People sometimes question the need for a mission statement, but an accurate, effective mission statement is essential to your nonprofit organization. Why? It’s the most widely used nonprofit marketing piece, and it’s your first and most concise tool to win public understanding. 

What’s included in a mission statement?

A mission statement encompasses the following:

• Explains why your organization exists
• Defines what you do
• Sets your priorities
• Motivates your activities

However, the purpose of a mission statement is not to give all your program descriptions, because you want to keep it short. A mission statement serves as a blueprint of your activities, so it should be clear, uncluttered, and not full of adjectives – just stick to the facts.

How should you use your mission statement?

You should include your mission statement on all your publications, in your press releases, and everywhere you say something about your organization. You can even put it on your fax cover sheets. It serves as a brief introduction for those who don’t know you and a reminder for those who do.

How does my mission statement relate to my goals?

Your success as a nonprofit organization can be measured by how effectively you perform to achieve the mission you’ve outlined. Therefore, any projects your organization chooses to undertake should be compatible with the mission statement you have already established. A mission statement serves as a yardstick for deciding what programs your organization can and should undertake. Even if a program is valuable and interesting, if it is not relevant to your organization’s mission, it is likely better suited to another organization.

No matter how worthy your nonprofit’s cause, you won’t automatically attract funds.  Sometimes you have to start with the basics; fundraising. Successful fundraising requires organization, a simple implementation strategy, a plan to motivate your volunteers and something to offer in return for the “donor” support.

Many nonprofits are sitting on a pile of gold and they don’t even realize it.  There are numerous volunteers, private foundations, businesses and individuals interested in helping, but it’s up to your organization to network and engage the community in your mission with proven fundraising strategies.

Below are 5 simple fundraising events that can get you started!

Register on CharityNetUSA.com today to get a plethora of free fundraising tips, resources and more event ideas; along with instructions on organizing, marketing and executing them! Click Here to Register Now!

Many non-profits do not take the time to hash out an estimated budget for their programs before embarking on the grant proposal process. However, establishing a budget is an essential step in the operation of every organization, regardless of whether or not they are seeking grant funding. Without conducting some research regarding costs and making financial calculations, a non-profit cannot accurately determine how much money they need in order to achieve their goals, and therefore do not know the amount of funding they should request from foundations.

Fortunately, The Foundation Center offers a free online Proposal Budgeting Basics course:

“This online course is designed to help with the basics of developing a project budget, and it is geared for those who have general knowledge of proposal development. (Beginners might want to take the Proposal Writing Short Course.) When you complete this course, you will know:

• The basic components of a project budget
• Different types of financial documents often required for proposals
• How overhead costs and fringe benefits may be incorporated within the budget
• How to access resources on the Web, which provide templates of project budgets”

You do not need an accountant to prepare your non-profit organization’s budget; however, if you have little knowledge about project budgeting, hiring an accountant can be useful the first time around. 

Here are a few additional resources that will aid in preparing your organization’s budget:

• Nonprofit Guides provides a sample budget, proposal cover letter, letter of inquiry, proposal, and other helpful examples.
• The Cleveland Foundation’s website offers a Grantee Toolkit including sample templates for a project budget request.
• Register on the CharityNet USA website and gain access to a variety of free non-profit tools and resources.

More and more organizations are using charity auctions to supplement their fundraising. Charity auctions can be profitable and fun, however to ensure success organizational administrators must undertake careful planning and maintain an eye for details. The amount of time necessary to plan such an event will vary depending on how large scale an auction your organization wants to undertake. For a major event with widespread awareness, a minimum of 6 to 9 months is required.

Before beginning, it must be determined that the organization possesses adequate funding to cover up-front costs associated with the auction. These will include items such as invitations, advertising, food, drinks, decorations, location, entertainment, lighting, gift bags, the auctioneer, and more. Once the budget is set, a fundraising goal should be calculated. The fundraising goal should include the costs associated with the event, as well as the additional amount that is needed to be raised to cover necessary program expenses.

Volunteers will need to be recruited to be responsible for decorations, publicity, coordinating volunteers, the auction itself, cleaning up after the event, and of course procuring items for the auction. Without exciting items on auction, the chances of you reaching your fundraising goal are slim. Event coordinators should try to put together packages and items that are unique-something you can’t find just anywhere. Make sure the items will appeal to the audience you are inviting. Use whatever connections you and your constituents have to bring in quality items for your auction.

One major contributor to a successful charity auction is publicity. Publicize! The more people hear about your charity auction and get excited about it, the better your chances of selling more tickets and reaching your goals. Depending on the budget, you can utilize direct mailing, TV ads, radio ads, newspaper ads, or anything else that will reach your target audience. Reach out to local media to utilize free PSA time.

Keep in mind that to be successful you’ll also need to concentrate on drawing an appropriate crowd. If you expect quality people to attend your auction every year and donate to your organization, you need to make it an event worth attending. It should be referred to as “the party of the season”, or “the event not to be missed!” Stay focused on the guest list. You don’t have to convince your core supporters to attend since they will always be there for you. Rather, you are after the “swing” attendees in the community – the movers and shakers who make the rounds to the best events. These people are going to attend someone’s party; they just haven’t decided whose. All things being equal, they tend to focus on the fundraiser that offers something better than the rest. Create an atmosphere that is impossible to resist, and they’ll arrive ready to spend.

Finally, be prepared to give quality information to your donors about their contribution. Donors who purchase items at a charity auction may claim a charitable contribution deduction for the excess of the purchase price paid for an item over its fair market value. The donor must be able to show, however, that he or she knew that the value of the item was less than the amount paid. For example, a charity may publish a catalog, given to each person who attends an auction, providing a good faith estimate of items that will be available for bidding. Assuming the donor has no reason to doubt the accuracy of the published estimate, if he or she pays more than the published value, the difference between the amount paid and the published value may constitute a charitable contribution deduction.

Many nonprofit organizations with which you may be familiar have names that contain the word “Foundation”. However, in many cases these organizations are not foundations in the legal sense, but rather are public charities. While both private foundations and public charities are 501(c)(3) organizations, there is quite a substantial difference between the two types of entities.

 Traditionally, the Internal Revenue Service classifies an organization described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Code as a private foundation unless the organization can demonstrate that it qualifies as a public charity. Because there are different rules that apply to public charities and private foundations, it is important to be able to identify whether an organization is a public charity or a private foundation.

 Unlike private foundations, which normally receive substantially all of their contributions from relatively few sources, such as a wealthy individual or corporation, and often rely on investment earnings as their source of ongoing support. A public charity, on the other hand, is either “publicly supported” (deriving a substantial portion of its financial support from the public) or functions to support one or more organizations that are classified as public charities. Specifically, an organization may qualify as a “publicly supported” organization because it does one or more of the following:

•Carries on specific exempt activities, which are religious, educational, scientific, or charitable in nature

•Is supported substantially by financial support from government agencies and/or the general public.

•Is supported substantially by contributions and gross receipts from its exempt activities, and does not receive more than one-third of its support from investment income.

•Is organized and at all times thereafter operated exclusively for the benefit of, to perform the functions of, or to carry out the purposes of one or more specified publicly supported organizations. Organizations described in this paragraph are called “supporting organizations”.

 Because the private funding and private control of a private foundation increase the likelihood that the foundation will improperly benefit those who control the foundation, the Code subjects a private foundation to certain requirements and restrictions that are not applicable to public charities. For example, private foundations are subject to a tax on net investment income. In addition, private foundations are subject to excise taxes for failing to take certain required actions or for taking certain prohibited actions.

 Most notably, private foundations are required to make annual distributions equal to 5 percent of the aggregate fair market value of all assets of the organization, and are prohibited from the following:

•Engaging in acts of “self-dealing” with certain persons
•Having excess business holdings
•Making jeopardizing investments
•Making certain prohibited international expenditures

 Finally, the deductibility for federal income tax purposes of contributions to a private foundation is subject to certain limitations that do not apply to contributions to public charities. For example, the amount of contributions to private foundations that may be deducted for any year generally may not exceed 30 percent of an individual′s adjusted gross income for the year, while contributions to public charities may be deducted up to 50 percent of the AGI.

 Since the elimination of the advance ruling period, the IRS will review annual information returns annually and make bi-annual status rulings. Thus, nonprofits will have to be extra diligent in monitoring their funding sources and activities if they wish to retain their specific classification as either a private foundation or public charity.