A Four Part Series on Christian, Not For Profit Critical Thinking

How does an individual, a church or business choose the correct Not-For-Profit Organization for partnership to accomplish their humanitarian goals? I trust this series will not solicit a hateful and unhealthy discussion about organizations that have lost your trust or made decisions that seemingly affect your personal standards or have veered away from a more traditional biblical mooring.

The intended purpose of this discussion is to assist you to think through the critical issues involved in choosing the right partner to care for those who live in poverty and who are working through a crisis.  I will assume that any organization you choose would care for people on both the physical and spiritual issues that they may be facing.

There are plenty of good choices that you can make. I will write from the experience and platform that I am privileged to serve each day as the Executive Director of What Non Profit to SupportCPR-3.

Organizations that serve in the sector of emergency services and serving the poor in developing countries have a moral obligation to be good stewards with the monies entrusted to them.  The intent of any dollar given to either of these necessary services is that a high percentage of each dollar will go directly to the people who ‘need’ the money.

Every donor understands that an organization that serves in this space has overhead. Donors realize that an organization like the one I lead could not offer the services desired to be carried out without leadership and structures to accomplish the best care possible for those in need.

Donors will choose an organization that lines up with their personal belief system. Most donors have a set of presuppositions about these organizations. Are they ‘faith-based?’  Do they follow a ‘best practice’ agenda?  Are they ‘non-discriminating?’

CPR-3 is a small and relatively newer organization. There are large and long-standing organizations that have served in the Not-For-Profit space effectively and faithfully and I am quite confident that all of them are doing some level of good. The intent of the following is not to set one or the other up as better but to offer some thoughts that I hope will assist you in making the best decisions as it relates to you engaging in the humanitarian efforts that I believe is not only right, but required if you are a human being.  This includes the ‘time’ you give to serve these organizations and the ‘money’ you entrust to them to carry out your intended purpose.  We must be accountable.

Join us over the next few days as we critically think about not-for-profits in 4 areas. Where do you give your money, time, and support to? Do you weigh the factors and hold not-for-profits accountable?

Dan O’Deens is the Executive Director and Founder of CPR-3. Follow him at danodeens.com.