Maximizing your Donation to the AAG

By Antoinette WinklerPrins, AAG Council Treasurer

This is the sixth of a short series of perspectives by 2024-2026 Council Treasurer Antoinette WinklerPrins — a series designed to help illuminate some of the financial challenges a professional organization such as the AAG faces. In this column, she offers perspectives on the financial aspects of running the AAG Annual Meeting. Read previous columns.

Donating to organizations you care about can happen at any time of the year; however, the later fall is the time of year that most people donate to causes they believe in, in part due to the U.S. tax code that permits tax deductions for charitable giving. Since we are heading into the latter part of the year, I thought I’d focus my column this month on some best practices about making donations, whether large or small.

Donations help organizations do their best work

Donations really matter to nonprofit member organizations such as the AAG. The funds they bring in permit a range of activities and awards that simply would not be possible without this money. No matter the size of the donation, the gift is appreciated. Regular donations, whether monthly or annually, are especially helpful, because these let an organization such as the AAG plan, but one-off gifts are of course always welcome. What matters most is giving consistently over time, at a level that suits your budget while helping to support your values.

Do some research

It is best that donating to any cause is not done in a vacuum, so I recommend you consider looking up the organization you are considering donating to in a nonprofit evaluator such as Charity Navigator. You can search these sites for the organization of your choice, by name of their “Employer Identification Number” (EIN) – an IRS assigned number (for the record, the AAG’s EIN is 53-0207414), or by name. That means, though, that you need to know the legal name of the organization. In the case of the AAG, the legal name is the Association of American Geographers, as that is the name used when we were founded. About a decade ago, AAG members voted to change the name of the organization to the American Association of Geographers, and that is our “d/b/a” (“doing business as”) name.

For a large gift, get guidance from the organization

If considering a large donation, especially one with a possible endowment for a specific award or purpose, please reach out to AAG staff ahead of time to talk through the details. It is very important that you limit the restrictions/conditions/purpose of the donation — it is better to assign your donation to general use (“where the need is greatest”). The limitations you impose today may make sense for a specific purpose at this moment, but those limitations may not make sense decades into the future. Many nonprofit organizations are hamstrung with restricted funds, sometimes decades old, that they cannot access or use for awards or services they are undertaking for their membership today. A recent case in Orlando, Florida involved a behest intended only to purchase art for the permanent collection, which the institution has gone to court to release, citing the fact that it has no funds for purchasing art for a permanent collection, but does have significant operating needs. Restricted funds are appealing to donors, who understandably want to leave a specific legacy, but can ultimately constrain organizations from fulfilling their missions. Please reach out to the AAG office to learn more about setting up a major gift or bequest. [insert mailto link to [email protected]]

There are many ways to give

Donate when, in whatever way you can, and at the level that you can afford. You can donate via Charity Navigator, or you can donate directly via the AAG website. More people are moving towards the use of “Donor Advised Funds” (DAFs) which are a mechanism set up via financial firms such as Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, etc., to manage cash and other assets that are earmarked to be donated to a qualified charity over time. These accounts are popular because they offer tax advantages and flexibility in asset contributions, and these are an easy way to support desired charitable causes through a single account. If you use a DAF, you will also need to know the correct legal name of the organization you wish to donate to, or its EIN.

We appreciate your support

Thank you! By donating you support the organizations you care about and affirm their purpose and work.

Please feel free to reach out to me or Gary Langham, AAG’s Executive Director with questions, comments, or concerns. Send your comments and questions with the subject line “Treasurer’s Corner” to [email protected].