Uncharitable, a documentary that argues nonprofits operate under excessively prohibitive constraints, is set to be released in late March. The movie is based on Dan Pallotta’s 2008 book, Uncharitable – How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential. Uncharitable was initially published by Tufts University Press. A new paperback edition was released by Brandeis University Press last year.
The book offers a series of arguments against some of the primary complains perennially levied against nonprofits. Within its first chapter, Pallotta cautions against:
-Constraints on compensation, stating that the impulse for leadership to act charitably does not automatically require self-deprivation;
-Prohibitions on risk which punish bold actions by nonprofits while rewarding timidity;
-A focus on short-term vision spurred by a perceived need for immediate gratification;
-Discouragement of paid advertising, which potentially allows nonprofits to cede attention and other results to competitors; and,
-Discouragement of investment returns, which potentially reduce or eliminate non-donation funding sources.
These arguments have a personal element for Pallotta, whose own former for-profit company, Pallotta TeamWorks, came under fire in 2002 for the fees it charged as well as Pallotta’s own salary. At the time, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote “Critics railed at his $394,500 salary — low for a corporate chief executive, but stratospheric in the aid world” while also noting some had raised eyebrows at “the millions of dollars spent on advertising and marketing and other expenses.” (https://nyti.ms/3wzj3Hc). Pallotta TeamWorks closed in 2002.
Pallotta has indicated these occurrences influenced the upcoming movie. In the introduction to the 2022 edition of his book, he wrote: “It features the emotional stories of several highly successful social entrepreneurs who were destroyed by our irrational ideas about charities,” such as the 2016 allegations claiming Wounded Warrior Project’s expenditures were not focused enough on mission-specific activities. (https://bit.ly/3XHUfIP)
According to advance materials, the movie features a variety of present and former nonprofit executives, including Chris Anderson, CEO of TED; Rudy Espinoza, executive director, Inclusive Action for the City; Scott Harrison, founder and CEO, Charity:Water; Katie Hood, CEO of One Love Foundation and former CEO of the Michael J. Fox Foundation; Milton Little, CEO, United Way of Greater Atlanta; Dorri McWhorter, CEO, YMCA of Greater Chicago; Steve Nardizzi, former CEO and co-founder of Wounded Warrior Project; Edward Norton, actor and founder of Crowdrise; Raj Panjabi, founder of Last Mile Health and Special Assistant to the President and senior director for global health security & biodefense, The White House; Roxanne Spillett, former CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America; Mark Tercek, former CEO of The Nature Conservancy; Tom Tierney, chairman and co-founder, Bridgespan Group; and Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation.
Several of those featured in the documentary are on the board of or advisors to The Charity Defense Council which was founded by Pallotta and had been in disputes with the boards of the organizations where they worked that resulted in them leaving the organizations.
Pallotta has previously been well received by some within the nonprofit community. Pallotta’s website quotes Oxfam America President Raymond C. Offenheiser saying: “If we are indeed going to succeed in innovating our way to a sustainable future in the 21st century, we will need to unlock the moral and creative potential of the non-profit sector, enable it to interact more comfortably and flexibly with the market, create the right incentives for the recruitment of America’s most talented social innovators, and rethink our approaches to capitalizing our best ideas and institutions. If [Pallotta’s work] is heresy, we need more of it.”
Billy Shore, founder and executive chair of Share Our Strength, is quoted on the same site as saying: “Dan Pallotta understands that being faithful to those that charities are designed to serve requires more than generosity and good management. It requires taking risks, confronting antiquated notions of politically correct charity, and most of all remembering that nonprofit efficiency should be a means to an end not an end in itself. Uncharitable charts a new path that if followed, could finally create the incentives needed to unleash the enormous potential of nonprofits to change the world.” Shore is featured in the upcoming movie.
The documentary is set to premier on March 28 in New York City, on March 30 in Los Angeles and in Washington D.C. (April 4) and Boston and Chicago (April 6). The movie will have a wider theatrical run within the United States and Australia starting on April 15 and will be available via streaming on May 30. A trailer is available here: https://bit.ly/3Re1Gp0
