Creating A New Beneficiary Fund

Creating a New Beneficiary Fund

Honorarium and Memorial Funds are funds set up in the name of a loved one who has battled cancer. Donors receive an acknowledgement from Take a Swing at Cancer, Inc., and we notify the family of the loved one of who donates to the fund. Please contact us if you wish to set up a fund.

These are the basic steps and processes for starting and running a new fund through “Take a Swing at Cancer, Inc.”:

Pre-set up: You must have a friend or family member who qualifies/qualified as a beneficiary. TASC simply requires a letter from the patient’s doctor and/or hospital. If the patient is alive, you will set up an “Honorarium Fund”. If the patient is deceased, you will want a “Memorial Fund”.
Set-up: Contact TASC’s Beneficiary Committee via email at info@takeaswing.org or you can call us at (508)293-1459. You will be assigned a liaison who will set up the fund internally; will work with you to get the process started; will assist you through the entire process; and will essentially act as a liaison on behalf of the family to the donating public – and the contact person for the account will essentially become a de-facto TASC volunteer.
Kick-off: You and your liaison will discuss ways to get the word out to see how we can raise money for the beneficiary and their family. The process will be initiated to begin collecting and cataloguing donations.
Running: During this major stage of the fund, communication between TASC, the family and donors will be the focus. Donations will be collected and catalogued, funds will remitted to the family periodically, “Thank You” notes and mailing lists will be created, and the TASC Board will be kept apprised of the process.
Finish Line: As is generally the case, there comes a time when donations start to dwindle down. Shortly thereafter, “Thank You” notes will be sent to the donors alerting them to their tax-deductible donation, the beneficiary’s family will receive any money still in TASC’s account. The account will unofficially be closed.
Follow-up: From time to time, after this 3 month process, there are inevitably some random donations that come in, the family and the liaison will stay in touch.

The facilitation of this process performs two important functions:

It frees the family up to focus on spending more quality time with one another.
It will hopefully solicit more contributions, since all donations are now tax-deductible.

What does all of this cost?

It does not cost the beneficiary or family anything to create a fund, except, perhaps, a little of your time. There is no catch. As an all-volunteer organization, we are honored to help those families in need. We do use a very small percentage of the collected funds to pay for stationary and stamps for the thank you notes. But, that’s it. Our service and our time are complimentary.

What’s next?

To learn more about how you can get one of these funds started on behalf of a friend or loved one, please email us at info@takeaswing.org or call us at (508) 293-1459.