As we look to the possibility of canceling our 2020 summer festival we have decided to offer our patrons the option to get a credit that can be used in the next two years, in addition to the option to donate their tickets or get a refund. I've looked at putting this money on account, but am thinking that in addition to that perhaps I should issue them a gift certificate. My concern is that there are contributions that start out with on account monies and I haven't seen a way to segment it. I'm curious how other organizations handle credits that are specifically for tickets and for a limited time.
Thanks
Something to consider when deciding if you want to use on-account vs gift certificates if the intention is to have a 2-year expiration: my understanding is federal law requires gift certificates not expire in less than five years from date of issue. Additionally some states have regulations that prohibit them expiring at all - which I believe applies based on the location of the purchaser rather than the issuer. You may want to research such regulations to help decide if gift certificate is the preferable path for you.
Depending on what the laws are, our legal team said as long as we had an expiration date on our gc's that we could expire them. So, our gc's currently have a disclaimer that they expire one year after the issue date, and they list the date of issue on them.