[Foundation-l] Fundraising ideas - bursting the bubble

[daniwo59 at aol.com]

All of this fundraising talk is very nice and dandy, but it sounds like plans for the local glee club, not an international foundation. No one has yet mentioned any of the legal/accounting requirements of fundraising, the costs, or the actual manhours involved. For instance: 

1 Are we allowed to solicit funds anywhere? Not quite as simple as you may think. 
 
2 What is the cost of a direct mailing? Try multiplying postage costs by 1000s, add printing costs, then add hourly rates. We can either do the mailing in-house (at which point you must consider whether it is worth paying my salary to have me stuff envelopes) or a service (which adds to the costs).

3 Are there any mails that we are required to send by law? Yes, Any donor who gives over $200 must receive written notification for IRS purposes. This includes multiple donations--for instance, if someone gives $20 a month over a period of a year, they will require such notification. That's a lot of donors to keep track of
 
4  Someone suggested that the committee "oversee" the sending of proper thanks, etc. Note that the average donation last year was $25 and we raised about half a million, i.e., 20,000 thank you notes. While it is good of you to volunteer overseeing me sending them out, it would be much more helpful if you would actually lick the envelopes.

These are just a few items off the top of my head. Note that donations come via Paypal, Moneybookers, direct deposit to either of two accounts (US and Europe), and checks mailed to the office. A percentage of our donors are repeats. Proper records must be kept for all donations for accounting purposes or else we risk losing our tax-free status, yet no one has considered GAAP for not-for-profits. Hey, guys, welcome to the real world. 
 
Danny
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