Category Archives: Uncategorized

Imagine making a contribution of $25,000 to your favorite charity only to have the Internal Revenue Service disallow your tax deduction. This nonprofit horror story may sound absurd, but if you’re not careful, it could happen to you. It starts with a nonprofit that you’ve been giving to for many years and know very well.Continue reading “A Non-Profit Horror Story for Halloween”

Recently the Volunteer Center of Door County hosted its annual Golden Heart Awards to recognize outstanding volunteers in our community. Holly Feldman, one of the handful of folks who have attended all 12 of these annual galas, calls it the “feel good event of Door County.” Indeed, it’s easy to see why people are soContinue reading “Thank Goodness for Bargain Sales”

There are few things I disdain more in my professional life than fundraising gimmicks. Charities should do good work then share the impact of their efforts with their donors. That’s how you build a strong and enduring donor base. So imagine my surprise when my wife and I agreed to get all wet as aContinue reading “Why I’m All Wet”

Fifteen years ago I was at a conference of community foundations and had the opportunity to participate in a discussion session with Dr. Robert Putnam, a political scientist at Harvard University. Putnam was there to talk with us about the loss of social capital in the United States. Think of social capital as the relationships,Continue reading “Facebook: Telephone or Television?”

Charities have long known that women are more likely to contribute than men, but new research has uncovered some remarkable differences when it comes to each gender’s approach to philanthropy. Where Do Men and Women Give? Gender Differences in the Motivations and Purposes for Charitable Giving is a new study that was released in SeptemberContinue reading “How Gender Impacts Charitable Giving”

“Participation is the new endowment.” With the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation’s release of a report titled “The Value of Community Philanthropy,” a panel discussion of experts was convened to discuss the issue. It was there that I came across this quote from Janet Topolsky. As the Director of the Community Strategies Group at the AspenContinue reading “Community Philanthropy”

“Nonprofits should be more like business.” It’s a headline that is increasingly seen atop newspaper editorials and articles in business journals. The concept is simple. If nonprofit organizations would simply act more like for-profit businesses, they’d do a better job serving the community. There is a certain amount of truth to this belief. Indeed, goodContinue reading “When Charity Shouldn’t Act Like a Business”

Buy a pink water bottle and the store will donate 20 percent of its price to support breast cancer research. Come in for dinner on a Tuesday night and the restaurant will give 10 percent of the cost of your meal to feed the hungry. Attend a performance of a new play in town andContinue reading “The Hidden Cost of 15 Percent”

It took nearly 10 years, four renewals of temporary laws, two budget crises, and one government shutdown, but eventually our friends in Washington finally came together to give our communities a powerful tool for charitable giving both today and in estate plans. On Dec. 18, new legislation was signed into law which restored and madeContinue reading “A New Tool for Giving”

Math is a wonderful thing. You can talk all day long in an attempt to convince and cajole a person into doing what you want, but those are just words. They are arguments designed to persuade someone to believe something you cannot definitively prove. With math, however, there is no such ambiguity. Consider for aContinue reading “Endowment Funds: The Gift That Keeps Giving”