iDonate Assessment score

We recently put YouMeWeNPO through the rigors of how efficient we are with the donations received since our founding. We are pleased with the results

As a donor and a founder of a non-profit organization, I am very well aware that there is a finite amount of funds and time when doing philanthropic work.

I was always under the perhaps false impression that donors wanted us to deploy all donations to the community. In a recent board meeting, we discussed the need to keep reserves for years when the donations are not as robust but at the same time consider why we are doing what we do.

No non-profit organization should be hoarding cash to the point where they have more than one year's operating budget covered without any inflows of donations.

If there are excess funds on the balance sheet, they should be deployed to the community. Otherwise, it is a FOR profit organization when year in and year out the balance sheet grows and grows.

33,000 children are living in 600 homes in Japan. If we gave each child a laptop, that would be $16,500,000 or 2.6 Billion yen. I have always known that.

Yet as a donor, I am reminded that when I have a finite amount of funds to donate personally or on behalf of a group’s funds I represent, we need to look at the most impact we can have by making that donation. If it remains in the coffers of the groups, then perhaps we need to look elsewhere.

Your operating expenses AND the funds you save are a combined total of the ratio used for Administrative costs and the remainder is for the "cause". We look to look at the 20:80 rule. 20 percent for administration costs and 80 percent for the cause.

When I was in Hong Kong and the CSR team of the investment bank, I met a colleague who was previously a stock analyst. Bonita Wang. She applied the same skills and methodology for reviewing a company stock to non-profits and their efficiency.

Though Bonita has moved on to other endeavors, we asked her to use the iDonate methodology for our NPO and were pleasantly surprised to find that we scored high in efficiency but not surprised that we are in constant need of additional funding since we deploy all donations to the community.

-Michael Clemons

Below are YouMeWeNPO scores over the first five years of operations:

iDonate Methodology