What is the best method for entering silent auction gifts? For instance, we enter our Gala silent auction gifts as having a zero amount in the "gift amount" area. I'm somewhat new to all this, but it was explained to me that we do this in order to keep from double crediting the Foundation. Because we can't give monetary credit to the donor in RE and then turn around and give the purchaser of the item credit as well. So if we received a $25 gift certificate for a silent auction then I enter it as a zero amount in the "gift area" and in the reference I will state it was a $25 gift certificate. Is this technically how it should work?Please advise. Yolanda Aragon Systems Administrator Memorial Health System Foundation Colorado Springs

Um - yes you can and you should - kind of.

The item donated is likely 100% a gift and that donor should get credit for the fair market value but should be receipted just stading a description of what they donated (not the value - see irs pub 1771)

The person winning the auction item made a gift to you IF any amount they paid is over the PUBLISHED fair market value at the auction. If you did not publish a value then the amount they paid is FMV. It is recommended to publish so the donor gets a chance to possibly get a charitable gift out of the deal.

The amount they paid under the FMV is not a gift and should not be counted in any charitable gift total but the person donating can be recognized any way the foundation wishes. meaning you can choose to putthem in a giving club level should you so chose. There is no regulation on how you recognize only on how you receipt so the donor gets the right tax deduction. You may still chose not to recognize non charitable payments but that is a choice you get to make.

Rather than putting in an amount of $0 I would put in the amount they paid in gift amount (ignore BBs use of the word gift and think more broadly as a payment). If they paid anything over the FMV you can enter that in the receipt amount (otherwise $0 goes in receipt amount).

If they made a gift you can then split the gift between a fund that is for charitable gifts and a fund that is for other income so it gets reported to finance properly. You can then chose to only report on specific funds when necessary to only include charitable gifts. Melissa S. Graves
Director of Development Services
The Village for Families and Children
mgraves (at) villageforchildren.org
www.villageforchildren.org

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Melissa's information is absolutley fantastic. I would just append to her reply by adding that as far as the gift record it's self that you may consider tracking the "Silent Auction" as a gift sub-type if you do not already have a Fund associated with this. This could help when you need to query or report on your "Silent Auction" gifts. Your query could be either constituen or gift with the following criteria: Gifts_Gift Type EQUALS Cash AND Gifts_Gift Sub-Type EQUALS "Silent Auction" Celestine