A couple of quick but quite important items.  Consider these your Agitator stocking stuffers.

Key Benefits in Just-Passed Covid Relief Bill

The 5600 page, $900 billion stimulus bill passed by Congress on Monday and likely ( or maybe not ) pto be signed by the President contains these key benefits for nonprofits.

• Another round of forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans, albeit with tighter or more narrow eligibility requirements.
• An extension of the temporary charitable deduction available to folks who don’t itemize their taxes.
• Indirect for nonprofits through aid to people they serve –especially food banks, organizations with housing missions and other social service groups.

The bill also provides for $600 checks to individuals and $1200 for couples.  Some nonprofits may want to repeat appeals to folks who are faring better financially in this pandemic and ask that they consider donating all or part of their stimulus checks.

The National Council of Nonprofits has summarized the nonprofit provisions in this Covid relief legislation. Click here for their summary.

We’ll post more information and details as they become available.

Substantial Gains in Fundraising During Pandemic

The just-released Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP )reports significant growth in the 3^rd Quarter  despite, or perhaps because of, the pandemic.  Charitable giving grew by 7.6% during the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in 2019.

This upward trend portends good things for the 4th Quarter of 2020.

A few highlights based on giving to 2,496 organizations:

• 7% increase in number of new donors.
• BUT…a 7.9% decrease in retention of first year (new) donors with an overall retention rate 0f 32.4% for 2020 compared to 32.5% for the first three quarters of 2019.
• Donors giving $250 or under outpaced giving by donors giving $1,000 or more. Giving by the $250 or under group was up 17.1%…mid-level ($250-$999) up 6.0% and giving by major ($1,000+) up 6.9%
• In short, across the board donors are rallying in this pandemic. However, once again, those retention numbers continue to need some serious attention.

You can view a summary of the FEP here.

We’ll be back with further comment on both the PPP and FEP after we score some milk and cookies for Santa.

Roger