Focus Groups Educate Waseca Area Foundation Board

This fall a committee of the Waseca area Foundation board held two focus groups in an effort to gather information to better serve the community. One group was made up of a cross section of professional advisors including a banker, an attorney, a CPA, and a financial advisor. The professionals suggested we let more people know what the Foundation has accomplished. They also said we need to make our role as the front line to charitable giving more visible. They also felt that the opinion for people to leave money for a designated purpose was important. The professionals were surprised to learn that less than 3% of general contributions are used for administrative costs and said the public should know about that because it makes WAF very attractive to donors. The professionals stated that the option to give money anonymously is a plus. The satisfaction of giving- "I did that and no one knows" -is important to some people. They encouraged to leave information in their waiting rooms.

The second group was made up of a variety of citizens. The citizens also encouraged us to more regularly and consistently let the public know how the contributions are spent. From this group WAF learned to increase the public's awareness of avenues to give to the community. They said the WAF must continue to educated the public on how estate planning can include charitable gifts with little or no impact on the inheritance for their children. the citizens suggested that in uncertain economic times people might be more interested in bequests of a percentage of their estate instead of an actual dollar amount. They suggested we look at improving donor recognition and that we should not forget the little donors.