New City Presbyterian Church Giving Policy

Our desire is for New City members and attendees to give to support the General Fund, which is our spending plan of church priorities, made in advance of the fiscal year. Undesignated gifts are those gifts given without stipulation by the donor. These gifts make up the majority of the church’s total receipts. They are relied on to fund the budget ministries and programs of the church.

The IRS has published numerous rules that govern the acceptance of these gifts. On top of IRS regulations, New City has built guidelines on how we can receive those funds and how those will be released.

DESIGNATED GIFTS

The church will accept designated gifts if they are specified for an approved project, ministry or program administered by the church. (The Building Fund established as part of the For Generations To Come campaign, is an example of an approved project to which designated gifts will be accepted.) If the request or designation is outside the scope of our current spending plans, the finance office will contact the contributor, explain why it does not match an intended use, and offer to return the funds. New City cannot honor “pass through giving”. If a donor wishes to fund a third-party organization, those funds should bypass the church and go directly to the organization.

Restricted giving is generally a charitable gift for tax purposes, and therefore the gift cannot be in exchange for goods or services. One possible exception identified to “received service” by the IRS is a church-sponsored mission trip. A mission trip donor should consult with a tax professional and decide if he/she wishes to claim this as a charitable gift for income tax purposes. New City does not identify payments for a donor’s own mission trip, or those of a family member, as charitable contributions; we instead defer that decision to the donor.

New City employees should not offer tax advice to donors. When a designated gift is made to the church, those funds are held in separately-identified Restricted Funds. In the rare occurrence that gifts designated for a specific purpose or project exceed actual expenses for that purpose or project, any excess may be designated for use as part of the church’s general fund. New City Staff should not solicit funds for their own initiatives, capital projects or other needs. In summary, while every effort will be made to honor a requested designation, funds given to New City are released of obligation upon receipt and will used at the discretion of the church.