Questions to Ask Nonprofit Organizations
Questions for donors, volunteers, and prospective board members assessing a nonprofit. They cover who it serves and how many, funding concentration and reserves, what evidence exists that the work does anything, pay and governance, and what happens to your money and your contact details after you give.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Who exactly do you serve, and how many people did you reach last year?
Why ask it
You want a number and a definition, since "reached" can mean anything from a full year of casework to receiving a leaflet. An organization that cannot separate the two either does not count carefully or would rather you did not look.
What would a gift the size I am considering actually pay for?
Why ask it
Naming your range gets a concrete answer instead of a brochure. Good answers translate into units of work: hours of tutoring, nights of shelter, a share of one caseworker's salary.
Where does the rest of your funding come from, and how much comes from your largest funder?
Why ask it
Concentration is the main financial risk in the sector. One funder at sixty percent means the organization's priorities are effectively set elsewhere, whatever the mission statement says.
What happens to your programs if that funder leaves?
Why ask it
Asks them to say the uncomfortable part out loud. A leadership team that has thought about it will describe which programs stop and in what order; one that has not will tell you it would never happen.
How many months of operating costs could you cover if income stopped tomorrow?
Why ask it
Reserves are the difference between an organization that can make decisions and one that takes any grant offered. Very thin reserves are common and not disqualifying, but they change what your gift is really doing.
Can you send me your most recent audited financial statements and your Form 990?
Why ask it
Both are public for most US nonprofits, so hesitation is itself informative. Also note whether the accounts are audited or merely reviewed, and whether the auditor raised anything, which the letter will say.
How do you know the program works, and what would convince you it did not?
Why ask it
The second half is the real question. Organizations that only collect stories of success have no way of noticing failure, and the ones worth funding can usually name the measure that would worry them.
What do you track internally that does not appear in your annual report?
Why ask it
Internal numbers are usually less flattering and more honest: dropout rates, waiting times, repeat visits, staff turnover. A willingness to share them tells you a lot about the culture.
What have you tried in the last two years that did not work?
Why ask it
Every real organization has something. "Nothing comes to mind" means either nothing new was attempted or failures are not discussed, and both matter more than any success story you will hear.
Which program would you close first if you had to choose?
Why ask it
Reveals whether leadership can prioritize, and often reveals a program kept alive because a funder or a board member likes it. Watch for whether the answer matches where the money currently goes.
How do the people you serve influence what you do, and do any of them sit on your board?
Why ask it
There is a large difference between consulting a community and being accountable to it. Look for actual mechanisms: seats, paid advisory roles, decisions that changed as a result, rather than surveys and listening sessions.
How many of your board members give money, and how many attend most meetings?
Why ask it
Two numbers that are easy to answer and rarely volunteered. A board that neither gives nor attends is not providing oversight, which means nobody is checking the executive director's judgment but you.
Who has left the staff in the last year, and why?
Why ask it
Turnover in small organizations is the clearest signal available to an outsider. Listen for whether departures are described concretely or waved away, and whether the same role has turned over twice.
What do you pay frontline staff, and what does the chief executive earn?
Why ask it
The ratio matters more than either figure. Underpaid frontline staff produce the turnover that undermines the programs you are funding, and executive pay is public in the 990 anyway, so the question only tests candor.
Which other organizations do similar work here, and how do you divide it up?
Why ask it
A group that can name its neighbors and describe who does what is working in a real ecosystem. One that claims to be the only provider is either mistaken or has not looked.
If I give, what will you send me afterward, and how often will you ask again?
Why ask it
Ask now and you can set terms rather than complain later. Some organizations will honor a request for one letter a year, and the ones that will not are telling you how they see donors.
Will my contact details be shared, sold, or traded with anyone?
Why ask it
List trading is still common and is the usual explanation for mail from charities you have never heard of. Ask for a written note on your record rather than a verbal assurance.
If I want to volunteer, what do the first three months look like, and how much of it is training?
Why ask it
Well-run volunteer programs have a defined start: screening, training hours, a named supervisor. If the answer is that you can turn up whenever, the program will waste your time and probably has no one coordinating it.
Can I talk to a long-serving volunteer, and to someone who stopped?
Why ask it
The first conversation will be arranged happily; the second is the test. Someone who left will tell you about the parts that do not work, which is exactly what the organization cannot tell you about itself.
What would make you tell a donor that this is not the right place for their money?
Why ask it
A genuine answer names a mismatch: a restricted gift they could not use well, a program a donor wants that is not needed, a scale of gift that would distort them. Anyone who cannot imagine turning down money is selling rather than explaining.
Assessing a nonprofit before you commit
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
What to read before you ask anything
- The most recent Form 990 if the organization is US-based. It is public, and the IRS tax-exempt organization search will confirm the group's status.
- The audited financial statements, including the notes and the auditor's letter, which is where problems are disclosed.
- The board list, checked for related names and for people who also sit on major funders' boards.
- The list of programs on the website compared with where the money actually goes in the financial statements.
- Any published evaluation, and who paid for it.
Why the overhead question is the wrong one
Restricted versus unrestricted
Restricted gifts feel safer and often make life harder, because the organization ends up funding a program you chose while unable to pay rent. If you trust them enough to give, consider giving unrestricted and asking for a report instead.
Multi-year versus one-off
A smaller amount committed for three years is usually worth more than a larger single gift, because it lets them hire. Ask whether they can absorb your gift, since a very large donation to a very small group can be destabilizing.
How to ask so you get answers
- Send the financial questions by email in advance. They require someone to look something up, and asking in a meeting just produces approximations.
- Ask for one example rather than the general approach: "tell me about a client from last month" beats "how does your program work?"
- Ask the same factual question of two people, for example the development director and a program manager. Divergence is the finding.
- Visit if there is anything to visit, at an ordinary hour rather than at an event.
- Say plainly what you are deciding and by when. Organizations triage inquiries, and a stated intention gets a serious answer.
If you are considering board service
- Ask for the last three sets of board minutes and the current budget against actuals.
- Ask whether the organization carries directors and officers liability insurance, and see the policy.
- Ask what is expected of you in money, hours, and meetings, in writing.
- Ask whether there is an audit, a conflict of interest policy, and a whistleblower policy, and when each was last used.
- Ask what the last serious disagreement on the board was about, and how it ended.
- Talk to the departing board member whose seat you would take, and ask why they are leaving.
Answers that should stop you
- Reluctance to send the 990 or audited accounts.
- No evidence beyond testimonials, and no interest in getting any.
- A board that does not meet, does not give, or is made up of the founder's relatives.
- Pressure to decide quickly, or an appeal built entirely on urgency.
- Financial statements that do not match the story you were told about program size.
- Any refusal to let you speak with the people the organization serves, where privacy is not the actual reason.