… and when to quit

Yesterday I told you about an organization that did a great job knowing where to invest in their systems.

They also did another very cool thing:

They canceled one of their fundraising programs.

Every year at their big annual gala, they have several ways for people to give. This one was a drawing of sorts.

For 50 bucks, you'd get a nice bottle of wine or spirits. Sometimes a very nice bottle, but of course you wouldn't know what you were going to get.

It was fun. And it pulled in several thousand dollars, reliably, every time.

But it had two big drawbacks:

1. Those bottles had to come from somewhere, and the simple cash value of those donations was not dramatically less than the total amount raised.

2. More importantly, it was a lot of work for their staff. Acquiring, curating, packaging, transporting and setting up. Really, a lot of work.

So this year, they're scrapping it.

Are they just going to lose those several thousand dollars this year? No, there are plenty of other giving opportunities, and gala attendees who want to help will still want to help.

What they will lose is a lot of tedious effort for their staff.

Here's the thing:

The total measurable outcome is important. Several thousand is not to be sneezed at.

But the cost is worth counting. And that cost is not always in dollars.

When the expected outcome (whether in funds raised, or in lives reached) is not much more than the expected cost, it's worth asking if there might be a better way.

All the best,
A.