Non Cash Contributions

[lindac]

We are in the midst of a building pledge. One member catered a church fellowship for us and wants the catering expense that would have been billed to us, to be credited to his pledge. Is there a way to do that with non cash contributions or would it just be better to pay the bill and let him contribute the amount back?
Thank you.

[Jeff]

You get into a hard spot here because even though you have a receipt with a dollar amount on it, it is still considered a donation of goods. My understanding of the IRS rules is that you say thank you for your donation of xxxxxxx. It is then up to the donor to place a value and be able to justify it to the IRS.

In PowerChurch you need to enter a dollar value to be able to record a payment to a pledge. There is one option that might work though. If you edit the pledge record, there is a place that says pledge start balance. You can enter the value there and it will treat the amount as a payment to the pledge that was not recorded through PowerChurch. The amount will not show on the contribution statement, so you would want to give the donor a record thanking him for his donation.

[lindac]

Thank you. I will take a look at that. It may just be best to trade checks so we have a paper trail and there is no question. I certainly do not want to be on slippery ground. Again, thank you for your help.