Re: How to accept donations
From: Lynn Nadeau (welcomeolympus.net)
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:17:15 -0800 (PST)
I'm no authority on the legalities, and we are not a condo, but a nonprofit with a homeowners' association, but here is what our established community has in place regarding donations.

Sometimes there has been a donation for something we agreed we wanted, but found too costly: fancy parquetry work on the dining room wooden floor, funded with a gift donation. It simply went into the common house construction fund and was paid out to the floor maker.

Occaionally it was something that everyone consented to, but for some it was contingent upon them not having to take part in paying for it: satellite TV subscription. So funded by those who wanted to, allowing some to opt out.

An outright donation of several thousand dollars from someone upon the resale of their house here. We simply banked it as unallocated funds until we agreed on how to spend it: artistic gates for our common house patio. This was reported as taxable income.

We also have a separate bank account that handles common house income. One section is for meal money, which isn't income per se: it all ends up either as reimbursements to cooks or as funding for pantry staples. The other account accumulates the fees for common house personal socials or sponsored events, and annually that money is transferred into the annual budget funding as an offset for common house operating expenses. The account simply is a record-keeping device, tracking the money as it comes through.

I don't see where accepting donations would ever be a problem, as long as it didn't get anyone the power to buy something others didn't want around, and as long as one pays attention to what constitutes a taxable "event".

Any sort of organization is allowed to have money in the bank, allocated or unallocated, as far as I know.

Lynn Nadeau
RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA
where we have a lovely spacious home for sale
www.rosewind.org




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