December 21, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
As colleagues depart for holiday breaks, most fund raisers are still on the job and getting ready for a busy time of year as the consultant Marc Pitman points out in his fund-raising blog.
The next few days are crucial, he says, noting a new study that found that 22 percent of online donations were made on either December 30 or 31. “Don’t coast through this week,” he warns.
Charities are scrambling even more than usual in part because Congress took so long to finish a tax bill—a snag that caused problems for many groups that responded to a Chronicle poll on year-end giving.
Many organizations are working especially hard to let older donors know that they can make tax-free year-end gifts by transferring up to $100,000 per person from their individual retirement accounts to qualified charities, under the tax measure enacted last week.
Donors can make such gifts through the end of January and still count them as 2010 gifts on their tax returns. But that means that fund raisers who work with wealthy donors will need to field inquiries about the gifts for several weeks after the new year opens.
In his blog post, Mr. Pitman challenges fund raisers to do nine more solicitations than they had planned before 2010 comes to a close. In response, one fund raiser recommends calling donors who gave last year but not this year to thank them for their past support while diplomatically asking for a year-end contribution.
Share your best ideas for increasing donations during these busy year-end days by adding your comment in the box below this post.
