Hi everyone, this is the next-to-last blog post before I go on my yearly summer hiatus. I’ll be off all of July and August to spend time with my kids, who got me a mug that says “Not the worst dad” for Father’s Day.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son goes like this: There are two sons, an older one who is steady and hardworking, and the younger one is immature and reckless. The younger takes his inheritance early and squanders it, likely on wine and cryptocurrency, and was left destitute. He comes crawling back, and instead of being chastised by his father, the old man threw him a feast.

The older son was like “WTF?! I’ve been here the whole time doing everything right, and you’ve never once thrown me a feast. Heck, you won’t even share your streaming password with me! I’m not even sure you appreciate me!” And the father said, “Uh…remind me…who are you again?”

OK, I may need to polish up on my biblical stories.

The point is, the Prodigal Son represents someone who gets praised for losing their way and then finding it again. And while it’s great for people to learn and grow, the “Prodigal Son Effect” can be deceptive. Here are some ways it manifests in our sector:

  • A guy who is known for being an a-hole suddenly gets a change or heart and is now not as horrible as before. He gets praised, possibly even promoted, over people who have been decent the whole time
  • A man has a baby, displays some basic parenting skills, and is treated like a hero for being a good father, and people bend the rules to accommodate his schedule, whereas his women colleagues are just expected to be good mothers and get zero acknowledgement or concessions.
  • A foundation CEO holds a listening session and gets praised for being approachable, whereas other funders who have been much more present in communities get ignored.
  • A funder increases their grantmaking by a little bit, starts giving two-year grants instead of one-year, or stops requiring burdensome applications and reports, and they get applauded, whereas funders who have been doing those things for years get ignored.

Read the full article about looking beyond "Prodigal Son" funders by Vu Le at Nonprofit AF.