In This Issue: Success Factors for Special Events What Qualifies as a Charitable Deduction at a Special Event Internet Resources for Special Events Two Great Books Available Now Online Book Order Form How Can I Help You? Take This Quickie Quiz What People Say About Jean Block Sign Up for Future Newsletters! If you find this newsletter helpful and interesting, there’s only one way to keep receiving it —become a part of the email subscription list. If your email address changes or you want to add a second address, just send me an email with the new or additional information so you don’t miss out on a single issue. IMPORTANT: Remember to include your email address printed carefully and clearly! THANKS! Click here for the electronic form "I love your newsletter! It's refreshing, fun  and filled with helpful hints" Toni Paglia, Director of Development, The ARC Syracuse, New York

Special events work well when they make good use of marketing principles - giving people the opportunity to do something they want to do, win something they want to win, or whatever. So, to increase the success of your special events fundraising, consider these three things:

PURPOSE
PLAN
PEOPLE

PURPOSE. Ask yourself WHY you are doing this event. Just because you have done it for years and years doesn’t necessarily mean you should do it again and again, unless it is highly successful and leverages volunteer and staff time and talent to the highest degree. What is the event’s purpose? Raise money? Raise awareness? Educate?

Once you are clear on the purpose of the event, you can evaluate its effectiveness and determine whether it really is the best way to achieve the purpose. Use a simple Cost:Benefit Analysis. Compare the direct and indirect costs of the event (money spent, time, leveraging, etc.) against the benefits (money raised, PR, fun, awareness, etc.). The simple calculation of net revenue divided by hours spent can be a real eye-opener!

PLAN. Nothing takes the place of careful planning for a special event. Set a goal for the event.

Then, put 3 columns on a flip chart: What, Who, When. List up to 10 broad categories of things that are required for the event (Site, PR, Sponsors, Volunteers, Sales, etc.). Identify someone to take responsibility for each category. Before the next meeting, ask these subcommittee chairpersons to develop a very detailed plan using the same 3 column format with dates for every step. Tell the chairs to bring the plan and a preliminary budget for their activities to the next meeting.

At the second meeting, review all the work plans and the budget. Look for overlapping activities and negotiate time lines. See if the proposed costs and revenues will allow you to meet your goal - if not, see where change is necessary.

The Event Chair now has a notebook with a tab for every major category and can keep track of what needs to happen and when. The Event Chair can anticipate problems before they become problems. And don’t forget to plan for the Evaluation Meeting after the event!

PEOPLE. Who will come to this event? Who will work on the event? Target your PR and sales efforts to those people who will want to take advantage of the opportunity to attend your event. Focus, focus, focus to leverage the benefits of the PR and sales efforts.

Of course, you’ll need people to work at the event. I am a strong proponent of mini job descriptions for all volunteers to clarify expectations. I also try to recruit co-chairs for everything for contingency and succession planning.

Get more special events success ideas in Fast Fundraising Facts for Fame & Fortune. It’s easy to order from this web site.

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The following great advice is reprinted with permission from Michael Wyland, Sumption & Wyland, Sioux Falls, SD.

How should our organization receipt a charitable gift? If your nonprofit is recognized as a 501(c)3 nonprofit by the IRS, then your donors may be eligible to deduct (from their taxable income) contributions made to your organization.   The receipt your nonprofit provides to the donor is the donor's way to document the appropriateness of claiming the deduction. For detailed information on receipt requirements, check out IRS Publication 1771 on the IRS web site.  Placing value on gifts and assessing their deductibility is the donor's job.  The nonprofit assists by providing appropriate documentation ONLY.

REMEMBER -- A nonprofit organization should NEVER place a value on what is donated, but rather simply state what was donated.  Also, a nonprofit organization should NEVER state that a contribution IS deductible -- contributions MAY BE deductible, based on the donor's particular tax situation.

Are raffle tickets to benefit a qualified charity deductible? No.  The IRS considers the chance to win a prize to be something of value received in exchange for the "contribution" to receive the raffle ticket.  A charitable deduction, generally, may only be taken on donation amounts greater than value received, so raffle ticket purchases are not deductible as charitable gifts.  See the table on page 2 of IRS Publication 526.

Are art work donations deductible by the artist? No, not really.  An artist is limited to deduction of the actual cost of the materials used to create a work of art.  The creation of the art work is considered a gift of services by the artist.

How are auction items' deductibility calculated?
Deductibility by the donor -- a donor may deduct the fair market value of a charitable contribution of a tangible item donated to a 501(c)3 nonprofit to be sold at auction. 

Deductibility by the successful bidder --  a successful bidder for an item sold at a charity auction MAY NOT deduct the price paid for the item.  They received the item in exchange for the "gift."  If, however, they can provide written documentation that they paid more than the fair market value for the item, they may be able to deduct the difference between the price paid and the item's fair market value.

For more information, see the examples on pages 3 and 7 of IRS Publication 526.

Corporate charitable event sponsorships, program ads, and charitable gifts. A for-profit business always has the option of claiming business expenses as deductions on its federal tax return.  However, sometimes a business desires to claim a charitable tax deduction for a corporate sponsorship or other gift. There's a line separating advertising from sponsorship that's important for both nonprofits and donors to keep in mind. 

Sponsorship includes "...any payment made by a person engaged in a trade or business for which the person will receive no substantial benefit other than the use or acknowledgment of the business name, logo, or product lines in connection with the organization's activities. "Use or acknowledgment" does not include advertising the sponsor's products or services. The organization's activities include all its activities, whether or not related to its exempt purposes."

According to the IRS: "Advertising includes:

1. Messages containing qualitative or comparative language, price information, or other indications of savings or value,
2. Endorsements, and
3. Inducements to purchase, sell, or use the products or services."

For more information on this, please consult the following IRS web resource:
http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/page/0,,id=12668,00.html.

For nonprofits -- If you choose to solicit advertising (as opposed to sponsorships), your nonprofit organization may be subject to income tax on its unrelated business taxable income (UBTI).  Yes, nonprofits may sometimes have to pay federal income tax!

For businesses -- Using the IRS definitions above, paying a nonprofit for advertising does NOT qualify as a charitable deduction, though it may qualify as a business expense. Sponsorship may qualify as a charitable contribution. For more on this, please consult the following IRS web resource (also referenced above):
http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/page/0,,id=12668,00.html.

DISCLAIMER:  This information is not intended to provide legal or accounting advice, or to address specific situations.  Please consult with your legal or tax advisor to supplement and verify what you learn here.  Visit www.sumptionandwyland.com for more useful information.

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Here’s a great resource to manage your ticket sales and registration online at great savings of time and effort. Visit www.eventsNmore.com and visit with Barbara Everett at beverett@ewebiz.net to see how she can help you streamline your events.

Target Funding Group has software available to manage your charitable auction. Check it out at www.benefitauction.com or email mwinter@flite.net. They also publish an online newsletter about special events.

Another auction management software package is available at www.auctionsystems.com. I have not used either of these software packages, but know of people who have and who recommend them both.

And here’s an online newsletter with ideas, resources and reviews of successful fundraising events: go to www.eventsnews.com to subscribe.

Don’t forget to peruse the definitive source on what to deduct, what to acknowledge and how - www.irs.gov. It is better to be prepared and do it right the first time than to go back and clean up mistakes!

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Now you can add two great books to your agency library. The ABCs of Building Better Boards is just what you need to improve your Board’s potential. It includes ideas for recruitment, retention and recognition and has some great forms for you to copy and use.

Learn how to deal with unproductive Board members and how to better define the roles of staff and Board. There is a chapter on financial and fiduciary facts, one on simple parliamentary procedure and much much more.

Discover how Board Job Descriptions and annual Commitment Letters will dramatically improve your Board’s effectiveness. See how a truly effective Nominating Committee will lead to a better Board.

Get good ideas for more efficient Board management and administration, including how to set up and manage effective committees.

It’s only $24.95 plus shipping and handling. Take advantage of a volume discount of up to 20% and give this book to all new Board members as part of their orientation.

Fast Fundraising Facts for Fame & Fortune is full of ideas to improve your fundraising, including how to ask effectively, special events essentials and new ideas for fundraising.

Help volunteers get over the fear of asking for money and in-kind resources for your organization. Learn how marketing principles will make fundraising easier.

Learn about Jean’s Ten Rules for Fundraising Success and apply them to your organization immediately. This book puts the FUN into FUNDraising and gives good examples and ideas that really work, rather than using hard to follow formulas and theories.

At only $19.95 plus shipping and handling, it’s a Must Have for your nonprofit resource library.

Email me at to discuss volume discounts for staff or volunteers.

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Please give me a call if you want to turn any NO into a YES. I can help with:

• turning your Board into a dynamic group of volunteers,
• facilitating a strategic planning session,
• analyzing your current fundraising and suggesting some new ideas, and
• training volunteers and staff in becoming more effective fundraisers.

Here is what people have said about my training and facilitation:

"Jean Block is a powerhouse in the Non-Profit world. You don't move about these circles long before her name is prominent in the conversation. Her commitment to training, fundraising, motivating, and cultivation is unsurpassed. To say she is an influence is to miss the point. She gives new meaning to the word enthusiasm! You don't know Jean, you experience her! She is a force unlike any other I have every met."

Randy Gleason
Randy Gleason Consulting, Inc.

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"I attended the Corporate Sponsorship Workshop - WOW! You were amazing! What an OPPORTUNITY for me!

Your presentation style was EXCELLENT. By far the best workshop I've been to in a long time (content and style both!)."

Vicki Kopplin
Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota

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"I attended your workshop in St. Louis and left there feeling so uplifted by your motivation. Your training - to make us all savvy marketers - has paid off. Even in this economy, our underwriting is up and our auction donations have blown away everyone in town! We simply feel empowered to ask anyone and everyone AND to tell them WHY we are their market. It's working! Thank you!"

Kirsten Wagmeister
Junior League of Evansville

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"Thank you for the awesome training sessions...As someone (who) would normally walk over hot coals before asking for $, I was amazed by your session. I actually feel fired up at fundraising. I went right home and called two friends with ideas for their non-profits. I hope to give a presentation to my Board encouraging them to have you train us."

Heather Harden, Finance Council Director
Junior League of Champaign-Urbana

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"I just have to tell you that you made such an incredible impact when you spoke to our Board. I can't begin to tell you how many times your words of wisdom have been brought up at our Executive, Board and Committee meetings. In fact, just today, in two different conversations I was having, your ideas were quoted by others. Thank you for inspiring us to think in a new direction."

Kim Erdel
Junior League of Springfield, Missouri

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"Jean conducted an extremely well organized and productive [Board] retreat, one that I can say with confidence that our members count as the finest ever conducted for us. Jean's follow-up report was in-depth and meaty, and both Board and staff have referred to it time and again. The knowledge of boardsmanship the members took with them has made a remarkable difference in their levels of commitment and support."

Eileen Cook, Executive Director
Casa Esperanza

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Jean Block Consulting, Inc.
7915 Cliff Road NW
Albuquerque NM 87120

(505) 899-1520
Fax (505) 890-5285
Email:

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