A food bank and a food pantry are not the same thing
One is a warehouse and the other is where people pick up groceries, and knowing the difference tells donors where help goes furthest.
By The Game of Giving editors
Money, Data & Research
The overhead ratio tells you less than you think
Donors have been taught to reward charities that spend little on administration, a habit that can starve the organizations best at their work.
Read the story
What to ask a local business for, besides a check
Before you incorporate, consider a fiscal sponsor
An established charity can accept tax-deductible gifts for your project while you find out whether the work should become its own organization.
By The Game of Giving editors
Stories worth your time.
Picked by our editors for anyone who runs, funds, or serves a nonprofit.
How a small nonprofit can prepare for GivingTuesday
What to expect when you volunteer at an animal shelter
Planning a community cleanup that keeps volunteers safe
A cleanup looks simple, but most of the work is permission, equipment, and deciding in advance what volunteers should not touch.
By The Game of Giving editors
A single number was never going to tell you whether an organization is effective.
Numbers every nonprofit should know.
Four figures from federal rules that decide deadlines, deductions, and exemptions.
27months
The window to file Form 1023 and have exemption reach back to the date of formation.
Source: IRS, About Form 1023
$250per gift
The single gift size that requires a written acknowledgment before a donor can deduct it.
Source: IRS Publication 1771
3years
Consecutive missed annual filings before tax exemption is revoked automatically.
15%rate
The indirect cost rate an organization without a negotiated rate may charge on federal awards.
Source: 2 CFR 200.414
The mechanics behind good giving.
Plain-language guides to how the money, the rules, and the work actually function.
Donor-advised funds, explained for the charities that receive them
More gifts now arrive from a fund rather than a person, which changes how a charity should thank, receipt, and ask.
By The Game of Giving editors
What a board treasurer actually does
Writing a grant budget a program officer can read
The budget is often the page a funder reads most closely, and it should tell the same story as the narrative, in numbers.
Short reads with a long shelf life.
The rules that trip up nonprofits, each explained in a few paragraphs.
- Money, Data & Research
A gift to a person through crowdfunding is not deductible
The cause may be urgent and the need real, but the tax treatment of a crowdfunded gift depends on who receives the money.
- Money, Data & Research
Not every veterans organization is a 501(c)(3)
Many veterans organizations are organized under a different part of the tax code, and what that means for donors depends on the group.
- Leadership & Strategy
A charity can host a candidate forum. It cannot take sides.
Nonpartisan voter education is allowed during an election, but anything that favors one candidate crosses a line charities cannot cross.
- Money, Data & Research
Unrelated business income, in plain terms
Tax-exempt organizations can owe income tax when they regularly run a business that has nothing to do with their mission.
Stories by who you are.
Choose a lane: donors, fundraisers, leaders, or volunteers.
For donors
The sentence most donation receipts leave out
Gifts of $250 or more need a written acknowledgment, and most receipts leave out the one sentence donors need to claim the deduction.
Running a nonprofit
Three missed filings, and a charity's exemption is gone
The rule is automatic, there is no warning letter first, and the usual fix is a brand new application with a fee.
Volunteers and community
What makes a volunteer tutoring program work
Enthusiasm is easy to recruit, but consistency, training, and coordination with teachers are what students in tutoring programs actually need.
Your organization is doing work worth documenting.
Member nonprofits publish their own work on The Game of Giving, under their own name, every month.
- A byline that is yours
- Every post carries your organization's name, and your profile collects them in one place.
- An editor on every post
- Each submission is read for clarity and accuracy before it runs.
- Beside our reporting
- Contributed posts appear alongside editorial coverage of the sector, labeled Partner Content.
- The whole year of your work
- Field updates, impact reports, events, and perspectives from the people doing the work.
Starting a nonprofit? Start here.
Seventeen free guides, from choosing a mission to filing the first annual return.
Filing Form 1023 or 1023-EZ
The application for federal recognition of exemption. Choosing the right form and filing on time both matter.
Giving starts with the work.
Organizations by the work they do, each checked against the IRS list of tax-exempt organizations.
Every organization profile is checked against the IRS list of tax-exempt organizations before it is published.