Recommended best practices for recording non-cash and charitable fund donations in Churchteams
*We recommend that you seek out and follow IRS guidelines regarding contributions to charitable organizations.
Definitions
Non-cash donations include things like stock, automobiles and other material goods that people give. Charitable fund donations are checks that come in from charitable trusts or funds that were set up by the donor to receive tax benefits in the year the fund was set up. The funds can then be dispersed in subsequent years but are not considered tax-deductible when dispersed from the charitable fund.
Acknowledgement
In both cases, the church sends an email or snail mail acknowledgement of receipt of the item. It is up to the individual to assign a value to the non-cash items that they will claim on their taxes. One suggested practice for receipting is to create the acknowledgement receipt as an email in the email editor and keep this as a Saved Template. Go to Communicate > Email Settings > Email Templates to create these.
Setup for Recording the Donation
Go to Settings > Giving > Contributions. Add "Non-cash" and "Charitable Fund" as giving methods. You are now ready to enter the donations into a batch (Giving > Enter Batch). The video below walks you through that process and shows you related reports, including the donor's Contribution Statement.
Entering Donation - Video Example With Reports