Instead of yet another assessment levied against home owners, how about a pancake breakfast bash, a rummage sale or selling ads in the homeowner association newsletter to come up with the money to replace that outdated roof on your condo development?

Assessments typically account for 97 percent of home owners and community associations' operating income, but your association might want to consider generating income from programs as simple as a car wash, as complex as a service bureau or as exciting as making the community available for a movie set, according to "Increase Income, Not Assessments," (Community Associations Institute, $ $24.95 through January 2000, then $35).

Author Nancy Bianconi, a fund raising and special events consultant with Northridge, CA-based Bianconi & Associates, produced the new book which offers detailed information on planning fund raising events as well as checklists, time lines and publicity ideas.

From auctions and bingo to renting parking spaces and investing your association's reserves, Bianconi also provides dissertations on motivating volunteers, even publicity and advertising, donation solicitation tips, form letters and more.

She isn't remiss about discussing the legal, regulatory and insurance ramifications your association should consider before conducting a fund raiser in lieu of an assessment.

"Keep in mind that CAI is a national organization and that different rules prevail in different states. For much of the country, state legislatures have developed laws for homeowners associations that are patterned after the Uniform Common Interest Act or the Uniform Condominium Act," says Grace Morioka, owner of Commoncents Management a common interest development management and consulting firm in San Jose, CA.

"New York, Florida and California use laws that are very different from UCIA/UCA formats. While these are "novel" ideas for raising fees, they are not practical here in California where there is much hoop jumping to do before proceeding," Morioka added.

Even where you can conduct community association fund raising activities, Bianconi is careful to point out the effects of the difference between a non-profit charity and the non-profit status of community association. Donations, say in the form of admission to a fund raising event, is not tax deductible, as is a donation to, say, a church.

"Additionally, these other activities would have to be approved by either the board of directors and or the members, depending on the legal documents. Consequently, some HOAs could take advantage of these trends and others may not without first modifying their corporate documents," said Richard Calhoun, broker/owner of Creekside Realty in San Jose, CA.

Additional IRS rules restrict how much money can be raised by fund raising activities and how much of an association's operating budget can be used to finance a fund raising event.

Not only should community associations check their rules and regulations, Bianconi suggests contacting an attorney to read the small print.

"I would expect an HOA's non-profit corporation charter could be jeopardized if the HOA's primary activity and source of income is business ventures designed to produce profits," said Frederick L. Pilot, president of the Sacramento, CA-based Common Interest Consumer Project.

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Published: December 16, 1999

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.