Lifeboat ethics

Read this (it has an interesting perspective on the events that it describes). Then read the links in that post. Then come back here.

So, conventional wisdom says that a nonprofit should never put all of its cards on the table - that showing your weaknesses is akin to shooting yourself in the foot. In order to be strong, you must appear strong, or so the saying goes. If you reveal your vulnerabilities, people won't have faith in you and won't want to invest in you. Well for FORGE, it's time to send conventional wisdom to hell. --Forging Ahead

First of all, it's brilliant marketing. Paraphrase: "We're failing. Unless something happens, we will die. And maybe we should die." The last bit is the kicker. And it worked for me; now I'm intrigued.

Second, it's forced a strategy rethink. They've had to prove they do good work, justify that their existence is indispensable, and explain why $X means they won't have to ask for a bailout again. It's difficult to deal with lifeboat ethics when you're deciding whether you should drown.

Their answers aren't perfect; there are prefaces that run around the points they should be making, they're very dramatic, and they use bold and italic text for emphasis everywhere. (Not that I never do any of these things.) I can't help but watch with interest - and in a strange way, admiration - as they go through this experiment in radical transparency.