Does anyone any such a program and if so, would they be willing to share their success or failure as well as what guidelines they used? Also, are there IRS guidelines for this? Thank you so much. Thank you, Helen MaCauley

Hi Helen, We do. It's the bane of my existence in a way. Every quarter, employees are allowed to donate up to 8 hours of work for the employee benefit fund. Payroll processes the donation and the employee pays tax on it. Why it's a "bane" for me is that our system will not allow the employee to call this a donation. I feel they're giving large amounts of money and should receive recognition through the Foundation. In my eyes, the employee fund is like a scholarship fund. A gift can only go to the fund, not an individual. A separate committee determines who receives and how much. Even then, we don't know the identity of the person submitting the request. The healthcare system folks say that the IRS says it's too specific a restriction. Hope that helps! Marc A. Pitman Inland Foundation Waterville, ME USA http://inlandfoundation.org/  http://fundraisingcoach.com/  --- Edited at 7/30/2007 8:18:21 AM by Marc A. Pitman --- Edited at 7/30/2007 8:18:28 AM by Marc A. Pitman

Hi Helen, We do process vacation time as a donation at our system. It actually is quite an attractive benefit to the network, as it reduces the liability of carrying the unused PTO on the healthcare organizaitons books. Our management staff has just had restrictions placed on how much PTO they can carry. After 160 hours on the books, they stop receiving it as a benefit until they use time up. Many have found that making a donation of their vacation time to the Foundation helps not only their own PTO bank (some docs and other clinicians cant possibly use up all the PTO they have accumulated) but also they designate their donation to their area (Surgery or ED, say) and their department gets some funds for use in this fiscal year. We credit them (minus taxes) just as if it is a cash donation, which essentially it is. They can recieve tax relief if they itemize deductions, on their donated PTO. Sondra Dellaripa VP ECHN Connecticut [i]--- Edited at 7/30/2007 5:12:56 PM by Sondra Dellaripa[/i]

We have an employee campaign in the fall each year, earn time is one way our employees can give to us.  Employees give X amount of hours, our HR department converts that to real dollars for us to enter as a pledge.  In February of each year our payroll department runs a special payroll for these deductions, the employee gets a zero dollar check with the amount donated listed on the stub portion just as those who donate through regular payroll deduction.  We have guidelines and minimums that can be donated, earn time donations have taxes deducted just as a regular payroll.

 

We have worked with PAL (paid annual leave) donations in a similar fashion as Linda Allen posted for the past several years with great success.  It's been a win-win for everyone.