Open Forum

Hello Colleagues! We are building our membership and donor society structures for the National Coast Guard Museum and would like to hear from others regarding:

1.) Do you offer your general membership benefits to your donor society members, or do you keep any benefits associated with your donor societies fully tax deductible.

2.) What are the ways you recognize your donor society members vs. your major gift donors?

3.) Do you offer complimentary membership to your major gift donors? If so, what is the duration of that membership? Do you solicit them differently regarding renewal and upgrades?

Thank you for any input you can provide.

Sincerely,

Hi Libby. We have just finished restructuring our first major gift society. We started by keeping donor society gifts 100% tax deductible but because we had high level members upgrading, we've retooled a bit to reduce their frustration. 
1) all qualifying donors who accept donor society recognition also receive the benefits "available to all members." Those are the usual and ordinary: free admission, parking, enews and a couple of others. We have sent "all access cards" that allow the free admission like a regular membership with their welcome packets. 

To handle pretty much all of the other issues, any major donor may opt-in for "all of the benefits of a Patron level membership," which are the free tickets to holiday lights, free tickets to Brunch with an Astronaut, free guest passes, and means their gift does have an FMV applied to it. the Membership program has sort of insisted that donors could opt-in for only the one set of benefits…we don't have the bandwidth to manage these at that level of detai nor want them to pick and choose as that really dimishes the philanthropy. So we are essentially creating memberships to manage gate access and using a user-defined field in that system to indicate "Patron benefits?" Y or N so the membership has clear indicator of who gets what. 

We give the same one year (through the end of that month) and an additional 3 month grace period extension on access card if they don't renew on time. Yes, renewals and upgrades handled by Major Gufts team however they deem fit, completely separate from Members. 

I think the benefits for Innovation Circle are on that page on our web site. If not I can send you a scan of our brochure where we list them in detail. They are a little vague sometimes and very much experience based.

Cheers!

Hello Colleagues! We are building our membership and donor society structures for the National Coast Guard Museum and would like to hear from others regarding:

1.) Do you offer your general membership benefits to your donor society members, or do you keep any benefits associated with your donor societies fully tax deductible.

2.) What are the ways you recognize your donor society members vs. your major gift donors?

3.) Do you offer complimentary membership to your major gift donors? If so, what is the duration of that membership? Do you solicit them differently regarding renewal and upgrades?

Thank you for any input you can provide.

Sincerely,

Thank you, Amy! I was able to see the list of benefits for Innovation Circle donors on your site. Your membership and giving circle benefits are impressive! Just confirming that the Innovation Circle benefits don't have an FMV, correct? Only non-taxable values if the donor opts-in for the Patron level membership benefits?

Were there any FMVs to calculate regarding either the ASTC Passport program or Smithsonian Affiliate membership?

This is so helpful! And I wish I was planning a trip to Houston soon...membership at your museum sounds so rewarding!

-Libby

Hi Libby. We have just finished restructuring our first major gift society. We started by keeping donor society gifts 100% tax deductible but because we had high level members upgrading, we've retooled a bit to reduce their frustration. 
1) all qualifying donors who accept donor society recognition also receive the benefits "available to all members." Those are the usual and ordinary: free admission, parking, enews and a couple of others. We have sent "all access cards" that allow the free admission like a regular membership with their welcome packets. 

To handle pretty much all of the other issues, any major donor may opt-in for "all of the benefits of a Patron level membership," which are the free tickets to holiday lights, free tickets to Brunch with an Astronaut, free guest passes, and means their gift does have an FMV applied to it. the Membership program has sort of insisted that donors could opt-in for only the one set of benefits…we don't have the bandwidth to manage these at that level of detai nor want them to pick and choose as that really dimishes the philanthropy. So we are essentially creating memberships to manage gate access and using a user-defined field in that system to indicate "Patron benefits?" Y or N so the membership has clear indicator of who gets what. 

We give the same one year (through the end of that month) and an additional 3 month grace period extension on access card if they don't renew on time. Yes, renewals and upgrades handled by Major Gufts team however they deem fit, completely separate from Members. 

I think the benefits for Innovation Circle are on that page on our web site. If not I can send you a scan of our brochure where we list them in detail. They are a little vague sometimes and very much experience based.

Cheers!

Hello Colleagues! We are building our membership and donor society structures for the National Coast Guard Museum and would like to hear from others regarding:

1.) Do you offer your general membership benefits to your donor society members, or do you keep any benefits associated with your donor societies fully tax deductible.

2.) What are the ways you recognize your donor society members vs. your major gift donors?

3.) Do you offer complimentary membership to your major gift donors? If so, what is the duration of that membership? Do you solicit them differently regarding renewal and upgrades?

Thank you for any input you can provide.

Sincerely,

Thank you, Amy! I was able to see the list of benefits for Innovation Circle donors on your site. Your membership and giving circle benefits are impressive! Just confirming that the Innovation Circle benefits don't have an FMV, correct? Only non-taxable values if the donor opts-in for the Patron level membership benefits?

Were there any FMVs to calculate regarding either the ASTC Passport program or Smithsonian Affiliate membership?

This is so helpful! And I wish I was planning a trip to Houston soon...membership at your museum sounds so rewarding!

-Libby

Hi Libby. We have just finished restructuring our first major gift society. We started by keeping donor society gifts 100% tax deductible but because we had high level members upgrading, we've retooled a bit to reduce their frustration. 
1) all qualifying donors who accept donor society recognition also receive the benefits "available to all members." Those are the usual and ordinary: free admission, parking, enews and a couple of others. We have sent "all access cards" that allow the free admission like a regular membership with their welcome packets. 

To handle pretty much all of the other issues, any major donor may opt-in for "all of the benefits of a Patron level membership," which are the free tickets to holiday lights, free tickets to Brunch with an Astronaut, free guest passes, and means their gift does have an FMV applied to it. the Membership program has sort of insisted that donors could opt-in for only the one set of benefits…we don't have the bandwidth to manage these at that level of detai nor want them to pick and choose as that really dimishes the philanthropy. So we are essentially creating memberships to manage gate access and using a user-defined field in that system to indicate "Patron benefits?" Y or N so the membership has clear indicator of who gets what. 

We give the same one year (through the end of that month) and an additional 3 month grace period extension on access card if they don't renew on time. Yes, renewals and upgrades handled by Major Gufts team however they deem fit, completely separate from Members. 

I think the benefits for Innovation Circle are on that page on our web site. If not I can send you a scan of our brochure where we list them in detail. They are a little vague sometimes and very much experience based.

Cheers!

Hello Colleagues! We are building our membership and donor society structures for the National Coast Guard Museum and would like to hear from others regarding:

1.) Do you offer your general membership benefits to your donor society members, or do you keep any benefits associated with your donor societies fully tax deductible.

2.) What are the ways you recognize your donor society members vs. your major gift donors?

3.) Do you offer complimentary membership to your major gift donors? If so, what is the duration of that membership? Do you solicit them differently regarding renewal and upgrades?

Thank you for any input you can provide.

Sincerely,