Everyone wants their money to go direct.
We want to pay for the item, not for the person to drive it to us, not for the people to find a good supplier, not for the electricity to keep the lights on in the place where things are being made, created, discussed and analyzed. Luckily for those who create things and sell them (though maybe not for the consumer), all of those extra things are built into the price.
When it comes to donations though, sometimes those things aren’t built in. Giving to others in need, we want it to go to those who need it most (of course!) We want it to buy the food that is given to the hungry, the check that helps pay someone’s electric bill, the supplies and the lunches for the students.
It is the same with grants or gifts for projects. We want to see the line item that buys the equipment, buys the materials, helps support the travel and the direct work of the project.
Though in both these cases, the lights have to stay on (and you have to have a building usually!) There needs to be people there to do the things – receive, stock, create, get things ready to go out to wherever they go. There is information and materials that are collected before and during the physical interactions. And then people need to be there to their clients, their donors, their grantors.
It’s the operational stuff that no one likes. It’s built into (hopefully) things that are bought and sold. Not so much when we are giving money away though and even if it is, it is the last (ignored) thing that people want to see.
But all of those operations absolutely have to happen. Or the “thing” that everyone wants to happen, doesn’t actually happen.
You cannot do the work, distribute the food, make the widget, create the design, etc. without overhead/operational costs. You cannot do the research, give out the aid, or find a solution to a problem (big or small) without overhead/operational costs.
Sometimes these are visible and sometimes they are invisible. Lots of time and energy is donated just like others will give direct monetary support to a cause. And while we track it, it can be hard to quantify things that are sometimes unquantifiable.
Still it is important and there are many attempts to do exactly that. It is called many things in so many industries (and even within industries). Indirect costs, operating costs, operating expenses, F&A (Facilities and Administration), “the cost of doing business”…
These invisible costs (time and money) matter. And they matter a great deal more to everyone involved than we tend to realize or want to believe. There is a cost to doing anything (business or otherwise) that has to be paid – either in time, money, energy, forfeiting of other options.
While you can’t always quantify, being aware of the cost of anything can help you make those costs more visible to yourself (and the others around you so all this invisible work becomes more visible.)