Contributions designated for Altar Flowers: Non-Deductible or Deductible?

by JMT
(Florida)

Scenario:
Church member(s) make cash-contributions for Altar Flowers in Memory/Honor of a loved one. The Church will purchase Flowers from their vendor out of the Flower Fund. The Flowers are displayed as part of the Worship Service(s). The Flowers are then disposed of by one of the following ways:
#1 The Church donates them to a Hospital, Nursing Home, or to a shut-in individual.
#2 The individual who made the contribution in memory/honor of their loved one takes the flowers home
#3 The individual who made the contribution in memory/honor of their loved one delivers the flowers to a Hospital, Nursing Home, or individual.

Scenario:
I have also seen this with Poinsettias during the Holidays. The Church will purchase a large quantity of them to decorate the Sanctuary for most of December. The church will receive cash contributions designated for the purchase of these flowers. Contributors are then invited to take a Poinsettia home after the last Christmas Service assuming they are still alive.

Question:
How should the Church treat the cash contribution? Should they be posted to the Flower Fund as a deductible contribution since they provide intangible benefit to the congregation as well as the contributor(s)? or should they be treated as Non-Deductible contributions since the Contributor has the option of taking the flowers home once the Church is ready to dispose of the flowers?

An IRC reference or Court Case would be fantastic since this has been in my experience a debated topic.

Comments for Contributions designated for Altar Flowers: Non-Deductible or Deductible?

Click here to add your own comments

Dec 18, 2013
designated gifts
by: Sandi

does the church have a written policy that states how it is decided where the flowers (or any items) will be disposed of or passed on?

Is the policy non discriminatory (can everybody get them)?

Does the giving cause private benefit?

Go to the IRS site and search "designated funds" and you will get quite a long list.

If no written policy-create one.

hope this helps,
prayers

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Earmarked Contributions.

If you want to DIY your payroll, I highly recommend you look at using Gusto! It is very user friendly and their support is awesome! Plus they know how to set up and maintain payrolls for churches and nonprofit organizations.

Note: I am a "partner" of Gusto, but as I have told you before ... I never recommend anything that we or our clients have not tried and love =)



Share this page:
Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.