Fundraising Policies & Practices

All organizations and disciplines need to define the policies and practices by which they will operate, and nonprofits are no different. Development operations need to have a set of rules within which they will function.

They need to know what types of gifts they will accept from whom and with what conditions attached. They need to know who will ask and have guidelines for how that ask will be made. They need to have a uniform way of responding to and thanking donors.

An organization needs to know how it should organize and staff its development office and pay those who staff it. It needs to know where the legal lines are drawn and how to avoid crossing them.

In short, a nonprofit organization needs fundraising policies and practices so that it doesn’t have to make decisions on the fly or miss opportunities.

Articles about Fundraising Policies & Practices

Finance vs. Development?

Mixing Oil and Water and Making it Work in a Non-Profit Organization The receiving and the handling of donations made to non-profit organizations are simple to do, but very often poorly done. When that happens, a vital block is taken out of the foundation we strive to...

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Pro Bono Services for Your Organization

Pro Bono: "Especially for the Public Good" (Merriam-Webster) The dictionary definition of pro bono fits well with non-profit organizations, which themselves are also for "the public good," according to the IRS description of how they must be created and operated. And...

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A Campaign Deferred Is a Campaign Defeated

Disasters and crises can occur anywhere, at any time. Hopefully they won't have the impact of mega-disasters such as the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks or of 2005's hurricane Katrina. However, even disasters of considerably less magnitude can impede the...

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