Strategic Planning More Important Than Fundraising in Non-Profit Organization Sustainability

Among non-profit organizations that received a Packard Foundation grant to build organizational effectiveness, grantees that concentrated on improving fundraising development capacity had weaker long-term organizational outcomes than grantees that focused on strategic planning, organizational learning, or leadership succession. Those that focused more on fundraising were less likely to have met their grant objectives, reported lower level of sustainability, and less impact on program services. These are findings reported by TCC Group for the Goldmine Project, an analysis of the Packard Foundation’s support for non-profit capacity-building activities through 1,392 “organizational effectiveness” grants awarded since 1997 . . .