When our PTO has received requests for property (other than cash) donations we direct the donor to the school principal and let them figure out how the exchange should be handled. We, as a PTO do not own anything. If we purchase an item for the school it immediatley becomes the propery of the school system. So, if someone wants to donate something, we only direct them to the proper people and stay out of it.
I appreciate the comments, and I probably need to clarify a few points. The school was never the intermediary, nor could they be. It was either just going to be a transfer from person A (the donor) to person B (the teacher) or through the PTO.
I'm okay with the reciept side and what we would have given the donor. I'm more curious about if any of you have ever handled a situation like this and how you would have justified the distribution. Normally (with cash), we wouldn't have donated to an individual. But this is a little different.
Since I didn't have time to research it, I felt the cleanest way was not to involve the PTO, but I'd still be interested in feedback just in case something like this crops up again. (Someone has an asset that they want PTO to help find a worthy home for.)
When our PTA recevies a donation we give to the donating person/company a receipt stating what we received (we do not have to put a dollar worth amt unless it was Money they donated), a certificate of appreciation from our organization, and we have a thank you sponsor/donor page in the newsletter which they will be listed on.
In this case it was best or the church to hand the computer to the school for a donation, the school should have provided a receipt just simply stating that they received 1 xyz computer model 123. But, most likely this donation would have had to be accepted by the school board, so if you heck the minutes of the latest school board mtg you could probably find where they acepted this donation and then give the church a copy of it for their records.
Just curious to get feedback from some of you more experienced in dealing with contributions to/disbursements of contributions by 501(c)(3).
A business associate who knows of my work with our school contacted me recently as someone from his church had a fairly decent Mac computer they wanted to give away. They wanted to find an individual who needed a computer but couldn't afford one, and ideally someone who would use it for more than just games. The associate thought a teacher might be just the thing.
I checked with the principal, we asked around, and did indeed find a worthy recipient.
Now my question: I was tempted to tell these people to donate it to the PTO so they could get a tax deduction and then we as an organization (rather than just me networking) would locate a candidate. However, I wasn't sure what we would need to do to justify the recipient and how formal a process it would have to be. Have any of you served as the intermediary on something like this?
The donors didn't really care about a tax deduction, so it's a moot point for this particular case. However, I'm still interested in feedback.
And, before anyone asks, our school district has a minimum standard on technology versions because it's so difficult to support a myriad of different version. Even though this computer had a lot of "life" left in it, it was not one the school could have accepted, so donating it to the school was never an option.
