Offline Donations FAQ

Do More 24 Delaware 2025
Can we collect donations in advance of March 6-7? What are the parameters?

Nonprofits should use their discretion and apply a standard of reasonableness when entering offline donations and to not be afraid to ask questions.

One or more members of the Do More 24 Delaware team reviews all offline donations entered as part of the giving day event and follows up with any nonprofits with questions about certain donations, their amounts, or other information they entered in connection with offline donations. This is to ensure that donations being entered by the nonprofits in this way are eligible and are being made consistent with the spirit of the giving day event. Offline donations that are manually entered by the nonprofit should reflect donations made in support of the organization's giving day campaign. Donations that are part of a more general non-giving day campaign or effort should not be entered.

The heart of the giving day is based on growing individual philanthropy in Delaware and the day itself sparks that in different ways. However, we recognize that not all donors are able to give during the 24 hour period, and so we are providing additional general guidance to help answer some of the more common questions we get about certain types of donations or whether certain donations or efforts count or not.

Under certain circumstances, nonprofits can start collecting donations to support their Do More 24 Delaware giving day efforts in advance of the 24 hour giving day event. Typically these come in the forms of (1) securing individual or collective matching donations, (2) checks received, in the spirit of the campaign, a day (or up to 10 days) before the giving day event, and (3) money raised through certain fundraising events, a day (or up to 10 days before) connected with the giving day itself.

(1) Matching donations. The easiest and most common way that we encourage nonprofits to collect donations in advance is to solicit donations to support a matching gift campaign they are planning to build into their giving day campaign. Research is uniform in that donors are more likely to give when there is a match involved. The promotion and marketing of matching gifts can also often be more nuanced than the general marketing for the giving day efforts.

Matching donations typically come from board members or key supporters, which the nonprofit can use to encourage more individual donations. For example, a nonprofit could ask its board to make a collective donation to the organization to help encourage more individual donations during the giving day event. Donations collected toward a matching gift can be collected by the organization ahead of the giving day. Many of these matches can be built into your Do More 24 Delaware fundraising page ahead of the giving day so they update and display/count the match in real-time during the giving day event. For help setting up such matches you have already secured, please contact us and we can help get those added to your fundraising page.

(2) Donors writing checks, stocks, or cryptocurrency. Another example where donations have come in advance and can count toward the giving day event are from donors who write checks. Nonprofits receiving checks from their donors in connection with their giving day fundraising campaign can collect them in advance and input them as offline donations during the 24 hour giving day period. These donations typically arrive a few days before the giving day event (some arrive the day of the event).

Similarly, some donors opt to transfer stock which typically require advanced coordination through a third party (typically Delaware Community Foundation or similar). Cryptocurrency can be processed ahead of time as well through the Delaware Gives platform. While these sorts of donations meet the spirit of the giving day event and count, nonprofits should exercise their discretion in determining whether a check or similar donation arriving around this time period was made in connection with their giving day efforts or unrelatedly before entering them as offline donations during the 24-hour giving day period.

(3) Fundraising events held in connection with the giving day event. Many participating nonprofits have scheduled events (large and small) during the 24-hour giving day while others hold them ahead of the giving day by a few days. Money raised through events connected specifically with the giving day can be counted toward your giving day totals. As an example, some nonprofits hold guest bartending, concerts, galas, or similar events and collect money from donors there. In those instances, money raised from donations can count and be added as an offline donation during the 24-hour period. Similarly, some nonprofits may have a ticketed event. In those instances, money raised from pure donations made at the event can count and be added as an (1) offline donation during the 24-hour period, but the money raised from ticket sales or sponsorships of the event should not count and is ineligible. (Obviously the net proceeds from those event-related sales still benefit the nonprofit separately from the giving day event).

For example, a nonprofit holds a concert and sells tickets for $20/person. The ticket sale revenue is ineligible for the purposes of the giving day event and should not be entered. During the concert, the nonprofit asks attendees to make an additional donation via some sort of manual or online collection method and several of them donate a combined total of $1,000. The $1,000 in donations is eligible and can be entered as an (1) offline donation. We recommend entering the $1,000 as a single offline donation and note its source (e.g., Concert on Date). The net amount is the more important metric for these types of offline donations.

Should you have any questions about donations you have received or want to enter, please feel free to contact us here or by emailing team@domore24de.org.