Last month, United Way Toronto announced a staggering goal for its fall campaign, $113,000,000, the largest in North America.

This is the time of year when individuals are asked to think about “giving back” and about how we get more money to organizations working on social problems. In hundreds of corporate and government offices all across Canada, many charity fundraising drives are getting underway. People are being asked by their colleagues to dig deep and donate to help fund non-profits in their communities.

But I wonder, are leading non-profit organizations sending the wrong message with these financial goal oriented drives? Are these kinds of financial goal techniques doing more harm than good in our work to address social problems?

I think there is an opportunity at this time of year to really connect with the general public around the opportunity that social finance presents, and with non-profits around rethinking how they talk about their finances publicly.

For many individuals and corporations, the ‘fundraising thermometer’ is their only exposure to the world of social finance. What a great time to engage in debate on how we finance the non-profit sector in the first place.

As someone who has worked in philanthropy for over a decade, including 8 years with United Way, I have seen first hand the power of fundraising targets in motivating people to give as well as the impact that the dollars have in helping agencies run programs. But I think that in the long-term, we need to seek out smarter ways of measuring success, conveying progress, and addressing social problems.

A few questions keep me wondering if the non-profit sector should rethink the practice of pushing the thermometer a little higher each year...

1) Are we just entrenching the idea of charity as the only funding model?
While an important part of non-profit finance, the high profile status of public fundraising drives reinforces the idea that non-profits are solely about charity. Many people have come to view charities as little more than an unending fundraising campaign. The concept of loans to non-profits or revenue-generation models is something that most Canadians have probably never even considered.

2) How long do fundraising goals keep rising?
Year after year, donors are asked to shell out a little more in order to improve their communities and reduce social problems. Increasing the fundraising goal by a few percentage points each year will eventually hit a ceiling, especially if and when our economy goes through another recession. Unlimited and ongoing growth is just not sustainable. Donors will eventually stop giving and instead ask tough questions about why the fundraisers keep coming back year after year, always asking for more.

3) Are dollars even the right measure of success?
The fundraising thermometer is a simple tool that has obviously worked. But I think there’s a larger conversation that needs to happen around how non-profit financing works (and doesn’t work). Could appeals for funding non-profits instead be based more on the impact of their work in communities, or the likelihood of leading a specific program toward financial sustainability?

With the fall fundraising season now upon us, I hope that the people who work for and govern non-profits launching fundraising drives will ask tougher questions about the continued high-profile promotion of this model. Many donors want to better understand the work and impact of non-profits. They don’t want to just give. They want to be engaged in solutions to social problems. Let’s meet these donors where they are and engage in dialogue around new ways of measuring success and creating social impact.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelcclark/4658807659/