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Jan 2

Update (Part 1): The Fiscal Cliff, Taxes and Charitable Giving

By Mark Hefter, Esq., Director of Planned Giving, American Technion Society and President-Elect, Association of Fundraising Professionals, Greater NY Chapter
The House voted and passed the bill on Jan 1, 11pm, which the Senate passed earlier that morning, that would halt the automatic expiration of most of the Bush tax cuts, effective at 12:00 AM. Here, in brief, are the main relevant points of the bill:

Income Taxes – the ordinary income tax tables that expired last night are to be reinstated, except there is a new 39.6% bracket for joint filers with taxable income over $450,000; for single filers, the threshold is $400,000. Read more

Dec 27

2 Comments

The Foundation Center has launched the next generation of IssueLab

By Mark Foley, Manager, Associates Program, Foundation Center

Announcement of new service:

The Foundation Center has launched the next generation of IssueLab, a web site that provides free and open access to resources that analyze the world’s most pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges and their potential solutions. The platform contains more than 11,000 documents and represents one of the largest collections of social sector knowledge, spanning 40 issues areas, from agriculture to immigration to welfare. Read more

Dec 14

5 Comments

Why Fundraisers and Prospect Researchers Should Talk More: Major Gift Prospects and the People Who Can Help You Reach Them

By Gil Israeli, Senior Writer and Director of Prospect Research, American Technion Society

Organizations that are successful at raising major gifts identify prospects with the right capacity and interests that fit their mission. They consider plausibility from the start – the critical element: Could the prospect enrich his or her life through a relationship with us and eventual gift?

Other questions include: Is the prospect over-committed? What do we know about his assets and more liquid wealth? How has the economy affected this? Identification tends to be the easier part, whereas securing the critical first meeting often requires the aid of a door-opener or “access person”.

Who is an access person? Read more

Dec 14

1 Comment

Welcome to your site! About submissions…

From the editor:

Please feel free to post your responses!

FC welcomes your own longer original posts – from a few paragraphs to something such as an article, which will be published on the site.

Fundraising is broadly interpreted: you may work in a large Development operation or be an individual (and not circumscribed by walls) such as a documentary maker, etc.

Some ideas, from the technical to strategic to societal, that you may like to use as jumping boards:

  • How to estimate a prospect’s net worth in a mercurial economy?
  • Market volatility, Madoff and the recovering economy: what’s the new normal in fundraising?
  • The government budget, politics and funding for, e.g., NSF, NIH, NASA, CDC, NEA, NEH, etc.
  • How do we make databases better serve our needs?

    • Read more

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