Ethical Donations

Are there sources that your organization won’t accept funding from – no matter what?

Sometimes you just have to say “no” to funding. Yes, saying no is odd especially when organizations struggle to gain funding, but not all funding is good funding.  Organizations have to have morals, they have to have ethics as to where they’ll accept funding from.

If you do have an ‘ethical donation policy’ – good, but do review it from time to time. If you don’t have an ethical donation policy, it could be something you will want to look at.

Organizations should think about reasons why they won’t take money from certain sources, make sure the reasons are linked closely to the work and values of your organization and not for some personal reason.

As an example there will be people who can’t, or won’t accept things like:

Alcohol

Unhealthy Food Products

Gambling Proceeds

The reasons could be varied, but children’s organizations maybe loathe to accept alcohol as contributions; organizations in the health area may not want to accept donations of unhealthy foods as it could be seen that they’re forgetting their core message – healthy lifestyle.

The reasons an organization won’t accept certain donations or support from various sources could be many, but what’s important is that organizations put in the time and effort to think about their funding sources and if disclosing sources of funding could have a negative impact. Any negative impact could jeopardize funding from other sources and perception in the wider community.

Have you thought about an ethical donations policy for your organization, is it something you would put in place? If you have an ethical donations policy, how did you come to the course you’ve taken?

Have you lost funding due to mis-perception of your funding source?