We’d like to invite you to participate in our inaugural Make-The-Ask Challenge for gifts of publicly traded securities (such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or ETFs), to give you an additional tool to help in your ministry-enabling work.

From now till the end of the year, in your upcoming calls with major donors, ask at least 10 of them if they’ve considered making a securities donation to your ministry!

We would love to hear whether any of the 10 asks you make lead to a deepening of the relationship, a good discussion on future giving, or a gift right away. We’re confident we will be hearing many success stories. Refresh yourself using our material on the subject and simply focus on asking at least 10 times before the December deadline!

Here’s How You Can Get Started Today!

Asking donors to consider donating publicly traded securities may feel like a big step, especially if this is your first time. But rest assured, you’re not alone! Your membership gives you access to our donation tool, and we’ll take care of all the processing for you. That means you can focus on the conversation, knowing the details are fully supported.

1. Prep Your Donor List & Review in the Knowledge Base: Reviewing the structure of these gifts can help pinpoint who the ideal donors might be – for example, business owners, professionals in your ministry network, or donors already having estate planning conversations.
2. Make the Ask: During or at the end of your next major donor touchpoint, simply ask, “By the way, have you considered donating gifts of publicly traded securities as part of your gift to us?”
3. Be Ready for a “Yes” and a “Hmm”: A “yes” can take time, and an “I’d like to know more” is a great start. If they express interest, send them this CCCC blog post and your donation page for instructions, and remind them to check with their professional advisor. If you don’t yet have a securities option, direct them to the CCCC’s CTF page.
4. Follow-Up: A few weeks later, follow up with a personal call or email.
5. Share Success Stories: When you have success or insights from your 10 asks, we’d love to hear from you and share your story to inspire others!

Take it one step at a time, and you’ll be surprised how positively donors respond when they see you’re ready to be a resource on more sophisticated giving.

Thank you for faithfully leading your ministry in this important work of stewardship. We’d be honoured to walk alongside you in this journey. If we can help you at all in this process, feel free to book a quick call with me today!

The post Getting Started with the Fundraising Challenge – Make The Ask! appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Here’s everything you need to know to maximize recurring giving for your charity.

How Your Charity Would Benefit

1. Increased Revenue Over Time
While recurring donors typically contribute smaller amounts per gift, their average donor lifespan value (DLV) is much higher than that of one-time donors. The DLV is calculated by:

Average number of years donors give X Average donation value X Average number of gifts/donor/years

? Canadian Context: Charities in Canada can leverage this strategy by partnering with local businesses for matching donations, encouraging recurring donations among members of the organization, or providing exclusive contact points for monthly donors.

2. Recurring Giving Simplifies Donations for Donors & Charities
Many donors prefer smaller, manageable monthly contributions rather than a large one-time gift. This makes giving more sustainable and increases donor retention.

? Automation makes it easy! Platforms like CanadaHelps, Zeffy, or DonorPerfect handle automated payments, donor reminders, and even receipting.

? Example: The United Church of Canada’s Pre-Authorized Remittance (PAR) program has successfully enabled recurring donations since 1976, reducing admin work while increasing donor retention.

? Charity Tip: Offer flexibility. Let donors choose between monthly, bi-weekly, or even weekly giving.

3. Improved Cash Flow for Charities
A steady flow of monthly gifts helps stabilize finances, ensuring your charity can continue its work even during slow fundraising seasons or economic downturns.

? Key Benefit: Predictable revenue allows you to plan for operational expenses, program growth, and emergency needs without relying on inconsistent one-time gifts.

? Charity Tip: Use donor segmentation tools in your CRM to track and forecast recurring revenue, allowing for better financial planning.

4. Long-Term Planning Becomes Easier
When you know how much recurring revenue your charity can expect, you can confidently:

• Hire new staff
• Expand programs
• Develop new initiatives

? Charity Tip: Many charities use a donor lifespan analysis to determine how long the average recurring donor stays engaged, helping them forecast future budgets and resource allocation. This analysis is done by critically reviewing changes over time in the variables that make up the DLV formula.

5. Cost-Effectiveness & Donor Retention
Recurring donors are more cost-effective to maintain than one-time givers. Acquiring new donors is expensive, but keeping engaged monthly donors requires less ongoing fundraising effort.

? Charity Tip: Keep donors engaged through personalized emails, impact stories, and exclusive updates. Small touchpoints can significantly improve donor retention and lifetime value.

How to Receipt Recurring Donations in Canada

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) allows charities to issue a single cumulative receipt for all recurring donations within a tax year. This benefits both donors and charities:

• For Donors: A single tax receipt simplifies their tax filing.
• For Charities: Reduces administrative workload, paper, and mailing costs.

? Important Note: This applies only to cash donations. Gifts-in-kind, such as securities, still require individual receipts.

Steps to Implement Annual Cumulative Receipting

Track all recurring donations in your donor management system throughout the year.
Generate cumulative receipts in January or February of the following year.
Break down each donation on the receipt for transparency.
Ensure compliance with CRA rules, including:

• Charity’s name and registration number
• Donor’s full name
• Total amount donated in the year

? Charity Tip: Automate this process using Client Relationship Management (CRM) systems.

What You Need to Know About Donation Platforms and Receipting

If your charity uses a third-party platform to handle recurring donations, here are key considerations:

• Platform Capabilities – Ensure it supports annual cumulative receipts in line with CRA regulations.
• Customization Options – Can you personalize receipts with branding, donor appreciation messages, or impact reports?
• Record-Keeping Features – Does the platform provide easy access to donor data for audits or donor inquiries?
• Donor Communication – Let donors know in advance that the platform will issue their receipts.

? Charity Tip: Conduct periodic audits of your receipting process to ensure accuracy and timeliness.

Next Steps for Your Fundraising Team

• Promote your recurring giving program in year-end appeals and online giving campaigns.
• Educate donors on the tax benefits and ease of automated giving.
• Ensure your receipting process is efficient, compliant, and donor-friendly.

By investing in recurring giving strategies, your charity can secure long-term sustainability, reduce administrative overhead, and build stronger donor relationships.

Are you ready to take your recurring giving to the next level?

The post Recurring Giving: Why Your Charity Should Encourage Monthly Donors appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

But do you remember to ask for stock donations in your year-end fundraising push?

If not, you could be missing out on a significant source of funding that benefits both your charity and your donors, especially given the market performance of many investors this year! Thanks to the CCCC Community Trust Fund (CTF), accepting stock or mutual fund donations has never been easier for ministries.

Why Encourage Stock Donations?

Donating securities with capital gains, such as stocks, bonds, or mutual funds, directly to a charity offers benefits to donors that cash donations don’t stack up to. It also demonstrates that, while you appreciate their generosity, you also understand the strategic financial landscape that sophisticated donors are in.

1. Tax Efficiency: Investors enjoyed buoyant markets this year, leaving many with capital gains to sort out – a “good problem” to have! Eligible donors receive a charitable tax receipt for the full market value of the securities at the time of donation, and more importantly, the capital gains tax is waived entirely, allowing donors to maximize the value of their gift.

2. Preserve Cash: Donors can make impactful contributions without dipping into their cash reserves. This is particularly appealing during the holiday season when cash flow might be tight, and cash contributions to investment accounts have already been made.

3. Simplified Giving: We know that our major donors rarely give just one large gift to an individual charity. With CTF, donors can manage multiple charitable gifts through a single transaction, minimizing paperwork and maximizing impact, making that donor’s overall giving that much easier this year.

The CTF Advantage for Charities

Many charities lack the infrastructure or the staff capacity to process securities donations. Managing a brokerage account or navigating the complexities of securities transactions can be daunting, or in times of high volume, they can take away valuable time from finance teams. That’s where the CTF steps in:

• Seamless Processing: CTF accepts the securities, sells them, and distributes the cash proceeds to your charity (or multiple charities) as recommended by the donor and provides a donation receipt to the donors. CTF handles it all, ensuring you can focus on what matters most—your mission.

• Consolidated Reporting: Donors receive one tax receipt for their entire gift, even if it benefits several charities or if they donated multiple securities. This simplicity encourages more donors to give confidently and boldly.

• No Administrative Burden: Your charity doesn’t have to manage any part of the securities sale or receipting. All your team needs to do is ask for the donation and say “Thank You” at the end! (We’ll say “thank you” too)

How to Include Stock Donations in Your Year-End Appeal

1. Educate Your Donors during the year: Include information about the benefits of donating securities in your email campaigns, newsletters, and social media posts. Highlight the tax advantages and ease of the process.

2. Leverage the CTF’s online tool: Reassure your donors that you’ve partnered with a platform equipped to handle these gifts seamlessly, who will work with their team of professionals and financial institutions.

3. Call to Action: Include a direct call to action, such as:
“Maximize your year-end giving impact! Consider donating stocks or mutual funds through the CCCC Community Trust Fund. Visit www.cccc.org/ctf or contact us to learn more.”

4. Provide Examples: Share a story or example showing how a large or major donation has made a significant difference for your charity. If you don’t have one, use the example table above to illustrate the impact of a bold gift.

Make It Easy for Donors

By confidently making the ask, you remove any presumptions or misconceptions that might prevent donors from making large, tax-smart gifts. Don’t let your charity miss out on this opportunity!

As you prepare your year-end appeals, remind your supporters that donating stocks that have risen in value is a powerful way to make a lasting impact, and you can handle it.

For more details about how the CCCC Community Trust Fund can help your charity, visit CCCC’s website. Together, let’s make this year-end giving season the most impactful one yet!

The post Don’t Miss Out on Stock Donations This Year-End: A Simple Way to Maximize Giving! appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

When?

There are two intake periods: the first opened late April 2022 and the second will open August 2022. Applications are accepted until the funding is fully allotted or all eligible applications are funded, whichever is first.

How Much?

You can apply for up to $10,000 per employee, up to a maximum of $100,000. You’ll have to make sure you have a job available for the trainee after successful completion of the training. If you have 100 or fewer employees, the grant will cover up to 75% of eligible training fees; for those with 101 or more employees, it will cover up to 50%.

What Training?

Eligible training fees include tuition, student fees, materials (textbooks, software, etc.), exam fees, and certain travel costs. The training has to be delivered by a third party external to the employer. The training must be necessary to equip your employees with new skills or knowledge to meet organizational goals. You can apply for training that’s already taken place, so long as it took place in the same fiscal year of your application. The fiscal year for Job Grant purposes is April 1 – March 31.

Who is Eligible?

Non-profits are eligible to apply. Schools and post-secondary institutions that receive provincial and/or federal funding are not eligible. If you’ve received three of these job grants over the past five years, you’re also not eligible. And – of course – you have to meet all of the eligibility criteria!

Trainees must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents and who work in Manitoba. They could be full-time, part-time or seasonally employed.

Application Questions?

The application is an Excel spreadsheet that you have to complete. There’s the usual identifying contact information, which includes a drop-down menu for “sector”. There’s no option for non-profit or charity, so you’ll have to find the next most applicable category or you might need to use the “other” category.

You’ll need to include a general description of your organization, select whether your training program is related to COVID-19 and if not, briefly explain the business/organizational needs that will be met by the training program.

You’ll also need to provide some details about the training plan, including:

• Course name
• Type of training
• Skills to be learned
• Name of training organization
• Number of training participants
• Total course cost
• Start and end dates
• Credential/certificate earned
• Training participant name

Want More?

Here are the key links for Manitoba employers interested in applying:
Canada-Manitoba Job Grant Application

Canada-Manitoba Job Grant – Employer Fact Sheet

Canada-Manitoba Job Grant – Frequently Asked Questions

Canada-Manitoba Job Grant – News Release

The post Canada-Manitoba Job Grant for Employee Training appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Why A Matching Fund?

For our Federal 2021 Pre-Budget submission, CCCC endorsed the Canada Cares proposal for a 1:1 federal donation matching fund. In addition to Canada Cares and the charities that have joined its campaign as coalition members, other organizations like Imagine Canada have also recommended a matching fund, among other things, in their pre-budget submissions.

Why a matching program? There are a lot of benefits to distributing federal relief funds for charities this way.

It promotes charitable giving

Matching funds spur greater giving by private donors. Studies show matched money increases revenue per solicitation by 19 percent, and that there are long-term positive impacts. Donors are likely to continue giving even when the matching funds program ends.

It is highly efficient

Administrative systems to process matching funds already exist within the federal bureaucracy and can be expanded rather than building from scratch. There is also less administrative burden on charities than there would be for other options such as grant application-based models.

It only requires existing fundraising capabilities

Many charities do not have the experience, capacity or skill for grant writing. Instead, they have great expertise in fundraising from individual donors. Matching capitalizes on this existing strength of charities. This is particularly important given that small and medium-sized charities and those in rural areas have been hardest hit.

It maintains a level of responsibility and risk for charities

By matching donations, it ensures charities will exert their best efforts to stay viable. It also encourages charities to examine their ways of operating, find creative ways to reduce costs and remain sustainable in light of changing donor behaviour.

How Does It Work?

Canada Cares sets out five key components of a federal 1:1 matching fund:

1. The federal government contributes one dollar for each dollar given by donors, and for which charities can show receipts
2. Contributions are capped based on a charity’s revenue in the previous year to ensure equitable distribution
3. Charities submit receipts on a timeframe set by the government (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually)
4. Contributions are time-limited and can be based either on a fiscal year, or an alternative time period linked to crisis spending, as set by the government
5. The government may also consider a 0.5:1 grant for organizations that are able to grow revenue over past years.

Add Your Voice!

We know that charitable giving has significant positive psychological and practical effects on individuals and communities. As we have seen, charities are uniquely positioned to respond to a wide swath of urgent needs – physical, material, emotional and spiritual. But a healthy charitable sector is important to more than meeting needs that governments simply can’t address. A healthy charitable sector is key to recovering the health of our nation. This is an opportunity to use matching funds to invest in the long-term health of charities and to be a key component that encourages solidarity and unity in crisis.

Even though the 2021 Pre-Budget Consultations are closed, the Department of Finance invites Canadians to share their ideas and comments at any time.

And for more information about Canada Cares, and how you can support the matching fund proposal, check out the campaign site.

No date has been set for when the budget will be tabled (the last budget presented to Parliament was March 19, 2019). Once it is released, we’ll be sure to update you as to any charity-related initiatives!

In the meantime, members can join us in The Green where we can chat about the matching fund, and you can tell us what else you might like to see as part of the 2021 federal budget.

The post CCCC Supports Matching Fund in Federal 2021 Pre-Budget Consultations appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

One good thing I’ve observed is that many ministries are using this time to creatively rethink how they do ministry and to make changes that were probably due anyhow. A question you might have is, “How are my peers getting along? Is what I’m experiencing what they are experiencing?”

With CCCC as a research partner, WayBase released a survey this week that gives a window into the pandemic-related experiences and responses of 3,100 ministry leaders from across Canada.

Key Survey Results

A few takeaways from the survey are:

• Roughly 32,000 Christian ministries have $15 billion in revenue – we are a significant sector of society
• The types of ministies that responded (church, education, camp, etc) reflected the make-up of Christian ministry quite well. For example, 77% of Canadian ministries are local churches, and local churches comprised 75.8% of the respondents
• The hardest hit ministries are camps, retreat centres, and educational institutions (which makes sense)
• There haven’t been a lot of closures yet (less than 1%), but that number is likely understated as many closed ministries probably would not respond to a survey
• Smaller and rural charities are more likely to be temporarily closed or have reduced services
• A strong majority in all categories of ministry and across all parts of Canada have suffered reduced income, mostly between 10-50%, although 31% of churches have lost 50-100% of their revenue and that percentage is much higher in the “other” ministry category
  • Evangelism, discipleship, and welfare ministreis are doing better than the other categories in minimizing their losses
• Three quarters of ministries have added or prioritized online services and one third now offer different services than before to meet needs created by the pandemic
• Employment so far is fairly stable. Two thirds of the respondents have not reduced salaries or laid people off. The exceptions are the three sectors that have suffered the greatest revenue decline: camps, retreat centres, and educational institutions.

Multiple giving options are crucial!

What I find very surprising is that for those ministries with reduced revenue, the number one reason they give is “We are unable to receive donations because we aren’t meeting physically.” It sounds like they had only one way to receive donations – the offering plate (most of the respondents being churches). I’ve been told by some churches that they didn’t set up other ways to give because they did not want to pay transaction fees. But given how people make payments these days, over time there will be fewer and fewer people willing to write a cheque or even have a chequing account.

The answer to their revenue problem is quite simple: implement electronic giving, and if your congregation has older people who are not online or who prefer to write cheques, offer them other ways to get their cheques to the church. CCCC produced a guide to help churches set up additional ways for people to give. If churches and other ministries create alternatives to the offering plate, they should do well because half of the respondents who reported increased donations said the number one reason was “We expanded our giving options (e.g. online giving).”

The Future

The concensus seems to be that revenues will continue to decline over the next three months, with most expecting a return to normal revenue levels over the next three years. This makes it imperative that all ministries do everything they can right now to improve the probability of their survival. Few, if any, ministries have cash reserves of more than a few months, so they should be making changes in how they receive donations, intensifying donor enagement, strategyzing

I encourage you to review the survey. You may be inspired to try something new. And you may be encouraged to know that others are having to adapt just as you are.

Here’s the report.

May God bless your ministry!

The post How is your ministry doing? New Survey Tells the Story (June 2020) appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

The number one reason ministries have lost revenue during the pandemic: “We are unable to receive donations because we aren’t meeting physically.” (WayBase survey results)

If your church has relied only on passing the offering plate to collect tithes and offerings, you need a new way for your congregation to support your church during the COVID-19 crisis. If you are unsure where to start with electronic giving or if you have church members for whom that is not an option, read on. The Canadian Council of Christian Charities is providing you with seven quick and easy alternatives to passing the plate.

Donations: What’s Happening Right Now

CCCC teamed up with WayBase to survey Christian ministries and find out how they are doing during the pandemic crisis. Over 2,600 ministries responded (about 80% were churches), and the results will be released June 9, 2020. What we learned from the survey prompted us to create a guide to help churches and other ministries provide their donors with new and easy ways to donate.

Overall, almost 70% of Christian ministries have lost revenue and two thirds said one of the reasons was that they are unable to receive donations because they aren’t meeting physically. This implies that passing the offering plate during a service was the only way their church received tithes and offerings. Other factors for loss of income include job losses by donors (55%) and fear (38%).

The percentage of revenue lost by local churches ranged from minimal to catastrophic:

• 7% have lost up to 10%
• 28% have lost 11-25%
• 28% have lost 26-50%
• 15% have lost 51-75%
• 16% have lost 76-100%

Increase Donations by Increasing Giving Options

We know that adding alternative giving methods will increase donations because, of the 5% of churches who increased their revenue, almost half did so by expanding their giving options (e.g., online giving).

We saw an initial drop in revenue but we have now seen a recovery to regular levels since we began online giving.

-Survey Respondent

Guide to Alternative Giving Methods

So, in the spirit of helping our brothers and sisters in local church ministry, and other ministries who haven’t set up e-giving yet, here is a guide from CCCC that you can freely share with any ministry that needs help setting up new ways of receiving donations. It includes four ways to safely receive cash and cheques, and three simple ways to get started with e-giving.

The guide includes an appendix of instructions you can provide to your donors so they will know how to give using your new options. I’ve pulled that appendix out and made it available as a Word file so you can personalize the donor instructions to suit your ministry for the giving options that you choose.

May the Lord bless you and your ministry!

The post Church Donations: Quick & Easy Offering Plate Alternatives appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Read CCCC’s Funding Proposal to the Federal Government

CCCC has written to the Hon. Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development with a funding proposal to sustain and strengthen the charitable sector during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, when demand for services is very high, but significant decreases in donations due to income insecurity threatens to destabilize charities.

CCCC’s primary goal is to ensure that as many of Canada’s registered charities as possible survive the COVID-19 pandemic crisis on the basis that every registered charity, by definition, provides a public benefit to Canadians, and thus any loss of charities negatively impacts the quality of life in Canada. Sustaining all charities therefore maintains and adds to the richness and health of our nation.

Faith-based charities provide significant public benefits to individuals, neighbourhoods, regions and the nation. For every dollar in a place of worship’s operating budget, the community receives more than $4.50 of socioeconomic value and non-members of churches are four times more likely to use a church’s community programs than are its members.

What about existing proposals?

With the viability and health of our members and the broader charitable sector at stake, CCCC continues to support Imagine Canada’s request for a Sector Resilience Grant Program but as for how that support is distributed, we have submitted a proposal that builds on think tank Cardus’ matching funds model as described in their proposal and essay.

What is a “matching funds model”?

A matching funds model means that public funds match private donations on a dollar for dollar basis up to a certain limit. In this case, CCCC suggests the prior year’s donations as a benchmark. Matching funds ensures a stable cash flow during this time of crisis and uncertainty.

Why make another proposal? What’s different about CCCC’s proposal?

CCCC focuses on the funding and distribution mechanism for the Sector Resilience program as proposed by Imagine Canada. Funding needs to be simple, quick, and equitable. The Sector Resilience Program currently follows a traditional grant process – charities complete applications, applications are adjudicated by grant making organizations, such as community foundations or national organizations like the United Way, and successful charities receive some funds. This can work well, but for the survival of the sector, CCCC proposes a simpler model.

CCCC builds on Cardus’ proposal in three key ways:

1. Extending the timeframe from 3 months to the duration of the crisis
2. Capping the amount of donations to be matched by restoring charities to their 2019 donation levels. Asking the government to simply fund the gap makes it easier for them to say “YES!”
3. Clarifying that donations being matched are unrestricted donations. Capital campaigns or restricted fund campaigns are excluded. The focus is on maintaining funds for normal operations. There are other government funding programs, and specific elements of Imagine Canada’s request that relate to pandemic-specific programs.

With these adjustments to Imagine Canada and Cardus’ proposals, CCCC has set out a solution that addresses the needs of charities and government in an effort to make access funds as easy as possible for CCCC members and the charitable sector at large.

Why do we propose a matching funds model?

It is highly efficient

Administrative systems to process matching funds already exist within the federal bureaucracy (i.e. Global Affairs and Health Canada) and can be expanded rather than building from scratch. There is also less administrative burden on charities than for grant application-based models because it would only require a simple reporting of existing records.

It leverages government grants

Public support is a precondition for government matching funds. It creates a true partnership between the public and government.

It promotes charitable giving

Matching funds spurs greater giving by private donors. Studies show match money increases “revenue per solicitation by 19 percent,” and that there are long-term positive impacts. Government should focus on expanding, not shrinking, the sector’s capacity.

It only requires existing fundraising capabilities

Many charities do not have the experience, capacity or skill for grant writing. Instead, they have great expertise in fundraising from individual donors. Matching capitalizes on this existing strength of charities.

It maintains a level of responsibility and risk for charities

By matching donations, it ensures charities will exert their best efforts to stay viable. It also encourages charities to examine their ways of operating, find creative ways to reduce costs and remain sustainable in light of changing donor behaviour.

It recovers part of the cost from a lower tax expenditure on charitable donations

Grants are given when a charity has lost donation revenue. That means claims for donation tax credits would be lower than in the previous year.

In the face of COVID-19, social solidary is key to maintaining trust, a sense of common sacrifice, and ultimately stronger institutions and relationships. Charitable giving is known to have significant psychological effects on individuals and communities. This is an opportunity to use matching funds as a key component to this message of solidarity and unity in crisis.

As you engage with your federal political representative, we encourage you to use CCCC’s proposal to call for charity stabilization funds with a matching funds distribution model to ensure both the short and long term health of the Canadian charitable sector. CCCC’s proposal to Minister Hussen is available below for your reference.

CCCC will continue to work with Imagine Canada and Cardus to secure the best funding program possible for our members. The advocacy of CCCC and our members is vital as we mobilize and respond to the extraordinary needs facing charities, and the communities they serve, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read CCCC’s funding proposal to the federal government here.

Charity leaders are invited to share how they are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic within their organization in our online community forum, The Green: COVID-19 Response Room.

The post COVID-19: CCCC Calls for a Matching Funds Program to Support Charities appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

Two Vital Worthiness Factors

From the donor’s perspective, there are two key questions related to the ministry as a whole:

1. Are your strategic statements clear and compelling and is the tagline motivational? These statements form the core of your appeal to donors and they are the connection between what your ministry does and the cause your donors want to support. The statements must motivate prospective donors who are interested in your cause. They must be clear about the external change your ministry intends to make in the world and lead potential supporters to say “I’d like to get behind that and help.” Your job is to connect your prospective donor’s passion with your ministry’s mission.
2. Are you really making a lasting change in the world and how can you prove it, or at least demonstrate that you are having an effect outside of the ministry? Donors don’t just want to see activity. According to Penelope Burk, “A donor’s prime needs are to know the gift was received, to know the gift was set to work as intended, and to know the project or program is having the desired effect.”[i]

Proving Lasting, External Change

Some ministries have missions that are difficult to tangibly measure, but any measurement is better than no measurement. You can use stories to add the human factor to your statistics, but stories alone are not as convincing as stories and stats together.

If you find it difficult to provide hard data about your outcomes, another approach is to develop a persuasive theory of change that explains why you believe that your work is accomplishing the mission. If you can develop a logical connection between your mission and your programs, donors will be able to follow each link in the connection and test it for reasonableness. The overall result is that even if you can‘t provide tangible proof of success, you can provide logical evidence that success should be the result of your work.

Worthiness Review Questions:

Based on these considerations, here are some questions that will help you evaluate the organizational context for your fundraising program. Be sure to answer them from your donors’ perspective:

• Do your donors find the strategic statements clear, compelling and motivational?
• Is there a clear rationale (called a “theory of change” or “logic model”) connecting your programs to mission fulfillment?
• Is the external change you create real lasting change or is it a temporary helping hand? If a helping hand, can you make a compelling case that this is either all that is needed or that it is a vital specialized niche that other ministries will build on? If it is the latter case, then you will need to talk about partner ministries that carry on the work.
• What accountability program does the charity have? What, how, and when do you report to your donors?
• Does your online presence support donors? Donors want to know who you are, what your goals are, what you do and how you do it, how you use your donations, and what your expense ratios are. The answers need to be available from your home page (Eg., A link to “Information for Donors”).
• What is your overall ratio for Fundraising and Administrative Costs to total Expenses (the FACE ratio)? Most people expect this ratio to be between 10 and 35%, so if your ministry is outside of these bounds it will raise questions. These are arbitrary limits, but arbitrary or not, they are what most people think is reasonable. If your ratio is too low, you will have a credibility problem, but if it is too high you will be seen as not devoting enough of your resources to ‘good works.’ You should at least know what this ratio is because others can use publicly available information to calculate it. To find out how easily your donors can get this information, go to CRA’s charity search page, enter the name of your charity (and if there are several results from the search, pick your charity), click on T3010 and then on “Quickview.” Scroll down the page and that’s what your donors are seeing about your charity! If the FACE ratio is high and cannot be reduced, or if it is really low because of some unusual circumstance, you will need to explain why.

Other Worthiness Factors

Donors want to have good interactions with your ministry, so you should have a donor bill of rights or an ethical fundraising policy in place. Be sure to provide excellent service to your donors and keep them engaged with your ministry by regularly asking for prayer support and providing outcomes information.

The post Evaluate Your Fundraising Worthiness appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

The Quickest Way to Raise New Donations

Linda Parsons, an assistant professor at the George Mason University School of Management, found that providing accountability information results in real value to a charity. After surveying charities and their donors, she reports:

Using a field-based experiment, this study finds that some donors are more likely to respond to a fundraising appeal if it includes positive financial accounting information. Donors who have previously donated to an organization are almost three times as likely to make a charitable contribution if the NFP [not for profit] directly provides them with summary financial reports (instead of expecting the donors to incur the costs to obtain the information themselves)… This field-based experiment demonstrates that summary financial information can directly affect contributions from individuals. (I added the emphasis.) ⁽¹⁾

Parson’s research is backed up by other research done by Penelope Burk, who found that 46 percent of donors who were asked, “Why do you stop giving?” responded that they would stop giving to a charity they once supported for reasons that are tied to insufficient or poor quality information concerning their gifts at work.⁽²⁾

What’s even better is that a 2001 Wise Giving Alliance survey of 2,003 adult Americans found that 50% of donors prefer to get accountability reports from charities directly.⁽³⁾ This means that they want to hear directly from you, giving you the chance to determine how the information is presented and interpreted!

These research reports all suggest that the donors who are most likely to be positively affected by accountability reports are the same ones who are already supporting your ministry. This is an easy group to reach, and they are already sold on supporting your ministry, so the quickest way to increase donations may be to focus on your current givers and give them the accountability information they want. In return, they will likely increase their support.

What Donors Want in Accountability Reports

Stephanie Williams surveyed 2,000 donors not too long ago to determine what accountability information donors wanted and found that the answer depends on how old they are:

• Baby boomers (age 40-58) and young people (age 18-39) value accountability information more than mature donors (age 59 and older).
• Baby boomers and mature donors value efficiency information more than young donors while young donors value outcomes information more than the older groups.

The main points of her report are:

• Mature donors (59+) are least likely to want information, but when they get it, the most important information they want is efficiency information.
• Young donors (18-39) are most likely to want outcomes information and 74% of them look for this information on the charity’s website. Again, they want to get their information from you!
• 86% of donors thought it was “extremely important” that a charity have a Seal of Approval from an external organization that monitors how they spend their money.
• 81% of donors said it was important or extremely important to know about a charity’s recent accomplishments before giving a donation.

Notwithstanding the differences about what information various age groups want most, it’s just a matter of different priorities. Boomers care firstly about efficiency and secondly about outcomes, while young adults put their priority on outcomes first and then on efficiency. You need to provide both pieces of information.

Thus efficiency and effectiveness (outcomes) are the key information that donors want.

Another Quick Way to Raise Money: Certification by a Third Party

Given that Williams reports 86% of donors want the charities they support to be monitored by an outside agency, you should consider certification seriously. But is certification with a monitoring agency worth the investment? You bet!

Margaret Sloan has researched the effect that ratings by an external accountability program has on donor behaviour.⁽⁴⁾ She studied 683 charities in New York state that had been reviewed by the BBB/Wise Giving Alliance against its standards. She compared the fundraising success of those that had a pass rating and those that did not. Sloan reports that Wise Giving Alliance ‘pass’ ratings have a statistically significant effect on the contributions received; however, ‘did not pass’ ratings are nonsignificant. She found that for every $1,000 of total revenue, a pass rating would add a further $71. The average total impact of a pass rating was $75,000. The fact that negative ratings (or insufficient information to assess a rating) had no negative impact on the charities was attributed to several factors:

• Charities are quick to promote a positive rating.
• Donors usually don’t know about negative ratings.
• Donors may be loyal to a particular charity for emotional reasons.
• Donors may know of extenuating circumstances why a charity would have a negative rating.

Thus the upside of participating in a certification program is about $75,000 on average, and there is virtually no downside. Given the minimal cost of participating in a program such as CCCC offers, Accreditation, it is a no-brainer as long as the charity is willing to abide by the standards.

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(1) This quote is from The Impact of Financial Information and Voluntary Disclosures on Contributions to Not-for-profit Organizations: A Field-based Experiment. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=406760 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.406760).

(2) From her book Donor Centered Fundraising. 2003. p 15.

(3) Reported by Margaret Sloan in “The Effects of Nonprofit Accountability Rating on Donor Behavior,” published in the April 2009 issue of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

(4) The Effects of Nonprofit Accountability Rating on Donor Behavior. Published in the April 2009 issue of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

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