Year End Giving Tips and the Influence on Your Donors-Part 2

In the last post we started looking at advice given to donors on reviewing charities and how you as the charitable organization can put your best foot forward.   The articles typically site this listing from Charity Navigator.    Let's continue with the next few:

4.  Commitment to Accountability and Transparency-charities that follow good governance practices-such as an approval process for the CEO salary; conflict of interest policies; a whistleblower policy; etc.--are more likely to follow good practices in accomplishing their mission.  Your potential donor can find out information about your good practices by reviewing your IRS Form 990 either by obtaining a copy from you or the online site, Guidestar.   Look at your Form 990 and read page 5 and Schedule O.    An organization following good practice will have answered affirmatively to the questions on page 5 and it will be supplemented by clear explantions of how these practices work in Schedule O.   Make sure the explanations in Schedule O can be easily understood.

5. Review Executive Compensation-compare it with counterparts in organizations of similar size, mission, and location     Charity Navigator notes that the compensation for the Executive Director for the average organization that they review is about $150,000.  Their 2012 study covers this in more detail.  Your own compensation review process should verify that your Executive Director and key staff's compensation is in line with organizations of similar size, mission, and location.   Ocassionally our clients are asked by stakeholders to defend their Executive Director's pay package.  Make sure you have the written results of your annual compensation review so you can answer any questions.

6.  Be careful of sound alike names.  Watch out for organizations that adopt the name of a reputable organization to boost their fundraising.  If there is another organization with a name similar to yours, what can you do to  ensure donors aren't confused.   In some situations, our clients have trademarked names or logos and have legally enforced those trademarks.  The legal costs might be expensive but becuase they had a national brand it was important to protect their name.

7. Don't give via phone telemarketing.  Typically telemarketers keep 25 to 95 cents of every dollar they raise.  This is considered an inefficient way of fundraising.  If you use telemarketing, look at the cost.  It may not be worth it.  If you are the exception, and this practice is cost effective (for example, volunteer students raising money for an alumni association) recognize the negative impact that this practice may have on your donors.  How can you overcome the negative perception that might be turning potential donors away?

Just three more to go and we will cover them in the next post.