by Mike Bourland
American Football Coaches Foundation
Courtesy: AFCA
Release: 09/01/2001
Over the past year, this article has introduced you to the American Football Coaches Foundation (the "Foundation") and encouraged your active involvement and participation in this Special Team of the AFCA. The Foundation has received a favorable response from AFCA member coaches and from the public at large. It is up to you to continue to raise awareness and funds through your personal monetary contributions and through your active involvement in the community to make sure that the Foundation meets its goal, which is to provide financial support to the AFCA for its educational vision and purpose.
In summary, the Foundation was created to raise funds for the AFCA, specifically to replace revenue that will be lost in 2002 upon the cancellation of two pre-season games, the revenues of which the AFCA has received in prior years. The Foundation was formed to help provide financial support to the AFCA so that it can continue to provide educational opportunities to its member coaches without passing increased costs on to AFCA member coaches. The Foundation is a tax-exempt, publicly supported charity, and donations to the Foundation are income tax deductible to the donor. In order for the Foundation to maintain this favorable tax status, however, it must meet certain requirements in regard to the type of funds that it receives. One of these requirements is that one-third (1/3) of the Foundation's contributions must come from a broad range of donors, which specifically includes AFCA member coaches. That is why your annual personal contribution is anticipated and appreciated. Each AFCA member coach has been asked to make a personal monetary contribution to the Foundation. If each member coach contributes $50 (in addition to the annual membership fee to AFCA), the Foundation will collect approximately $500,000 in annual public support to replace the lost revenue from the preseason games. Remember that for every dollar given by a smaller donor (including AFCA member coaches), the Foundation can receive two additional dollars from a larger donor (during the donor's life or by Will) or donor foundation without endangering the Foundation's favorable publicly supported tax-exempt charity status. In the last issue of The Extra Point, this article discussed the new Plaza of Influence that is being constructed at the new AFCA facility site in Waco. Each stone will honor a football coach of the donor's choice and will bear the name of the honoree coach and the person who purchased the stone to honor such coach. Benches, trees and a dramatic stone fountain are also available to honor a coach of the donor's choice and to which a contribution may be directed by anyone, not just AFCA member coaches. Contributions for each stone in the Plaza of Influence will be a contribution to the Foundation and will be income tax-deductible to the donor. The contribution for each stone will also count as support from the public and helps the Foundation meet the IRS requirements for contributions from a large number of smaller donors, so that the Foundation maintains its favorable status as a publicly supported charity.
In addition to monetary contributions, your active involvement in the community is needed to raise money and awareness for the Foundation and its important goals. You can do this through your organization of and participation in Foundation fund raising functions such as banquets and golf tournaments. These types of fund raising events generally result in what are referred to as "gross receipts" funds for the Foundation. Proceeds from admissions, sales of merchandise, performance of services, or furnishing of facilities at an event are also classified as gross receipts funds of the Foundation. Gross receipts funds should target a broad base of the community, as no single donor can provide more than one percent of the Foundation's total support through gross receipts and have it help the Foundation maintain its favorable publicly supported status. Also, care should be taken so that no fundraising activity becomes an ongoing business, or the Foundation will have unrelated business taxable income (UBI) and will be penalized by the IRS. Keeping these rules in mind, you can be creative in structuring your team's particular fund raising activity. For example, a portion of admission revenue from scrimmages and similar events could be allocated to the Foundation, which gives a broad segment of the athletic supporters in your community an opportunity to provide support to the Foundation. If you are in doubt as to whether your fund raising idea will be within the parameters of the fund raising rules, please contact the AFCA office for assistance.
Now that you know the goals, the rules and the game plan, you have all of the tools necessary "hit the field" to help the Foundation accomplish its vision for the AFCA. The Foundation thanks you for your support and relies upon your continued active support, through the raising of funds and awareness in your community, to make the Foundation a success.
Now that you have become familiar with the Foundation and the many ways in which you can participate, this article will appear in every other issue of The Extra Point, to remind you of the importance of your active support of the Foundation and to illustrate new ways you can help the Foundation reach its goals.
