Booth Check List
Setting up an IFAPAC booth at your annual state convention, sales congress or wherever a large number of NAIFA members will be congregating is a great way to increase visibility for IFAPAC and generate excitement and contributions.
Remember, the entire meeting area (i.e. meeting rooms, exhibit hall, corridors, elevators, etc.) is “the booth.” You should be soliciting IFAPAC contributions anytime you see a current NAIFA member without an IFAPAC club ribbon.
You must abide by the same solicitation laws at an IFAPAC booth as you would for written solicitations. It is critical that you familiarize yourself and your booth helpers with these important rules (see Booth Rules).
Six Months Prior to Event
• Contact your state chapter executive and Conventions Chair to reserve space for the booth preferably near the registration area or in the exhibit hall. Order a 6’ skirted table, two chairs, easels (for signs), and a trash can.
• Contact National IFAPAC at 703-770-8160 if you want to reserve the IFAPAC Booth (optional).
• Ask your state chapter when the convention registration acknowledgment packets will be mailed so you can insert a flyer or announcement about IFAPAC.
Two Months Prior to Event
• Order your IFAPAC supplies: Why NAIFA Does It brochure, Answering the Critics brochure, Double Your Investment brochure, I Gave. Did You? stickers, Another
Officer for IFAPAC buttons, Questions and Answers flyer, 3 Easy Ways enrollment forms, and name badge ribbons.
• Line up your booth helpers and get them to commit to manning the booth on specific days and specific times. Draft a booth schedule.
• Design and order your signs. Please click here to place your order.
• Purchase a cash receipt booklet from an office supply store or borrow one from the state chapter office.
• Create Flyer inserts (optional)
One Week Prior to Event
• Contact IFAPAC and order the following reports: 12-month revolving contribution report and Inactive Contributors Report. Make a paper copy of the reports when
you receive them.
• Distribute the booth schedule (that includes who is manning the booth and when), Booth Rules, When Good Contributions Go Bad and Legal Dos and Don’ts documents to your booth helpers.
• Remind your booth workers to wear their IFAPAC club lapel pins on the day of the event.
• If the supplies were shipped to the State chapter office, remind the staff to bring the supplies to the booth site.
Day of Event
Wear your IFAPAC club pin.
Grab a box of disposable pens and a pad of paper on your way out the door.
Bring the supplies and contributor reports (if the materials were sent to you directly).
Get to the booth area one hour before it opens to set up.
1 You must display at least one sign at the booth that says:
“Contributions or gifts to IFAPAC are not deductible as
charitable contributions for purposes of federal income tax.
Corporate contributions are prohibited.”
IFAPAC Booth Rules
Setting up an IFAPAC booth at your annual state convention, a sales congress, or anywhere else a large number of chapter members will be congregating, is a great way to increase visibility for IFAPAC and generate contributions.
It is also recommended that you work with the IFAPAC staff to create contributor recognition posters for your booth. Finally, you should order supplies (i.e. brochures, enrollment forms, club ribbons, etc.) at least three
weeks before the function.
Remember: You must abide by the same solicitation laws at an IFAPAC booth as you would do for written solicitations. It is critical that you familiarize yourself and your booth helpers with these important rules.
• You must display a sign at the booth that reads: Contributions to IFAPAC are not deductible as charitable contributions for purposes of federal income tax. Corporate contributions are prohibited.
• You must keep printed lists of all current chapter members and their contribution history. This will help verify a potential contributor’s membership status. Also, be sure that your lists are up-to-date. (Call IFAPAC HQ to ensure you have the most current data.)
• If a person is not a current NAIFA member, do not solicit IFAPAC funds from that individual. Instead, ask them to become a member of NAIFA.
• You may not solicit anyone who is not both a U.S. Citizen and a current member of NAIFA. For instance, you may not solicit; foreign MDRT or JAIFA members, non-NAIFA MDRT or AALU members, company representatives, vendors, lobbyists or consultants unless they pay association dues.
• You may not accept over $100 in cash. Give all-cash contributors a receipt.
• Personal checks and personal credit cards up to $5,000 may be accepted.
• If a member contributes $2,500 a year or signs up for $210 a month, please share information regarding NAIFA’s Congressional Council.
• Ask contributors to sign up for monthly giving via personal checking account bank draft or credit card. (NOTE: Monthly bank draft from a personal checking account is the best method.)
• The minimum bank draft enrollment level is $10 a month.
• The minimum credit card monthly enrollment level is $21 a month. If a monthly credit card request is sent in for an amount less than $21 a month, it will be charged only once.
• Write down each contributor’s NAIFA member number, name, and state abbreviation onto the contribution form so that contributions can be correctly credited.
• On credit card forms, please be sure the following sections are completed: exact name as it appears on the card, full card number, expiration date, security code, and a signature. Please write the exact dollar amount on the form. Do not circle a club type. (The clubs have dollar ranges; an Ambassador contributor, for instance, might want to give $200, $225, $250, or $275.) Omitting any one of these key data points will result in IFAPAC’s inability to collect the funds.
• Please be thorough when taking notes, especially if you are writing requests that need to be fulfilled after you tear down the booth. Remember, too, that IFAPAC cannot properly identify people using nicknames. Please use the person’s formal name when taking messages or requests.
The IFAPAC Administration Fair Share Contribution is the amount each chapter pays to fund a portion of the costs necessary to operate IFAPAC. The 2021 contribution will be $7.00 per member annually and will be paid by drafts from monthly chapter dues disbursements. (A chapter’s contribution will be $3.50 per member annually for those members who belong to a state and local chapter.)
IFAPAC serves as the collecting agent for both the federal PAC (NAIFAPAC) and every state chapter PAC, all of whom together comprise IFAPAC. IFAPAC operations include national staff to process every transaction and attend to all pay-to-play and compliance requirements for all states regarding all IFAPAC receipts. IFAPAC operations also cover the costs of all bank and credit card processing fees for IFAPAC contributions. Administering IFAPAC – one of the largest political action committees in the insurance industry and the collecting agent for 51 state PACs – has expenses including staffing, donor database management software fees, donor recognition materials, solicitation and other PAC mailings (printing and postage), meetings, marketing and promotional materials, customized election reports, target lists, overhead, and other additional expenditures.
It’s essential that 100% of the political (hard) dollars raised by IFAPAC is used to support candidates for elective office, not for operating expenses.
National dues cover a large portion of IFAPAC administration costs. The costs covered by the national portion of dues include staffing, donor database management software fees, donor recognition materials, mailings, marketing and promotional materials, customized election reports, credit card fees, overhead, and other expenses that benefit both national and every chapter.
All chapters must help fund a portion of the costs to administer IFAPAC because all chapters benefit from the operation of IFAPAC. Since 1968, IFAPAC has requested that chapters help pay for IFAPAC administrative expenses. Not all chapters did so, or they responded in an inconsistent manner. The mandatory per member fee treats all chapters equally and ensures that IFAPAC receives a fair share of its administrative funding from all NAIFA chapters, who each benefit from IFAPAC’s operation.
Each chapter’s full fair share fee is $12.00 per member annually (or $6.00 for those members who belong to a state and local chapter). This amount is 40% of IFAPAC’s annual operating costs, net of the federal PAC’s share of member administrative contributions, divided by the number of members. The 2021 fee has been decreased to $7.00 to give chapters time to allocate funds in their budgets for this expense.
The fair share contribution amount is limited to an amount that should be manageable for chapters while also helping to cover a fair portion of IFAPAC costs. It is estimated that chapter fair share contributions in 2021 will fund only 24% of IFAPAC’s operating costs (net of a portion of individual member administrative account contributions). The remaining 76% of the funding needed to cover the costs to administer IFAPAC will come from contributions from NAIFA’s operating account.
Consideration was given to returning a portion of the IFAPAC Administration Fair Share Contribution to chapters for their state PAC administrative accounts. However, it was decided to limit the contribution to only that amount to be used to administer IFAPAC to make the contribution amount more manageable and so that each state chapter can determine for itself what amount it needs to administer its state PAC by budgeting for these costs in the chapter’s annual budget.
Yes, any member whose contribution to IFAPAC is deemed administrative will still be shared back with the member’s state chapter administrative account if the member’s Pay-to-Play Rule Directive allows for sharing.
January 2021. The NAIFA Board approved this program in 2019 but delayed its implementation until 2021 to allow time for preparation and prioritization.
Beginning in 2021, a chapter’s fair share will be deducted from monthly dues disbursements. If a member pays an annual amount, the full $7.00 is deducted in the month of payment. If a member pays monthly or for a portion of a year, a prorated amount of the $7.00 is deducted based on the number of months the member has paid for. (Remember, a chapter’s contribution will be $3.50 per member for those members who belong to a state and local chapter.)
The chapter per member annual contribution amount will increase by $1.00 per year until the chapter fair share contribution is 40% of IFAPAC’s operating costs. Forty percent of IFAPAC’s operating costs is currently $12.00 per member.
Administrative funds allow for 100% of political dollars to be spent on candidates. In states that allow candidates to accept soft dollars, this is an additional source of funds to support candidates.
Administrative funds help cover the operating costs allowing for creative and interactive fundraising events/campaigns and recognition opportunities.
Chapters can raise administrative dollars by asking members to contribute directly to the administrative fund from their business or personal accounts. All contributions written from business accounts are treated as administrative contributions and are shared with state administrative accounts when such sharing is permitted by member Pay-to-Play Rule Directives.
Chapters can host administrative specific fundraising campaigns, such as a ring toss, silent auction, or other activities with proceeds designated specifically for administrative dollars.
Chapters can also contribute general funds directly to IFAPAC in addition to the payment of their Administration Fair Share Contribution.
Yes, but funds can be transferred in this manner only in states where administrative dollars can be used to support candidates. In such states, chapter general treasury funds can be directed to the chapter’s state PAC to support candidates. Where permitted, such contributions do not count towards the state‘s fair share fundraising goals and the state chapter is required to track any limits that apply to those contributions.
The disbursement report a chapter receives every month will show each member’s dues payment in one column and the fair share contribution amount in another column, with totals for both. Based on this report, a chapter can appropriately record dues payments, and the fair share contribution expense. The amount disbursed will be the net of the dues payments minus the fair share contributions.
No. We would like to accommodate payment requests that differ from withholding the fair share contribution as part of the dues disbursement, but we are unable to administer such exceptions. Each month we process over 10,000 dues payments and our system doesn’t allow us to make exceptions to the general rule.
A Chapter who wishes to cover their fair share contribution from their PAC’s administrative fund, and whose state law allows this, can reimburse their operating account from the PAC administrative account based on the contribution total in the disbursement report.
The best way is to multiply the budgeted number of members for 2021 by $7 for members who do not belong to a local chapter, and by $3.50 for those members who do belong to a local chapter. The calculation is an estimate based on the projected number of members who will pay their dues in 2021.
