130,500 causes · $320M raised · 4.7 since 2009
Restricted gifts and surplus
The wording binds you, and over-raising is where organizations get into trouble.
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The reputational damage in this sector has come overwhelmingly from one pattern: raising money against a specific disaster and spending it on something else. Sometimes that has been misconduct. Frequently it has been an organization that raised more than the response could absorb and had nowhere legitimate to put it.
The solicitation wording is what binds you
A gift solicited for a stated purpose is restricted to that purpose. It is the language used at the point of asking — the appeal page, the auction listing, the email, the poster — that creates the restriction, not what the organization intended internally.
- Write the designation sentence once and use it verbatim everywhere
- Check that volunteers and social posts use the same wording, because they create the same obligation
- "For our hurricane relief efforts" is narrower than it sounds
- "To support our disaster response programme, including immediate relief and long-term recovery" is broader, honest, and still specific enough to be meaningful
Deciding that sentence deliberately, in the first hour, is what prevents every problem on this page.
Say what happens to a surplus, before it exists
The single most useful clause a disaster appeal can carry, and the one almost nobody writes.
A short statement at the point of solicitation — that funds raised beyond the needs of this response will be used for disaster preparedness and future responses, or for the organization's related work — gives donors accurate expectations and gives the organization a legitimate route for excess.
Written before the money arrives, it is transparency. Decided afterwards, it is the organization changing the terms.
If you over-raise anyway
It happens, particularly with a disaster that photographs well, and there are honest routes.
- Spend it on the same disaster, over a longer horizon — recovery runs for years and the money is usually genuinely usable
- Grant it to other organizations working the same response, which is legitimate, useful and squarely within what donors intended
- Ask donors, which is administratively heavy and unimpeachable — and for large gifts is the right answer regardless
- Take advice about releasing the restriction, which has legal routes that vary and should not be improvised
- Publish what you are doing and why, which is the part that determines whether this is a story
What is not available is quietly spending it on general operations. That is the specific act that has damaged organizations in this sector, and it is discovered.
Report against the designation
Donors to a disaster fund want to know that their money went where they were told, and a relief organization that reports well is doing something the whole sector is bad at.
- How much was raised for this response specifically
- How much has been spent, and on what, in categories a person understands
- How much remains and what it is committed to
- What proportion went to programme, and what the rest did
- Updated at intervals rather than once — six months and a year
That reporting is also the entire foundation of the second campaign. An organization asking again at month eight with a published account of the first round is in a completely different position from one asking on sentiment.
Be careful with the auction's own framing
An auction adds a wrinkle: a bidder is buying an item as well as supporting a cause, and the item's fair market value affects deductibility as it does anywhere.
So state the value, state the designation, and do not let the urgency of the moment produce sloppier disclosure than the organization would use ordinarily. The scrutiny after a disaster is higher, not lower.
And distinguish yourself from the funds that are not real
Major disasters attract fraudulent appeals, which makes donors cautious about everybody. An organization with a published designation, published reporting, a real address and a named contact is visibly different — and that visibility is worth more than any appeal language.
General information, not legal advice for your organization. Restricted gifts create binding obligations and the treatment of a surplus is fact-specific — your counsel decides how any of this applies, and the wording used at solicitation is what governs.
Frequently asked questions
What creates the restriction on a gift?
The language used at the point of asking — the appeal page, the auction listing, the email, the poster. Not what the organization intended internally, and volunteers' and social posts' wording creates the same obligation.
What clause should every appeal carry?
What happens to a surplus. A short statement that funds beyond this response will support preparedness and future responses gives donors accurate expectations and gives the organization a legitimate route — written before the money arrives it is transparency; decided afterwards it is changing the terms.
What if we over-raise?
Spend it on the same disaster over a longer horizon, grant it to others working the same response, ask donors, or take advice about releasing the restriction — and publish what you are doing. What is not available is quietly spending it on general operations.
How should we report?
Raised, spent and on what, what remains and what it is committed to, and the programme proportion — at six months and a year. That reporting is also the entire foundation of the second campaign.
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