Shorthand for impact.

WellFunded | Jeff Golby
2 min readJun 4, 2024

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According to Candid’s latest report, the median revenue for majority white-led organizations is 54% higher than that of BIPOC-led non-profits. 70% of non-profits are led by those who identify as white. It’s a club. And the “exclusive” behaviours of this club comes with its rewards (better funding) so the club has a built in incentive to reinforce itself. Similar stats exist around gender and the charity sector. We often give to those who resemble us, driven by proxies like familiarity, relationships, and a desire to reduce cognitive dissonance as substitutes for trust. We “naturally” feel more inclined to donate to those within our social circles or who share our background. We think this is going to lead to better outcomes.

Trust is complicated — particularly when there’s a significant gap between what a non-profit does with the money and what they claim they will do (fundraising). As mentioned in the earlier post, we rely on proxies to create a bridge for this stakeholder gap. However, to address the inequities, inefficiencies, and ineffectiveness in our current fundraising system, we need to reconsider how we build these shortcuts to trust. We need to reconsider the proxies.

Ideally, the grant application process could reduce inequity and foster greater trust. It appears democratic, seemingly based on proposal quality rather than connections. Yet, in reality, only about 4% of grant dollars go to BIPOC-led organizations, with far worse figures for NPOs serving minority populations.

Larger non-profits are growing by 20% annually, while smaller ones shrink at the same rate, not because of better impact but due to the wrong proxies being used. In fact, there have been significant studies done how, particularly when serving small, minority communities or vulnerable populations, smaller non profits outperform larger ones.

Nonetheless, when taken on a whole, the current fundraising machine has caused:

  • Major donors are dropping out at unprecedented rates.
  • Giving engagement levels are at an all-time low across the board.
  • Non-profits are starved for resources while being increasingly relied upon.
  • The next potential world-changer may remain unheard of because she lacks wealthy connections and can’t produce a lengthy grant application.

It’s time we give things a re think.

I’m building a tool with a few others to re-think the major donor philanthropy space, but I need your help.

  1. If you’re a charity, I need at least 25 charities to help us review the “Charities Portrait” (common grant application) and sign on as early users. Email me at jeff@wellfunded.io to learn more.
  2. If you’re a Foundation, DAF, or individual donor — we’re building a product specifically for you and want to hear “what would help end your giving grief?” Lets chat more: jeff@wellfunded.io

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WellFunded | Jeff Golby

Jeff Golby is the founder of WellFunded, working to reimagine how Philanthropists and Charities partner together to change the world.