Digging for the Evidence that a New Charity is Needed

Our fourth objective, as we said before, is to help donors easily find the information they need to assure themselves that their gifts will be effectively and efficiently used for the purpose the donor intends. This information is of two distinct types.

1. The first kind of information needed is essentially demographic in nature. It would consist of the number of potential service recipients in the start-up charity's geographic area, along with a determination of the number of charities already serving that population. Arts, environment and public service organizations will have a harder time coming up with such figures. But human service networks can readily provide such information and much of the work has been done in the collection of census data.

2. The second type of information needed is that we would need to know the types of service program already in operation and their relative effectiveness with the people they serve. The result should be a number of those who comprise the target population that is understood as not being served with necessary programs. Here, the founder of a charity start-up may need to do a little digging. But this is relevant work when starting up a new nonprofit, and the founder's feet need to be kept to the fire to investigate the field thoroughly before putting together the plan for a new nonprofit.

Through these numbers we can see the relative need for the new charity, both in terms of numbers of target population, and in the extent of programming needed to complement or assist that which is already in place. These should become a part of the new charity start-up review process.