.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Successful investors and entrepreneurs tend to spend money wisely. So naturally, they often prefer to control how their charitable gifts will be spent. Why should anyone’s hard-earned money disappear into some group’s administrative or overhead expenses?

I urge philanthropists to do just the opposite. If you want to help a nonprofit organization reach its full potential, donate money with no strings attached.

Here’s a pattern you might recognize if you have spent time in the not-for-profit world. A group receives a generous grant or donation earmarked for a specific program. A full-time or part-time staffer is charged with running the program. When the money runs out and the final report has been written, the staffer is let go. Vital skills and institutional knowledge walk right out the door.

To avoid this problem, nonprofits sometimes “chase the dollars” by putting staff time into programs that are relatively easy to fund. In the process, they may neglect activities that are more relevant to their mission.

When they continually have trouble meeting their operating budget, nonprofits cannot offer salary and benefit packages that will attract and retain high-quality employees.

Directors spend too much time at board meetings fretting over the financials, or they get bogged down in hiring decisions because the limited budget makes it hard to preserve continuity among the staff.

All of this saps board members’ energy and takes time away from strategic planning and other governance matters.

Even when nonprofit groups can cover their basic costs, they frequently put off needed investments in infrastructure. Many groups use outdated equipment or software because they can’t justify those expenditures under any of their existing grants.

For that reason, an unrestricted donation of a few thousand dollars might be more valuable to an organization than a $10,000 gift that can be spent on only one kind of activity.

The directors of the Iowa Foundation for Education, Environment and the Arts decided years ago to give unrestricted dollars to most of the causes we support.

Though our gifts might be small in the context of a group’s overall budget, they can help cover a valued employee’s salary. They can fund that last piece of a project that falls outside the scope of other grants. They allow executive directors to pay for small, essential items without wasting time and energy trying to figure out how to justify the spending under this or that grant.

Restrictions make sense if your gift is very large, or if you have reason to believe that a program you care deeply about might be discontinued without your targeted giving.

But as a rule, I advise donors to reach a comfort level with the nonprofit groups they support. Do you believe in the group’s mission and have confidence in the skills of those who carry out that mission?

If the answer is yes, then just write the check. Give the people in charge the flexibility to spend your money wisely.

Laura Belin is the president of the Iowa Foundation for Education, Environment and the Arts.