Dating Year End Gifts made online

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Diane Kuehl
Diane Kuehl ✭
Ancient Membership First Reply
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Our non profit is located on the west coast, as are most of our donors. But our data is hosted by Blackbaud on the east coast. That's a 3 hr difference in time zones. So, if a donor makes an online gift late on December 31 (pacific time), it is time stamped by BBMS on January 1 (eastern time). Can that gift still be recorded and receipted for 2014? Does anyone have info on how the IRS would view that?
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  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Diane Kuehl:
    Our non profit is located on the west coast, as are most of our donors. But our data is hosted by Blackbaud on the east coast. That's a 3 hr difference in time zones. So, if a donor makes an online gift late on December 31 (pacific time), it is time stamped by BBMS on January 1 (eastern time). Can that gift still be recorded and receipted for 2014? Does anyone have info on how the IRS would view that?

    Per everything I've read deduction is date card is charged is processed by credit card company - which generally is immediately when charge is made.   Date/year which donor claims deduction is always up to the donor - they can try to get by with something if they choose to. How you record gift in RE is up to you/your org's procedures. You can use whatever gift date your procedures describe.  Do you put 'date of gift' in your receipts?  Not the best option-a date is not required.  Good way to deal with it if you want a date is to put "gift processed on". 

    There's numerous post about this on fund services website - great resource: www.fundsvcs.org

    Here's a link to one of the docs from the site: http://listserv.fundsvcs.org/cgi-bin/wa?A3=ind1412&L=FUNDSVCS&E=0&P=614&B=--001a11c125c0a0385f050928a0dc&T=text%2Fplain;%20charset=UTF-8&header=1 

    Just my 2 cents... 

     

     

  • Wayne Pozzar
    Wayne Pozzar ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 1 Photogenic
    JoAnn Strommen:

    Per everything I've read deduction is date card is charged is processed by credit card company - which generally is immediately when charge is made.   Date/year which donor claims deduction is always up to the donor - they can try to get by with something if they choose to. How you record gift in RE is up to you/your org's procedures. You can use whatever gift date your procedures describe.  Do you put 'date of gift' in your receipts?  Not the best option-a date is not required.  Good way to deal with it if you want a date is to put "gift processed on". 

    There's numerous post about this on fund services website - great resource: www.fundsvcs.org

    Here's a link to one of the docs from the site: http://listserv.fundsvcs.org/cgi-bin/wa?A3=ind1412&L=FUNDSVCS&E=0&P=614&B=--001a11c125c0a0385f050928a0dc&T=text%2Fplain;%20charset=UTF-8&header=1 

    Just my 2 cents... 

     

     

    We just had this case with someone who donated from Houston (we are in Boston) and they made the donation at 11pm their time but it came through at 1am our time. Long story short we recorded it for 1/1 in RE because that matches with our online processor but sent a special acknowledgement letter to him stating that the gift was given on 12/31. If we are audited about it I have no worries that the time zone argument will hold since it is documented that he is in TX. If he were to just say "oh, I was travelling in Singapore that day so really it was good" I might have more issues. For checks we actually have a special template we use for checks sent (post marked) after 12/31 but with a check date of 12/31. We use the language "Your gift dated 12/31". Subtle but it allows the donor to deal with their accountant and covers us.

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