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How to Participate...

How You Can Participate:

Most businesses collect a 1% voluntary donation on every sale they conduct. This is the preferred and easiest method. However, the collection method can match your business model. 

Special collection methods can be used, depending on the business. Some business owners choose to make personal donations rather than collect from their customers.  Those who provide professional services (accounting, legal, etc.)  can elect to add the 1% or a set amount to customers’ bills, indicating that it is a voluntary donation.  

People who provide standard services might choose to request flat donations ($1 per car tune-up; fifty cents per haircut); contractors who offer both products and services can choose to collect on one and not the over. 

We will work with you to find what best suits you, your business and your customers.   

All participating businesses sign a contract, where you identify how often you will remit donations. Monthly is the easiest and best schedule. However, we also offer options for seasonal businesses.

Setup:

We help you make it easy to collect 1% contributions and share information with customers.

Most Participating Businesses simply add a line item that appears on the customer’s receipt indicating that a 1% voluntary donation is being collected. This is calculated before tax and is not included in your fee to credit card companies. (ACCURATE?)

For businesses who invoice customers, we can provide a sample invoice for you as a model. We also can provide wording about 1% for Nature that you can use on your website, brochures, flyers, invoices, and forms to show your participation.  

We provide signs for you to post in your business.  Participating Businesses are required to provide two forms of notification to their customers about their involvement in the program.

Our volunteer bookkeeper is available to help with the set-up of the accounting side of the program that tracks your collected donations. (CAN WE ENLIST SOMEONE TO HELP WITH THIS?  Brian Stone or Brian Burbank?) 

Several of our Board members are participants in the program. They are available should you have any questions.  

Educating your staff about the program is important. Often, they are the ones interacting directly with the customer. We can provide a “Fact Sheet for Employees” and will offer simple trainings for your staff when the program is initiated.   

Working with the customer:
You are not expected to explain the program to each customer at each transaction. The two posted signs serve as notification of your participation in the program. Your notifications should explain that their participation through donations to the program is entirely voluntary.

If a customer does not wish to make the donation, it is the business’s responsibility to take the 1% donation off of the bill. This rarely happens. Since this is a donation, no sales tax is due on the contribution.  

If a customer has a question you can’t answer, please ask them to call the 1% for Nature office directly.  (In a similar 1% program in Colorado, less than 1% of customers opt out of the voluntary donation.)

Tax deductions:
The customers are making the donation; it is tax deductible for them.  You can add sentence on the bottom of your receipt indicating the 1% is a voluntary contribution for 1% for Nature, a non-profit organization.  If the business is not collecting the 1% from the customer, but making a donation itself, then the business is entitled to the deduction.

Sending collections:
Most businesses simply send a check each month.  1% does not notify you when your donations are due. We can, however, supply remittance envelopes if desired. Please indicate this on your contract.

If your donations are late, we will contact you. If your payment lapses three months or more, your business will be taken off the bi-weekly newspaper ad and other advertising opportunities offered by the program until full payment has been made. Once payments have resumed, so will your advertising opportunities.

The amount of donations from each business will be kept strictly confidential.  Always.
 
Even within the 1% for Nature Board, the only people who know exactly how much businesses bring in are the Executive Director and the Secretary-Treasurer of the Board.  There will be an annual audit. (CAN WE AFFORD THIS?)

If you would like to know more about ways you can participate in 1% for Nature through your businesses or as a contributor on your own, please call or contact director@1percentfornature.org.

For Businesses:

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Participating as a business is free and can be easy. 

Participating businesses are recognized locally by being listed on our website and promoted via social media.   You can promote your business as a participating business by posting One for Nature signs and logo at your business and on your website..

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Special collection methods can be used, depending on the business. Some business owners choose to make personal donations rather than collect from their customers.  Those who provide professional services can elect to add a % or a set amount to customers’ bills, indicating that it is a voluntary donation.  

People who provide standard services can choose to request flat donations ($1 per car tune-up; fifty cents per haircut).  

We will work with you to find what best suits you, your business and your customers.   

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All participating businesses sign a contract, where you identify how often you will remit donations.  

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Click here if you are ready to complete the agreement form to become a Participating Business!!

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Tax deductions:

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The customers are making the donation; it is tax deductible for them.  If the business is making the donation itself, the business is entitled to the deduction.

Contact Erik Sink with questions!