Michael London on LinkedIn: $237M Donation Declared Fraudulent, Buzzballz CEO Donates $30M, (2024)

"Shifting strategy to cultivating, soliciting, and receiving gifts of non-cash assets drives total fundraising growth in every nonprofit sector, at every fundraising size, in every time period (same year, and also 3 and 5 years later)."If you've never heard Russell James, J.D., Ph.D., CFP® present on "Why Cash Is Not King in Fundraising," all I can say is you're missing out! His research has been transformational for fundraising.RJ joined FreeWill for a jam-packed webinar yesterday. Here are a few facts he shared about gifts of non-cash assets.ASSET GIFTS:♦ Feel relatively smaller to the donor than cash gifts.Cash gifts naturally compare with our disposable income purchases (small), while asset gifts naturally compare with our wealth holdings (large). ♦ Remind donors of our wealth.People who feel wealthy act charitably. The strongest predictor of donation amount is the donor’s subjective feeling about their wealth, not its objective adequacy.♦ Mentally reclassify the donor’s assets as donation relevant.Most donors will only think of giving as something that comes from disposable income. Making a gift of a non-cash asset can re-categorize that entire asset class as appropriate for future charitable consideration.♦ Reflect real donor-centeredness. Nonprofits promoting non-cash gifts increase their own hassle (cash is easier for the charity) to benefit the donor (gifts of appreciated assets are cheaper for the donor).♦ Require fundraiser expertise.This greater level of financial knowledge changes the donor<>gift officer relationship from “asking” to “advising,” and this leads to long-term fundraising growth.♦ Are more social.If you invite me to your home for dinner, I bring a bottle of wine, not $50 to help defray the costs. Gifts of assets/objects are common in social relationships and emphasize communal norms rather than self-interested exchange relationships.♦ Are cheaper for the donor.They offer a tax deduction and allow the donor to avoid paying capital gains tax, regardless of whether they itemize deductions.♦ Fuel current and future fundraising growth.Nonprofits that make non-cash giving part of their development strategy grow their fundraising 5x - 6x faster than those that do not.Check out the webinar recording below for details of Dr. James' research. Thank you for joining us, RJ! 🐐

11

2 Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot about some data Salvatore (Sal) Salpietro shared on Venmo giving - and what that tells us about donor psychology 🧠While the overall average donation size on Fundraise Up was $64, the average Venmo donation was $94❗I imagine this is a little shocking to some people 😮You might assume that the audience using Venmo is younger with less giving capacity 🐣Or that people make larger gifts with a credit card for the points 🤑There were a few interesting theories offered - but I think it mostly has to do with our financial psychology with money already set aside, outside of our main budget 💰Many people inadvertently carry a balance in their Venmo account - even though that’s completely fungible with your checking account, and can be transfer back and forth easily any time, it just feels different 🤷🏼♂️And when you donate with Venmo, the first thing you see is your balance. You certainly aren’t reminded of your bank account balance when you give with a credit card! 👀And I’m confident in this theory because we see this phenomenon in a more extreme fashion with digital DAF giving in DAFpay ✅The average carrying balance on a Donor Advised Fund nationally is around $120,000 🤯At large commercial DAFs like Fidelity where they disclose median account size, we learn that the median is around $20k 🏦And there’s over 3 million people using these accounts 📈But unlike Venmo, where there’s technical fungibility between Venmo and your bank account, your DAF balance is irrevocable 🔐Once money is in a DAF, it can only leave to donate to a nonprofit 💙So when you make DAF giving as easy as Venmo, and remind people of their 5-6 figure DAF balance that can only ever be donated to charity…You get an average DAFpay donation of $1,340 - 21x the average online donation 🎉And unlike Venmo, DAFpay also tells you some very valuable information about that donor! 🤗You didn’t just get an exponentially larger gift that time, you now know that this donor is likely a major donor prospect that you can start stewarding immediately 💞I think DAFpay should be on every donation form with venmo, do you agree? 🗣️#nonprofit #fundraising #philanthropy

33

9 Comments

What are you doing by dynamically setting up your online donation form with ludicrously high amounts? This blog post is a nerdy reflection on a cause that I care about.

10

4 Comments

HUGE NEWS (🥁 drumroll please) Givio + Spiral have teamed up! We couldn’t be more excited for our charitable banking partners because this partnership means A LOT MORE IMPACT. 🚀 First, the backstory. In the last two years, we built a charitable banking platform that allowed people to drive change and make a positive social impact – quickly and securely - through online banking. Since our launch, we’ve enabled our community, which grew to nearly 40 bank and credit union customers representing 2 million account holders, to connect with 1.5 million nonprofits and make thousands of donations to support social and environmental change.❤️ We heard from our donors and benefiting nonprofits that they loved the services Givio was providing, and they looked forward to even more ways to donate and engage in community impact. We knew we needed to find a way to help connect many more communities with their local nonprofits to drive more donations. 🎁 Enter Spiral, an award-winning engagement platform that shares our vision to power the next generation of impact and financial services. Joining forces with Spiral enables us to provide our customers with the powerful Impact-as-a-Service™ platform, greater everyday impact, and a broader suite of financial wellness tools, like ‘round-up for savings’ and others.Spiral has raised more than $42M, earning accolades as a FinTech leader with CUNA’s “Best in Show” and ICBA’s ThinkTECH MVP award. We are incredibly proud to be a part of Team Spiral.If you're a financial institution and you want to learn more, shoot us a DM or better yet, just schedule a demo. https://lnkd.in/ertqtGRSAre you a nonprofit wondering how this will affect your organization? Check out this FAQ to see how our partnership can help you drive even more donations. https://lnkd.in/ev4D3VHYTogether, we're helping financial institutions grow deposits with impact! 🎉

13

Delve into the most recent analysis of prominent philanthropic causes spanning 2022 and 2023. Uncover valuable insights into how #TransactionEnrichment provides significant data on donation trends! #CharitableGiving #Research #Donations #ConsumerBanking

1

Yesterday, we promised to delve into receiving tasks. 🚀As we've discussed previously, creating tasks on Givell is straightforward, so we won't cover that today. You simply hit the 'create task' button, fill in the details, and share your task list with your audience. 📝But how do you actually receive tasks?You share your task list with your custom settings, and your audience can then create donation tasks for you. There are two types of tasks you can receive: with a name or anonymously. 🤝To help Givell grow, we've added a small fee, but most donors cover it. 💰 However, if you receive a smaller donation than expected, it's simply because they chose not to cover it, which is rare. 🤷♂️Once they've decided what to donate, added a name, description, and attachments, and completed the secure Stripe payment, you'll receive your task. 🎁Users can also donate to prioritize tasks. Since prioritization works based on the largest donation, your audience can push what they want to the top more prominently. To do this, they simply select the donation amount, pay, and that's it. ⏫We promised simplicity, and that's exactly what you get. 😌Next, we'll talk about completing and declining tasks, so stay tuned for more interesting stuff! 🔄👀

1

1 Comment

At my first nonprofit job, I redesigned paper forms. Figuring out what questions to ask and how to ask them was oddly satisfying, and in retrospect, I think my decision to go to library school later had something to do with that. Lately, I’ve been looking a lot at donation forms. While many organizations use third-party donation tools, a common issue for those using their own forms is asking for too much information. I’ve also seen this issue with membership sites or customer service sites, where potential customers get asked pages of questions before they can even sign up for an account. You might be worried that if you don’t ask for extra information now, you won’t be able to get it later but consider this: the more work you give a potential donor or customer, the less likely they are to follow through with their sign-up or donation.Also, asking for information that’s not immediately pertinent makes people less likely to trust you. I’ll get into more tips on building trust in a future post, but in the meantime, if you have any questions or want some expert eyes on your form, DM me.

15

1 Comment

Final numbers have been accounted for - we raised $52.5 million in donations last fiscal year! 💛While philanthropic giving is declining nationally for many nonprofit organizations, University of Idaho raised $52.5 million in Fiscal Year 2024, marking four consecutive years of fundraising more than $50 million annually.Direct donations, pledges, gifts-in-kind, bequests and other types of gifts make up this total, which brings the amount raised for U of I’s Brave. Bold. Unstoppable. fundraising campaign to more than $446 million. The campaign’s goal is to bring in $500 million by the end of calendar year 2025.“The impact of donors’ generosity can be seen not only across the U of I, but also in communities and industries throughout Idaho,” U of I President Scott Green said. “Donor support makes it possible for more physicians, entrepreneurs, architects, teachers, engineers and many other professionals to help individuals thrive and economies to flourish. We are deeply grateful to every donor who chooses to invest in the U of I.”The $52.5 million donated in FY24 will be allocated according to the donors’ wishes, with $17.2 million going toward scholarships and student financial aid; $25.7 million toward research, academics and faculty support; and $9.6 million toward libraries, facilities and operations, Extension programs and other areas.

161

4 Comments

With so many immediate #fundraising needs competing for your time and attention, focusing (even for just a bit) on future gifts may feel like a burden.That is the advantage of engaging a #fractional #plannedgiving professional. ➡️Your mission gets the laser-focused attention needed to secure the future, with a “done for you,” program executed by a seasoned professional.➡️➡️Your donors (time and treasure) get the information and assistance they need to leave a lasting legacy with your #nonprofit.➡️➡️➡️And, you get important work moved off your “to-do,” so you can focus on meeting today’s needs.Curious about the planned gift potential in your donor file? Check out our calculator: https://bit.ly/4digEEk

1