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Fundraising Back Office Handout
The document provides a comprehensive overview of managing the administrative and technical components of fundraising for U.S. nonprofits, emphasizing the importance of advancement services, donor identification, and effective data management. It outlines essential practices for gift acceptance, legal considerations, and the evaluation of fundraising software. The session aims to equip participants with actionable knowledge to enhance fundraising efforts and improve donor relations.
Fundraising Back Office Handout
- 1. Organizing the FundraisingBack Office Presented by Tim Mills-Groninger for South Shore Grants March 4, 2011 Part 1: Introductions and Goals The goal of this session is to give participants an overview of managing the technical and administrative components of running a fundraising effort for a US nonprofit. Discussion, interaction, and questions are encouraged throughout the session. Outcomes include an understanding of the importance of advancement services in supporting the fundraising effort, best practices, and legal and other risks. Participants will be able to accept and receipt gifts properly and will be able to tell the difference between a gift and other financial transactions and explain it to donors, board members, and other stakeholders. Slides 1) Title 2) Introductions 3) Mapping the Universe 4) Why Individual Giving is Important 5) Gifts by Source 6) Gifts by Destination Notes Organizing the Fundraising Back Office Page 1 of 7
- 2. Part 2: Donors(and Prospects) While an organization can prosper without individual support, having a strong donor base is an advantage when you want to make money and show community support. Knowing who your donors are (and who they should be) creates immediate and long-term opportunities. The two biggest mistakes commonly made are to take existing donors for granted and overestimating the prospect pool. Identify the information that you will need and actually use and create a strategy to collect and maintain it – with ROI as a key metric. Evaluate the cost and utility of maintaining a large prospect pool. Look for a weighted measure of connection, capacity, and commitment. Avoid blaming lack of data (that wouldn’t be used if you had it) for poor fundraising performance. Slides 7) Types of Individuals – Part One 8) Types of Individuals – Part Two 9) Demographic information 10) Demographics 11) Demographic Resources 12) Demographic Questions 13) Anonymous Notes Organizing the Fundraising Back Office Page 2 of 7
- 3. Part 3: TheGift Gifts put the fund in fundraising. The technical definition of a gift is “the irrevocable transfer of an asset without reciprocal consideration to the donor.” The typical donor believes that a gift is any contribution that creates a benefit to a person or cause. These definitions are often in conflict. You are free to thank a person for non-gift contributions, but it illegal to issue a gift receipt for the transaction. Opinions vary on the value of tracking non-gift contributions and purchases; the important point is to have a policy and consistently follow it. Gifts can come as cash and in-kind and occasionally involve some value given back to the donor. Establish a policy to recognize the gift amount, the fair market value of benefits received by the donor, and the value of in-kind contributions – especially stock. Slides 14) Defining the Gift 15) Defining the Donor 16) Key IRS Issues 17) Sample Receipt 18) Pledges 19) Cash Gifts 20) Stock and other In-Kind 21) Gifts of Service 22) Let’s Play Gift or Not a Gift 23) Processing and Receipting 24) Other Record Keeping 25) Gift Vehicles 26) Gift Acceptance Policy 27) Accounting Notes Organizing the Fundraising Back Office Page 3 of 7
- 4. Part Four: Systemsand Software The two benefits of automation in fundraising are economies of scale and the (often wasted) opportunity for consistency. Don’t worry about brand or platform; focus on how well the application fits your policies and procedures. Evaluate ROI and don’t buy features that you don’t have the staff resources to use well. Plan to re-evaluate software every three years. Slides 28) Selecting Fundraising Software 29) Software Options 30) Licensing (Buy) 31) Pros of Purchasing 32) Cons of Buying 33) Popular Products 34) Build – Custom Development 35) Pros of Building 36) Cons of Building 37) Build Options 38) SaaS 39) Pros of the Cloud 40) Cons of SaaS 41) SaaS Options 42) Beyond Fundraising Notes Organizing the Fundraising Back Office Page 4 of 7
- 5. Part Five: PuttingIt Together Execution is the measure of a plan. Commit resources to data quality and work to make information available in ways that are useful and actionable. While it may seem counter- intuitive, maintaining a short list of segmentation codes is hard work, but provides more value and produces better results than lots of codes with few members. When it doubt, keep it simple. In order to be useful information must be used. Make donor information available to a broad base of stakeholders, but make sure that they are trained technically and ethically and have signed all appropriate acceptable use and confidentiality statements. Slides 43) Data Hygiene 44) Constituency and Other Coding 45) Good Codes 46) Bad Codes 47) Security 48) Compliance 49) The Advancement Services Plan 50) Homework Notes Organizing the Fundraising Back Office Page 5 of 7
- 6. References Tim Mills-Groninger, presenter timmg@earthlink.net,http://www.linkedin.com/in/millsgroninger Donor Bill of Rights http://www.afpnet.org/ethics/enforcementdetail.cfm?itemnumber=3359 Giving USA http://www.givingusa2010.org/ Publication 526 – Charitable Contributions for use in preparing 2010 returns http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p526.pdf Publication 1771 – Charitable Contributions Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1771.pdf Publication 4221 – Compliance Guide for 510(c)(3) Charities http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4221pc.pdf FundSvcs.org http://fundsvcs.ncsu.edu/ Buy, Build or Rent (fundraising software) http://www.nptimes.com/May01/sr.htm Fundraising software… Your Money-Making Machinery http://www.nptimes.com/pdf/0609sr.pdf Accounting APIs – integrating accounting software http://www.nptimes.com/08Jan/080101SR.pdf Hearts And Eyeballs (Online communities add value to fundraising) http://www.nptimes.com/dme/May05/dme_2.html The soft(ware) side of fundraising effectiveness http://www.nptimes.com/07Sep/070901SR2.pdf Info tech: the next generation of automation http://www.allbusiness.com/specialty-businesses/non-profit-businesses/172866-1.html Allocate this! Accounting, the necessary evil, doesn't have to be so http://www.allbusiness.com/specialty-businesses/non-profit-businesses/3987781-1.html QuickBooks for Not-for-Profit Organizations http://www.sleeterstore.com/servlet/detail?no=149 Organizing the Fundraising Back Office Page 6 of 7
- 7. AlumniFinder http://www.alumnifinder.com/ Melisadata (list appending/cleaning) http://melisadata.com/ HarrisConnect (list appending/cleaning) http://www.harrisconnect.com Unified Registration http://www.multistatefiling.org/ PCI Security Standards (credit card security) https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pdfs/pci_ssc_quick_guide.pdf New 990 Makes Nonprofit Fundraising Registration Unavoidable http://nonprofit.about.com/od/fundraisingbasics/a/frregistration990.htm IRS tax exempt information http://www.stayexempt.irs.gov/ State Filings for Nonprofits http://www.usa.gov/Business/Nonprofit_State.shtml Idealware – software reviews and advice http://www.idealware.org/ Organizing the Fundraising Back Office Page 7 of 7