Canceled Concert Refund vs. Ticket Donation

Hi Emily,

 

I’m not sure what the legal ramifications are in Tennessee but we do have a process we’ve set up to be compliant with Florida law.  Florida state law requires that “abandoned funds” be remitted to the state so we never truly consider them abandoned.  To avoid turning the money over to the state, we do these conversions but are required to make the funds available if they ever do show up.  We include this information in our policies so people are aware that if they don’t present by the deadline, we consider their intent is a donation.

 

What we do with “abandoned funds” is convert them to a donation after a specific deadline.  This includes refunds for cancelled shows as well as old account credits and gift certificates.  To do this we set it up as a type of gift certificate which allows us to do them in masse through the gift certificate expiration program that comes with Tessitura.   This way we have a clean record with names and credit IDs for auditing purposes.  We apply all of them to a method of payment called “converted donation” so it’s easily trackable (and reversible) within their account.  If they ever show up later, we convert it back.

 

We probably get only 2 or 3 a year show up out of the literally hundreds of credits that I convert every year.  Plus our development department loves the “windfall” when I do this every 6 months. 

 

Good luck!

 

 

Susan M. Crockett

Chief Information Officer

Ruth Eckerd Hall

1111 N. McMullen Booth Rd.  l  Clearwater, FL 33759

727.712.2757   l   Fax: 727.791.6020

scrockett@rutheckerdhall.net

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Tickets to all of our great shows are on sale now at RuthEckerdHall.com

 

 

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Hello,

 

We have several concerts that were canceled due to venue damages from our flood in May. We have given our patrons the opportunity to receive a refund, put the money on account for future use or donate the tickets to receive tax credit. The patrons have been notified via phone and email of these options with a deadline. We plan on donating the tickets and sending a tax credit letter to those who do not respond by the deadline. Has anyone had any experience with refunds or ticket donations from canceled concerts or know of a law that would prevent us from doing this?

 

Thank you,

 

Emily Shannon

Nashville Symphony

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Hi Emily,

 

I’m not sure what the legal ramifications are in Tennessee but we do have a process we’ve set up to be compliant with Florida law.  Florida state law requires that “abandoned funds” be remitted to the state so we never truly consider them abandoned.  To avoid turning the money over to the state, we do these conversions but are required to make the funds available if they ever do show up.  We include this information in our policies so people are aware that if they don’t present by the deadline, we consider their intent is a donation.

 

What we do with “abandoned funds” is convert them to a donation after a specific deadline.  This includes refunds for cancelled shows as well as old account credits and gift certificates.  To do this we set it up as a type of gift certificate which allows us to do them in masse through the gift certificate expiration program that comes with Tessitura.   This way we have a clean record with names and credit IDs for auditing purposes.  We apply all of them to a method of payment called “converted donation” so it’s easily trackable (and reversible) within their account.  If they ever show up later, we convert it back.

 

We probably get only 2 or 3 a year show up out of the literally hundreds of credits that I convert every year.  Plus our development department loves the “windfall” when I do this every 6 months. 

 

Good luck!

 

 

Susan M. Crockett

Chief Information Officer

Ruth Eckerd Hall

1111 N. McMullen Booth Rd.  l  Clearwater, FL 33759

727.712.2757   l   Fax: 727.791.6020

scrockett@rutheckerdhall.net

Facebook Twitter YouTube

Tickets to all of our great shows are on sale now at RuthEckerdHall.com

 

 

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the intended individual or entity.  If you have received this email in error please notify the sender.  You are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information received in error is strictly prohibited.

 

 

Hello,

 

We have several concerts that were canceled due to venue damages from our flood in May. We have given our patrons the opportunity to receive a refund, put the money on account for future use or donate the tickets to receive tax credit. The patrons have been notified via phone and email of these options with a deadline. We plan on donating the tickets and sending a tax credit letter to those who do not respond by the deadline. Has anyone had any experience with refunds or ticket donations from canceled concerts or know of a law that would prevent us from doing this?

 

Thank you,

 

Emily Shannon

Nashville Symphony

This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!