Unspecified "Designated Gift"

[Eden Whitehead]

A member has contributed a large (for this church) amount which she does NOT want to be used for General Fund expenses, but to be set aside for some currently non-specified "special" need of the church. In effect, an unspecified designated gift.

Can someone please offer a suggestion as to how I should handle this? A number of designated contribution funds already exist, so the question is not how to set one up. Rather, what would be a good "label" for such a designated contribution fund? Or is there some other way to handle this, such as a new feature of V11 that I'm not familiar with?

Thanks!
Eden

[NeilZ]

A member has contributed a large (for this church) amount which she does NOT want to be used for General Fund expenses, but to be set aside for some currently non-specified "special" need of the church. In effect, an unspecified designated gift.

Can someone please offer a suggestion as to how I should handle this? A number of designated contribution funds already exist, so the question is not how to set one up. Rather, what would be a good "label" for such a designated contribution fund? Or is there some other way to handle this, such as a new feature of V11 that I'm not familiar with?

Thanks!
Eden

Eden,

(opinion mode) .. as an Elder and now the spouse of a Pastor I just love how some members believe that the church council or Session cannot make informed decisions on how to use the money given to the church.
(opinion mode off)

That said, will this be a totally restricted amount of money ?? If so, you can create a new Contribution Fund and a new Restricted Income Funds Account that it would go to.

Its all up to you, there is no 'feature' about this. You could call this Contribution Fund: Special Needs, and restrict it in Funds Accounting so that it would not be seen as liquid funds in the system.

Of course, back to opinion mode, I'm just wondering what this person will consider a Special need, would you have to get this person's permission to use it ?? I've actually seen churches turn down this type of gift because there are "strings" attached

[tborgal]

Just a quick comment here. In order for a contribution to be tax deductible it must be under the complete control of the organization it is given to. It is certainly common for gifts to have a designation attached to it, but it should be within the mission of the organization for it to be deductible. This to me would be questionable if it qualifies as deductible.

[NeilZ]

Just a quick comment here. In order for a contribution to be tax deductible it must be under the complete control of the organization it is given to. It is certainly common for gifts to have a designation attached to it, but it should be within the mission of the organization for it to be deductible. This to me would be questionable if it qualifies as deductible.

Tom,

totally agree ... here's a "for instance", our current church has a designated donation given about 2 or 3 years ago (before we came here) for a new church sign. The money is well within the mission of the church, but the Session has not seen fit to do anything with it. After all, that old sign put up in 1943 is still good. The letters are somewhat faded, and the lights don't work, but it can be read during the day !!.

[Eden Whitehead]

Neil, Thanks for your input - as always, very helpful!

Just a quick comment here. In order for a contribution to be tax deductible it must be under the complete control of the organization it is given to. It is certainly common for gifts to have a designation attached to it, but it should be within the mission of the organization for it to be deductible. This to me would be questionable if it qualifies as deductible.

In this case, the donor is an elder and would certainly bow to the discretion of the Session as a whole (and would even if not serving as an elder).

[Eden Whitehead]

... You could call this Contribution Fund: Special Needs, and restrict it in Funds Accounting so that it would not be seen as liquid funds in the system.

Ummm, (I thought I was all set on this....)

Exactly what do I do to "restrict it in Funds Accounting"?

[NeilZ]

... You could call this Contribution Fund: Special Needs, and restrict it in Funds Accounting so that it would not be seen as liquid funds in the system.

Ummm, (I thought I was all set on this....)

Exactly what do I do to "restrict it in Funds Accounting"?

You would have to create a Donor Restricted income account. When setting up the new account the system would ask if the new income account is donor restricted, and would then help you setup the required income, equity and release accounts.

This Knowledge Base article can help with more info:

http://powerchurch.com/support/tech2/?issue_id=41

[Eden Whitehead]

Thanks again, Neil!

(I knew that ... I just forgot I knew it! Age + year-end "stuff" ... )