I have no problem with dividing an occasional single check into multiple accounts. What I'm having trouble fathoming is taking every dues payment over $25 (and we have a good number of those) and dividing it between "dues" and "contributions". All of these are members, no non-members in the bunch (they get treated differently from the get-go).
I remember seeing discussion of the pitfalls of doing that--beyond the additional data entry. Any more thoughts out there? Beth >> Most organizations have several types of accounts. We have a general account >> (unrestricted), a board restricted account, and several restricted accounts. >> What you can do with money depends on which account it winds up in. Dues are >> usually used for running the organzation, salaries, postage, etc. and would >> paid out of the general account. However someone who contributes may specify >> that it go into some restricted account. You cannot take some of this and >> put it in the general account (although some organizations "tax" their >> restricted accounts to cover the overhead of managing the account). You >> would certainly want to run any decision past your auditors. > >> We get very few contributions from non-members so this is rarely an issue >> for us. However when we do, we usually play the $0 dues game as you do. The >> marginal cost of a new (unpaid) member is low enough that we just absorb it. >> For fundraising purposes, more members looks better so rationalizing on who >> you include as being a member has intangible benefits. > > I need help with a question of counting and accounting. I know this topic > has been discussed a while ago and I have looked in the archives but couldn� > t locate it. > > We have people who only want to give once a year at a substantial level. We > need to show them as members and as contributors. I have been recording a > payment of $0 dues donation with the post date of their contribution�so they > get counted as a current member and a contributor. > > Now the board wants to change to recording the first $25 of every donation > as dues and everything else into the contribution pot. I remember on this > list people saying that was a bad idea, but I don�t remember why! (other > than breaking my poor head with having to remember to do things rather than > just plugging data into its place.) > > > ------------------ Reminder to each recipient: To change your list account preferences, go to http://email.sparklist.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=support and enter the email address you used to subscribe to the ebase support list:: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ebase - Relationship Management for Nonprofits, http://www.ebase.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------
