When most people think about the work nonprofits do, they think about direct-service work—providing food or offering low-cost healthcare. But work like this is only part of what the wide world of nonprofits can accomplish, and this limited view of their “typical” work often means that important, deserving organizations miss out on the resources they need. Some of those nonprofits that miss out are those that do “systems change,” rather than providing goods or services. Systems change involves less tangible activities, like advocacy, research, and coalition building.

Systems-change work may be neglected by donors because it is more abstract and harder to conceptualize than the more concrete examples offered by direct service. And in fact, across interviews with individual donors, philanthropic advisors, and program officers at institutional funders, we have heard that funders are often confused by and uninterested in giving to anything other than direct services.

So the question is, how can nonprofit fundraisers, philanthropic intermediaries, and others in the field encourage donors to support systems-change work? If the concept feels ambiguous and jargony to everyday, small-dollar donors, then these donors may not be compelled by the fundraising and outreach efforts of worthy systems-change organizations. Our team aimed to determine whether this problem truly exists: Do everyday donors prefer direct-service organizations over those that take a systems-change approach? And, as a potential solution, would bundling both options together into a combined fund be compelling to prospective donors? Ultimately, this research helps us answer larger questions about how generosity can best translate to material, equitable improvements in the lives of people with the least.

We recruited 457 participants online to take a survey about charitable giving. Participants completed a few initial questions about their existing giving habits, and then were asked to evaluate a series of donation opportunities. Participants were asked to rate one opportunity—randomly chosen to be either a direct-service nonprofit, a systems-change nonprofit, or a pooled fund that contributed to both direct-service and systems-change work—across a series of measures:

  • How compelling do you find their work to be?
  • How trustworthy do you think they are?
  • How effective do you think they are?
  • How moved are you to support them?
  • How likely would you be to donate to them?
  • Now, imagine you won $100 in a raffle. You can donate a portion of your $100 winnings to this cause. How much would you like to donate?

Participants were also shown a series of paired giving opportunities—a direct-service vs. a systems-change nonprofit, a systems-change nonprofit vs. a pooled fund, and a pooled fund vs. a direct-service nonprofit—and asked to choose between them.

Read the full article about systems change by Nick O’Donnell at ideas42.