My church's financial balance sheet has monies set aside as part of designated gifts that were collected over the years.
The church does not have any interest in pursuing some of the projects that the gifts were originally targeted for.
Some of the donors no longer attend our church, may have moved away, or simply passed away.
We would like to use these the monies for other purposes.
What is the easiest accounting solution?
Currently they are carried as liabilities on our balance sheet with the money just sitting in a cash account.
1Comments
Designated gifts policy prevents unwanted donations
KKathy Giles
We have a designated gifts policy that states funds can only be given to established designated projects: mission trips, youth scholarships, building projects, etc. and our trustees have control over how the funds are spent within those line items. A donor who gives for a specific purpose (say, to purchase an organ) will have the donation politely returned with an explanation of the policy. When we created this policy, there were previously accepted donations in the account. The trustees contacted current members and offered to return the money or allow them to update their designation. For donors who left the church, funds were rolled into the building project line.