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  • 1.  Bifurcation of an individual gift

    Posted 07-14-2025 02:14 PM

    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!



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    Meghan Hickey
    Rhode Island School of Design
    mhickey@risd.edu
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  • 2.  RE: Bifurcation of an individual gift

    Posted 07-14-2025 02:18 PM
    The donor is donating TICKETS, not cash. Therefore, the receipt cannot reflect any dollar amount - just the number of tickets donated. The donor will have to prove to the IRS the deductible value.

    John

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987






  • 3.  RE: Bifurcation of an individual gift

    Posted 07-15-2025 07:09 AM

    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?  



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    Meghan Hickey
    Rhode Island School of Design
    mhickey@risd.edu
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  • 4.  RE: Bifurcation of an individual gift

    Posted 07-15-2025 07:30 AM
    Yes. If they are saying they only want five of the tickets in exchange for the payment, then you have a standard QPQ situation. However, your organization will need to determine whether those five tickets are "worth" their face value or a discounted "bulk" rate.

    John

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987







  • 5.  RE: Bifurcation of an individual gift

    Posted 07-15-2025 09:24 AM
    My read is that the discount is for buying ten tickets, not maximizing deductions by buying ten tickets with the intent of using only five. If the donor only wanted fix tix, they could have bought five, donated $300 and been done. But what they are trying to do is convert that same $800 into 5 seats and $400 worth of tax deduction by "buying" ten seats and declining five of them. 

    The argument that since they're declining half the seats they should get half the amount paid as a deduction is not correct. You must assess the FMV of the declined benefits on their own -- it's the market's valuation of the benefits, what they could be fairly sold for in an arms-length transaction, not what they are worth in context of the transaction with the donor. 


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

    Schedule a 30-minute consultation now:







  • 6.  RE: Bifurcation of an individual gift

    Posted 07-22-2025 08:58 AM

    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.



    ------------------------------
    Meghan Hickey
    Rhode Island School of Design
    mhickey@risd.edu
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: Bifurcation of an individual gift

    Posted 07-22-2025 09:00 AM
    That makes a ton of sense.

    John

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987