Donate Unrestricted
March 2021 The secret curse of the nonprofit world is restricted donations.
2021 年 3 月 非营利组织的秘密诅咒是捐赠受到限制。
If you haven't been involved with nonprofits, you may never have heard this phrase before.
如果您没有参与过非营利组织，您以前可能从未听说过这个短语。
But if you have been, it probably made you wince.
但如果你去过的话，它可能会让你畏缩。
Restricted donations mean donations where the donor limits what can be done with the money.
限制性捐赠是指捐赠者限制其资金用途的捐赠。
This is common with big donations, perhaps the default.
这在大笔捐款中很常见，也许是默认情况。
And yet it's usually a bad idea.
但这通常是一个坏主意。
Usually the way the
通常的方式是
donor wants the money spent is not the way the nonprofit would have chosen.
捐赠者希望所花的钱不是非营利组织会选择的方式。
Otherwise there would have been no need to restrict the donation.
否则就没有必要限制捐赠。
But who has a better understanding of where money needs to be spent, the nonprofit or the donor?
但谁更了解资金需要花在哪里，非营利组织还是捐助者？
If a nonprofit doesn't understand better than its donors where money needs to be spent, then it's incompetent and you shouldn't be donating to it at all.
如果非营利组织不能比捐助者更好地了解资金需要花在哪里，那么它就是无能的，你根本不应该向它捐款。
Which means a restricted donation is inherently suboptimal.
这意味着有限的捐赠本质上是次优的。
It's
这是
either a donation to a bad nonprofit, or a donation for the wrong things.
要么向不良非营利组织捐款，要么为错误的事情捐款。
There are a couple exceptions to this principle.
这一原则有几个例外。
One is when the nonprofit is an umbrella organization.
一种是非营利组织是伞式组织。
It's reasonable to make a restricted donation to a university, for example, because a university is only nominally a single nonprofit.
例如，向大学进行有限捐赠是合理的，因为大学名义上只是一个非营利组织。
Another exception is when the donor actually does know as much as the nonprofit about where money
另一个例外是捐赠者实际上与非营利组织一样了解资金的去向
needs to be spent.
需要花费。
The Gates Foundation, for example, has specific goals and often makes restricted donations to individual nonprofits to accomplish them.
例如，盖茨基金会有特定的目标，并经常向个别非营利组织提供有限的捐款来实现这些目标。
But unless you're a domain expert yourself or donating to an umbrella organization, your donation would do more good if it were unrestricted.
但除非您自己是领域专家或向伞式组织捐款，否则如果不受限制，您的捐款会带来更多好处。
If restricted donations do less good than unrestricted ones, why do donors so often make them?
如果限制性捐赠的效果不如非限制性捐赠，那么为什么捐赠者如此频繁地进行捐赠呢？
Partly because doing good isn't donors'
部分原因是行善不是捐助者的事
only motive.
唯一的动机。
They often have other motives as well — to make a mark, or to generate good publicity [ 1 ] , or to comply with regulations or corporate policies.
他们通常还有其他动机 - 留下痕迹，或产生良好的宣传[1]，或遵守法规或公司政策。
Many donors may simply never have considered the distinction between restricted and unrestricted donations.
许多捐赠者可能根本没有考虑过限制性捐赠和非限制性捐赠之间的区别。
They may believe that donating money for some specific purpose is just how donation works.
他们可能认为，为某些特定目的捐款就是捐款的运作方式。
And to be fair, nonprofits don't try very hard
公平地说，非营利组织并没有非常努力
to discourage such illusions.
来打消这种幻想。
They can't afford to.
他们负担不起。
People running nonprofits are almost always anxious about money.
经营非营利组织的人几乎总是对钱感到焦虑。
They can't afford to talk back to big donors.
他们无力与大捐助者顶嘴。
You can't expect candor in a relationship so asymmetric.
在如此不对称的关系中，你不能指望坦诚相待。
So I'll tell you what nonprofits wish they could tell you.
所以我会告诉你非营利组织希望他们能告诉你什么。
If you want to donate to a nonprofit, donate unrestricted.
如果您想向非营利组织捐款，请不受限制地捐款。
If you trust them to spend your money, trust them to decide how.
如果您相信他们会花钱，请相信他们会决定如何花钱。