Friday, March 21, 2008

Hello from the Wizard

Accountability Wizardry is about the easy or innovative ways that charities are working to build public trust and the ways that innovative donors are working to do the most good with their time and money. Many of the positions I will take and the questions I will ask all come back to one of the values the staff, board, and volunteers here at the Charities Review Council frequently come back to:

Public trust is the bedrock of the charitable/nonprofit/voluntary/non-governmental sector. Donors make better decisions when they know more about a charity and trust it.

Sure there are studies and contrasting opinions that prove or disprove the role of trust and the types of information provided to donors. We'll discuss those and debate the best ways to help donors make decisions. These are hardly settled questions and we all love a well-questioned assumption (at least I do). I am personally convinced that if charities were better understood there were would be better support for them, more donors and volunteers.

I hope that these debates will uncover and share solutions to help busy and dedicated charities. If there is one thing that I have learned from the more 300 charities who we have reviewed here at the Charities Review Council, practical and cheap solutions are what is needed by the understaffed and undersupported people who are providing some of the most essential services in our society. It's time to find the appropriate technology of the nonprofit world.

I hope that this blog and other resources I point to will help charities find the support and trust they need and help donors find the charities that will help them make a better world for everyone.