Edita Mrkousová (Patron dětí): We run our nonprofit like an efficient company — with clear goals, KPIs, and strict risk management
“It's not important to win, but by how much” — that's the motto Edita Mrkousová, executive director of the Patron dětí foundation, lives by, bringing a big-business approach to the nonprofit world.
In her podcast conversation with Ivana Karhanová, Edita reveals that the foundation's success rests not just on donors' goodwill, but on precisely set processes. “We're a factory for collecting children's stories,” she says. She runs the nonprofit like an efficient company — with clear goals, KPIs, and strict risk management. Every request goes through thorough vetting: parents can apply for support repeatedly, but they have to prove it's a genuine need. The “patrons” — the guarantors backing each request — are teachers, social workers, or coaches, but never family members. And the money? It doesn't go to the parents — it goes directly toward services like tuition, extracurricular activities, or medical aids.
Even though the nonprofit sector is often associated with slowness and inefficiency, Patron dětí sets a different standard. “We're not an organization where we light a candle in the morning and just wait to see how things turn out,” Mrkousová explains. The most important KPI the whole organization holds itself to is its cost ratio — a maximum of 20%, which is an exceptionally efficient performance.
The conversation also gets into personal motivation. Mrkousová admits that moving from the corporate world into the nonprofit sector was a challenge for her, but today she knows the two worlds share one thing in common: setting the right goals and having the will to pursue them. As she puts it: “Helping just a hundred children a year? That's not enough. There are 300,000 children in Czechia who need our help.”
What else will you find answered in the podcast?
- How do you make sure support reaches the right children, without the help being abused?
- What are the main obstacles a nonprofit organization faces, and how does it overcome them?
- Why are some families embarrassed to ask for help, and how do you convince them they have a right to it?
- How does technology help make the nonprofit sector run more efficiently?
- And why was she chosen to lead this particular foundation?
This podcast is an inspiration for anyone who wants to understand what a modern nonprofit sector can look like — one where emotion and hard data go hand in hand.