Give Now….But Not Really
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised considering the challenging economic times for many people, but I didn’t think the “buy now pay later” mode of economic transaction would find its way into philanthropy. I was wrong.
A recent innovation by Saint Paul, Minnesota-based B Generous allows a fundraising tool to enable funders to designate philanthropic donations today but pay for them overtime/later. While new and still unknown, the basic premise is that a donor can make the gift they want to give at the level they want and spread out the payments to a third-party bank over a number of months. In addition, the donor receives a full tax deduction at the moment they make the gift, regardless of payment terms.
To be perfectly candid, I’m not sure how I feel about this. I’m all for finding ways of making it simpler and more meaningful for donors to give to their favorite nonprofit. But the following scenarios do pop into my mind.
The donor that gives with true intent a higher dollar figure and then struggles to pay that over the prescribed amount of time
That the bank or guaranteeing organization can’t provide the donations in a timely matter because of cash flow challenges
That there’s now a third party between the nonprofit and its donors, and what information is shared with the nonprofit about those donors
In the short term, particularly in crisis, there may be some intrinsic value to this thought process. But I think the better question is, what’s the long-term implication of this kind of giving pattern? Can it hurt the donor? Can it hurt the charity? And most importantly, what are the unforeseen consequences? Unfortunately, only time will tell when we have more data.
