Hi Dania,
Thanks for sharing.
I think it's worth noting that the check signer rule for joint married or partnered accounts is a rule of convenience that simply eliminates an ambiguity to efficiently process check gifts and is not an IRS requirement. Most newer CRM's allow you to define criteria within the system to determine who the primary (and thus legal donor) is when processing gifts and does this allocation for you automatically when you enter a gift. This assumes that you are sending a tax receipt to them as a couple.
The reason I mention this is that, if you've defined those rules for your system, there is no need to overwrite them when entering a check gift just because the signer is not the person that is set as primary. The rules for who is primary can be as simple as, when both are alums, the one with the lower ID number is primary. The IRS doesn't care whether one is an alum and one is not, if both are, etc... Some schools still even split the hard credit 50/50 although that can create other issues.
Best,
John Smilde
Director of Gifts and Records Administration
Advancement and Alumni Relations
George Mason University
4400 University Drive, MSN 1A3
Fairfax, VA 22030
703.993.8680
jsmilde@gmu.edu
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Original Message:
Sent: 7/12/2023 2:53:00 PM
From: Dania Calandrino
Subject: RE: Legal Donor Reference for Gift Processing
Hi Isaac,
Thanks so much for giving this a read through and for your suggestions. I've added the following:
Checks with two account holders - The legal donor is the person who signed the check. (Assuming that person is one of the account holders)
Pooled Contributions - The legal donor is the person collecting and then giving the money. The lump sum is recorded as a single gift. The contributors may be soft credited for their portions.
I know that if a donor gives crypto through a DAF, we would hard credit the DAF. However, I don't have (yet) first hand experience of recording this, or any other crypto transactions. Aside from an individual transferring cryptocurrency directly, I'm intrigued as to what other scenarios there are.
Thanks again,
Dania
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Dania Calandrino
Art Institute of Chicago
dcalan@artic.edu
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-26-2023 12:33 PM
From: Isaac Shalev
Subject: Legal Donor Reference for Gift Processing
Dania, this is great, and a very helpful resource. Some of the situations that come up with regards to personal contributions might also be added to this list, depending on AIC's needs. E.g. when an individual sends a check in that pools contributions from several other people, or when there are two names on a check. Cryptocurrency may be another area to address, as the various ways to receive crypto align with different legal donor determinations.
Thank you,
Isaac Shalev
Data Strategy Expert
Sage70, Inc.
(917) 859-0151
isaac@sage70.com
Schedule a 30-minute consultation now:
Original Message:
Sent: 6/26/2023 8:13:00 AM
From: Mary Hills
Subject: RE: Legal Donor Reference for Gift Processing
Thank you for sharing. We are currently working on building a reference / process document(s) for gift and data processing. I will share when we are closer to done.
Mary Jo Hills
Grand Valley State University
hillsma@gvsu.edu
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Mary Hills
Grand Valley State University
hillsma@gvsu.edu
Original Message:
Sent: 06-23-2023 04:31 PM
From: Dania Calandrino
Subject: Legal Donor Reference for Gift Processing
Good Afternoon,
My team has created a reference document to help determine the correct legal donor when recording gifts. For each type of financial instrument (ie, Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Company Credit Card etc.,.) a brief explanation is given, followed by an instruction on who to hard credit. I'm curious if anyone else has training materials like this for gift processors. I'm proud to share my team's document, attached. We welcome your feedback.
Thank you and have a great weekend,
Dania
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Dania Calandrino
Art Institute of Chicago
dcalan@artic.edu
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