Difference between “Earmarked” and “Recommending”.

There’s a difference between “Earmarked” and “Recommending”. If your church has an established designed fund for Missions or a specific Mission Trip a Donor can give a gift to that designed fund and on a note or letter put that they “recommend” it be used for John Doe. In this manner, the church or committee which oversees that fund still maintains full control over the gift. If the church or committee then decides that it should go to John Doe, then that is the church or committees decision.

In this scenario the Donor is completely entitled to a tax deductible contribution on their end of year statement because they simply “recommended” and the church/committee was in full control to make the determination. Hope and Pray that explains this clearly.