by Zadra Rose Ibañez, Director of Operations
In the non-profit world, donors are the lifeblood of an organization. Though many programs charge fees for services, these fees usually do not cover the full expense of an individual’s participation, let alone any free programs and services offered to the community. These expenses must be covered through other revenue sources, in order for an organization to stay in business and continue offering the programs and services in its catalogue. For the most part, these other revenue sources are made up from foundation or government grants and individual gifts.
More and more organizations are making a recurring gift payment option available to donors. These gifts can be monthly, quarterly or annually. Having sustaining gifts is a huge benefit to the non-profit for several reasons.
- Knowing there are promised funds coming in allows the organization to better understand its cash flow and plan for future expenses, and can be the difference between running a program and canceling it.
- Unlike one-time gifts, which are included in an organization’s financial statements as cash, pledges are included as assets. This translates to the health of the organization.
- Foundations often look at an organization’s gift history to see how much of the community supports the entity’s activities. Pledges are one way to demonstrate the community’s involvement.
What is the Nautilus Society?
The Nautilus Society is IEA’s recurring donation program. It was founded in 2000 by a group of generous donors committed to the long-term success of the Institute for Educational Advancement (IEA). A Nautilus Society Member has made a pledge to give the same amount or greater for three consecutive years. Pledges of this sort demonstrate a belief in the organization’s mission and a promise to support the cause or project on an ongoing basis.
Why Nautilus?
By joining the Nautilus Society, you are helping to ensure that IEA is able to continue providing its award-winning initiatives to highly gifted children for years to come. Your gift directly serves individuals and makes it possible for others to have the same experiences you or your child had in our programs.
Every gift helps.
As we say on our website, “our goal is to never turn children away due to a lack of resources. Your support helps IEA serve highly able and creative youth of all backgrounds, so no matter where they’ve been, they will have the tools to travel anywhere they want to go.”
You can become a member of the Nautilus Society by visiting https://ieastaging2.wpengine.com/contribute/ and selecting Annual Nautilus Pledge and updating the Frequency to match your desired giving date.