Paying for Donor Recognition

Paying for Donor Recognition

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

A private investor, founder of U.S. Home Corporation, and AFP Outstanding Philanthropist Frederick E. Fisher (Florida) was recently quoted in Advancing Philanthropy on several donor recognition issues – “I’ve told organizations I work with that I have enough stuff. Save the money. Just send me a tax letter for my files. And if you’re going to have a party charge everybody. I think people appreciate it more. I do. I’d rather they use their money better.”

I’ve been advocating for many years that we should never give rich people free food. It hurts the tax deductibility of their gift, and like Mr. Fisher, most donors are very willing to pay their own way. As one of my million-dollar donors told me, I want my entire contribution to go to your university not feeding us. She encouraged us to charge the “real” cost of the meal.

We were careful never to make the pricing look like a special event fundraiser, and always included a note that we were charging to enable their full gift to be used for our students and faculty.

If people wanted to bring a prospect as a guest, we encouraged them to buy the meal for their guest or agreed the fundraising office would pay for a “newbee.”

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