[Foundation-l] Fundraising ideas - bursting the bubble

[Anthony DiPierro]

On 6/12/06, daniwo59 at aol.com <daniwo59 at aol.com> wrote:
> 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.

How was this handled in the past?  Did it go well?  What were the
problems?  Can someone give a report?

Do you have any idea where one could go about looking up the
legal/accounting requirements of fundraising, or is this a first step
that needs to be taken?

> 1 Are we allowed to solicit funds anywhere? Not quite as simple as you may think.
>
I would think under US law that this is allowed, but obviously a
lawyer needs to be contacted about that.  I'd suggest taking that to
juriwiki.  Maybe you or someone else could give a report, since many
of us don't have access to that list.

> 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).
>
It certainly wouldn't make sense to have you stuff the envelopes.  Is
direct mailing definitely something that's going to be done?

> 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
>
Are you sure this isn't just a requirement in order for the donation
to be tax deductible?  Can you give a cite so we can look at this?  I
know there is a requirement that cash donations over $250, including
over the course of a year, must be substantiated in order to be
deductible, but I always thought that the burden was on the donor to
provide correct contact information.  It's certainly *possible*, for
instance, for me to put $10 a week in cash into the church basket
without the church knowing to give me a written receipt.  It just
wouldn't be fully deductible in that case.

> 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.
>
It's good that you pointed this out.  The committee should certainly
consider making sure there are enough volunteers to handle such a
task.  And someone should buy you one of those sponge things so that
Wikimedia doesn't have to pay for your worker's comp when you get
poisoned by envelope glue :).

> 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

Geez, someone should certainly be considering this.  Isn't this the
job of mav and/or the treasurer?

If no one is considering this, I'd say call three or more CPAs right
now and get quotes.  And get the job listings ready - you need a
bookkeeper.

Anthony