Wall Street Journal: Excellent Small Charities Overlooked by Donors
December 9, 2005
(Editor’s note: The following appeared as a letter to the editor in the Wall Street Journal)
The enormous nonprofit sector receives painfully little attention by the mainstream financial press ("Doing Well at Doing Good,” The Journal Report on Money Matters, Nov 28). Although the excessive compensation enjoyed by a few chief executive officers of mega-non-profits in the U.S. has led to proposed federal legislation mirroring Sarbanes-Oxley, the real tragedy is that so much money winds up in the hands of a few well-known charities, leaving the great majority to operate on a shoestring.
I can assure you that the competition is every bit intense among these small businesses as it is in the for-profit world. The irony is that the smallest operations frequently have the most to offer a donor, in terms of the potential impact their gift may have. Given the special challenges that U.S. charities face this year, your article couldn’t have been better timed.
Robert. O. McAlister, Ph.D.
Intracranial Hypertension Research Foundation