The first wave of eligible individuals received stimulus checks from the federal government last week. Some nonprofit fundraisers see the cash infusion as an opportunity to ask those who don’t need financial assistance to donate some or all of their check to charity. Others are not convinced that’s a good idea.
The $2 trillion relief package signed into law on March 27 provides individual tax filers earning $75,000 or less and childless married couples earning $150,000 or less with $1,200 in direct cash relief. Those with dependent children will receive another $500 per child. Some individuals and couples whose tax filings exceed those thresholds are eligible for smaller relief checks.
“They’re picking a number that works for the whole country,” Mike Goorhouse, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area, said of the $1,200 checks. Goorhouse said his western Michigan county has a low cost of living, and its residents may be better able to share some of their stimulus money than those who live in more expensive regions.
The community foundation joined with other nonprofits, foundations, and small businesses in Ottawa County to launch a campaign encouraging residents to give their checks to a charity or individual in need or use the money to support local businesses.
“If you don’t need the extra resources for your own financial stability, we’d encourage you to share the stimulus,” Goorhouse said in a video for the campaign.
The word “if” is the crux of the #ShareTheStimulus campaign, said Goorhouse.
Fundraising appeals are always delicate, but Goorhouse and his collaborators wanted to be especially sensitive to the reality that some stimulus recipients really need the extra cash. “There’s a reason the feds are doing this. There should be no embarrassment about that,” he said.
The organizations’ goal was to give their neighbors a “concrete idea” of how they could help their community weather the crisis without disparaging people for keeping the money for themselves if they need it.
Community Action House, a social-service charity in Holland, Mich., is one of the organizations promoting the #ShareTheStimulus campaign. Since the public-health crisis began, demand on the charity’s food pantry and soup kitchen has increased fourfold, and the organization has upped its weekly spending for food by a factor of eight, according to executive director Scott Rumpsa.
“We’re going to have to sustain this new level of service,” Rumpsa said, adding that families living paycheck to paycheck are feeling the squeeze the most. The hope is that people with cash to spare can help ease the burden on charities like his.
Before Ottawa County was struck by the coronavirus, Goorhouse said, his fundraising pitches followed a general structure: “There’s an opportunity to make a difference by contributing. If it fits for you, I’d love for you to consider it.” Asking people to donate spare stimulus dollars feels similar to what he’s always done, he said.
Even so, he and Rumpsa are quick to acknowledge the added sensitivity needed at a time when the virus has knee-capped the economy, disrupted industries, and cost many people their jobs. As he crafted the campaign, Goorhouse ran the language by community members to check for any blind spots and ensure that he tapped a broad spectrum of local leaders to make the appeal in the video.
Despite these efforts, there were some slip-ups. One local leader was left out, and Goorhouse had to apologize to that person for the oversight.
The campaign has also received criticism from social-media commenters who bristled at its request. Goorhouse acknowledges that an appeal for stimulus dollars is likely to cause some level of ire at a time when uncertainty is top of mind for many would-be donors. But in the end, he says, the campaign is worth it: “I will sleep well at night knowing that we tried to be generous.”
Grassroots Campaigns
In recent weeks, social media has been flooded with a variety of donor-led appeals — including #ShareMyCheck and #DonateTheCheck — encouraging financially stable individuals to give away their stimulus money.
The #ShareTheStimulus campaign in Michigan hopes its donors will add to those grassroots efforts by posting on social media about why they gave. But while many other social-media campaigns are donor-led, Goorhouse wants to be careful that his campaign — which is led by local government, charity, and business officials — doesn’t veer into public shaming.
“How do you create the social peer pressure in an appropriate way that doesn’t make people feel bad?”
That’s a question he and his team are still trying to answer, and one that’s dogged efforts by volunteers to collect stimulus-check donations from peers.
As classes at Harvard Business School shifted online last month, members of a Public Entrepreneurship class gathered on Zoom to brainstorm ways they could help meet the vast financial needs of individuals and organizations across the country.
“As soon as we heard that this stimulus program was happening, we saw an opportunity to jump in,” said Carmi Medoff, a second-year student who hopes to work in social-enterprise startups or news media after graduation.
The class launched the MBA 1200: a campaign to encourage business-school students who receive a stimulus check to donate it to relief funds, community foundations, food banks, or other charities or to direct-assistance efforts.
The students organizing the MBA 1200 have relied on the student government and other peers to vet their language and help them formulate a delicate appeal. “We want the maximum amount of dollars going into relief, but at the same time our campus has a really strong conversation about economic sensitivity,” said Medoff.
Soliciting opinions from peers helps the group navigate the ongoing process of “making sure that we’re not exerting too much social pressure, that we’re not making anyone feel uncomfortable,” she said.
The campaign emphasizes “the spirit of giving” over specific dollar amounts. It also encourages students who didn’t receive checks but have the means to donate to consider giving refunds received for services like gym memberships or to make a donation based on the salary they expect to earn after graduation.
By the third week of April, the effort had raised more than $72,000. The campaign website connects students to donation forms on participating nonprofits’ websites. It also tracks students’ donations through a form on its own website. About 30 percent of donors pledged their entire $1,200 stimulus check to charity, according to Rebecca Milian, one of the student organizers.
Focus on Bigger Donors
While some nonprofits and volunteers have found a fundraising opportunity in the distribution of stimulus checks, some fundraising consultants cringe at the idea. “I think it’s a little invasive and a little weird,” said consultant Kim Klein.
She encourages fundraisers to instead use the moment to update supporters on how their charity is addressing the public-health crisis and planning for the future.
“I think people are doing their very best to raise money the way they can,” she said. “But I really always advise people: Don’t tell your donors where to find money that they can give you.”
In some cases, however, Klein said the distribution of stimulus checks could provide a news hook for nonprofits that serve people in need, such as undocumented immigrants, who will not qualify for those dollars. Those charities could appeal for donated stimulus checks by highlighting their beneficiaries’ value in society and acute need for assistance.
“The ones that will do it properly will use it as an educational tool, as an organizing tool,” Klein said.
Even so, nonprofits should be careful that they don’t place all the burden of support on those Congress has deemed the neediest: stimulus-check recipients. “We see so often that those at the lower end of the economic spectrum give so much more disproportionally of their resources,” said Anne Mosle, executive director of Ascend, a research program on educational achievement and economic mobility at the Aspen Institute.
While some stimulus-check recipients will have cash to spare, Mosle said the money is a much-needed support for most recipients. Now is the time for those who can give more than just a few dollars to step in and fill the gap, she said.
“It’d be more strategic and more exciting to see those folks that signed the Giving Pledge say, ‘Let’s double down,’” she said.
Mosle commends giving at all levels but stresses that the public-health crisis has worsened sprawling issues of economic inequality that need committed support from donors over the long term. Big donors are in a much better position to provide that support, she said. “We really need to keep the pressure point on the larger levers of resources.”
