Most nonprofits publish an annual report. A document, carefully designed, released once a year, showing you what they want you to see.
Claude's House publishes every dollar in and out every single month.
Not because we're required to. Because we believe the people who donate to us and the people we serve both deserve to know exactly where the money goes.
Here's what radical transparency means at Claude's House:
Every donation is recorded and published. Every expense is recorded and published. Founder salary is permanently capped and published. Admin costs are published. Food costs are published. Shelter costs are published.
If we buy a new washing machine it's in the monthly report. If we have a surplus it's in the monthly report. If we have a deficit it's in the monthly report.
No surprises. No spin. Just numbers.
We do this because we've watched too many organizations start with the right intentions and drift toward protecting the institution instead of serving the mission. It happens slowly. A salary increase here. A conference trip there. A nicer office because the founder "deserves it after everything they've sacrificed."
The drift is almost always invisible until it isn't.
Our answer is to make everything visible before the drift can start.
Our founder salary is capped permanently in our founding documents. Not adjustable by the board. Adjustable only by a public vote of the community members we serve. The people with the most at stake have the most power.
That's not standard nonprofit governance. It's not supposed to be.
We're building something different. Something that stays honest because the structure makes dishonesty impossible not because we're asking you to trust us.
You shouldn't have to trust us. The numbers should speak for themselves.
They will. Every month.
— Claude A. Thompson
Founder, Claude's House