How To Avoid Unwanted Mailings

How to Avoid Unwanted Mailings

Jennifer Watkins

Everyone has experienced this at one point or another. You donate to a charity and suddenly your mail box is filling up…not just with the charity you donated to but others as well! Maybe some of those charities pique your interest but not all of them, so what do you do to stop the incoming mailings?

Here are a few things you can do to trim down all that direct mail:

1. Contact the charity in question, in writing, and request to be taken off their mailing list. It’s sometimes easier if you send them the mailing label, or the envelope, that was originally sent to you and they’ll process your request off of that.

2. When making your donation to the charity, request that your contact information not be given out to other mailing lists.

3. Perhaps give larger gifts to a few charities instead of smaller ones to more numbers. This will decrease the numbers of charities that will be sending you mail as a donor.

4. Sign up with the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service. You can get your information placed on a do-no-mail list that’ll be good for up to five years. They’re located at http://www.dmaconsumers.org . According to their website, you’ll notice a decrease in mailings in three months.

5. If you receive duplicate mailings—at your home address and your work address, for example—contact the charity in question. Let them know the situation and tell them which address would be more appropriate. Not only is this irritating for you, but it’s a drain on the charity as well so it’s in everyone’s best interest to know.

A member question re Katrina Relief Act 2005

From the AFP Website

Association of Fundraising Professionals | U.S. public policy issues | U.S. federal issues

(Sept. 26, 2005) Congress has passed a Hurricane Katrina tax relief bill that does not include the IRA Rollover provision, but does contain a new incentive that could encourage additional giving.

As reported last week, the House and Senate introduced and passed two separate Katrina tax relief packages. The Senate bill originally included the IRA rollover provision and a proposal allowing the Internal Revenue Service to share information about tax-exempt organizations with state governments. Because of strong opposition from the House, those two provisions were stripped from the bill during House-Senate negotiations.

Tags: KETRA

Difference between a Fundraiser and Development Officer

prepared by Jennifer Watkins
What is the difference between a Fundraiser and a Development Officer?

The words ‘fundraising’ and ‘development’, especially for job descriptions, are universally interchangeable. So what, if any, is the difference between the two terms?

Fundraiser:
A person (paid, volunteer or consultant) that serves during a specific time or project (i.e. telethons); or a staff fundraiser who works under budget constrains under a department head and which is their only responsibility.

Development Officer:
A person who is always paid and has a title (Vice Present, Director of Development, Development Assistant). Consultants work on longer reaching projects such as capital campaigns.

The term ‘fundraiser’ sometimes denotes a shorter length of time or a voluntary position while the term ‘development office’ is often taken to mean a more permanent position or that they deal with a project that will be running longer.

A member asked about 501 c 6's

An example of a recent member question with some quick web resources.
Here are some resources that discuss 501c 6's.
(Standard disclaimers apply(see note re links above)
From the IRS
IRC 501(c)(6) Organizations
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p557/ch03.html


Some material from the web
Comparison of 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4), (6) and (7) Status

http://www.nj.com/helpinghands/nonprofitknowhow/index.ssf/2008/07/the_difference_between_501c3_a.html

Tips on Tax Deductions for Charitable Contributions

Tax-Exempt Organization Reference Chart

501(c)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Special Events FAQ

What Kind of Special Events Can You Host?
prepared by Jennifer Watkins
When planning a Special Event, it is not always easy figuring out exactly what sort of event to host. The ideas seem to run the gauntlet from a telethon to a rubber duck race and everything in-between. So what are some of the options that are out there?
Raffles/Lotteries/Bingos
Antique Shows
Dinners
Auctions
Carnivals
Casino Nights
Concert
Black tie dinners
Golf
Dances
Telethons
No-show fund raiser
Open Houses
Garage sales
Celebrity events
Book signing
Car show
Cruise
Beach Party
Costume Party
Sleepover
Bake sale
Car wash
Pot luck
Mystery Dinners
Silent auctions
Book sales
Rubber Duck Race

There are many more ideas out there than what is on this list but hopefully this will give a base idea of what is possible. There are so many options and what fits best depends on the type of organization and the people involved. If you wish for more information, on either more ideas or are interested in the ideas found here, please contact the Resource Center with any questions.

Careers

Careers
prepared by Jennifer Watkins

So you want to work in fundraising—or for a nonprofit. It’s a wide, multi-faceted field and, like any field, sometimes an overwhelming plethora of positions. What’s out there for you? What are some of these positions?

• Director of Development
• Major gifts officer
• Fundraising coordinator
• Grants manager
• Researcher
• Vice president for development
• Annual fund director
• Annual giving director
• Planned giving officer/director

These are, obviously, only a sampling of the positions out there. The titles can also change slightly depending on the organization and the job descriptions. But hopefully this handful of job titles will send you on the right path towards the job that you are aiming for in the world of Philanthropy.

AFP also sells a Sample Tool kit entitled Sample Job Descriptions in Fundraising