Guideline Title:Cash Control Guideline for Charitable Donations

Approved by:Univ. Advancement, Senior Management

Date Most Recent Approval:March, 2010

Reviewed by:Director, Internal Audit – March 2010

Reviewed by:Director, Financial Services – February 3, 2010

Revision Date(s):March 18, 2010

Last Reviewed Date:

Position Responsible for Developing

& Maintaining the Guideline:Donations Coordinator

Contact Office: Advancement Services

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Rationale:

All fundraising, wherein contributors will anticipate either a donation receipt or a sponsorship Business Receipt, must be approved by the Prospect Clearance Committee. Approval must be obtained for each activity, each occurrence. (See Prospect Clearance Policy) All financial activity concerning the handling and processing of Private and Public donation funds to the University must comply with the requirements of the Income Tax Act, monitored by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) CRA Charities Website, and McMaster University’s CHARITABLE GIVING POLICY andCash Control Policy and Procedure. This guideline attempts to bring together all relevant portions of these policies defining a set of procedures that will guide any McMasterUniversity employee involved with the solicitation or receipt of donations.

Guideline:

Consistent with the Charitable Giving Policy, all donation cheques must be sent to Advancement Services, as this is the only university office authorized to cash these cheques. All cheques must be payable to McMasterUniversity. The preferred option is to request that donors send their cheques directly to Advancement Services, presently located at DTC 125. Alternatively, cheques may be sent to the University area promoting the donation, in which case, to maintain the University’s Cash Control Policy, a cheque log must be produced and balanced to reflect the total cash/cheques forwarded to Advancement Services.

If either a campus group or an outside group of individuals wish to hold an event with a combined event cost and donation portion in one ticket price, then the university unit sponsoring the event must accept the payments, create the cheque log and forward it to Advancement Services. For details about the handling of events contact your Decentralized Advancement Officer (DAO).

Procedure:

Donations Sent Directly to Advancement Services:

  1. Any donor may send a cheque to Advancement Services. To ensure that the donation is directed towards the donor’s desired purpose, the gift designation should be written on the cheque or on an attached note or letter.
  2. If a particular fundraiser or fundraising initiative is to be recorded as the impetus for the gift, then the proper appeal information must be included on the pledge card accompanying the donation cheque.
  1. University Advancement has designed standard pledge cards that can be used for donations processing. These pledge cards may change slightly to accommodate new campaign logos etc. but they are designed so that the placement of information is standardized for computer automation. Contact your DAO or the Associate Director - Annual Giving regarding inquiries about the process to get pledge cards.

Front

Back

  1. University units may wish to customize their own pledge cards. However, prior to their use, custom designed pledge cards must be approved by the Director of Advancement Services. Customization will be limited to the logo area, and allocation options. More substantial customization would require more scrutiny.
  1. To facilitate the submission of donations, donors should be given both a pledge card and a return envelope with the address of Advancement Services on it. Both centralized and de-centralized University Advancement staff have access to these items. Those university units requiring pledge cards and return envelopes will be charged a service fee. Please contact the Associate Director - Annual Giving.

Donations Sent to Other University Areas Prior to Advancement Services:

  1. All donations tax receipted by McMasterUniversity must be used for approved university activities. Revenues which stem from issued charitable tax receipts must remain under the control of university personnel, those funds cannot be re-directed to an outside group, agency or bank account.
  1. University units that receive donations may not send donors thank you mementoes, such as t-shirts, books or pictures to name a few, without the approval of the Director of Advancement Services.
  1. Advancement Services limits its communication regarding donation processing to university personnel, usually a signing authority of the University account receiving the funds. If outside groups have prepared the donation accounting information, university personnel must verify and ensure that cash and cheques have been counted and balanced to the written documentation submitted to Advancement Services.
  1. To assist those choosing to receive cheques prior to submission to Advancement Services (or in the case of an event), Advancement Services (Adv. Serv.) has created a standardized, automated Excel spreadsheet. This spreadsheet is designed to provide a column for each piece of information required during tax receipt production. It is completed in place of producing pledge cards. When using the spreadsheet, it cannot be altered in any way to add, delete or modify columns as the computer programs receiving this information are expecting this standard design. Any altered or incomplete spreadsheets will be returned to sender for corrections. See Donations LogTemplateonlegal.xls
  1. To maintain CRA requirements and University policy, while adapting to the widespread use of credit cards, the following procedures have been implemented on a trial basis:

If the unit handling the event has a method for credit card processing, that meets the University’s payment card standards the ticket sales can be processed through that system. The unitmust still produce donation logs in order to pass the donation information to Adv. Serv. The unit can create one donation log for credit card sales giving the breakdown between ticket and donation portions, but no credit card information is reported. A journal entry is processed to Adv. Serv. crediting holding account 0-71011-2130. Print and include a journal entry copy with the log. The journal entry is for the total amount (both ticket and donation) of all credit card ticket sales is included with the log. Adv. Serv. must have a record of the total paid by each donor to meet CRA requirements.

Cash or cheques can be reported on a separate donation log. The cash is deposited into Adv. Serv. holding account 0-71011-2130 through the cashier’s office; include the cashier’s receipt with the log. The cheques are forwarded with the log. Logs are saved on flashdrive.

  1. Once a cheque log is completed and balanced to the cash andcheques, or credit card journal entry, the log, the flashdrive, cashier’s receipt for cash, and/or the credit card journal entryare put into an envelope marked Donations Coordinator, DTC 125 and delivered to the campus cashier’s office. The cashier’s will put the envelope in a lock bag to be properly delivered to Adv. Serv. Label the flashdrive and it will be returned after processing, wiped clean.
  1. For university units that do not have a method for credit card processing, that is in accordance with the University’s Payment Card Policy ( thenAdv. Serv. will process the credit card payments for the unit. Do not create a donation log for credit card donations. Please hand-write the donor information and credit card information on individual pledge cards, so as not to enter the data on a computer system, which would violate PCI compliance. If a large volume of tickets to be paid by credit card is anticipated, please contact Advancement Services for alternatives such as on-line giving. A donation log still is required for cash and cheque donations. Package documents and forward to Adv. Serv. as noted in #6 above.
  1. In accordance with Financial Services’ Cash Control Policy, on the back of all cheques the following phrase must be stamped, typed or written, “For Deposit only to McMasterUniversity”.
  1. Per the Cash Control Policy, “Any cash or cheques not deposited should be kept in a locked, fireproof safe, cabinet or lock box”, until they are submitted to Advancement Services.

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