Giving Compass' Take:

• Jessica Johansen, director of special projects at Siegel Family Endowment, shares why philanthropy should support both the administrative and program needs of nonprofit organizations. 

• Johansen notes that you can't have one without the other. How do your support an organization with your dollars?

• Read more about how funders can understand the significance of general operating funds. 

As the director of special projects at Siegel Family Endowment, I spend a lot of time talking to folks in the philanthropic sector about their approaches to funding. It's an opportunity to get in the weeds with others about their strategic priorities and to build an understanding of innovation and best practices in the field.

And for years now, I've heard funder after funder draw the same false distinction between supporting an organization's administrative costs and its program costs.

There's one thing they're ignoring when they make this kind of distinction: You can't have one without the other.

If there's a single prerequisite for running an effective program, it's having the right administrative structures in place to do so. HR, compliance, reporting, fundraising, finance, IT —  they're all critical factors in determining whether a program ultimately succeeds or fails.

Read the full article about program and administrative funding by Jessica Johansen at PhilanTopic.