Membership:
Joining is simple! No formal invitation or referral is needed. To join, complete the online membership form online and follow the instructions to pay your $80 dues. OR come to a meeting and complete the quick membership application and submit your fee in person.
Meetings:
The meeting begins at 5:15pm. Upon arrival you’ll pick up your name tag, nomination form and voting card. Then it is time to greet old friends and meet new ones. During this time, you may also choose to nominate a 501 (c)(3) local nonprofit. Nominating is optional. However, if you chose to nominate, be prepared to speak if your nomination is selected.
Around 6:00 everyone moves to the meeting room. During the business meeting, three nomination cards are randomly selected from the bucket. The nominations are verified for eligibility. Then, the nominator for each comes forward to give a quick 2 minute explanation of why she feels the organization deserves our donation. Each nonprofit may also have up to three additional members spend one minute each to share their support. Members vote.
While the votes are being tallied, help yourself to dessert. Once the winner is announced, submit your payment via check, cash, or Venmo before you leave.
Nominating and Eligibility:
In order to be eligible for Women’s Giving Club nomination, the organization must meet the following requirements:
- Be a local, active, designated 501 (c)(3) nonprofit
- Funds must directly impact Mesa County
- Not receive Women’s Giving Club funds for the past 3 years
How can I find out if the nonprofit I want to nominate is an active 501(c)(3)?
The quickest way to determine a nonprofit’s status is to go to the Colorado Secretary of State’s <https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/charities/taxCheckoff.html> webpage and do a charity search. Search using the nonprofit’s name. Alternatively, if it does not appear, try going to the business page of the website and search there.
You can also check status by going to the IRS website for charity searches. <https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/> and search for your nonprofit.
If the organization you want to nominate is not appearing, your nonprofit might be a Nonprofit Corporation and thus ineligible. The difference between a nonprofit corporation and a 501(c)(3) is the ability of a donation to be tax deductible. Donations to a corporation are not tax deductible while donations to a 501(c)(3) are tax deductible. Nonprofit Corporations are not eligible for Women’s Giving Club funds.
If you need help determining whether the organization you want to nominate is eligible, you can email us at gjgivingclub@gmail.com. We are happy to help research eligibility prior to the meeting.
Payment:
Our mantra, as you have read, is simplicity and although credit cards might make your life simpler, it turns out taking them is not so simple for the club. Therefore we ask everyone to make their payment with check, cash, or Venmo. You can also prepay your donations by submitting $480 ($400 in donations and $80 membership fee) and we will write the quarterly donation checks for you.
Other Questions:
Mesa County is home to a wide variety of eligible 501(c)(3) nonprofits to support. We realize you might not care for the charity chosen. However we are a Giving Club and club members support each other, right? You have an opportunity to participate in selecting the charity by voting. As a club member, you commit to supporting the selected nonprofit by making your payment to the nonprofit who receives the most votes that evening.