Doubling Down: Summer Development Tips

​Even with many of your donors traveling or taking time off, summer is not the time for stewardship and fundraising to move to the back burner. Especially because endowment gifts and complex charitable giving structures take time to establish, mid-year presents an excellent opportunity to double down on development efforts.
 
For example, always remind your donors to give appreciated stock instead of cash. Absolutely it feels like you are a broken record! You mention the benefits of giving appreciated stock all the time in your donor communications. But it really can’t be overstated. Donors are so tempted to reach for the checkbook for charitable giving, even when they are making a gift to your organization’s endowment fund at the Community Foundation.
 
Emphasize to your donors that not only will transfers be eligible for a charitable deduction at fair market value (if the donor held the shares for more than one year), but also your organization won’t pay income tax on the capital gains. This means the donor will be making a much bigger gift than if the donor had sold the stock, paid the tax, and supported your organization out of the proceeds. 
 
The Community Foundation is always happy to help you process gifts of appreciated stock, especially when a donor wants to give a large block of a single stock to support your organization as well as others. 
 
And keep talking about QCDs! Donors who are 70 ½ or older absolutely must consider giving from an IRA. Certainly you mention this a lot in your discussions with donors, but sometimes donors are not ready to hear it, especially if they are on the cusp of reaching 70 ½ but aren’t there yet. They will listen differently when they’ve actually hit the age.

​As you know, a QCD allows a donor to direct $105,000 from an IRA to your organization, penalty-free. If a donor is subject to the rules for Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), QCDs count toward those RMDs. That means the donor can avoid income tax on the funds distributed to charity. The Community Foundation is happy to help you work with donors and their advisors to determine whether a QCD is a good fit to help maximize charitable giving.

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. ​