FundSvcs Community

Hello,

I'm looking for some context or precedent regarding donations toward our (free) annual alumni event. Although previously a paid event, this has been a free event for the last few years since the pandemic, and this year it was free as well. I attempted an approach of asking for churches to help sponsor it (as we are deeply connected with our parent denomination and many of our alumni are pastors, as well as the event coinciding with the denomination's annual conference). While no churches seemed interested, two individual alumni donated online toward the cost of putting this event on. One reached out beforehand and asked where to send the online gift, the other simply donated online without prior conversation after attending and being very pleased.

My question is this -- can I count the donation as 100% tax deductible on the basis that a) there was no tangible benefit that they received that they would NOT have received had they not donated (the "benefit" was not directly connected to the gift), and b) the gift was not solicited by our office toward those individuals?

Further, I couldn't find specifics in the CASE Global Reporting Standards since this isn't a paid event or an event where I'm offering exclusive benefits to those donors.

Can our resident experts weigh in here? Thanks for any insight you all have.

Hello,

I'm looking for some context or precedent regarding donations toward our (free) annual alumni event. Although previously a paid event, this has been a free event for the last few years since the pandemic, and this year it was free as well. I attempted an approach of asking for churches to help sponsor it (as we are deeply connected with our parent denomination and many of our alumni are pastors, as well as the event coinciding with the denomination's annual conference). While no churches seemed interested, two individual alumni donated online toward the cost of putting this event on. One reached out beforehand and asked where to send the online gift, the other simply donated online without prior conversation after attending and being very pleased.

My question is this -- can I count the donation as 100% tax deductible on the basis that a) there was no tangible benefit that they received that they would NOT have received had they not donated (the "benefit" was not directly connected to the gift), and b) the gift was not solicited by our office toward those individuals?

Further, I couldn't find specifics in the CASE Global Reporting Standards since this isn't a paid event or an event where I'm offering exclusive benefits to those donors.

Can our resident experts weigh in here? Thanks for any insight you all have.