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Category: Nonprofit Fundraising

Charity Navigator Eases Pressure on Nonprofits to Show Minimal Overhead

Charity Navigator Eases Pressure on Nonprofits to Show Minimal Overhead

A back-end change to the rating system metrics used by a watchdog organization for nonprofits may not sound like a big deal, or make for snazzy headlines. But the recent announcement by Charity Navigator that it is “upgrading” the way it evaluates charities and ultimately decides how many “stars” each one merits (one a one to four scale) represents a huge change in attitude, and one that will hopefully trickle down through the entire philanthropic community. The main change to…

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Yes, Even Charitable Organizations Must Abide By U.S. Trademark Law

Yes, Even Charitable Organizations Must Abide By U.S. Trademark Law

Planning a fun theme for a special charity event is an opportunity to exercise one’s creativity, attract a new audience, and . . . receive future nasty letters from lawyers. Just ask Newmindspace, a Toronto-based nonprofit dedicated to organizing free, fun, all-ages events in places like subway cars and city streets. The organization had to change the theme of its popular lightsaber battles to the “Cats in Space Tour” after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the attorneys at Lucasfilm (owner of the Star Wars brand). At…

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Forty Cent Difference Between 2016 Business and Charity Mileage Deductions

Forty Cent Difference Between 2016 Business and Charity Mileage Deductions

The IRS actually lowered the amount per mile that a business owner can deduct for vehicle use in 2016. (See 2016 Standard Mileage Rates for Business, Medical and Moving Announced.) The standard mileage deduction went from 57.5 cents for 2015 to 54 cents. The amount that a volunteer using a car for charity can deduct in 2016 stayed right where it’s been for years, at 14 cents per mile. So relatively speaking, the volunteers are a little better off than they were last…

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Will Your Nonprofit’s Crowdfunding Campaign Actually Attract a Crowd?

Will Your Nonprofit’s Crowdfunding Campaign Actually Attract a Crowd?

Once considered a marginal activity used mostly by individuals struggling to fund their short film or medical care, crowdfunding (setting up short-term giving campaigns on sites like Kickstarter or Indigogo) has become a necessary and normal part of any nonprofit’s fundraising activities. Devin Thorpe, author of Crowdfunding for Social Good, has been widely quoted as saying, “While crowdfunding does not constitute a complete development plan, no development plan is complete without crowdfunding.” But the secret to this method is not, as…

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Over One Fourth of Millennials Avoid Social Media

Over One Fourth of Millennials Avoid Social Media

Just when your nonprofit was starting to get comfortable with posting regular communications on social media, for the presumed sake of reaching all those tech-savvy millennials (age 20 to 35), we get this little reality check: An estimated 27% of millennials are looking the other way. If they even have a Facebook account (Facebook being the most popular social media tool used by this group), they check it only once a week. This is according to research that Battery Ventures, a…

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