FundSvcs Community

Hello,

I've read a dozen posts, and they help me shape my view on this, but I would love to have additional clarity on this matter.  

We have a music group at our university seeking to defray costs for an overseas performance trip.  

A generous offer has been made by a constituent to (1) provide a performance space and (2)  invite the community associated with that space to attend a benefit concert performed by the group.  

The university is already reviewing a no-charge contract with the venue in relation to the local outing for the music group to perform.  As part of this process, questions came up about how the "donation" would be handled.  I am fairly new to my role, and we don't do this much.  We see two possible avenues:

1) The individual or the venue's organization (I don't know which it will be yet) runs the event and takes all payments.  Then this non-university host of the event delivers a single check of all donations made at the event.  We would notify the host of the event that they should consult their tax advisor regarding the funds being collected, then paid to the university as a gift.  Individual donors are not receipted by our institution.

2) In advance of the event, our institution offers registration for a free event, with a suggested donation amount.  This allows for PCI-compliant credit card charges, and accurate information about all donors.  Since the contributions are payable directly to the institution, the donors can be directly receipted.  Is the actual performance not a quid pro quo if it is free to all?

Are either or both of these methods legitimate approaches?  If neither work, what would be a way to facilitate such a fundraising opportunity?

Even if we take pathway 2 - perhaps individuals will be moved to give additional amounts at the event.  Thoughts on how to best handle those?  Checks payable to our institution or online credit card payments ideally?

Thanks for any insights you can offer!

Thank you, John. 

 
This is clean, then, from a gift perspective.  We would have to make sure that it's palatable on the part of the venue/host (it is a church and associated community) that there not be credit given to them, nor the individual attendees.  Is any additional contracting needed for them to serve as an agent on our behalf, accepting payments? We have had this happen after-the-fact before when a 5K has been held, and a portion of the proceeds were sent to our institution afterwards.  
Would there be any dollar amount thresholds above which such an arrangement is no longer valid?  

And then our annual giving team could still have an online giving page in support of the cause, for separate gifts for those that decide to give individually outside of the event, correct?  

Of course, our Development team will want to know who attended and whether there are further relationships to build with the university.  They will want to know that we had a good reason not to have people register.  Would that reason be that it's problematic to assess a FMV for attendees? 

Thanks very much!

Thank you!  They will be happy if #2 also works.  But does #2 have to address the FMV or attending a concert?  Or not, so long as the language is clearly displayed similar to what you stated?  

This is really helpful guidance!  Thanks so much!