[Foundation-l] Fundraising ideas - bursting the bubble

[Anthony DiPierro]

On 6/13/06, Anthony DiPierro <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
> On 6/12/06, daniwo59 at aol.com <daniwo59 at aol.com> wrote:
> > 3 Are there any mails that we are required to send by law? Yes, Any donor who gives over $200 must receive written notification for IRS purposes. This includes multiple donations--for instance, if someone gives $20 a month over a period of a year, they will require such notification. That's a lot of donors to keep track of
> >
> Are you sure this isn't just a requirement in order for the donation
> to be tax deductible?  Can you give a cite so we can look at this?  I
> know there is a requirement that cash donations over $250, including
> over the course of a year, must be substantiated in order to be
> deductible, but I always thought that the burden was on the donor to
> provide correct contact information.  It's certainly *possible*, for
> instance, for me to put $10 a week in cash into the church basket
> without the church knowing to give me a written receipt.  It just
> wouldn't be fully deductible in that case.
>
See publication 1771 for more on this.  Now I don't know if this was
what you were talking about, but according to the publication:

"An organization which does not acknowledge a contribution incurs no
penalty; but, without a written acknowledgement, the donor cannot
claim the tax deduction."

The publication also says that "An organization can provide the
acknowledgement electronically, such as by an e-mail addressed to the
donor."

It also says "Separate contributions will not be aggregated.  An
example of this would be weekly offerings to a donor's church of less
than $250, even though the donor's annual total contributions are $250
or more."  I guess I was mistaken that such donations wouldn't be
fully deductible.

Note that none of this applies to quid-pro-quo donations, which have a
different set of rules.  So if you're giving cafe-press T-shirts to
donors, and these shirts don't meet the "token exception", then you
have to play by different rules.

Obviously that whole publication should be read.  It outlines the
exact requirements of the acknowledgement letter, which I won't copy
here.