Handouts for South Shore Grants on March 4, 2011. Topics including managing fundraising information, processing gifts, and regulatory requirements.

1. Organizing the Fundraising Back 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
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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
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3. Part 3: The Gift
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
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4. Part Four: Systems and 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
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5. Part Five: Putting It 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
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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
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7. AlumniFinder
http://www.alumnifinder.com/
Melisadata (list appending/cleaning)
http://melisadata.com/
Harris Connect (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/
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