Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Curmudgeonly Counting

I was listening to a pledge drive on the radio, and they had several "Challenge Grants" in which anonymous donors put up $5,000 or more if a certain number of callers make a minimum pledge.  Does anyone else calculate the ROI on these things?  One challenge offered $20,000 if 2,000 callers would pledge $360 in an hour.  That's a grant of 1/36, or 2.78%.  Aren't there bonds or CDs that would return more so you could just invest it and give the charity the total return?

I know these are mostly psychological ploys - each of the 2,000 donors can say their pledge was the key to $20,000 - but still.  Building up excitement with the fuzzy math seems even a little dishonest to me.  But I might just be being curmudgeonly.

2 comments:

  1. aha! But you're missing the point. If say 350 people donated that one time, the chances they'll donate again are high...and every year... basically for 20K a donor has potentially brought in a lifetime income well beyond the original 20K gift.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If the donors kept donating, either there wouldn't be pledge drives multiple times a year or someone is really making a lot of money off this nonprofit.

    ReplyDelete