Practical Advice for Modern Fundraisers

Are you going to AFPICON? 

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Notes from AFPICON 2018

April 2018

Update from the 2018 AFP International Conference

Case for Support: Not Just for Big Campaigns

Leah Eustace - Blue Canoe Consulting 


The following is a recap of the first session of AFP International Conference, I attended on Cases for Support.


The essence of the presentation was that a good case for support focuses on the "WHY" not the "How."  We are again encouraged to put the donor at the center of the story.  If we use strong emotional language and good storytelling, then we will "sell" our campaign.
Speaking of campaigns many times we only think of Cases for Support regarding campaigns, but they are useful for general organizational support. In fact, I would say that a good case for support keeps us honest about who we are and what we are doing. It keeps us as Leah said "Singing off of the same song sheet."


She recommends a 5 to 6-page document as a start. This document can serve as the base for a longer case as well as an Annual Report, website, brochure or Gratitude Report. I could also see using it as the base for a Major Donor annual gift request.
Leah recommends the following seven parts to a case for support.

1. Emotional Powerful Opening ( You might want to write this last.)

2. Mission and vision

3. History of Impact (brief)

4. Problems that need solutions

5. Outcomes/solutions

6. Sense of urgency

7. Call to action

She also recommends, and I heartily agree that you should get your designer involved early. You may find that the design can help drive the project.  Your case shouldn't look and feel like a term paper or dissertation.  She actually drew a little schematic of the finished piece. You don't have to be a designer to do this you just need to figure out how many pages you want your case to be and then divide the seven parts among the pages. I would then add a couple of pages for attention-grabbing and emotional pictures.  Once you add the pictures your 5 to 6-page document might be 10 to 12 pages. 


The other big take away from the session was the following: If you need money, ask for advice. If you need advice ask for money.


If you would like the slides from this presentation click here.


I will be posting recaps of other sessions from the 2018 AFP International Conference in the future.

 

When Does Your "YEAR-END" End?

In talking to many people at a range of organizations, I discovered that there is some controversy about when your "year-end" campaign actually ends.  What we are really talking about are those checks that show up after January 1st dated December 31st.   


Well, the simple answer is that no matter the date on the check the IRS considers the gift given when the check gets mailed.  So using this year as an example if the postmark on the envelope is after December 31, 2018, then it is a 2019 gift.  


But who does it this way? I talked to one agency that was very strict about the rule.  They occasionally got push back from donors who had anticipated writing the gift off their taxes in the year they dated the check. I would imagine most do anyway.  Where I think being strict throws you off is that you have a lot of January gifts that are really December gifts.  If you only do two appeals a year, you might miss these donors since in your books they have given in the present year when from the donors perspective they have not. 


If you fudge the closing of your year-end campaign and say keep your books open for an extra week, or so you get a better idea of what your actual December Giving is.  Now you are pushing it with the IRS, but you are following the donor's wishes. In all honesty, I have typically followed this approach, and I have never had a problem.  


I would recommend working with the head of your finance department and get their feedback.  At the end of the day, it comes down to how your finance department wants to count the gifts.  I'd be interested in hearing how you and your organization deal with this quandary.  You can use the comment box below to send me your responses.

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New Tax Affect On Year-End Donations 

Last month I discussed my concerns about the effect of the new tax law on charitable giving.  In talking to a number of colleagues at other organizations, the consensus is the tax law did hurt. Just how much I am still trying to discern.  I do know that at one organization over 30k less came in after New Years from checks dated 12/31/2018.

Interestingly their acquisition program did pretty well. It was renewal gifts that went down. After doing a cursory search, I found donors that had given for numerous years who did not give 2018.  So what to do and will this trend continue into 2019.  

I am recommending being very conservative in budgeting income for 2019, much to the dismay of many a  finance department.  But it is better to upgrade your goals at mid-year then have to lower them.  What you should do to try and bring back those donors you lost. I typically do a donor survey in Q1 this year I will be doing a separate survey of those that did not renew their gift asking basically what happened and can we do anything to change the situation in 2019. Beyond that, I am suggesting that stewardship is the key. We have to keep those who gave closer and reach out to those who did not give to try and let people know that your organization needs their support.

I always worry during December about year-end donations. I can't help it my fundraising minds is completely aware that more gifts are made between Thanksgiving and New Years Eve.  This is the giving season for two reasons it is tradition to make gifts to non-profits just like we give gifts to our friends and family and for tax reasons.  The first reason still holds true. Some people give because they care about your cause.  The tax reason isn't as true anymore.  In case you didn't get the memo the New Tax Reform law doubled the personal tax exemption.  What does that mean well if someone made a gift to lower their taxable income they may not need to make that gift anymore.

Research estimates that 13.1 billion or 4.6% will be lost to charities the year because of the new tax law and most of that will "not" show up in the next few weeks.  If you are curious about how this might affect your organization one way to estimate how much of your 2017 donations were "tax" dollars. Run a report that compares the date of a check with the day that it was processed.  Now, this assumes that you leave your books open past 12/31 to let the mail catchup.  If you keep the organization's books open until mid-January for checks dated by 12/31 you can simply add up the gifts that came in during that period.  I call this the "tax period."  

This number will give you an estimate of what might not come in. It might be a pretty big number.  For one organization I know it the number was over 50k.  The scary part is that you will not know what donations will come in until you close your books for 2018 if you are on a calendar year fiscal year.  If you are lucky enough to have a June 30 or some other end date for your fiscal year you have time to try and renew those gifts. 

I have been telling anyone who would listen especially my Executive Director, Director of FInance and board that we might not make our goal because of the change in the tax law.  If you are in this position, I hope you have been telling everyone as well. Of course, we may be surprised, and the gifts will come - but I doubt it.

 

  1. November 2018
  2. October 2018
  3. September 2018
  4. August 2018
  5. June - July 2018
  6. May 2018
  7. April 2018
  8. March 2018
  9. February 2018
  10. January 2018
  11. November 2017
  12. October 2017
  13. September 2017
  14. August 2017
  15. July 2017
  16. Something Extra . . .
  17. June 2017
  18. May 2017
  19. April 2017
  20. March 2017

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