clinic on nonprofit management, discussing everything from: what DEI truly means, to do’s and don’ts of the interview process--including their favorite questions to ask candidates and the answers they want (and don’t want) to hear.
Allison:
Social infrastructure is still infrastructure. You've gotta put the dollars in and the investment in. You've gotta be okay with people having working laptops and the latest software, because if not, of course it's going to be ineffective. So I think the answer is much more macro.
People have to do more for charity. You cannot outsource compassion, you cannot outsource efficiency. We have to start treating the social sector and our nonprofits and our education like we treat every major investment. And that is, full of resources and the best talented people, and then you're going to start getting the results that you really want.
Matt:
So I think that's really interesting, by the way because I think we all hear it, right? Nonprofits boast and they're like, “oh, only 10% of the dollar that you give goes to admin. The rest goes to programming”. But that's not possible. And also that's not investing. So are you saying that people have to be okay with every dollar that they give? Maybe half goes to admin? Is that what we're talking about?
Allison:
You're not looking at a. Flashpoint, you're looking at the longitude, right? What has been the long-term investment and what have been the long-term results? One year you might have a lot in infrastructure and investments, and one year, maybe, you know, five years down the line, you're not going to.
And you know, there's a saying about fundraising: “fundraising is sitting under the tree that somebody else planted.” And I believe that very much about nonprofits in general, that you have to invest early on and often, , at a loss. I mean, businesses aren't expected to do that, right? What percentage of small businesses fail?
And we expect nonprofits not to just start off on that level where you're almost at the brink of failure all the time, but then we expect you to maintain it. And then if you don't do things the way that I think you should do things, and I'm gonna not donate to you anymore. “Oh, you know, I don't think that you should have a gala. That's it. No money for you.”
So it's a whole society change about how, how we look at the social sector.