non cash contributions

[hamrickdt]

Please help! I've read several things on charitable contributions - online, IRS and PC, and they all have good information, but what I'm looking for either I haven't found....overlooked... or maybe I'm just making this too hard!
We've received 4 or 5 donations over the last few months. People will be kind enough to go out and buy something that the church needs: handtowels for the kitchen, items for VBS, have the altar cloths cleaned - and they don't want to be reimbursed the money, but they will turn in the receipt and ask that they receive 'credit'.
We have not set up PC (we have v9) and at this time, we don't want to set it up where credit is given for non cash contributions through the Contribution Module (Tales from Tech 2 vol. 7).
My question was, if I sent a "Thank You Letter" or "Non Cash Contribution Letter", because the receipt was turned in, wouldn't I be able to thank them specifically for the items totaling the amount on the receipt without getting into trouble? No one person has donated anything more than $115.00.

Thank you!
Tammy
Finance Adminstrator
FUMC
Van Alstyne, TX

[tborgal]

The way we do this is to cut a reimbursement check the the person making the non-cash donation then they give the check back to the Church and it gets credited to them as a donation. This is an easy way to resolve this problem and there are no IRS issues to deal with. We have a check request form that needs to be submitted by the doner with a receipt for the donation attached. Works well for us.

[NeilZ]

What we do is ask for a copy of the receipt, and a note that says who donated the item and why. Our Financial Secretary then sends them a letter on Church Letterhead thanking the person for the donation. A copy of the thank you letter is attached to the receipt and is stored in a file for three years.

There is a method of tracking non-cash donations, and it can be found in Tales from Tech 2. These are from 2000, but are stlll good today:
http://www.powerchurch.com/tech2/tech2_ ... issue_id=9
http://www.powerchurch.com/tech2/tech2_ ... ssue_id=10

[hamrickdt]

Thank you for replying! I apologize it's taken me so long to respond - I had to go out of town.

Both options are really great choices and have been discussed previously, but at this time our church would rather send a letter - it seems to be what the members of our congregation prefer.

Right now I have: the receipt, the name of the person who turned in the receipt and the reason the item was donated. So, would it be correct to format a letter in the following manner:

To Whom It May Concern:

First United Methodist Church of Van Alstyne Texas received the following as a donation from John Smith:

Fabric, Supplies and Decorations for VBS

The above mentioned has been valued at $81.15

Sincerely,

Tammy Hamrick
Finance Administrator

Would this work as far as the IRS is concerned? Thank you so much for your help!!

Tammy
Finance Adminstrator
FUMC
Van Alstyne, TX

[NeilZ]

I believe it would suffice.

[hamrickdt]

Thank you!!!!!! I appreciate all your help!


Tammy
Finance Adminstrator
FUMC
Van Alstyne, TX