A toddler dropping a coin in a Salvation Army bucket ...
A volunteer giving time and expertise ...
A retiree writing a check with several zeros on it for a favorite cause ...
A business, supporting the arts, education, and 4-H kids at the livestock auction at the county fair ...
A foundation distributing funds from an endowment to a nonprofit in a community across the state ...
Nonprofits run on volunteers, staff and donors. Donors come in all shapes, sizes and from all economic backgrounds.
Here is what several different donors and volunteers say about being involved in La Plata County’s nonprofit world:
Q: Why should people get involved in philanthropy?
A: “I was fortunate to be able to get a good education and live in a country and society where I could make something of myself,” said Terry Bacon, former president of the board of Music in the Mountains and the Fort Lewis College Foundation and current co-chairman of the Science, Theater, Education, Arts and Music Park Project to build a new performing arts and science center along the Animas River. “I’ve always felt a moral obligation to give to the community I live in. Our communities nourish us, and we, in turn, need to nourish them.”
A: “The more you give, the more you get,” Molly Martin said. A founder of the Community Foundation Serving Southwest Colorado, she and her husband, Gregg, established the first $1 million family fund with the foundation after he sold his business. “When we started the foundation (circa 1997), I had no money to give, just volunteer time. We opened our fund with the minimum amount ($10,000) and just kept adding. We have a true love of our community, and we feel like the luckiest people to live here.”
A: “It’s good for your health to give,” said Karen Midkiff, chief development officer of Mercy Health Foundation, handing over an article from the Cleveland Clinic’s Health Hub with research results. “It’s good for your blood pressure, it lowers stress and it makes you feel happier and live longer.”
Q: How do you get young people involved in philanthropy?
A: “It was kind of a special job as a kid to put the quarter in the church basket. That’s where the idea of philanthropy starts,” Martin said. “We’ve always involved our children in our giving. They used to just throw out ideas, but now they’re arguing and researching their causes.”
A: “We get our grandchildren involved,” said Debra Parmenter, Bacon’s wife, who runs the scholarship program for the Hundred Club and helped established the Durango Area Association of REALTORS’ philanthropic efforts. “At Christmas, we take them to the supermarket and fill two or three baskets for the (Durango) Food Bank, then take them out to deliver it with us. We give them a check to give, too.”
Bacon, Parmenter and their grandchildren also donate teddy bears to the Mercy Health Foundation every year for children who are ill or injured.
“Last year, we had Karen (Midkiff) talk to them about how important those teddy bears are to patients,” Bacon said. “We also donate burial gowns for infants and small children that my sister makes from donated wedding dresses. They’re old enough to understand it’s a very sad time, and it’s the last thing a parent wants to think about when they lose a child.”
Q: What advice would you give someone thinking about getting involved in the nonprofit world for the first time?
A: “It should never be an obligation; it should be something that enriches your own life,” Cissy Anderson said. She and her husband, John, who is completing a two-year term as president of Music in the Mountains, donate their money, time and leadership skills. “I try not to get overbooked in my life. I want to have space and time so that I can step up and say ‘yes’ when I’m asked to help with something I care about.”
A: “You need to use your heart and your head,” Martin said. “We believe our blessings grow as we give, and now we’re reinvesting in the community because we have grandchildren being raised here.”
Q: How do you choose where to give money?
A: “I’m grateful to Yale for a great education,” John Anderson said. “But it has a large endowment already, so we decided to give to Fort Lewis College because we have a deep, fundamental belief in education, and we want to give here.”
He and Cissy created an Anderson Family Scholarship at Fort Lewis College, directed to be given to a first-generation college student from La Plata County. They were particularly pleased recently when their daughter-in-law’s company gave her $250 to give to the charity of her choice, and she chose the family scholarship.
“There are some we support every year because nonprofits need to be able to count on donors,” Cissy Anderson said. “Like the Boys & Girls Club. Our children had the advantage of good health care and lots of educational opportunities, but not all kids do. Planned Parenthood, of course, health events like the 9Health Fair, the (Durango) Arts Center – we also really love the arts, and that was one thing we were looking for when we were looking for a place to retire. But we try to keep some flexibility for things like Hurricane Katrina or the earthquake in Haiti.”
A: “Kids are my passion, so anything I can do to boost kids,” Martin said. “Gregg and Dennis (her son) are big outdoors guys, so Trails 2000 and Adaptive Sports Association. My daughter, Bridget, is old enough to have had friends go in the military, and they weren’t the same when they came home, so she’s a big supporter of the Wounded Warrior Project.”
Q: Any last words?
A: “There’s no reason not to (donate),” Bacon said. “Even if you don’t have money, you have time. Hands, head and heart, you can always volunteer. Every bit helps, and your donation might be a life-changer.”
Even people who have the ability to write larger checks, as Bacon did to fund the Leadership Center at the new Student Union at FLC, sometimes have to talk themselves into it first.
“When I wrote that check for $300,000, I had to take a big gulp with that kind of money,” he said. “You can sock it all away for a rainy day, or you can do something good now.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
Navigating Form 990
Here are frequently asked questions about Form 990:
What is it?
Form 990 is what nonprofits that “normally” (averaged over three years) earn more than $25,000 annually must file with the Internal Revenue Service. Small nonprofits may file Form 990-EZ, which provides much less information. Nonprofits that operate under another organization’s 501(c)3 status do not file 990s, but some of their information is available in the umbrella organization’s 990.
Where can I find a nonprofit’s Form 990?
Nonprofits are required to supply their last three years of 990s on request for a reasonable cost. Many nonprofits post their 990s on their websites. Other places to find 990s include GuidesStar at www.guidestar.org; Charity Navigator at www.charitynavigator.org; and The Foundation Center at http://foundationcenter.org.
Is there information a nonprofit can keep confidential?
A charity may keep Schedule B – donors who gave more than $5,000 – confidential. It may also keep financial statements private. Not all charities create financial statements, which give even more information, but many create them and provide them to be transparent.
What should I look for when reading a 990?
For many years, the rule of thumb was that a nonprofit shouldn’t spend more than 35 percent of its expenses on fundraising and administration combined or should spend at least 65 percent of expenses on its programs. Certified public accountant Sidny Zink says knowledge of the nonprofit and its activities should guide the analysis.
“The IRS has guidelines, but you have to fit your organization into them,” she said. “I used to be on the finance committee for United Way, and its whole purpose is fundraising, so I would hope the president would be spending a lot of time on bringing money in. Some nonprofits depend on volunteers and can’t allocate staff to programs even though they’re working with volunteers, while others, like Community Connections, use only paid staff and can. So rigid guidelines clearly aren’t fair.”
Why does the irs ask for so much information from a tax-exempt organization?
“It serves two essential purposes,” said Peter Swords, former executive director of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York. “First, it provides information that helps government agencies (the IRS and state agencies) enforce the laws that govern nonprofits. It helps government regulators learn whether groups have been spending their funds in a way that might cause them to lose their charitable and tax-exempt status. Second, the Form 990 provides a great deal of information about the filing organization’s financial condition, about its financial strengths or weaknesses and about such things as the sources of its income.”
Charities are public institutions because of their tax-exempt status, and therefore the public has a right to now how the money is managed.
Volunteers of the Year
La Plata County residents volunteer hundreds of thousands of hours every year to support their favorite causes.
Many organizations honor a Volunteer of the Year who has contributed to that nonprofit, but since 1990, the Durango Chamber of Commerce has been honoring outstanding volunteers for their service to our entire community.
Among them are the late Bill Mashaw, the first honoree with Shari Crane, who co-founded several nonprofits, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Colorado and Bruce Anderson, who died three weeks ago, for his contributions to several nonprofits, including Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Here are the honorees for the last 10 years:
2004
John Anderson
2005
Jim Foster
2006
La Plata County Search & Rescue
2007
Liz Carey
2008
Peter Marshall and Nancy Wharton
2009
Bob Aber
2010
Tom Grams (posthumously)
2011
Pat and Calvin Story
2012
Chuck and Cheryl Carson
2013
Terry Swan
Want to volunteer or lead a nonprofit? Here are some tips
Most people who volunteer for a good cause or agree to serve on a nonprofit’s board of directors do so because they want to make a difference.
Here are some do’s and don’ts from frequent volunteers and board members (and one former executive director) about how to be most effective when you do:
Don’t...
Go on a board to build your résumé or because it looks prestigious.
Go on a board unless you are committed to going to meetings and doing the homework.
Volunteer unless you are passionate about the cause.
Micromanage the staff. That’s the executive director’s job.
Criticize staff to donors or the public. If there’s a problem, bring it up with the executive director or the board’s executive committee.
Do ...
Understand what kind of a board you are joining – some are policy-governance bodies, others are hands-on, task-oriented.
Commit to understanding the organization, not only broad strokes, but what does the staff do? What is a day like for staff and clients?
Understand that being a board member includes having fiduciary responsibility for the organization. Many organizations assume board members will make at least some kind of financial contribution.
Acknowledge that the mission of the organization comes first – if your efforts are not adding to achieving the mission, you may be asked to leave.
Support the staff both within and outside the organization.
When you agree to do something, show up and do it. Nonprofits count on their volunteers to achieve their mission.
In this series
Sunday: The big picture of the nonprofit scene
Monday: What does it take to work with the needy?
Today: Who are the donors and how do they give?
Wednesday: The future of nonprofits in La Plata County.
