FundSvcs Community

Sorry if this question was already posted somewhere, but most of the bifurcation discussions I found were related to DAFs or corporations. In this case, an individual donor bought a pack of 10 tickets with their personal credit card and wants to use only five and donate the balance to RISD. However, the tickets are cheaper in the pack then they are individually. My understanding is that since the donor received the benefit of five tickets we can only receipt the amount that was paid in addition to the amount they would have paid for five individual tickets, ie. if the donor paid $800 for 10 and the individual tickets were $100 then they can only be receipted for $300. The event manager is now pushing back to say we should be able to receipt them for $400 since they're returning half the benefits. I'd appreciate your advice and a clarification of the IRS's stance!

The donor is waiving the benefits for five of the tickets entirely, not giving the tickets back for us to give to other guests free of charge. Is there a distinction between those two intentions?  

Thanks, John and Isaac for clarifying the situation! We're using the face value of the individual tickets rather than the bulk rate for this calculation so regardless of whether they bought a package or multiple individual tickets the non-deductible cost will be consistent. That seems like the best practice, particularly since I've learned about other attendees who are trying to donate by waiving their benefits and we need to handle them equitably.