There are many noble causes in the charity sector. However, like it or not, fundraising charities operate (with scarce resources) in competitive markets for; funder grants and donations, the war for (staff) talent and even who human beneficiaries approach to help themselves.

Often there are low barriers to imitation for new charity competitors. Some competition may emerge from government agencies (local or central government). Or even self-help alternatives.

Conventional charity competitors have an obvious business strategy – one based on making a bigger impact and claiming to be more relevant to user needs.

Some charities who by default and with noble intentions, try to be ‘all things to all beneficiaries’, find their resources become overstretched – quality suffers and they rapidly become caught in an impact dilemma – providing superior support to existing beneficiaries (a form of saving the world one beneficiary at a time) versus growing the beneficiary base (a form of greatest good for the greatest number).

The solution isn’t just sharper strategic focus on the range of beneficiary services to offer. But also, sharper strategic focus on the range of jurisdictions to support beneficiaries in.

Simon