Summer Checklist for Nonprofits

We’re more than halfway through the 2016 tax year – honestly, where does the time go? And as we continue to push through the Summer, it’s important for exempt organizations to regroup and refocus efforts to efficiently prepare for the second half of the year. While others are enjoying Summer luxuries like breaks or vacations, the development cycle for nonprofits goes on nonstop. To make the best use of the summer season, here are a few suggestions for nonprofits to get ready for the year’s second half.

Review Prospects
Take a look at your organization’s top 100 prospects, or however many you have. Verify if you need to remove any of them that are beyond consideration, or if they are officially added to your organization.

Update Database
Nothing is worse than trying to contact someone with incorrect information – an unfortunate scenario could be inquiring a grant from a now defunct email or physical address. It may be a daunting task depending on how many contacts you have, but it’s nothing a few volunteers or interns can’t handle.

Review Organization’s Yearly Plan
Double check if your nonprofit is still on track with its proposed plan from the beginning of the year. Make a note about your organization either reaching or missing goals at this point, the impact of donor investments, and what still needs funding for the upcoming months.

Develop Personal Work Plan
Along with revising your nonprofit’s milestones for the rest of year, you should also review and make any necessary changes about how you can personally achieve those goals. Your choices could include better time management, less or more workloads, or manage specific duties.

Prepare for Autumn and Winter
It’s never too early get organized for the last few months of the year. You can get holiday cards printed, write “Thank You” notes for those guaranteed to contribute, and outline seasonal fundraising campaigns.

Strengthen Social Media Presence
Now’s the time to post, post, post! With the extra leisure time that comes with Summer, you can bet people spending more time checking social media. And with social media management programs like Hootsuite, you can schedule posts to show as soon or late as you want. Check out our other blog on how social media can enhance your organization: Increasing Online Engagement

Clean, Clean, Clean
A decent organization is a happy organization or something like that. The point is to be more organized so that your nonprofit can run efficiently – sort out inboxes, file donor letters electronically or physically, update the relationships you have with contributors.

Communicate with Leaders
Keep lines of communication open with your board members and principal officers. Let them all know of the work that’s complete and any upcoming plans for the rest of year – you can develop a board meeting calendar or confirm that member information is up to date.

There’s probably so much more you can do within your organization during the summer months, so don’t constrict yourself to just this list. Another important thing is to make sure your organization filed its exempt return with IRS. If you filed an extension earlier this year, you have until August 15 to file without any penalties.

With ExpressTaxExempt.com, you e-file directly to the IRS and receive email notifications about your filing status. Even if your form gets rejected, you’ll know why and be able to make edits and re-transmit at no extra charge. And if you need even more time file, we also offer IRS Form 8868 Part II for an additional, non-automatic 3-month extension.

Our U.S. – based e-filing experts, in Rock Hill, South Carolina, are available throughout your e-filing process. Call us for any questions or assistance at 704.839.2321, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST. Drop us a message some time with our 24/7 email service, [email protected].