Might I suggest you posit this question on the Charity
Law list of the Charity Channel?  It's a great source
for answers to just these types of questions.  (No,
they don't pay me, LOL.  I'm just a long-time reader.)

http://www.charitychannel.com/forums is where you can
sign up.

--- "John E. Simmons" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> I am posting this for a colleague who is not on
> Museum-L.  I will relay any
> responses to him.  Thanks.
> --John
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
> When a person makes a gift to one of our membership
> programs, we send a thank-you letter that documents
> the amount and date of the contribution. It also
> includes a (purposely vague) line about how the
> contribution is tax-deductible to the extent allowed
> by law. A member can deduct
> the amount of the contribution minus the market
> value of any benefits he or she receives in exchange
> for the contribution. We've now been asked -- for
> the first time, surprisingly -- to provide
> documentation outlining the actual deductible amount
> of a member's contribution.
>
> Our problem has been that we can't anticipate the
> value of the benefits someone might receive. The
> principal benefits (at least from this point of
> view) are discounts on workshops and in the museum
> shop. When a member makes a gift, I can't know what
> will be the value of such
> benefits until the year ends, at which point we can,
> if we've tracked it, subtract the dollar value of
> the discounts received.
>
> There are two problems with this, aside from the one
> of tracking the member's use of our services, which
> would be a bother. The first is that some, perhaps
> most, members expect the documentation of the
> deductible value of their gift when we acknowledge
> the gift -- not at the end of
> the year. The second, more difficult problem, is
> that the membership year does not coincide with the
> tax year (the calendar year). So if I were to send
> statements outlining the value of benefits, how
> would I treat someone who, say, had a membership
> that renewed in December? I'd get,
> say, $100 on Dec. 15. On Jan. 1, I'd send a
> statement showing, probably, that no discounts had
> been received -- because there would have been no
> workshops offered in which the person could have
> enrolled and the person is likely not to have made
> any purchases in the shop. Then,
> during the next calendar year, the person or a
> member of his household might enroll in two or three
> workshops and make some number of purchases in the
> shop. The next December, I'd get another $100 as a
> renewal. I can scarcely deduct the value of the
> benefits received during most of
> the year from a gift that I didn't receive until the
> end of the year. The benefits this person has
> enjoyed were the result of the previous year's gift,
> not the gift made during the tax year for which I'm
> reporting. And the gift received during the tax year
> for which I'm reporting
> didn't arrive until after the benefits had been
> received, so they could scarcely be thought of as
> arising from that gift.
>
> Some of this is a matter for out tax attorney, with
> whom we will consult. But before we do, I'd like to
> be sure I know the range of questions I need
> answered, and I'd like to know how other museums
> handle these problems.
>
> *Do other museums track the benefits members are
> using and assign them dollar values? *Do they
> provide year-end statements to members? If they do,
> how do they ensure accuracy? (For example, if Jimmy
> Roberts enrolls in a workshop for 8-year-olds, how
> do I know to assign that benefit
> to a membership listed as "the Roberts household,"
> or to "Donald and Sherree Roberts"? What if Jimmy's
> name is Johnson but he's nevertheless a member of
> the Roberts household?) Must we ask members to
> provide the names of all members of their household,
> and must we remind them to use
> the same names when enrolling in workshops or
> shopping at the museum?
> *Do other museums assign membership numbers, as
> country clubs do, or do they have some other
> technique for ensuring that a member benefit awarded
> can be assigned to the correct membership?
> *And how do other museums handle benefits during one
> year that arise from a gift made during a previous
> year?
>
>
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=====
Indigo Nights
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