Help Your Nonprofit Get Those End Of Year Donations

Most charitable donations take place that the end of the year. That means that your nonprofit needs to do its best to capture the attention of those in the giving spirit. A great way to do that is to let them know the steps they must do to get the maximum benefit from their donations to your nonprofit. If you don’t capture their attention, somebody else will. That’s why you should be the one. You don’t have to spend hard to come by money to deliver that message. Take advantage of your social media and any free radio time you can get.

What your charitable donors must know:

Your donors must itemize their deductions. If they want to capture the full benefit of their charitable donations they will need to itemize them out on the Schedule A of their tax returns. Otherwise their charitable donations to your nonprofit will not count.

Credit card donations and donations by check must be dated no later than December 31 to count for that given year. It’s okay if your donors do not get the credit card billing statement by year’s end or that the check doesn’t clear. The one thing that must be evident was that the act of donating was done prior to year end for it to be used for that tax year.

Your nonprofit is an IRS approved charity. Let them know that you have the 501(c)(3) status. If you don’t, work on getting that.

Larger donations can be rolled over for up to five years. If your charitable donor exceeds the maximum write-off they can do that year they can move it to the next year.

You have the opportunity to make a difference:
Having a basic understanding of the process for donations and how they benefit your charitable donors will lead your nonprofit to a more prosperous road. You don’t have to be an accountant and you shouldn’t give tax advice, but you can certainly let your donors know that there are great benefits to donating to your nonprofit.

How Do You Evaluate A Marketing Plan?

That's just one of the questions posed by Michael Kaiser in his book, "Leading Roles: 50 Questions Every Arts Board Should Ask," published this year by University Press of New England.

Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. since 2001, breaks down the 50 questions into 12 categories, among them, life cycle, governance, mission, fundraising and marketing.

"I have stolen ideas liberally throughout my career from the many talented and thoughtful art managers I have met and observed," Kaiser concedes in the opening pages. "I give them no formal credit in this book, but their contributions to this young field of arts management are invaluable," he adds.

Board members are usually more involved in fundraising than marketing, but Kaiser said it's still essentially that they "understand and concur with marketing plans supporting both earned and unearned income."

He suggests dividing marketing activities into two categories: programmatic and institutional. Most marketing departments are devoted to programmatic marketing since it's charged to persuade people to buy tickets. Institutional marketing, which is "anything an organization does to build visibility in the community," is to entice audience members and donors to support the institution.

"A balanced approach to programmatic and institutional marketing can have as big an impact on fundraising as it does on earned income," said Kaiser.

Donors Ain’t Broke

Who says the economy is in the tank? You’d never know it with all of the money pouring into the political campaigns. And, organizations all over the country are announcing massive campaigns, several eclipsing the $1 billion mark.

Capital campaign donations are fundraising’s luxury gifts. "In the hierarchy of fundraising, capital campaign gifts rank the highest because they usually have the highest monetary level of any gift any organization will receive, according to consultant Laura Fredricks.

The purpose is to raise a substantial amount of money during a specific time period so that the organization can achieve new heights," she wrote in her book, "The Ask: How to Ask Anyone for Any Amount for any Purpose."

A capital campaign gives donors a chance to boost the presence, stature and success of an organization and undertake bold, new projects. Now that the campaigns are almost over, here are 10 ways to push yours forward:

* The fundraising goals are ambitious.
* It asks people to make stretch gifts.
* It drives the entire focus and direction of the organization until the campaign goals are met.
* It coincides with and complements the organization's strategic plan.
* It includes all types of existing fundraising programs, such as annual, major and planned gift programs.
* It is well organized, with a beginning, middle and end.
* It causes the organization to expand its volunteer base.
* It serves as a means to get prospects and donors to give now.
* It is a highly cost-effective way to raise substantial money.
* It can create a positive change in the culture of the organization.

Finding Your Donor ‘Whales’

In Las Vegas, they are known as “whales.” In fundraising, that same gambler is called a major donor who is betting on you.

To reach the well-heeled requires a different, often personal, approach over an extended time when the potential gift.

To figure out who should be on a prospect list, David Chase of Chase Solutions in Centerville, Mass., spelled out a number of sources that can be tapped. Called data screening, it involves poring over other databases to see how closely they match your own and build on what you have.

The process is not infallible, he told the annual conference of the New England Association for Healthcare Philanthropy in March, and can produce false matches.

But looking through various records of everything from real estate and stock holdings to yacht ownership and the board of directors appointments can help guide development efforts in the following eight ways:

* Identifying the best prospects and rating them.
* Estimating the donation capacity not only of individuals but an entire list.
* Rating levels of donations, including size and frequency.
* Identifying which forms of giving to which they will be most amenable.
* Finding personal connections that will have the ear of the target.
* Using the information as a building block of a campaign, looking at such areas as how to raise average gifts, to upgrade large donors and the cause to highlight.
* Determining which prospects merit the strongest focus.
* Such data screening will generally cost from $3,500 to $15,000 depending on the number of people researched and how much information will be collected.