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  • 1.  Legal Donor Reference for Gift Processing

    Posted 06-23-2023 04:31 PM
      |   view attached

    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
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)



  • 2.  RE: Legal Donor Reference for Gift Processing

    Posted 06-26-2023 07:13 AM

    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
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  • 3.  RE: Legal Donor Reference for Gift Processing

    Posted 06-26-2023 12:34 PM
    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:







  • 4.  RE: Legal Donor Reference for Gift Processing

    Posted 07-12-2023 01:53 PM
      |   view attached

    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  



    ------------------------------
    Dania Calandrino
    Art Institute of Chicago
    dcalan@artic.edu
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Legal Donor Reference for Gift Processing

    Posted 07-12-2023 03:20 PM

    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

     

    This electronic message contains confidential information which is, in whole or in part,

    subject to exclusion from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act pursuant to

    §2.2-3705.4.7. of the Code of Virginia.

     

     

     

     

     






  • 6.  RE: Legal Donor Reference for Gift Processing

    Posted 07-12-2023 02:51 PM
      |   view attached

    Hi Isaac, 


    Thanks so much for giving this a read through and for your great 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 respective 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.  If you know of a nice resource for crypto hard crediting guidelines I would definitely be interested!


    Thanks again,

    Dania  



    ------------------------------
    Dania Calandrino
    Art Institute of Chicago
    dcalan@artic.edu
    ------------------------------


  • 7.  RE: Legal Donor Reference for Gift Processing

    Posted 07-13-2023 09:37 AM
    Dania, crypto gifts can be direct from the donor to the org, or through some traditional DAFs,  but increasingly, nonprofits are turning to crypto acceptance services. Some of these are set up like Benevity, with a DAF that accepts the donor's crypto, converts it, and disburses cash to the nonprofit, while others are set up more like a credit card payment processor, and serve as an agent to facilitate the donation. In the first case, the contribution is no different than any DAF gift. But in the second case, the hard credit should go to the donor, but the gift is a gift in kind, even though you're receiving cash. Legally, you received crypto, which is a non-cash gift, and then converted it to cash. 


    Thank you,
    Isaac Shalev
    Data Strategy Expert
    Sage70, Inc.
    (917) 859-0151
    isaac@sage70.com

    Schedule a 30-minute consultation now: