Fundraising Business Guide
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We documented 12 challenges in Fundraising. Now get the actionable solutions — vendor recommendations, process fixes, and cost-saving strategies that actually work.
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- All 12 documented pains
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All 12 Documented Cases
Recurring IRS penalties for late or incomplete Form 990 filings
$7,300–$63,500 per late return for larger organizations (plus risk of full tax-exemption revocation over three consecutive years)Many fundraising nonprofits file Form 990 late or with missing information, triggering automatic daily IRS penalties and sometimes loss of exemption. These penalties directly reduce funds available for programs and can also damage donor confidence when revocations are made public.
Automatic revocation of tax‑exempt status after three years of non‑filing
Commonly tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost donations over the revocation period, plus legal and accounting fees for reinstatementIf a fundraising nonprofit fails to file the required Form 990/990-EZ/990-PF or 990‑N for three consecutive years, the IRS automatically revokes its tax‑exempt status, often leading to immediate loss or suspension of tax‑deductible donations and costly reinstatement efforts.
Delayed Matching Gift Payments from Slow Verification
$X per delayed match (opportunity cost of tied-up funds)Matching gifts take extended time to disburse because nonprofits must manually verify original donations, companies review requests variably, and required proofs are hard to compile. This drags out the time-to-cash for nonprofits, tying up expected revenue. Each company has its own timeline, often leading to months-long waits.
Staff Bottlenecks in Manual Matching Gift Verification
$10k+ per FTE annually in lost productivityNonprofit teams spend excessive time tracking down donation proofs, navigating company-specific portals, and responding to verification requests, creating bottlenecks. This diverts capacity from core fundraising activities and leads to idle time waiting on company approvals. Process variability across companies exacerbates manual delays.