Paid advertisement in newsletter

When I did our newsletter, we accepted paid advertisements...it is a way to defer costs to the homeowners. Just have the check made out to the HOA. Also, the company I work for advertises is a number of neighborhood newsletters & directories. We get a lot of business out of this type of advertising.

Marie:
When I used to prepare the newsletter for our HOA, I charged $25 for a business card sized ad--which was about all we had room for. If a politician wanted to advertise/campaign, I insisted that they provide an insert and pay for the additional to insert it which was about $125 plus their $25. For kids in the assn. who wanted to advertise to babysit, mow, pet sit, etc., we'd give them a break on a line or two for $10. The problem that you get into if you do not charge is that there is no stopping point and everyone wants to advertise something. The other thing is that you should always (when you have an ad in your newsletter) have a separate line someplace that states "Any ads in this newsletter are paid for by the advertiser and do not represent an endorsement from the board of directors".--something like that, and especially on the bottom of a flyer for a politician it should state that ads are paid for by them. HOAs and politicians don't mix well, and certainly always give the opponents equal access if they contact you. ALSO, you may wish to check on this thru your own assn., as we ran into this problem at some point--if you publish your newsletter online, you may have to remove the ads and I can't remember what the rule was about it. We found it best just to not put the newsletter online and avoided that problem. At one time, there was a religious group that met in the assn. that felt that their ad should be in the assn. for free because it was religious and because they lived in the assn. We had to tell them that they either had to pay for the ad or to obtain names and meeting locations of ALL religious groups to include with theirs and we would list them, but we couldn't discriminate by listing theirs for free. One other problem we ran into was if two or more residents were in the same business, say like mowing, exterminating, etc., they would want to tie up the ad space for a whole year. You may wish to limit to one month at a time to give each a chance. I hope this is helpful.
EdR

Wouldn't paid ads impact a HOA 'non-profit' status and you are then essentially becoming a business yourselves? Had this conversation when someone suggesting opening up the clubhouse to rentals from the public to help defray the costs.

Seems like a slippery slope, and yes it is a profit even if it is then used to reduce monthly assessments somehow.

I believe it depends on how the newsletter is handled. If the newsletter is a part of the homeowners' privileges as dues-paying members and their dues are reduced by the payment for ads, then it would affect the non-profit status. In our assn. of under 450 homes, the printing/folding is around $200, and the postage is around $200, so I believe the bill is between $4 and $500 a month or every other month (I think it's 6 times a year)--only amounts to $3K a year. Six $25 ads are not going to impact it. Unfortunately, the newsletter is a controversial subject in most assns. A lot of them in TX, I am aware, and ours is becoming this now also, is like a clearing house--a particular printing company runs a 40+ page brochure (full of ads), paid for all by ads from apparent vendors that the management company uses, and only lists the MC name and phone number and plugs in the name of the association on the footers and front page. If a homeowner wants to advertise, they pay, if they want to announce something legal, they have to provide either of these six months before the monthly thing is due out. This sort of defeats the purpose, and is one of the complaints our assn. has had from members--the warning information even in a monthly n/l, pertaining to problems like vandalism, theft, etc., is history after one day and not helpful. Therefore the n/l has to become a missive of ACC guidelines, info on trash pick-up, it used to list new-move-ins, but they lost track of that info. Then some HOs complain that that is all negative because they don't want to be reminded to pick up after their dog, or not put their trash out before 6p the night before, etc. Even though it wouldn't lower my dues but about $6, I'd be better off if they got rid of it and I'll just read the daily news. I know this is TMI, but it seems like there are problems with either side of the issue--I will tell you this--there were very few advertisers, so we never had a non-profit status problem. If there is controvery in an assn., which there always is in ours, people don't want their name out there in an advertisement because it sometimes affects their business.
EdR