Recognition · Bloom Swap partners
What recognition is, and is not. That line is what keeps your payment clean.
Every Bloom Swap partner is acknowledged by name, location and web address, on banners, host kits and pages. Acknowledgment is what the IRS allows a sponsor to receive without the payment becoming advertising. This page shows the line, where it appears, and the words it will never carry.
The short answer
Nonprofit sponsor acknowledgment vs advertising, in plain English.
A sponsor may be told who it is and where to find it. It may not be told how good it is.
When a business pays a nonprofit and receives only an acknowledgment in return, federal tax law treats the payment as a qualified sponsorship payment. The nonprofit owes no tax on it as business income, and the business receives recognition of a kind the law regards as neutral: it says who the sponsor is and where to find it, and nothing about the quality of its work. When recognition crosses into advertising, the payment changes character, and the rule for telling the two apart is short. A message that mixes acknowledgment and advertising is advertising.
Bloom holds that line on the partner’s behalf and on its own. For the partner, a clean acknowledgment keeps the payment what both sides meant it to be. For Bloom, it keeps a free clothing program free of anything that looks like a shop window, and it keeps the Bloom Directory, where businesses will be audited for whether they are actually affirming and accessible, out of reach of anyone’s money.
The signage line
The line every partner receives.
One pattern, the same on every banner, kit and page. Below, it is printed live from the partner records.
The pattern, until a partner signs
Bloom Swap · a program of Bloom Ministries · Founding Partner: Partner name · City, State · partner-domain.org
The pattern is fixed: Bloom Swap, a program of Bloom Ministries, then the partner’s tier title and name, the partner’s locations, and the partner’s web address. On printed signage a QR code carries the same web address and points to the partner’s own home page. Until a partner has signed, the line above prints as a template with a placeholder where the name will go, so a business can see exactly what its own line would say.
The wording does not change from partner to partner, and it does not change at a partner’s request. That is deliberate. A line that could be adjusted for one partner could be adjusted into advertising, so the pattern is set once and every partner receives the same one.
Where it appears
Five places a partner’s name travels.
Each is described here without a real partner. A partner’s line appears on it only after the agreement is signed and the wording approved.
- The swap banner. A printed banner, 24 by 36 inches, hung where guests come in. It carries the acknowledgment line and a QR code to the partner’s web address, and nothing else.
- The host-kit table tent. A folded card for the welcome table, sent in every host kit with the playbook and the signage. Hosts place it as it arrives and do not alter it.
- The web strip. The partner strip on Bloom Swap’s pages, printed from the partner records: name, locations and web address. Founding Partners also appear on their own page.
- The Directory panel. When the Bloom Directory opens its listings, a partner’s own listing will carry one short panel stating the partnership, and stating that it does not affect certification.
- The Resources provider listing. When Bloom Resources publishes provider listings, a partner that offers a relevant service may be listed with a value-neutral description. A listing is information, not an endorsement.
Every surface is produced from the same partner record, so the words match wherever they appear. A change to a partner’s locations or web address is made once, in the record, and every surface produced from it afterward carries the change.
The two columns
What acknowledgment may say, and what it never says.
The left column is what a partner’s acknowledgment can carry. The right column is what Bloom will not print about any partner, anywhere.
Acknowledgment may say
- The partner’s name and logo
- An established slogan, provided it carries no qualitative or comparative language
- Locations, a phone number and a web address
- A value-neutral description of what the partner does
- The tier title, such as Founding Partner
- A fund named for the partner, such as a Safe Passage Grant
- “Exclusive sponsor” within a stated category
It never says
- “The best”, “recommended”, “trusted” or “expert”
- Prices, discounts or savings of any kind
- Endorsements, or any claim that Bloom vouches for the partner’s work
- Calls to act, such as “book now”
- Comparisons with other providers
- “Exclusive provider”, or any arrangement that steers people to one business
The last line of each column is worth a sentence. A partner may be the exclusive sponsor in its category, which means Bloom will not accept a competing sponsor in that category while the partner renews. A partner may never be presented as the only place to go for a service, because that would tell guests where to take their business. The first is acknowledgment. The second is advertising.
A self-check
Check your wording before you send it.
If you will send Bloom a short description of your business, walk it through these five questions first. Your ticks stay in this browser.
Five questions for your description
0 of 5 ready
Describe the service plainly: what it is and who it is for. Leave out any word that grades it.
No figures, no discounts and no offers of any kind. The description is about the service, not its terms.
No instruction to call, visit or book. The web address in the line is enough.
Nothing that ranks you above another business, or suggests you are the only choice. The acknowledgment is about you alone.
Nothing that suggests Bloom has chosen, vouched for or audited your work.
Bloom’s partner records run the same test in code. A description containing a refused word is not saved: the field is kept and the problem is shown, so the text can be rewritten rather than lost. The list of refused words can grow. It never shrinks without a written record of why.
The source
The rule, and where it comes from.
Bloom paraphrases the rule on this page. The rule itself belongs to the IRS, and the source is one click away.
The rule sits in section 513(i) of the Internal Revenue Code and in the Treasury regulation that explains it. Treas. Reg. 1.513-4(c)(2)(iv) describes what a sponsor may receive as a use or acknowledgment of its name without the payment becoming advertising: exclusive sponsorship arrangements, logos and slogans without qualitative or comparative description, locations, telephone numbers and internet addresses, value-neutral descriptions of products and services, and brand or trade names.
The IRS summarises the rule for organizations and sponsors on a single page: Advertising or qualified sponsorship payments. Naming a fund after a sponsor, as each Safe Passage Grant is named, is permitted under Rev. Rul. 77-367.
This page is Bloom’s paraphrase, written to be accurate and kept short. Where the paraphrase and the regulation differ, the regulation governs. A qualified sponsorship is often treated by a business as a marketing expense rather than a charitable gift, and whether that fits your business is your decision to make. This page is not tax advice — confirm with your CPA.
The Bloom Directory
The Directory panel, word for word.
One panel, on the partner’s own listing, when the Directory opens. Its last two sentences are the reason it exists.
The Bloom Directory is Bloom’s guide to whether a business is actually affirming and actually accessible, earned through independent, auditor-observed review, never self-reported. It is in development, Oregon first. When it opens its listings, a Founding Partner’s own listing will carry one panel about the partnership, and it will read exactly as follows, with the partner’s name and year in place.
The approved Directory panel
{Partner name} is a Founding Partner of Bloom Ministries ({year}), supporting Bloom Swap and the Safe Passage Grant. Partnership does not affect Bloom Certification. Affirmation and Accessibility scores are earned only through independent audit, on the same rubric and schedule as every listing.
Partners will be audited on the same rubric and schedule as every other listing, and auditors are not told who is a partner. A partner that earns a high score will have earned it the way everyone else does, which is the only way a score is worth having.
Reporting
What a partner hears back.
Recognition begins the day a partner’s first payment lands. Reporting follows from the same records as every figure on this site.
Partners at the top tiers receive a quarterly impact note, and every partner receives an annual summary. The note sets out what Bloom Swap did in the quarter: swaps held, pieces circulated across the network, pieces sent on to clothing drives, any swap the partner itself hosted, and for a Founding Partner, the Safe Passage Grant line.
The numbers in a note are computed from the inventory ledger and the swap records, and they cannot be edited by hand. Where a figure has no records yet, the note says so, exactly as the impact page does. A partner reads the same numbers a journalist would find on the public site.
FAQ
Questions partners ask about recognition
Still asking? Write to swap@bloomministries.org and a person answers.
Can our acknowledgment include our logo and slogan?
Your logo, yes. Your slogan, if it is an established one and carries no qualitative or comparative language. A slogan that grades your business or compares it with others cannot be used, however long you have used it.
Will Bloom ever vouch for our work?
No. Bloom acknowledges partners; it does not endorse them. A partner’s name beside Bloom’s is a record of support, not a statement about the partner’s work, and Bloom will not describe it as one in print, online or from the front of a room.
Can we be the only sponsor in our category?
Exclusive sponsorship within a stated category is permitted, and it is offered at the top tiers for as long as the partner renews. It means Bloom will not accept a competing sponsor in that category. It never means Bloom sends guests to you.
Does partnership affect a Bloom Directory score?
Never. Partnership does not affect Bloom Certification. Partners are audited on the same rubric and schedule as every listing, and auditors are not told who is a partner.
Can we change our line later?
Your locations and web address can be updated at any time: tell the Chancery at swap@bloomministries.org, the record is changed, and every surface produced from it afterward carries the change. The pattern of the line itself stays the same.
Is this page tax advice?
No. It paraphrases the IRS rule so the shape of it is easy to see. How your business treats a sponsorship payment is a question for your CPA, and the IRS page linked above is the source to read with them.
Partner with Bloom Swap
Your name on the door, in the right words.
Tell the Chancery about your business. The reply comes within one business day, with the one-page overview and a time to talk.
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