Membership monthly payments - one acknowledgement w/tax receipt for full amount

At the Met Opera we have discussed this several times in how to consolidate an annual tax receipt.  In fact Chuck Reif and I once tried to figure out a way to do it (long before Impresario became Tessitura) and everything ended up meaning a lot of customization for most donors who had various types of gifts (memberships, annual with premiums, specific projects, and events).  In the end, we just decided to provide consolidated tax receipts upon request.  These are less than a half dozen and mostly we just reprint the various receipts for the calendar year upon request.

If limited to membership the trick is to get the correct non-deductible portion.  For instance if  the donor has made installment payments for 2 memberships with different non-deductibles (for instance in January 2009 final payment made on previous membership and April and October payments on current membership).  You would want to select the annual non-deductible for the current membership only.

The other complication can be if the donor pays membership from different sources—family foundation and personal checking  for the same membership for which soft credit is not being used – all paid against same pledge   - the different sources may have receipts sent to different addresses   They can do this too for events which is another reason we have never attempted consolidate – just reprint.

Stock gifts also can pose a problem since stock info is not codified in the system.  We enter the valuation in the system but all of our stock gift receipts are then produced manually to provide stock, number of shares and transfer date on the receipt.  If your site has it automated then this may not be an issue.

You will also want to include donated tickets on the consolidated receipt – if you don’t you know what the first call will be.

Now having said all this I think what  I have thought about doing is offering consolidated receipt to high level donors and designing a report that would alert me to all the various gifts that should to be included in the consolidated receipt and then setting up the process to pull the data together (half manual half extract from system).

Maybe the Met is a more complicated environment than most sites but I doubt it.    I’ve had to design and manage most of our receipts so I tend to be aware of all the exceptions.  If you can find a way to do it I will be eternally envious. 

This is a huge issue for us as well. As Canadian law requires strict control on tax receipt numbers, I am not sure that the year-end mail-merge would work for us. Calendar year end would be when we would want to do it, but I could see doing a partial at the end of the pledge and another at the end of the year. I am not entirely sure how the final payment field would factor into this. We have non-receiptable benefits for some of our Membership levels, which also complicates the issue.

At the Met Opera we have discussed this several times in how to consolidate an annual tax receipt.  In fact Chuck Reif and I once tried to figure out a way to do it (long before Impresario became Tessitura) and everything ended up meaning a lot of customization for most donors who had various types of gifts (memberships, annual with premiums, specific projects, and events).  In the end, we just decided to provide consolidated tax receipts upon request.  These are less than a half dozen and mostly we just reprint the various receipts for the calendar year upon request.

If limited to membership the trick is to get the correct non-deductible portion.  For instance if  the donor has made installment payments for 2 memberships with different non-deductibles (for instance in January 2009 final payment made on previous membership and April and October payments on current membership).  You would want to select the annual non-deductible for the current membership only.

The other complication can be if the donor pays membership from different sources—family foundation and personal checking  for the same membership for which soft credit is not being used – all paid against same pledge   - the different sources may have receipts sent to different addresses   They can do this too for events which is another reason we have never attempted consolidate – just reprint.

Stock gifts also can pose a problem since stock info is not codified in the system.  We enter the valuation in the system but all of our stock gift receipts are then produced manually to provide stock, number of shares and transfer date on the receipt.  If your site has it automated then this may not be an issue.

You will also want to include donated tickets on the consolidated receipt – if you don’t you know what the first call will be.

Now having said all this I think what  I have thought about doing is offering consolidated receipt to high level donors and designing a report that would alert me to all the various gifts that should to be included in the consolidated receipt and then setting up the process to pull the data together (half manual half extract from system).

Maybe the Met is a more complicated environment than most sites but I doubt it.    I’ve had to design and manage most of our receipts so I tend to be aware of all the exceptions.  If you can find a way to do it I will be eternally envious. 

This is a huge issue for us as well. As Canadian law requires strict control on tax receipt numbers, I am not sure that the year-end mail-merge would work for us. Calendar year end would be when we would want to do it, but I could see doing a partial at the end of the pledge and another at the end of the year. I am not entirely sure how the final payment field would factor into this. We have non-receiptable benefits for some of our Membership levels, which also complicates the issue.

At the Met Opera we have discussed this several times in how to consolidate an annual tax receipt.  In fact Chuck Reif and I once tried to figure out a way to do it (long before Impresario became Tessitura) and everything ended up meaning a lot of customization for most donors who had various types of gifts (memberships, annual with premiums, specific projects, and events).  In the end, we just decided to provide consolidated tax receipts upon request.  These are less than a half dozen and mostly we just reprint the various receipts for the calendar year upon request.

If limited to membership the trick is to get the correct non-deductible portion.  For instance if  the donor has made installment payments for 2 memberships with different non-deductibles (for instance in January 2009 final payment made on previous membership and April and October payments on current membership).  You would want to select the annual non-deductible for the current membership only.

The other complication can be if the donor pays membership from different sources—family foundation and personal checking  for the same membership for which soft credit is not being used – all paid against same pledge   - the different sources may have receipts sent to different addresses   They can do this too for events which is another reason we have never attempted consolidate – just reprint.

Stock gifts also can pose a problem since stock info is not codified in the system.  We enter the valuation in the system but all of our stock gift receipts are then produced manually to provide stock, number of shares and transfer date on the receipt.  If your site has it automated then this may not be an issue.

You will also want to include donated tickets on the consolidated receipt – if you don’t you know what the first call will be.

Now having said all this I think what  I have thought about doing is offering consolidated receipt to high level donors and designing a report that would alert me to all the various gifts that should to be included in the consolidated receipt and then setting up the process to pull the data together (half manual half extract from system).

Maybe the Met is a more complicated environment than most sites but I doubt it.    I’ve had to design and manage most of our receipts so I tend to be aware of all the exceptions.  If you can find a way to do it I will be eternally envious. 

This is a huge issue for us as well. As Canadian law requires strict control on tax receipt numbers, I am not sure that the year-end mail-merge would work for us. Calendar year end would be when we would want to do it, but I could see doing a partial at the end of the pledge and another at the end of the year. I am not entirely sure how the final payment field would factor into this. We have non-receiptable benefits for some of our Membership levels, which also complicates the issue.

Hi Monika,

Thanks for letting me know. Perhaps we can talk about this process next week in Chicago.

Looking forward to meeting you at The Summit.

Duane

Duane Woods
Tessitura and Rentals Manager
The Grand Theatre
(519) 672-9030 fax (519) 672-2620
www.grandtheatre.com