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As we come to the finish line for 2011, keep in mind that there  are still opportunities to bring in additional donations. Those who attended the End of Year Giving webinar on October 20th heard recommended strategies and received links to resources and tools that might be helpful. Those of you who missed the webinar can access the archived link.
Key ideas highlighted are:
Pursue opportunities available through the Charitable IRA Rollover
- Available to individuals age 70 ½
- Opportunity expires December 31, 2011
- Limited to $100,000 per donor
- Applies to IRAs only
- Opportunities include talking to donors about:
- Endowing their annual gift
- Making a larger than normal annual gift
- Pre-paying their annual gift
Giving stock
- Many people still have appreciated stock and as of the writing of this article the stock market is up for the year. Appreciated stock is an ideal asset to give
- Depreciated stock can also provide some tax benefits. The donor sells the stock first and contributes the proceeds and receives a tax deduction. Then the donor might also be able to claim a loss on the stock up to $3,000 during the year, depending on their own circumstances.
Charitable Gift Annuity
- Applies to donors age 60 and above
- They receive an income for life and then United Way receives what is left in their gift annuity account
- Annuity rates are attractive starting at 5.3% for someone age 65 compared to CD rates that hover around or below 2%.
Worry about status of the charitable tax deduction in 2012
- Although many predict there will be no change to the charitable tax deduction in 2012...uncertainty remains.
- With this uncertainty it might be an opportunity to talk to selected donors about increasing their gift in 2011 when the value of their deduction is known.
- Suggestions include:
- Increasing their 2011 annual gift
- Pre-paying their 2012 annual gift into 2011
- Making a large endowment gift that will perpetuate their annual giving
- For those United Ways with donor advised funds suggest that donors place larger amounts into their fund that can be distributed next year and beyond.
Just remember non-liquid assets take longer to process so encourage your donors not to wait until the last minute. As always, donors should consult with their own advisors to determine how an end-of-year gift will affect their situation.
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United Way National Women's Leadership Council
Members of the United Way National Women's Leadership Council met for their bi-annual in person meeting August 25-26 at the Mary M. Gates Learning Center in Alexandria, VA. Chaired by Juana Slade of Anderson, SC - the NWLC focused on the work of its four Committees and two Task Forces. Some of the NWLC's key projects include:
- Deliver tools to help WLCs take on Early Grade Reading (check out our recent webinar)
- Strategize how to increase the number of women on boards outside of the United States and sharing the success of WLCs with United Ways in the International Network.
- Refresh the WLC toolkit.
- Increase trainings available for WLC Chairs.
- Increase visibility of WLCs.
- Focus advocacy work on Early Grade Reading and develop tools for state level public policy work.
- Increase the number of WLC members investing in United Way through planned gifts.
- Design application process for NWLC membership.
If you have any questions regarding United Way Women's Leadership Council, please contact me via email or call 703-836-7100 x422.
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The Churn Tool for the 2011-2012 Campaign
Have you used the churn tool lately? Now is a great time to use the tool to help identify lapsed donors. Consider pulling  donors who gave $1 or more at any point between 2008 and 2010 and run those names through the churn tool. The churn tool will identify your lapsed donors from the last two years. Then check out the win-back section of the Retention Toolkit for sample lapsed letters other local United Ways have successfully used. You can send these letters out immediately and start re-cooping lost dollars before the end of the campaign!
Do you still have CEO calls to make? Consider pulling donor names from individual companies and run them through the churn tool. The charts are automatically created by the churn tool and are now customized for the company. Not only do they make great visuals on a CEO call but it's another way to show campaign trends.
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held January 31st - February 2nd in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Institute will be held at the Omni Royal Orleans located in the heart of the French Quarter on St. Charles Street. 
