So what do you do to show how thankful you are for your major gifts donors? If you’re Bowling Green State University and you’re thanking the people who paid for your new sports complex, you make an incredible rap video. Check out the video below.
WaterForward: An Experiment in Social Giving
It’s long been known that, for some, the motivation to give to a cause is that others will know about it. That’s why everything from buildings to hallways to benches are named after donors and its why we tweet and Facebook our favorite causes. The innovative water provider charity:water is bringing this tradition into the 21st century with WaterForward.
The idea is simple. Someone pays $10 to get you into the WaterForward book which can be viewed online and will be printed after every million members. You get a message that you’ve been placed in the book and you are asked to pay it forward by buying a spot for your friends for $10. They will then be invited to do the same. The only way to get into the book is for someone to buy your spot (though initially there are some other ways to get invited).
I think it is a tremendous way to raise awareness and money at the same time while literally making your fans your development team. This is something that charity:water has always excelled at.
After a quick perusal of the book its hard to tell how well it is catching on but often times these social movements need to reach a tipping point and when they do they’re unstoppable.
To learn more about WaterForward read this article from FastCompany and watch the video below.
How WaterForward works. from charity: water on Vimeo.
Interesting Idea in Tax Reform
I know, I know. Many of you find the idea of tax reform so intoxicating and constantly complain I don’t discuss it enough. Well today I came across such an interesting idea I thought I’d share it with you.
It’s from Robert Egger, founder of DC Central Kitchen, a social enterprise in DC in a post entitled, Boosting the Economy Through Charitable Tax Deduction Innovation over on the Tactical Philanthropy blog. His basic premise is that nonprofits and social enterprises create jobs too and in a time where we are looking to spur growth and investment we can spur social enterprises on by having the Charitable Tax Deduction code catch up to the times. He writes:
America is no longer a manufacturing economy, with jobs for all. Nor do we produce enough “extra” money to support an unlimited number of charities. Therefore, we must begin to let go of attitudes, ideas and tax policies that rely on the incomes and opportunities of a by-gone era.
His idea is to create a return on investment formula so that donors could experience an increasing tax deduction over time if the program they supported succeeded in addressing social problems. This makes complete sense academically. Many nonprofits save tax payers millions through the services they provide and yet though don’t reap any benefits from that.
What could happen is almost like a social stock market where one could invest in a nonprofit in the hopes that the tax deduction you would receive would increase over time. Logistically there are huge hurdles to the measurement and identification of the impact and then putting a number on it but I think it is definitely an interesting idea.
Activities vs Outcomes
Activities are the things we do. Outcomes are the things we produce. Outcomes are more necessary than activities and today’s donors don’t want to just fund activities, they want to purchase outcomes.
An activity is handing out food at a food pantry. An outcome is helping people move from food dependence to food independence.
An activity is running an after-school basketball league. An outcome is increasing the odds a student ends up in college.
Activities make up the day to day life of social entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders. Outcomes are why they started the organization to begin with. Read More…
Why Limiting Itemized Deductions Will Be Good for Nonprofits: Pt. 2
William Daroff, vice president for Public Policy and director of the Washington Office of the Jewish Federations of North America, weighed in on the Tax Deduction debate yesterday on the SSIR blog. A couple days ago I wrote how I feel that limiting tax deductions might actually help charities.
Mr. Daroff wrote that 90% of the Jewish Federations‘, and many organizations like it, funding comes from less than 10% of its donors. Generally this 10% is the wealthiest 10% and the most motivated and attune to tax strategies when it comes to their philanthropy. Limiting itemized deductions will certainly hurt and stretch these organizations.
But this raises the question, has it been a healthy thing for such a large part of the social sector to be reliant on such a small portion of the population? I believe the answer is no. Read More…
Why Limiting Charitable Deductions Might Actually Help Charities
The Philantopic blog had a great post today about the Obama administration proposal on limiting itemized deductions on charitable giving. It quoted a survey by the Association of Fundraising Proposals that found that development officers expect to see at least a slight drop in giving if the proposal goes into effect.
As a University of Chicago trained economist, this make sense. As it becomes more expensive to give, people will do less of it.
But is it a wholly awful scenario? Read More…
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