46,99 €
A popular fundraising blueprint for small- to mid-sized nonprofit organizations In the newly revised Eighth Edition of Fundraising for Social Change, two nonprofit leadership veterans deliver a hands-on, how-to guide to establishing and expanding a diverse base of donors. The authors maintain a focus on groups working toward racial, economic, and climate justice, providing trustworthy and relevant information that can be easily understood. The book includes a free Instructor's Manual, as well as access to supplementary online content with additional resources. Readers will also find: * "Spotlight" sections highlighting the reflections and wisdom of a varied group of fundraisers * Insightful explorations about managing fundraising, including establishing a fundraising infrastructure, hiring a development director, and using consultants and coaches * Discussions of budgeting and planning, as well as how to handle significant financial trouble An indispensable resource for nonprofit board members, managers, founders, and employees, Fundraising for Social Change is a must-read roadmap to raising money. It belongs on the bookshelves of leaders, activists and organizers seeking to advance racial, economic, environmental or social justice.
Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 907
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
COVER
SERIES PAGE
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
ONLINE CONTENT
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
KIM KLEIN
STAN YOGI
INTRODUCTION TO THE 8TH EDITION
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
PART ONE: Nonprofits and the Money They Raise
chapter ONE: The Size and Scope of the Nonprofit Sector
THE SIZE AND SCOPE OF THE SECTOR
WHERE MONEY FOR NONPROFITS COMES FROM
WHAT TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONS RECEIVE DONATIONS?
chapter TWO: Creating a Fundraising Philosophy
chapter THREE: Be Clear About What the Money Will Do
WHAT IS IN THE CASE STATEMENT?
CREATING A STRATEGIC PLAN
chapter FOUR: What You Have to Understand to Begin Fundraising
APPEAL TO PEOPLE WHO GIVE
chapter FIVE: The Importance of a Good Board of Directors
THE BOARD AND FUNDRAISING
COMMON BOARD PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
MOVING PAST BOARD PROBLEMS
OTHER FORMATIONS THAT CAN HELP A BOARD
USING OTHER VOLUNTEERS FOR FUNDRAISING
PART TWO: Ask Them, Thank Them, Ask Them Again
chapter SIX: Financial Needs and Fundraising Strategies
ANNUAL NEEDS
CAPITAL NEEDS
ENDOWMENT AND RESERVE FUNDS
THREE GOALS FOR EVERY DONOR
THREE TYPES OF STRATEGIES
PLANNING IS TIME WELL SPENT
chapter SEVEN: The Very Human Need for Appreciation
PEOPLE NEED TO BE APPRECIATED
DON'T DO AS I SAY
DO IT NOW
LOGISTICS AND CONTENT
COMMON QUESTIONS
chapter EIGHT: Getting Comfortable with Asking
WHY WE ARE AFRAID TO ASK FOR MONEY
SPECIFIC FEARS
chapter NINE: Ask Real Prospects
ACCESS
AFFINITY
ABILITY
STEPS IN CREATING A PROSPECT LIST
chapter TEN: How to Ask
THE MOST FORMAL APPROACH
THE MEETING
chapter ELEVEN: Strengthening Relationships by Creating Categories of Donors
CATEGORIES
STAYING IN TOUCH WITH DONORS
PART THREE: Strategies for Acquisition and Retention
chapter TWELVE: Multichannel Fundraising
chapter THIRTEEN: What Successful Mass Appeals Have in Common
A GOOD LIST
UNDERSTANDING THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AN APPEAL
TEST AND EVALUATE
HANDLING RESPONSES TO YOUR APPEALS
ASK DONORS SEVERAL TIMES A YEAR
chapter FOURTEEN: Direct Mail
ACQUISITION: GET SOMEONE TO GIVE FOR THE FIRST TIME
RETENTION: GET DONORS TO REPEAT THEIR DONATIONS
UPGRADE: ASK DONORS TO RENEW THEIR GIFTS
USING DIRECT MAIL ON A SMALLER SCALE
CONSTRUCTING A DIRECT MAIL PACKAGE
THE DIRECT MAIL APPEAL PACKAGE
PUTTING THE PACKAGE TOGETHER
BENEFITS AND PREMIUMS
WHEN TO SEND AN APPEAL
USING DIRECT MAIL TO SEEK RENEWAL GIFTS
chapter FIFTEEN: Online Fundraising
FOLLOW THE RESEARCH
FOCUS ON YOUR WEBSITE AND BUILDING YOUR EMAIL LIST
DRIVING TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE
CROWDFUNDING
PEER‐TO‐PEER FUNDRAISING
chapter SIXTEEN: Phone Banking
BASIC TECHNIQUE OF THE PHONE BANK
PREPARATION
THE NIGHT OF THE PHONE BANK
AFTER THE PHONE BANK
GETTING PUBLICITY FOR YOUR PHONE BANK
chapter SEVENTEEN: Special Events
ASSESS WHERE YOU NEED TO BE MORE VISIBLE
RAISING MONEY IS A SECONDARY GOAL
TYPES OF PEOPLE WHO ATTEND SPECIAL EVENTS
CHOOSING A FUNDRAISING EVENT
THE LOGISTICS OF A SPECIAL EVENT
WHAT NOT TO FORGET
THE EVALUATION
VIRTUAL EVENTS
chapter EIGHTEEN: Establishing Voluntary Fees for Service
WHAT TO CHARGE FOR
VOLUNTARY FEES
STAYING LEGAL
SETTING THE FEES
INTRODUCING THE PROCESS OF COLLECTING FEES
WHEN SERVICE IS PROVIDED BY PHONE OR EMAIL
chapter NINETEEN: Door‐to‐Door and Street Canvassing
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
ELEMENTS NEEDED TO RUN A CANVASS
SETTING UP A CANVASS
THE CANVASSERS' WORKDAY
RETAINING DONORS ACQUIRED THROUGH A CANVASS
chapter TWENTY: Opportunistic Fundraising
TWO WEEKS OF FUNDRAISING OPPORTUNITIES
FIND YOUR OWN OPPORTUNITIES
PART FOUR: Inviting Current Donors to Make Bigger Gifts
chapter TWENTY-ONE: Building Major Donor Programs
SETTING A GOAL
DECIDING HOW MANY GIFTS AND WHAT SIZE
HOW MANY PEOPLE TO ASK
MATERIALS FOR MAJOR GIFT SOLICITATION
KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH MAJOR DONORS
RENEWING MAJOR DONOR GIFTS
WHEN TO ASK FOR MORE
STRUCTURING YOUR PROGRAM AS A CAMPAIGN
THE HARDEST YEAR
chapter TWENTY-TWO: Setting Up and Maintaining Recurring Donor Programs
CREATING A RECURRING DONOR PROGRAM
LAUNCHING YOUR RECURRING DONOR PROGRAM
ONGOING PROMOTION
COLLECTING MONTHLY DONATIONS
KEEPING TRACK OF RECURRING DONORS
THANK THE DONOR PROMPTLY
TWO DON'TS OF RECURRING DONOR PROGRAMS
chapter TWENTY-THREE: Legacy Giving
UNDERSTANDING BASIC LEGACY GIFTS
SHOULD YOUR ORGANIZATION PROMOTE LEGACY GIFTS?
FOUNDATIONS OF A LEGACY GIVING PROGRAM
ENCOURAGING YOUR DONORS TO MAKE A LEGACY GIFT
WHEN SOMEONE INFORMS YOU OF A LEGACY GIFT INTENTION
WHEN A GIFT MATURES
chapter TWENTY-FOUR: Setting Up an Endowment
ENDOWMENT DEFINED
BENEFITS OF ENDOWMENTS
DISADVANTAGES OF ENDOWMENTS
CONSIDERING AN ENDOWMENT OR RESERVE FUND
PART FIVE: Using Campaigns to Raise Large Amounts of Money
chapter TWENTY-FIVE: What All Large Campaigns Have in Common
STEP 1: SET A GOAL AND CREATE A GIFT RANGE CHART
STEP 2: CREATE THE TIMELINE
STEP 3: FORM A SOLICITATION TEAM
STEP 4: COMPILE AND ORGANIZE THE LIST OF PROSPECTS
STEP 5: HAVE A STRONG CASE
chapter TWENTY-SIX: Raising Money for Capital
BEST PROSPECTS FOR CAPITAL CAMPAIGNS
BEGINNING A CAPITAL CAMPAIGN
ESTIMATING COSTS
For the Building Project Itself
PREPARING A CASE STATEMENT
TIMING
FINAL APPROVAL
THE PROSPECTUS
FOUR PHASES OF THE CAMPAIGN
POST-CAMPAIGN
chapter TWENTY-SEVEN: Endowment Campaigns
SETTING A GOAL
THE SOLICITATION TEAM
A CLEAR CASE FOR SUPPORT
chapter TWENTY-EIGHT: Conducting Feasibility Studies
WHO CONDUCTS THE FEASIBILITY STUDY
WHETHER TO DO A STUDY
WHAT FEASIBILITY STUDIES TELL YOU
PART SIX: Budgeting and Planning
chapter TWENTY-NINE: Developing a Budget
STEP 1: ESTIMATE EXPENSES AND INCOME SEPARATELY
STEP 2: MEET, COMPARE, NEGOTIATE
ONGOING MONITORING
chapter THIRTY: Creating a Fundraising Plan
STEP 1: SET A GOAL
STEP 2: SPELL OUT THE DETAILS OF EACH INCOME STRATEGY
STEP 3: PLOT OUT YOUR PLANS FOR RAISING MONEY FROM INDIVIDUALS
STEP 4: DECIDE ON NUMBERS OF DONORS AND MATCH THEM TO STRATEGIES
STEP 5: PUT THE PLAN ONTO A TIMELINE AND FILL OUT THE TASKS
RAISE, DON'T CUT
chapter THIRTY-ONE: What to Do in Case of Financial Trouble
CASH FLOW PROBLEMS
DEFICIT SPENDING
SERIOUS ACCOUNTING ERRORS, MISMANAGEMENT OF FUNDS, OR EMBEZZLEMENT
chapter THIRTY-TWO: The Perennial Question of Clean and Dirty Money
PART SEVEN: Fundraising Management
chapter THIRTY-THREE: Infrastructure for Fundraising
GUIDELINES
WATCH FOR TIME SINKS
CALENDARS
chapter THIRTY-FOUR: Hiring a Development Director
THE ROLE OF A DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
THE TASKS OF THE DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
SOLVING YOUR PROBLEMS
PAYING THE DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
HOW TO FIND A CAPABLE DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
chapter THIRTY-FIVE: Using a Consultant, Coach, Mentor, or Trainer
CONSULTANT
TRAINER
MENTOR
COACH
WORKING WITH A FUNDRAISING CONSULTANT
WHAT FUNDRAISING CONSULTANTS CAN DO
WHAT FUNDRAISING CONSULTANTS GENERALLY DON'T DO
HOW TO CHOOSE A CONSULTANT
PAYING CONSULTANTS
NO MIRACLE WORKERS
chapter THIRTY-SIX: Dealing with Anxiety
RECRUIT VOLUNTEERS AND DELEGATE
KEEP YOUR PRIORITIES CLEAR
DETACH FROM THE RESULTS OF YOUR WORK
RECOGNIZE THAT THERE ARE EXTERNAL FORCES BEYOND YOUR CONTROL
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
PART EIGHT: You the Fundraiser
chapter THIRTY-SEVEN: Know What You Need to Know
A GOOD DONOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
THE IMPORTANCE OF DONOR RECORDS
KEEPING YOUR LIST IN SHAPE
YOUR FILING SYSTEM
STICKING WITH IT
chapter THIRTY-EIGHT: Working with Your Executive Director
DEVELOPING A GOOD RELATIONSHIP
chapter THIRTY-NINE: Working with Volunteers
INVITE PEOPLE TO PARTICIPATE IN FUNDRAISING
TAKE THE TIME NECESSARY TO ORIENT VOLUNTEERS TO YOUR FUNDRAISING PROGRAM
HELP EVERY VOLUNTEER CHOOSE THE FUNDRAISING STRATEGIES THEY WILL FEEL MOST COMFORTABLE USING
REMEMBER THAT GOOD ENOUGH IS GOOD ENOUGH
SHOW GENUINE AND FREQUENT APPRECIATION
GIVE VOLUNTEERS TIME OFF
chapter FORTY: When You Encounter Ethical Dilemmas
THREE DILEMMAS
THREE TOOLS
GOOD ENDINGS
MORE DIFFICULT ENDINGS
PART NINE: Special Circumstances
chapter FORTY-ONE: Raising Money in Rural Communities
THE MANY KINDS OF RURAL
RAISING THE MONEY YOU NEED IN A RURAL COMMUNITY
PROSPECTS
SPECIAL EVENTS
VIRTUAL EVENTS
PERSONAL SOLICITATION
CONCLUSION
chapter FORTY-TWO: Fundraising for a Coalition
EXAMINE THE PROBLEM
SOME SOLUTIONS
chapter FORTY-THREE: When No One Is Paid
EFFECTIVE ORIENTATION OF NEW VOLUNTEERS
FINDING VOLUNTEERS
chapter FORTY-FOUR: When You Are Just Starting Out
PART TEN: The Power of Individual Donors in Two Social Movements
chapter FORTY-FIVE: Fundraising for LGBTQ+ Equality and Justice
HORIZONS FOUNDATION
NATIONAL CENTER FOR LESBIAN RIGHTS
FUNDRAISING FOR ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN COMMUNITY RESPONSES TO HIV/AIDS
NATIONAL COALITION OF BLACK LESBIANS AND GAYS
TRANSGENDER LAW CENTER
chapter FORTY-SIX: Building Political Power for Immigrants' Rights
UNITED FARM WORKERS
CHIRLA
CASA DE MARYLAND
MUJERAS UNIDAS Y ACTIVAS
NILC
INDEX
END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
Cover
Table of Contents
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Online Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction to the 8th Edition
About the Authors
Begin Reading
Index
End User License Agreement
ii
iii
iv
v
vi
xi
xii
xiii
xiv
xv
xvi
xvii
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
Additional Titles from Kim Klein's Fundraising Series
The Power of Legacy and Planned Gifts: How Nonprofits and Donors Work Together to Change the World, Kevin Johnson
Reliable Fundraising in Unreliable Times: What Good Causes Need to Know to Survive and Thrive, Kim Klein
Change Philanthropy: Candid Stories of Foundations Maximizing Results Through Social Justice, Alicia Epstein Korten
Inspired Philanthropy: Your Step‐by‐Step Guide to Creating a Giving Plan and Leaving a Legacy, 3rd Edition, Tracy Gary with Nancy Adess
The Accidental Fundraiser: A Step‐by‐Step Guide to Raising Money for Your Cause, Stephanie Roth, Mimi Ho
Grassroots Grants: An Activist's Guide to Grantseeking, 2nd Edition, Andy Robinson
Selling Social Change (Without Selling Out): Earned Income Strategies for Nonprofits, Andy Robinson
Raise More Money: The Best of The Grassroots Fundraising Journal, Kim Klein, Stephanie Roth, Editors
8TH EDITION
KIM KLEIN | STAN YOGI
Copyright © 2022 by Kim Klein and Stan Yogi. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per‐copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750‐8400, fax (978) 750‐4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748‐6011, fax (201) 748‐6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permission.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762‐2974, outside the United States at (317) 572‐3993 or fax (317) 572‐4002.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic formats. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data:
Names: Klein, Kim, author. | Yogi, Stan, author.
Title: Fundraising for social change / Kim Klein, Stan Yogi.
Description: Eighth edition. | Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, [2022] | Series: Kim Klein’s fundraising series | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021052101 (print) | LCCN 2021052102 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119845287 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119845300 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119845294 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Fund raising‐‐United States. | Nonprofit organizations‐‐United States‐‐Finance.
Classification: LCC HV41.9.U5 K574 2022 (print) | LCC HV41.9.U5 (ebook) | DDC 361.7068/1‐‐dc23/eng/20211207
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052101
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052102
Cover art: © Getty Images | Oxygen
Cover design: Paul McCarthy
To the feral kittens we adopted and tamed: Max and Mr. Cuddles. They are a daily reminder that play and curiosity are as important as getting your work done.
—Kim Klein
To Fran Strauss (1918–2012) and Marlene De Lancie (1922–2021), who demonstrated their passion for justice by raising money over many decades. They lived with courage, integrity, and compassion.
—Stan Yogi
At the ends of many chapters, you will see references to “Online Content.” These are free resources (articles, reports, templates, and samples) that augment the information in those chapters. To access these materials, go to http://www.wiley.com/go/fundraisingforsocialchange8e.
For teachers and trainers using this book, there is also a free Instructor's Manual online, with a suggested syllabus and sample interactive exercises.
The online content accompanying the chapters indicated below is available for download at: http://www.wiley.com/go/fundraisingforsocialchange8e.
Many of these resources were taken from the Grassroots Fundraising Journal, which was published from 1982 through 2018. The complete archive of 750 articles from the Journal is available for free download from www.grassrootsfundraisingjournal.org. The articles can be sorted by date, author name, title, and to a lesser extent, topic. Two hundred of the most recent and most popular articles from the Journal are also free to download and use at https://nonprofitquarterly.org/grassroots-fundraising-journal. All articles in both archives are copyrighted in the Creative Commons. We encourage readers to peruse and enjoy.
Although some of the articles recommended here were written a decade or more ago, we believe the principles and the lessons contained in them are evergreen. Readers are welcome to suggest new content to add to this online resource. Simply send an email with your recommendation to Kim Klein: [email protected].
Chapter 1: Nonprofits and the Money They Raise
“Unintended Consequences: How Income Inequality Affects Fundraising,” by Kim Klein, Grassroots Fundraising Journal, May/June 2015.
Highly recommend subscribing to this free newsletter. A wealth of analysis and resources written accessibly and delivered weekly. https://inequality.org/resources/organizations/
Chapter 2: Creating a Fundraising Philosophy
“Beyond Foundation Funding,” by Jennifer Dodge, Amparo Hofmann‐Pinilla, Angela Beard, and Caitlin Murphy. A report by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Wagner School at NYU, February 2013. https://wagner.nyu.edu/impact/research/publications/beyond-foundation-funding-revenue-generating-strategies-for
Chapter 4: What You Have to Understand to Begin Fundraising
An Interview with Kim Klein and Amy Eisenstein. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5NKhlGcYCQ
Chapter 5: The Importance of a Good Board of Directors
“How Does Your Board Measure Up?” by Stephanie Roth, in Raise More Money: The Best of the Grassroots Fundraising Journal, by Kim Klein and Stephanie Roth, eds., Wiley, 2001.
Sample Fundraising Pledge Form (Board of Directors), created by Stephanie Roth.
“Finding the Right Fundraising Structure for Your Board,” by Priscilla Hung, Grassroots Fundraising Journal, Jan/Feb 2012.
“Want a Fundraising Board? Give Them the Tools They Need to Succeed,” by William Cordery, Grassroots Fundraising Journal, Jan/Feb 2014.
Chapter 6: Financial Needs and Fundraising Strategies
“The Ladder of Engagement: One Way to Consider Organizational Growth and Individual Donors.”
Chapter 8: Getting Comfortable with Asking
“Why Are People Afraid to Ask for Money?” by Kim Klein.
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/getting-over-the-fear-of-asking/
Chapter 9: Ask Real Prospects
“Donor Cultivation: What It Is and What It Is Not,” by Kim Klein.
Chapter 10: How to Ask
“Asking for Money: Fifteen Useful Tips,” by Klein & Roth Consulting.
“Tips for Meetings with Donors and Prospects,” by Klein & Roth Consulting.
Chapter 16: Raising Money by Phone
“Sample Call Script for Individual Donor Campaign,” by Klein & Roth Consulting.
Chapter 17: Special Events
Sample House Party Invitation.
Chapter 21: Building Major Donor Programs
“Plan for 6‐week Donor Campaign,” by Stephanie Roth.
Chapter 23: Legacy Giving
“Bringing Up Legacy Gifts with Major Donors,” by Stan Yogi.
“Planned Giving Case for Support Exercise,” by Stan Yogi.
Chapter 25: What All Large Campaigns Have in Common
“Major Donor Prospect Worksheet.”
Chapter 28: Conducting Feasibility Studies
“Sample Feasibility Study Cover Letter.”
“Sample Questions for Feasibility Study.”
“Sample Feasibility Study Report.”
“Case Study of a Feasibility Study: Family Matters,” by Kim Klein.
Chapter 29: Developing a Budget
“‘Outing' Overhead,” by Kim Klein, Grassroots Fundraising Journal, Nov/Dec 2003.
Chapter 30: Creating a Fundraising Plan
“Sample Monthly Fundraising Report.”
“Fundraising Planning Worksheet: A Tool for Creating Your Annual Fundraising Plan,” by Stephanie Roth, Mimi Ho, and Priscilla Hung, Grassroots Fundraising Journal, Sep/Oct 2007.
“Sample Fundraising Plan,” 2021.
Chapter 33: Infrastructure for Fundraising
“Fundraising Bright Spots,” by Jeanne Bell and Kim Klein, CompassPoint, April 2016. https://www.haasjr.org/resources/fundraising-bright-spots
Chapter 34: Hiring a Development Director
“Why Good Fundraisers Are Never Paid on Commission,” by Kim Klein, August 2012. https://coco-net.org/why-good-fundraisers-are-never-paid-on-commission/
Chapter 37: Know What You Need to Know
“A Donor Bill of Rights.”
“Code of Ethical Principles and Standards,” Association of Fundraising Professionals.
There are so many colleagues and organizations who have helped with this book, sometimes in ways they may not even know. To mention some would be to do a disservice to others, so please just know that I am grateful to all the people I have worked with during the 40+ years of my career, and especially people who shared stories about fundraising and gave critical feedback on my other books so I could improve each edition.
There are some people who must be named, however. This book was written during the ongoing COVID pandemic, begun just as people were able to get vaccines, and completed during the height of the Delta variant. I was sustained throughout the lockdown and the gradual lifting of restrictions by my “pod”—Doris, Jim, Myn, Stephanie, and Susan, by my weekly Zoom calls with my sister, Candace, and by frequent texts, cards, and calls of support from my dear friend, Cheri Pies. I got daily joy from the Little Free Library I was given for my birthday, which sits on the road outside my house and provides a socially distant way to interact with neighbors and random passersby.
And for what is probably the 1,000th time, I thank my friend and editor, Myn Adess, who has edited every professional article and book I have written. This book required much more work than she was led to believe (by me), but she stepped up with her excellent skill and good humor. My wife, Stephanie Roth, reviewed many chapters and provided both insight and examples from her own vast experience. I couldn't have done this without them.
Thanks also to the 25 people who wrote the spotlights that are sprinkled throughout the book: Katherine Acey, Nancy Aleck, Celia Bernstein, Rory Brown, Cheri Bryant, Angela Campion, Dolores Garay, Miguel Gavaldón, Gil Gerald, Priscilla Hung, Jackie Kaplan, Helen Kim, Jill Kunishima, Caleb Lande, Steve Lew, Natalia López, Ash Lynette, Mario Lugay, Peggy Mathews, Tanya Mote, Monica Nuvamsa, Lourdes Reboyoso, Sonya Ulibari, Luna Vazquez, and Vy Vo.
Both Stan and I express gratitude to our team at Klein & Roth Consulting: Stephanie Roth, Rona Fernandez, and Nancy Otto.
Finally, many thanks to Sandy Hong, who worked with me to put all the articles from the Grassroots Fundraising Journal (published from 1982 to 2018) onto a website, where they can be downloaded for free: www.grassrootsfundraisingjournal.org. I encourage readers to take advantage of this extraordinary resource.
I wouldn't have gained the experience needed to partner with Kim on this book without the wisdom and examples of these mentors and colleagues who taught me that nonprofit fundraising is, at its core, a way to develop and deepen relationships with people who share our values, and to realize our common vision for change: Cheri Bryant, Robert Nakatani, David Blazevich, Sandy Holmes, Cori Stell, Dorothy Ehrlich, Jeff Vessels, Mohammad Zaidi, Eve Bigelow Baxley, and Hal Gunn. They've exemplified integrity, heart, and intelligence in fundraising.
I'm thankful to the dozens of clients with whom I've worked as a fundraising consultant. They have inspired me by their dedication to generating the resources necessary to fulfill their organizations' missions and to involve more people in movements for equity, justice, and sustainability.
I'm deeply grateful to the following colleagues who generously and graciously shared information and data for the chapters focused on the histories of fundraising for organizations within the movements for LGBTQ+ equality and immigrants' rights: Marisa Aguayo, Doug Braley, Cheri Bryant, Jury Candelario, Ben Cheng, Matt Coles, Aurora Colindres, Yael Falicov, Rona Fernandez, Juana Flores, Marcia Gallo, Gil Gerald, C. Nathan Harris, Kris Hayashi, Ruth Herring, Marielena Hincapié, Andrea Lee, Steve Lew, Tiffanie Luckett, Robert Nakatani, Ace Xavier Portis, John Manzon‐Santos, Beth Rayfield, Vince Sales, Michael Schement, and Meera Vaidyanathan.
Finally, I thank my husband, David Carroll, for decades of love and support, including sharing his wealth of knowledge about nonprofit finances and how organizations can ensure that the money donors generously contribute is spent wisely, effectively, and prudently.
We are very pleased to welcome readers to the 8th edition of Fundraising for Social Change. This book has been in continuous publication since 1985, but this edition includes significant changes from previous versions. First and most important is that we moved from one author, Kim Klein, to coauthors, Kim Klein and Stan Yogi. Kim and Stan have worked together for many years, and Stan is a senior consultant with Klein & Roth Consulting. Stan reviewed the last edition of the book, identified information that needed to be changed or updated, and he took the lead on writing about legacy giving. His most important contributions to this book, though, are the two history chapters that comprise Part Ten of this edition. While both of us have trained, consulted, and preached (and occasionally beseeched) organizations to understand that a successful individual donor fundraising program will give them maximum freedom to pursue their mission, in these chapters Stan has documented how doing that worked for organizations in two social justice movements. To give readers a taste of what is possible, Stan drew from research and his own experience in the LGBTQ+ Justice Movement and the Immigrants' Rights Movement to show the critical role of individual donors in a cross section of nonprofits that support the overall trajectories of these movements.
In addition to this original writing, Kim and Stan invited a diverse group of fundraisers and resource mobilizers to share, in what we call “spotlights,” brief reflections about their fundraising experiences. Twenty‐five people across a wide range of ages, races, and geographic locations wrote about a number of topics: how and why they have stayed in fundraising for so long, what most surprised them about fundraising, how they have dealt as fundraisers with white supremacy, and how much they love a particular fundraising strategy. These reflections, which appear at the ends of several chapters throughout the book, are as varied as the people who shared them, and they provide insight into the joys and challenges of fundraising for social change.
In the end, this is a how‐to book. Although the information in these pages is useful to almost any nonprofit, our goal is to provide organizations with budgets of less than $2,500,000 (which constitutes the vast majority of the world's nonprofits) the tools and information they need to establish, maintain, and expand a broad base of individual donors. We are particularly committed to organizations working for racial, economic, and climate justice. We believe that you can tell almost anything you need to know about an organization's fundamental values by looking at how they raise their money and from whom they raise it.
Because people have a tool to access the greatest source of information ever imagined—the internet—a book must provide something that the internet cannot: trustworthy and relevant information that can be easily understood. We have consolidated, vetted, and curated here information that would take days of internet searching and sorting to locate. We have examined everything we have written through the lenses of our own combined 70 years of fundraising experiences and those of colleagues we trust. We have made every effort to write simply and accessibly for people who have many other responsibilities aside from reading this book.
We invite you to add to our collective knowledge or share questions and concerns with us at [email protected].
Few people give money without being asked. So, make this your motto: “Today someone in our organization has to ask someone for money.”
Kim Klein, Point Reyes Station, California
Stan Yogi, Oakland, California
Kim Klein is an internationally known fundraising trainer and consultant. She has worked in all aspects of fundraising: as staff, volunteer, board member, and consultant. She is the author of five books, including this, her classic text, Fundraising for Social Change, now in its 8th edition. She is pleased to share the writing and revision of this edition with her colleague, Stan Yogi.
Kim has provided training and consulting in all 50 United States, five Canadian provinces, and 22 other countries. She recently retired from teaching at the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the cofounder of the consulting firm, Klein & Roth Consulting.
She splits her time between Point Reyes and Berkeley, California, where she lives with her wife, Stephanie Roth, and two cats.
Stan Yogi is a Senior Consultant with Klein & Roth Consulting. He has helped to advance the missions of nonprofits for more than 30 years. He started his professional life working for grantmaking organizations, including California Humanities, where he was a program officer. He then moved to the fundraising side of the nonprofit equation, first as a grantwriting consultant. For 14 years, he was Director of Planned Giving at the ACLU of Northern California, where he was also responsible for securing foundation grants and helping to generate major annual gifts and capital contributions. He has raised funds for numerous nonprofit organizations as a board member and as a fundraising volunteer.
He has combined his love of writing, history, and activism by coauthoring two books, Wherever There's a Fight, a history of civil rights in California, and Fred Korematsu Speaks Up, a biography for young readers about a man who defied the government's World War II orders forcing Japanese Americans into prison camps.
When we get ready to build something, whether it is a house, a website, or an organization, we often have a sense of what we want the final product to be, but we may not know where to start. In the case of building an organization, we know we want a healthy fundraising program that allows us to raise enough money to do our work. But what is the first step, and then the second, the third, to get to our vision? What do we need to know even to take the first step? In this section, we look at what is always true about fundraising, and what must be in place for fundraising to be successful. The COVID lockdown of 2020–2021 gave us an unwanted but still useful time to see if what we knew to be true about fundraising before the pandemic would hold during such an extraordinary change in how we lived and worked. Many of these changes are permanent, but we also see the fundamental principles holding firm.
This section starts with an overview of the nonprofit sector as a whole. It is important to understand the ecosystem that your organization is a part of, and this understanding may help you shape some of the decisions you will make about your fundraising program.
We then discuss the necessity of knowing what you believe in and what your work is about. You may be surprised to learn how much of your organization's ability to raise money year in and year out requires not so much knowledge about fundraising strategies as how lucid is your vision, along with how clearly you express what you think needs to be done, and how well you can find people who share your values.
Next, we look at what motivates people to give away money and how you can feel more comfortable asking for donations.
The section ends with a description of the people who are instrumental in both fundraising and the success of your organization: the board of directors.
The word nonprofit is used to identify organizations that work for the public good and that are not obligated to shareholders or owners to deliver a profit. In fact, organizations that are afforded nonprofit status by the Internal Revenue Service are subsidized by tax exemptions, financial donations, and the free labor of volunteers, all of which are designed to enable them to focus on fulfilling their mission rather than on seeking profits. Even though businesses and corporations can work for the public good, they must operate profitably in order to stay in business. Nonprofits balance their budgets by using donations to fill the gap between what it costs to do their work and how much they can earn from it—which is sometimes nothing.
Over the past 40 years, the word nonprofit has gradually replaced the word charity as more and more nonprofit organizations do work that is not strictly “charitable,” such as community organizing, advocacy, arts programming, or environmental protection. The word charity also carried a whiff of noblesse oblige—a sense of “fortunate” people helping the “less fortunate.” This frame has largely been rejected by progressive nonprofits, which seek to work “with” people rather than “for” them.
Many have argued that the term nonprofit, too, is an unfortunate one, as it describes an entire sector by what it is not; they have suggested using the term community benefit organization (CBO) instead. Another term, “NGO” or “non‐governmental organization,” was created in Article 71 of the Charter of the United Nations when it was formed in 1945 to describe any kind of organization that is independent from government influence and is not‐for‐profit. In most countries other than the United States, nonprofits are referred to as NGOs to distinguish them from the work of government. Sometimes the term civil society organization (CSO) is used; this designation can include informal associations of people or temporary coalitions and movements. In this book, we use the term nonprofit most of the time; despite its limitations, it is the most commonly used and commonly understood word to describe the sector in the United States. To describe an individual nonprofit entity, we mostly use the word organization. We sometimes use the word NGO to remind ourselves that we do not take the place of government, and we sometimes use the term CBO to keep us focused on the fact that we work on behalf of our communities.
The word philanthropy comes from two Greek words that together mean “love of people.” In modern times, this goodwill, or humanitarianism, is often expressed in donations of money, volunteer time, or property to causes that are important to the person doing the giving. (Similarly, the word charity comes from a Latin word meaning love in the sense of unconditional loving‐kindness, compassion, and seeking to do good.) The roots of these words remind us of the fundamental reasons for the work of most nonprofit organizations: expressing a love of people through good work. Often philanthropists are imagined as rich older white people who give away a lot of money. This image perpetuates a stereotype that is both untrue and racist. In fact, anyone who gives anything away out of the goodness of their heart could accurately be called a philanthropist.
Philanthropy is also often used as a way to describe foundations and foundation funding. “They work in philanthropy” will most often mean that the person has a job at a grantmaking foundation. More recently, the word philanthropy has sometimes been used in place of fundraising, particularly in articles about how to create a “culture of philanthropy” in an organization. (Type “Culture of Philanthropy” into a search engine and dozens of articles will appear.) These are all legitimate uses of the word, but we need to keep in mind that it has a much broader and more inclusive meaning at its root.
Arguably, the biggest change in philanthropy over the last half century has been the growth in the number and range of nonprofits. If the nonprofit sector in the United States were a single industry, it would be among the three largest, accounting for about 10% of the workforce and, with more than $1 trillion in revenue, about 5.6% of the gross domestic product. As of 2020, more than 1.8 million organizations were designated nonprofits by the Internal Revenue Service. Several million more small organizations are not registered with the government, including organizations just getting started; organizations that use very little money, such as neighborhood block clubs; organizations that come together for a one‐time purpose, such as cleaning up a vacant lot or protesting something; and organizations that don't wish to have a structural relationship with the state or federal government.
Because of the size and growing sophistication of the nonprofit sector, it has increasingly drawn the attention of government, as well as that of researchers, academics, and many members of the general public. Although government‐recognized nonprofits are regulated by federal, state, and local laws and regulations, an added layer of self‐regulation is imposed by public awareness coupled with the role of individuals in funding nonprofits, which encourages voluntary compliance with accepted ethical standards of accounting, personnel, and fundraising practices. Nonprofit status is a public trust, and tax exemption is, in effect, a public expense. Even organizations that have no formal tax status that seek to raise money from the public recognize that they have the same moral duty as registered nonprofits to operate ethically, be truthful with donors, and provide the highest quality of services to constituents.
As with many endeavors that are critically important and use the resources of millions of people, it is not surprising that a number of misconceptions have grown up about fundraising.
Surprising to many people is the fact that nonprofits earn money through a number of avenues, not just straight‐out monetary donations. These avenues include fees for services, products for sale, earnings from investments, and even earnings from businesses that a nonprofit may operate. Examples of these fundraising methods abound: Girl Scout cookies; Goodwill stores; Sierra Club calendars, cards, and books; and the like. For hospitals and universities, earned income is often the lion's share of their income. In fact, 54% of all the income of all nonprofits is earned income, including 6% derived from investment income largely generated by endowments. This money is not evenly divided, of course. About two‐thirds of all nonprofits have incomes of less than $500,000, and most of their income comes from the private sector (that is, from individuals, foundations, and corporations, discussed later in this section). For larger organizations, including hospitals and universities, most of their income is earned income, and they, along with large social service agencies, also receive the bulk of government funding.
Another one‐third of nonprofit income is derived from government funding programs (collectively known as “the public sector”). Extensive cutbacks in government funding beginning with the Reagan administration in 1981 as well as more onerous applications for and reporting on use of government funds have reduced both the scope and the effectiveness of government funding a great deal, but these funds nonetheless remain a significant source of income for many organizations. It is beyond the scope of this book to comment fully on the impact that changes in government funding have made in the sector, but, beyond their financial implications, these changes reflect a change in political philosophy about the roles of government and of private funding in paying for the common good. (See Chapter Two, “Creating a Fundraising Philosophy.”)
The final 13% of nonprofit income comes from the private sector: individuals, foundations, and corporations. Although the private sector provides the smallest portion of all the income available overall, for most of the organizations using this book, the private sector will provide the largest portion of their funding, and this book focuses almost entirely on how to raise money from the enormous market of individual donors.
It is also important to recognize that the work of the nonprofit sector is “funded” by the contributed time of volunteers. In the United States, more than 25% of the population volunteers regularly, the equivalent of nearly eight million full‐time jobs with a value of more than $300 billion (Independent Sector, 2020). During the COVID lockdown, many volunteer jobs were no longer available and many other people stopped volunteering in order to quarantine. But as the pandemic has eased, volunteers began returning in droves. It is not an exaggeration to say that without volunteers, the sector would not exist.
The private sector refers, broadly, to money given by individuals, foundations, and corporations. This book primarily describes how to raise money from individuals. The most widely used report on giving by the private sector is Giving USA, compiled yearly as a project of the Giving Institute and the University of Indiana. Every year since 1935, Giving USA researchers have calculated just how much money was given away to nonprofits and where that money came from. Their research over the years shows that the proportion of giving from each of the sources of private‐sector giving—living individuals, bequests (a cash or other donation people arrange to be given to a nonprofit on their death), foundations, and corporations—remains constant, varying from year to year by only a few percentage points. The most critical fact is that nine times as many gifts to nonprofits come from individuals (living and deceased) as from foundations and corporations.
A look at the numbers, as in the following chart showing private‐sector giving for the year 2020, brings this reality out starkly.
TOTAL PRIVATE SECTOR GIVING 2020: $471.44 billion
GIVEN BY
AMOUNT
% of TOTAL
Individuals
$324.10
69%
Bequests
41.91
9%
Foundations
88.55
19%
Corporations
16.88
4%
GIVEN TO
Religion
$131
28%
Education
71
15%
Human Services
65
14%
Foundations
58
12%
Public/Society Benefit
48
10%
Health
42
9%
International Affairs
26
5%
Arts & Culture
19
4%
Environment/Animals
16
3%
All organizations are encouraged to examine whether their work should or could be funded by local, state, or federal grants, and what options they may have for receiving grants from foundations and corporations or from earned income. But because this book is focused on social change, we must also focus on helping organizations build power to make change. Power comes from people. A broad base of individual donors provides the best insurance that you will be able to do the work you want to do in the way you want to do it year in and year out.
The logical follow‐up question—Who are the people who give to nonprofits?—is more difficult to answer. There are many complex variables that make it difficult to draw a single profile of givers, ranging from where people live to whether they keep track of their donations. How and what data are collected on giving also influence the answer.
Data on giving are collected in three main ways:
Analyzing tax returns of people who itemize and extrapolating from the results
Surveying a random sample of the population (either one time or at several points in time) and extrapolating from their responses
Comparing either or both of the results from these methods with what nonprofits report to the IRS about their income (on their IRS Form 990) or what they report in polls and surveys
Further analysis of results can be done by looking at various demographic variables, such as age or income of those responding.
To understand tax reporting a little more deeply, you need to understand tax deductions. Tax deductions allow individuals and companies to subtract certain expenses from their taxable income, which reduces their overall tax bill and reduces the amount of money available in taxes. Every taxpayer is “given” what is called a “standard deduction”: a flat amount that the tax system lets you deduct on your income tax form, no questions asked. It you don't have more expenses to deduct than equal the amount of the standard deduction, you file what is known as a “short form” of tax return to the IRS. Those who exceed the standard deduction itemize their taxes and file a “long form,” which includes naming the specific expenses that are being deducted. Before the Trump Administration put its tax plan in place in 2018, the standard deduction was $6,500; only 30% of Americans had enough specific expenses to itemize deductions on their tax returns. Under the new plan, the standard deduction was raised to $12,000 per person in 2018, with increases to that amount each year since then; as a result, only 15% of tax filers have enough expenses to itemize and thus only 15% of Americans receive any tax benefit for their giving. As a consequence, it is much more difficult to learn about giving to nonprofits by examining tax returns. Nonetheless, we can assume that, because the standard deduction is so high, most Americans actually have more after‐tax income, which will help increase charitable giving overall.
Another reason that it's difficult to estimate how much money people give away is that reporting may be skewed. Do people who itemize on their taxes exaggerate their giving? Possibly, although some studies have shown that people underreport giving on their taxes. By how much in either direction? It's hard to say. Do people exaggerate their generosity to a phone surveyor? Probably. By how much? Again, it's hard to say. People who donate to a number of nonprofits may forget how much they have given to any one of them.
Although the majority of people give money from their annual income, the wealthy minority give from their assets, such as stocks. When looking at who is generous relative to their ability to give, some studies only take into consideration the donor's level of annual income; other studies look at total net worth. These two factors can yield very different results. For example, a family with little income could be wealthy in terms of assets (such as ownership of homes, stocks and bonds, businesses, art, and the like), or it could have no assets. One might expect those with assets to have greater ability to give than those without, although for many people, those assets are not liquid.
Studies that calculate which region of the country is the most generous usually fail to take into account cost of living. For example, two states may each have a median income of $40,000 per family, but in one state the median cost of housing per year may be $10,000 and in the other state twice as much. The people living in the second state might well give less money away than those in the first state, but factoring in cost of living may reveal that both groups are equally generous.
Almost all studies try to focus on formal philanthropic giving, but if we were to count the numerous acts of unrecorded kindness—money donated to houseless people on the street or sent as remittances to family members in other countries, or help given to a friend to attend college or to a poor family to pay rent for a few months—our studies not only would show much more giving but might also yield even more demographic differences among givers.
Another unknown is the amount given through crowdsource funding, a mechanism that has risen in popularity in the last few decades, with many people giving to causes that are not established nonprofits. More than $17 billion was raised in crowdfunding in 2019. No one knows how much of that went to individuals raising money for needs of their own, but suffice it to say that much crowdfunding is philanthropic—that is, people helping people, whether it is to get needed health care or a reliable car to get to work or rent assistance.
Looking at the question of who gives by studying what nonprofits declare as income would seem to give the most accurate data. However, in accordance with the doctrine of separation of church and state, religious organizations, which constitute about one‐third of the nonprofit sector and take in just over one‐fourth of all giving, are not required to report their income to the government. (Even so, about half of all religious organizations do report to the IRS voluntarily, which still leaves a big gap in our knowledge.)
So you can see the problem of trying to know who gives away money and how much: the majority of people are not declaring their giving on their taxes, and a large number of nonprofits are not reporting their income sources.
Nonetheless, the research we do have about who gives shows that changes in the US economy since 1998 are affecting giving patterns. For most of the decades for which we have records, more than 80% of all money given away was given by the largest economic group—middle‐class and working‐class people. (Or as we said then, “Most money comes from most people.”) However, an alarming trend started in 1998 and has only gotten worse: an increasing percentage of money is given from a smaller and smaller cross section of high‐net‐worth individuals. Rising income inequality, which is eroding the middle class, is behind this shift in giving. Here's what the statistics tell us: in 1998, Independent Sector's research revealed that about 82% of all giving came from households with annual incomes of $65,000 or less—that is, the largest percentage of money was given by people in the dominant income range. By 2009, Giving USA reported that much less of all giving—now only about 52%—came from households with a gross income of $100,000 or less—again, the dominant income range at that time (encompassing 92% of all households, according to the IRS). By 2018, that same 52% of all charitable giving now came from households with incomes of $200,000 or more, and 30% of all giving came from households with incomes of $1 million or more. Only 48% of the total amount donated is now coming from the traditional bastions of giving: middle‐class and working‐class people.
Wealth inequality is one of the issues most threatening to our individual and national well‐being. Nonetheless, even though the pool of those giving to nonprofits has shifted, from the point of view of small‐budget organizations needing to raise money, there are still millions of people giving billions of dollars. Our job is to invite these people to give to us.
In both recessions and boom times, most people all over the world give away money. One of the first and most important lessons in fundraising is that what a person has and what that person will give are largely unrelated. Most people give something. Although it may be interesting to think about what makes one person generous and another not, you will find it far more productive to focus your fundraising efforts on people who give and try to interest them in giving to your organization.
Despite the difficulties inherent in research about who gives, some facts found in a number of studies remain constant year after year and are borne out by the experience of development professionals all over the world:
About 65% of adults in the United States give away money.
Most people who give to nonprofits give to at least five groups; some give to as many as fifteen groups.
In every year, about 20% of people on welfare give away money, and about 97% of millionaires give away money.
Volunteers are more likely to be donors than are people who don't volunteer.
Generally, more people give away money than vote.
The majority of people who give away money describe themselves as religious or spiritual, whether or not they are involved in a formal religious or spiritual community.
And finally, a theme we will return to a thousand times: people give when they are asked.
Regardless of the methodology used or the variables considered, study after study gives us a picture of a generous country, with most people making donations and constantly increasing the amount of money given each year. Fundraisers of all sorts need to remind ourselves every morning, “GIVERS GIVE.” People who give away money are going to give it away. For those of us asking for money, our job is basically to say to givers: “Please consider my organization.” The money will be given away, and it will go either to our organization or to another.
For organizations, a broad base of individual donors provides a reliable source of funding, and the growth of individual donations is critical to the organization's growth and self‐sufficiency. Most important, relying on a broad base of individuals for support increases an organization's ability to be self‐determining: it does not need to base program priorities on what foundations, corporations, or government agencies will fund.
Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) are accounts that donors can establish at a public charity allowing them to make large contributions to the fund and receive an immediate tax deduction. Then, over time, they can make grants from the fund to organizations they want to support. Often people open DAFs when they come into a significant amount of money that they know they want to give away but aren't sure to what and in what increments. Inheritances, stock splits, or sale of a large asset are often the source of the money put into DAFs. Along with the immediate tax deduction, there's a significant administrative advantage to the donor: all they need do is make a list of organizations they wish to support through the DAF and the amount to be given to each and the charity that hosts their DAF does the rest. These are called “advised” funds because technically the fund belongs to the public charity where it is housed and the holder of the fund must approve the distribution. In reality, if an organization being recommended for a grant has 501(c)3 standing, it is unlikely the advice would not be taken.
Donors can contribute to the fund as frequently as they like; they can recommend that grants be made to their favorite charitable organizations whenever it makes sense for them.
DAFs cannot be used to make pledges (the money must be given at the time the charity is designated by the donor), sponsor events, or support political campaigns. A donor giving from a DAF should be thanked if their identity is known; however, their gift is not tax deductible at the time it is received, as that deduction was taken at the establishment of the DAF. In your accounting, identify grants from DAFs as you would grants from family foundations, under “foundations,” but keep in mind that the relationship building you do with the holder of a DAF is far more similar to what you would do with any major donor.
It is not unusual for a nonprofit to receive a grant from a DAF and have no idea of the identity of the donor. A program officer at the foundation where the DAF is housed may have recommended your organization, or the donor may wish to remain anonymous. Because DAFs are one of the fastest‐growing forms of philanthropy, you will need to add two items to your to‐do list: (1) include language in all fundraising and marketing materials that encourages donors to give through their donor‐advised funds, and (2) make sure your website has the organization's legal name, address, and federal tax ID number so donors can easily recommend that a check be mailed through their DAF account. You may also want to try to get to know the DAF managers at your local community foundation. In some communities, where there are a lot of older wealthy people, this will be a good use of time. Keep in mind that there are no payout regulations for DAFs and very little requirement for transparency, so money may sit in a DAF for a very long time with no obligation for the donor or the holder of the DAF to distribute it. It is the exception, but some organizations that hold DAFs do require the donor to distribute it within a certain time period.
To really understand private‐sector giving, it is important to look not only at who gives this money but also at where it is given. Please return to the chart shown on page 7 for the most recent numbers.
Religion as a category receives more than one‐fourth of every charitable dollar (down from one‐half in 1976), and most of it comes from individuals. Only a small percentage of money given to religious organizations comes from foundations, and virtually none comes from corporations. We can learn a lot by examining what makes fundraising for religious institutions so successful.
At first glance, many people think that religious institutions receive so much money because of their theology: the reward of heaven, the blessing of giving, the
