Do you make sure that the charities you work with have a low percentage admin fee?

Charities, like social enterprises, are businesses, and to run a sustainable and successful business, you need to invest in great people and tools to build awareness and drive growth. The huge difference is that charities, like social enterprises, use their skills and passion to raise money for a cause that helps people in need, unlike the general goal of business, which is to make money to make their shareholders and investors wealthier.

At Thankyou, we’re proud to partner with sustainable charities around the world that are taking an innovative approach to development. We have a comprehensive due diligence process when it comes to choosing which charity partners we allocate funds to. That includes understanding their current and future overheads, the costs involved to reach a person in poverty, and staff remuneration policies. 

We partner with charities that are focused on maximising impact outcomes, both now and in the future, for the lives of some of the world's most vulnerable populations. This means employing and retaining skilled, values-led team members who think strategically about how to grow so they can make the greatest possible impact, or having systems that ultimately avoid organisational inefficiencies. This also means they are constantly monitoring metrics such as the cost to serve someone with their solution (derived by dividing an organisation's total expenses by the number of people they reach). This is important, as they know their program is a short-term solution, and in order to exit sustainably and create a sustainable solution, a scale partner (like a government agency or private business) must be able to adopt and financially replicate their program. 

Ultimately, we focus on whether they are impact-driven, have a sustainable solution, and have an impact on the communities they serve, rather than first judging the performance of an organisation based on the expenses it spends on its overheads. 

You can read more about our impact model on our website here!