Good Questions to Ask a Nonprofit Organization
Questions for donors, volunteers, and job candidates assessing a nonprofit: who it serves and how many, where the money comes from and how concentrated it is, how results are measured, what the board actually does, staff turnover, and what happens if funding drops.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Who do you serve, and how many people did you reach last year?
Why ask it
Ask for both numbers if they differ: people served intensively and people touched once are often reported as one figure. A group that cannot separate them usually is not measuring depth of service at all.
What does a typical gift actually pay for?
Why ask it
You want a sentence that connects money to activity, such as what a week of one caseworker costs. Organisations that can only answer in mission language have rarely done the arithmetic internally either.
Which three funders make up the largest share of your budget, and how large is that share?
Why ask it
Concentration is the main financial risk in the sector. If a single grant is most of the income, the organisation's plans belong to that funder, whatever the strategy document says.
Are your most recent audited accounts and annual filing available, and where?
Why ask it
In the US this means the Form 990 and, above certain thresholds, an audit. Reluctance is a signal in itself, since these are public documents and any well-run organisation will simply send the link.
What did you spend on fundraising last year, and how do you count it?
Why ask it
The interesting part is the accounting. Shared costs get allocated between programmes and fundraising in ways that vary widely, so ask how the split is decided rather than accepting the ratio.
If your funding dropped by a quarter, which programme would you cut first?
Why ask it
This forces a real ranking and shows whether leadership has thought about triage. An answer that everything is equally vital means the decision will be made in a crisis by whoever is in the room.
How do you know a programme is working, and who does the measuring?
Why ask it
Look for an outcome rather than an activity count, and for measurement done by someone with no stake in the result. Attendance figures and satisfaction surveys tell you the service happened, not that it helped.
What have you stopped doing because it did not work?
Why ask it
The most revealing question on this list. An organisation that has ended a programme on evidence has a functioning feedback loop; one that has only ever added is accumulating activity and calling it growth.
How do the people you serve influence what you offer?
Why ask it
Ask for the mechanism: seats on the board, paid advisory roles, a survey that changed something specific. Consulted is easy to say and usually means a meeting that had no effect on the plan.
How many staff do you have, what was your turnover last year, and how many are from the community you serve?
Why ask it
High turnover in a small nonprofit usually reflects pay, workload, or leadership, and it is expensive in relationships with the people served. Ask how many roles went unfilled for more than three months.
How much of the work depends on volunteers, and what does a volunteer's first six months look like?
Why ask it
Well-run volunteer programmes cost staff time to supervise. If the answer is that volunteers are always welcome, with no training, screening, or named coordinator, expect a frustrating experience and, in services involving children or vulnerable adults, a safeguarding concern.
What does your board actually do, and do all members give money?
Why ask it
You want evidence of governance: how often they meet, what they last said no to, whether there is a finance or audit committee. A board that only receives reports is not overseeing anything.
Where does your work overlap with other organisations here, and why are you separate?
Why ask it
A confident answer names the neighbours and explains the division of labour, sometimes including a referral arrangement. Claiming to be the only one doing this work is rarely true and suggests they are not talking to peers.
What is your biggest unfunded need right now?
Why ask it
The honest answer is often unglamorous: a finance manager, a database, a vehicle, or rent. Donors tend to fund programmes and starve the infrastructure that makes programmes possible, so this is where a gift often does most good.
What is the most common criticism of your work, and what is your answer to it?
Why ask it
Being able to state the criticism fairly before rebutting it shows they have engaged with it. An organisation that has never heard a criticism has either not been paying attention or is not being candid with you.
What was your hardest year, and what changed afterwards?
Why ask it
A funding loss, a leadership departure, or a serious incident, and then what was put in place. This is where you learn whether the organisation learns, and it is far more informative than a list of achievements.
How many months could you operate if giving stopped tomorrow?
Why ask it
Reserves are usually thin in this sector, and a specific number means someone is watching cash rather than only the annual budget. No answer at all is a warning about financial management generally.
What happens to a restricted gift you cannot spend as intended?
Why ask it
Restricted funds carry legal obligations, and the good answer describes going back to the donor to agree a change. If the answer is that money moves where it is needed, ask who authorises that.
Where do you want to be in three years, and what has to be true for it to happen?
Why ask it
The second half is the test. Plans that depend on a specific grant, a hire, or a policy change are credible; plans that depend on generally growing awareness are aspiration with a timeline attached.
What is the most useful thing someone like me could do this year?
Why ask it
Asked at the end, this gets a real answer rather than a standard appeal: an unrestricted gift, a monthly commitment, a specific skill, an introduction, or a reliable four hours a week. The specificity of the answer also tells you how well they manage supporters.
Assessing a Nonprofit Before You Commit
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Read the filings before you ask
The public documents answer half of this list
In the United States, an organisation's Form 990 shows revenue mix, the largest salaries, and reserves, and is freely searchable. Elsewhere the equivalent is usually a charity regulator's register. Read those first so your meeting is spent on what the documents cannot explain.
Overhead ratio is a weak measure of quality
A very low overhead figure often means no evaluation capacity, no finance staff, and salaries below market, which shows up later as turnover and unreliable numbers. Ask what overhead pays for and whether it covers someone competent to handle the money.
Ask the same question of two organisations
Answers about reach and results are hard to judge in isolation because there is no shared standard for counting. Asking two groups working on the same problem how they measure success makes both answers legible.
What a strong answer sounds like
- A number with its source and its limits attached, rather than a round figure.
- A clear distinction between people reached once and people served over time.
- A programme they ended, with the reasoning.
- A criticism of their own work stated fairly before it is answered.
- An unglamorous need named specifically, such as a finance hire or a database, instead of general support.
Signals worth slowing down for
- Impact described only in stories, with no count of anyone.
- Reluctance to share accounts or filings that are already public.
- One funder or one founder holding everything together, with no succession plan.
- A board that has never declined anything management proposed.
- Urgency applied to you as a donor, particularly a deadline that exists only for your gift.
If you are volunteering or applying for a job
- Ask who supervises volunteers, what training exists, and what screening is required for work with children or vulnerable adults.
- Ask what happened to the last person in the role you are considering, and how long the average tenure is.
- Ask how decisions get made between the board and the staff, and where that has recently been tested.
- Ask what the organisation does about burnout, and then ask someone who works there whether it happens.