Imagine for a moment that you have a young child in your life, one with whom you are quite fond of, and you want to give them an awesome birthday present. You search around and find that amazing thing you just know they’ll love, you wrap it up all nice and pretty and swing by their house to drop it off. You ring the bell, but alas, no one is home, so you simply leave the gift on the doorstep, and drive home, smiling as you imagine the child tearing open the paper and discovering what’s inside. Now imagine that weeks go by and you hear nothing—no text from the parents, no thank you card in the mail, no post on social media identifying you as the giver of such joy. How inclined are you to want to go through that process again on the next birthday?
Sadly, this is often a similar emotion we feel when engaging in charitable giving—there is a great sense of joy and excitement when we send off the check as we think about the projects this donation could fund or the people it could impact, but then we experience an equal sense of disappointment and even anger when all the communication we get back from our donation is an end of year giving statement and a general newsletter filled with a scattering of statistics and abstract figures. Where is your donation in it all? What was the impact your dollars made on people’s lives? Did it make an impact? Should I give again next year?
The struggle is communication—it’s the “what happened to my donation” question. Some nonprofits do an excellent job in keeping in touch with donors so they are able to know exactly the impact their dollars are going. However, it is far more often the exception than the rule. It’s not really the fault of the non-profit…they are often stretched to the max dealing with all the complications that come with each day, or they have thousands of other donors to deal with. But what the donor values is the simple understanding of whose life was changed by their giving.
This is the place where an intermediary is so impactful. Having someone who has the relational connection to the organization where the donations are being made can not only ensure that funds are being utilized well but can report back and share stories of the lives that were impacted by the gift. Imagine that, instead of a few statistics or intangible figures, donors were able to connect with the person or persons who benefited from the gift and hear how it impacted their life.
This is what we at mBridge Global want to offer other generous individuals and charitable foundations – the opportunity to connect on a deeper level to their donations. This will change how donors give and bring a much deeper meaning to the why behind their giving.
If your charitable giving feels pointless, or at a minimum abstract and distant, consider partnering with mBridge to bring your giving to life!
Brady Backstrom
Director of Operations
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