Has anyone used Soaring Adventures recently? I see lots of posts from a couple of years ago, but am wondering what the experience has been lately. I'm considering it for our upcoming event...

Thanks
Carrie

It's been my experience that some donors, like our parents, neighbors and family members, do not require a Donation letter containing the TAX ID#. All others, whether small or big national companies now require it in order for you to receive a donation and for them to receive a tax write-off. It is much easier for you to include your TAX ID# on your Donation Request Letter so that it will eliminate you having to send it separately and you can receive your donation on the spot. Our school used to only give out the TAX ID# in our thank you letter after the donation was received. But it became impossible to receive any donations this way and we had to include it in our initial request letter.

Hope this helps.

821821The posting of great success stories is extremely helpful, but how about more people doing some legwork and then posting their successes and failures rather than asking others to do the work for you. There have probably been 200 pages added to this list since I first read it and the majority of the postings are requests for the same information. Take the time to read the information that is already here for us....

Roger, good point that some companies are willing to support a school whether or not they get a tax deduction out of it. Most of those companies will be local businesses that want to create good will in the community.

One thing I want to correct -- your EIN does not indicate tax-exempt status. The EIN is simply the unique number, like a serial number, the IRS uses to identify your business. The only way to become tax-exempt is to apply for 501c3 status with the IRS. When your application is approved, you receive a confirmation letter from the IRS. There is no number that indicates tax-exempt status.

Any group that has 501c3 status should definitely indicate that in the request letter. Companies may also want your EIN, but that has nothing to do with your tax status.

Good day,

I am new to this site so please bare with me. I am currently stationed over seas and am the President of 2 PTSO's and our High School's Project Graduation Organization. I would greatly appreciate any info from anyone reading this to help us form a list of donors. We have a few fundraisers we have planned plus the actual after graduation event. With us being over seas we do not have the support of the local businesses and would appreciate being able to reach those back in the states that support the US Military; our families and that might be willing to do so with us not being right in their back yards.

I would sincerely appreciate any and all help and guidance in this matter!


V/r,
Shannon Ray
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Your EIN number denotes your tax-exempt status, so that should work.

But think about the question for a second: Can you send out a donation letter without a tax ID number?

Of course you can. Some potential donors will care - they want the tax deduction and will track it, and will rule out any donation letter that doesn't have everything they need to claim that deduction.

But many donors, especially ones in your community, will donate to you based on the work your group does, and you should probably be concentrating on those donors to begin with.

Lost in all of the scrabbling for donor web forms and the like here is the fact that school fundraising auctions are LOCAL, grassroots efforts. Done right, the silent auction donations are a lovely draw, and a nice flavoring element to the evening, but it's what your PTO or PTA or Booster Club, or Parent Group does during the year that prompts people to spend money there - not the items they will take home.

The more of these auctions that I chair (and volunteer for), the less important I think the silent auction donations are. I still get some, just far fewer than I once did, and I stress out a lot more about selling tickets than I do getting donations.

Just my two cents.