Donating your services can be an
advantage in many areas. You are giving back to the community you live
and work in, you are helping the person coming in on the GC, and you are
getting your name out—more advertising for you.
Many of my clients have small children, and several of these mothers have asked me to donate to their school’s
charity auctions. I have donated certificates to organizations I care
about when they are having a silent auction or some other affair where
having donations is important for them.
I do put a 3-month expiration on all donation GCs. I didn’t
start out this way, but over time I have found many of the donation GCs
never get redeemed, and nudging the purchaser to not wait and go ahead
and call and come in for their facial seems to work best for my ledgers
and also my schedule. I also do not put expiration dates around the
holidays. With GCs, for whatever reason, many people wait until the last
minute to redeem them, and having donation GC recipients booking
appointments during the holidays doesn’t work for my busy holiday schedule.
With
all the GCs I have donated over the years, only about 50% of the
recipients call in for their gift facial. I assume people did bid and
purchase the GCs, but for one reason or another just never took the next
step, which was to call and make an appointment.
Like
any other gift certificate, I make a notation for my records on the
actual certificate and on my GC ledger as well. On the back of the
certificate I put the date the GC was picked up or sent to the
organization. On the line on the front of the GC where a person’s name would usually go, I write the name of the auction, like Fairfield Elementary School Silent Auction. Then the expiration date—3 months from the date of the actual auction.
Any
donation made will come with a form for your CPA (or you , if you do
your own taxes) that confirms that you made a donation in the amount of
“X”. This is very important for your business, so make sure you get the
form filled out by the company you’re donating to.
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| Donations are always appreciated |
