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Nonprofit Auctions: A Complete Compliance Guide and Sample Forms
Auctions are known for two characteristics: they raise money (sometimes a lot), and they are a ton of work. Blue Avocado contributor and CPA Dennis Walsh gives us a complete, handy compliance guide, and even better: five sample forms to make sure your …
A Funder’s Message to Other Funders About Overhead
This article is adapted from a presentation made to Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO). Our deepest thanks to Unmi Song for speaking these truths: Good afternoon; I am Unmi Song, President of the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation. The overhead …
Why is Fundraising More About Leadership Than About Skills? editor notes #93
Fundraisers never lack for advice. One board member tells you that foundations should be giving you money, while another thinks we should talk to Bill Gates. The staff thinks you should raising money from corporations. And the friend you run into at th …
Fundraising in Nonprofits of Color
Almost all research on fundraising is done on mainstream nonprofits, and almost all advice and guides on fundraising are addressed implicitly to mainstream nonprofits. Yet because they have different development trajectories, nonprofits in communities …
First Person Nonprofit: A Day in the Life of a Major Gifts Officer
So exactly how do you lead someone up to a $1 million ask? The director of major gifts at a large regional environmental organization agreed to tell us everything . . . as long as we didn’t reveal her name or organization. And best of all: post …
Getting to 100% Board Giving
Having 100% of board members make personal donations is a cliché we don’t like. It’s not a meaningful measure of board member commitment, and typically creates a situation where even the best board members have to be nagged. BUT, if you do have this re …
The Founding Fathers Write a Grant Proposal
“Just look at this second sentence!” groaned Samuel Adams. “‘We hold these truths to be self-evident . .’ This flies in the face of ‘evidence-based practice’! We’ll never get funded!” Another delegate had a different complaint: “This mission sta …
Donor-Advised Funds: Non-Transparent Tax Shelters for Good
Nonprofits are probably most familiar with donor-advised funds (DAFs) at community foundations: a donor gives, let’s say, $1 million to a community foundation and gets a $1 million tax deduction that year. Over the next several years, the donor …
Take A Fresh Look at Scrip Fundraising
Wait! Scrip is not just for churches and schools anymore. Increasingly, nonprofit cultural centers, health clinics, civil rights organizations and environmental coalitions are finding scrip to be a comparatively easy way to raise funds: How …
Organizing the Board to Support the Revenue Strategy
Instead of focusing only on how board members can raise individual donations (or not!), think more broadly (and effectively) about how board members can support the key aspects of your organization's business/revenue strategy:In the quest for funds …
