Category Archives: General Fundraising

We may soon find out exactly how much the tax deduction for charitable giving prompts people to donate to nonprofits, if President Obama’s proposed jobs bill goes through. As explained in Lisa Chiu’s September 12 article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the charitable deduction is just one of the many itemized deductions that would be limited to a 28% writeoff in the higher-income brackets.

For an impassioned (to put it mildly) discussion of the pros and cons of limiting this deduction, see the “Tax the Rich More? Or Less?” article by Jan Masaoka in Blue Avocado and the comments that follow. The crux of the debate seems to be between those who believe that tax deductions either aren’t or shouldn’t be a major motivation for giving among the wealthy, and those who think that it is — and that, with all the struggles nonprofits are already going through, picking on this deduction could just make matters worse.

I put myself in the latter camp, largely because of the following statistic, as covered in my December 2010 blog post: More than 20% of all charitable giving for the ENTIRE YEAR occurs on December 30th and 31st.

Maybe the tax deduction isn’t the main motivation for giving, but the deadline clearly gives potential donors a major nudge. Without that deadline, I’m betting (as a seasoned procrastinator) that all those good intentions will be put off month by month by month.

These are tough times for libraries, businesses, and donors, but the Rockridge DVD Project has come up with some creative solutions that unite all three.

The library was offered a chance to buy, at low cost, the inventory of a DVD rental store that was closing. With a loan from the library, the newly formed DVD Project did so — but then needed to pay the loan back, by an October deadline. The group started soliciting neighborhood donations, through means such as publicity in local publications and setting up an information table in the library.

I confess, I was initially skeptical about the importance of this project. After all, I like books, and questioned whether the library should turn into a DVD rental outfit.

But after talking to a volunteer at their table, I understood the brilliance of their strategy: DVDs bring people into the library — people who then tend to check out books, as well. When library circulation goes up, city funding goes up, and it becomes easier to advocate against, say, library closures (which Oakland has been threatening a lot lately).

It’s more than a fundraising effort, it’s a strategy for library advocacy. The urgency of the upcoming deadline is also a fine way to raise the library’s profile. And if the effort raises questions (like mine) about the ultimate purpose of libraries, all the better — the end conclusion can only be that they’re incredibly important community resources.

For some nonprofits, just hiring a development director is a big step. The various task involved may have been performed, up to that point, by some combination of the Executive Director, Board members, volunteers, and various assistants.

A skilled development director can be a great asset to an organization — but of course is worth a professional salary. How much, exactly?

According to the recently issued 2010 Guidestar report (an excerpt of which is available online), the amount is actually less than one might have expected: The average development director (or other “top” development person)’s salary right now for an organization with a budget of less than $250,000 is $43,123. And for organizations with budgets between $250,000 and $500,000, the average is $56,483.

That should give you hope for hiring your first director. But it also explains why many development directors move on quickly, in search of higher paying work, perhaps with a bigger-budget organization!

Spending a summer’s day in the park seeing the San Francisco Mime Troupe, picnicking, and seeing which old friends you run into: It’s a Bay Area tradition.

No, the Mime Troupe is not silent, as in pantomime — it’s campy political comedy, with rousing music to boot. (To quote their website, “We mean ‘mime’ in the ancient sense: to mimic.”)

The question every year (other than, should I buy a T-shirt or just make a straight donation?) is, what topic will have the politically savvy Bay Area audiences laughing, crying, and clapping along — without saying, “Didn’t we see this last year?” That’s no mean feat, given that they’re in their 52nd season. (Though I still wish they had an excuse to bring back their Dick Cheney character.)

The answer this year: Nonprofits’ desperation for funds, and the pushed-to-the wall question of whether to accept funding from dubious corporate sources. It’s sort of a play within a play, as a scrappy political theatre group faces imminent closure and the temptation of corporate funding from the mysterious (and more than a little pushy) Mrs. Haverlock.

To say any more would be require a spoiler alert, so I’ll just send you to the Mime Troupe’s website for reviews and the performance schedule.

Here’s podcast three of three, drawn from the recently published The Volunteer’s Guide to Fundraising. In the attached podcast, Author Ilona Bray reveals her own first (and misguided) experience with fundraising, and describes highlights from the book.

A good portion of the population has never known a world without walkathons, and probably wouldn’t be able to imagine it. But I was surprised to learn that this now-ubiquitous type of nonprofit fundraiser didn’t even exist until I was in grade school.

Walking for a cause dates back to 1969, according to a recent article  by Anne Kadet in SmartMoney magazine, “Cashathon: The Rise of Charity Races.” That’s when a group of Christians in Bismarck, North Dakota, had the idea of marching in solidarity with the world’s poor (hey look, an actual mission link!) while raising money for food programs. As Kadet explains, it “was half fund-raiser, half protest.”

They should probably take credit for the gift of prophecy, given how their strategy has since taken off.

Kadet’s article does a great job of both outlining the history of the “thon” and looking at what it has morphed into today — with sky’s-the-limit budgets, increased competition between groups, ever-weirder variations on the theme (walking over glass shards, anyone?), and increasing participant expectations for swag. It’s the kind of scenario that might lead to predictions that the whole enterprise is ultimately doomed. I wouldn’t bet on it, though Kadet does point out that some groups are facing reduced income from their walkathons for the simple reason that so many others are going on — sometimes at the very same time.

Basically, you’ve got to read the article. In fact, if you’re planning or developing the budget for a walkathon or charity race, you might want to pick up the print version, if only to see the expanded version of the “Where The Money Goes” chart (the full version of which is not available online). This breaks down all the major expenses, and helps to answer the question of why only 48% of the net proceeds of these events, on average, go to charity. Who knew that you’d have to spend 6% of your income on participant T-shirts, 2% on toilets, 3% on signage, and 8% on permits and security?

Fundraising is harder for every group out there, but small, mostly volunteer-led groups face particular challenges — and have come up with unique ways to overcome those challenges. Hear from parents, event planners, and other volunteers who contributed to Ilona Bray’s recent book, The Volunteer’s Guide to Fundraising, in this newly released podcast (from the CD-ROM that comes with the book), “Fundraising in a Down Economy.”

As any fundraising special events planner knows, part of the key to making a profit is to create a budget that carefully accounts for all possible expenses, and then to make sure that the likely income from the event will exceed the total expenses by a healthy margin.

But who knew that rubber duck races were getting so popular that you might need to purchase upwards of 40,000 ducks?

That’s right, from Texas to Hawaii, duck adopters are flocking (oops, bad pun) to join the race. You can read about it in the article, “Rubber duckies go with the flow of charity,” by Kristin R. Jackson.

The good news for the people making the budgets is that, according to my online research, two-inch rubber duckies can be had for about 39 cents apiece. So maybe it’s storage space that should be your biggest concern.