A donor, one big or small, makes a gift to your organization. Your backend office generates and (e)mails a thank you letter and/or reciept. If the gift size says "major donor", you might even call to say thank you. But is that enough? Are you missing out on opportunities to show your appreciation in a more public way, especially one that would encourage *other people* to make a gift? It's easy to tweet a "thanks to all of our donors" message or rely on Facebook Causes to display a list of donors. But have you named specific donors in a Wall status update that would be displayed outside of the Cause or tracked down a donor's Twitter account and acknowledged them in a tweet? There's a reason why Facebook and Twitter display the number of friends, fans, and followers you have. And a reason why … Continue Reading
Transparency: Ensuring You Register For The Right Game
by Robert I. Evans & Avrum D. Lapin As we cope with the last days of summer and look to the High Holidays, we are also seeing some increasing activity by state attorneys general and other officials around significantly changing policies in the charitable sector. Compliance and required paperwork for charitable registration in states across the U.S. have increased dramatically in recent years, but what is more critical are the changing regulations that vary widely from state to state and cause even the best of us to have a degree of uncertainty about compliance. Looking at the glass half-full, states legitimately contend that stricter rules ensure transparency. And this has truly been a year in which donors have invoked the word transparency and the philanthropic marketplace has changed as … Continue Reading
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