MUST HAVE REFERENCE GUIDE

Site Map or Site Search

CHURCH ACCOUNTING PACKAGE

Unwanted Designated Gifts

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.

Comments for Unwanted Designated Gifts

Click here to add your own comments

Jan 18, 2022
 Designated gifts policy prevents unwanted donations
by: Kathy 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.

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 Church Accounting FAQs.

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.