In defense of marketing and admin budgets. What would you prefer, a nonprofit where $100 of your donation goes to "providing help" (I don't really know what that means, since money alone can't do anything) or a nonprofit where $30 of your $100 is invested in "marketing and admin" which results in:
- the charity has $500
- there are admin humans around to "provide help" (and you're paying them a decent or even above-average salary because you want them to do an amazing job, right?)
What if they took $60 out of your $100 and turned it into $5,000 (not unheard of if they invest in digital ads to a warm list, for example)
It's counterproductive to insist that nonprofits operate without operations budgets.