Up to 80 percent of all individual donations to nonprofits and charitable organizations can be made in December, said one local nonprofit executive.
While holiday giving is appreciated, it can be difficult for annual budgeting and put pressure on nonprofits to ensure donations flow at the end of the year, said Briggen Wrinkle, executive director of the Community Foundation Serving Southwest Colorado.
“No business could survive if most of their funds came in in one month,” she said.
Nonprofits have worked to spread donations throughout the year, but the combination of Christmas charity with the end of a tax year, inevitably means December is likely to be a month when fundraising takes precedence at charitable agencies, Wrinkle said.
Vaughn Morris, president and CEO of Boys & Girls Club of La Plata County, said his agency kicks off fundraising in the spring with its Building Great Futures campaign to increase its annual membership, which is a $15 donation.
Still, he said 40 percent of all individual donations to the Boys & Girls Club come in the fourth quarter of the year, mostly during the holidays.
“Right now, we’re in a sprint to the finish,” he said. “We want to give people every opportunity to support our cause.
Morris also noted the tax attraction of giving in December, and he said donors should be aware of not only federal tax credits but state ones, too.
Donations to the Boys & Girls club, he said, are eligible for the Colorado Child Care Contribution Tax Credit, which gives donors a 43 cent tax credit for every dollar they donate to the club.
“We do fundraising events, we seek grants, we look for corporate contributions, but individual giving is still the lifeblood of most nonprofits. It’s crucial for us,” Vaughn said.
The Child Care Contribution Tax Credit offers a tax break for monetary contributions that promote child care in Colorado. Eligible donations can be made to child care centers, child placement agencies, family child care homes, foster homes, homeless youth shelters, residential child care centers and residential treatment centers.
Charles Fredrick, managing-owner of FredrickZink & Associates, a Durango certified public accountant firm, said taxpayers should be aware that they can claim charitable deductions on their state returns even if they do not itemize their federal returns through the state’s estate tax deduction.
Holiday giving is especially key at Salvation Army.
Michelle Brown, chairman of the board of the local chapter of the Salvation Army, said 98 percent of its funds are raised during the red-kettle drive during the holidays, the group’s sole fundraising campaign.
The campaign raised $100,000 in 2017, and Brown said she expects a similar figure will be donated to bell-ringers this year.
Lynn Urban, president and CEO of United Way of Southwest Colorado, said she expected to match donations of 2017 of about $700,000 this year.
United Way, like other nonprofits, experiences a heavy flow of donations coming during the holidays.
“People are focused on family and communities during the holidays, and then you have tax planning and financial planning, and so that tends to focus giving during the holidays,” she said.
Nonprofits are especially anxious in 2018 because of the tough year in the natural gas industry in the Four Corners and the economic harm caused by the 416 Fire, Urban said.
“We have had some changes in the oil and gas industry, and some of those firms that have left had been very generous,” she said. “We’re also just not sure of the effects of the 416 Fire. We are expecting some declines, but we hope we will be able to make it up.”
parmijo@durangoherald.com
