With the end of the year quickly approaching, please be sure to check your mailboxes frequently. Many donors make decisions about their charitable contributions near the end of the year. In order to ensure their donations get posted in the 2018 tax year, we need your help getting us the checks in a timely manner.
It is great to see many of you are using the new online portal to enter gifts. Please be aware that once checks have been entered online, they should be promptly mailed to our office, preferably within a day but at most within three days. When gifts are entered online, they are not posted or credited to the donors until after the paper checks arrive at our office. When they arrive here, a staff member verifies the information, and at that point the gifts are submitted for posting.
At the end of the year, it’s especially important for checks to be entered and mailed ASAP. Only gifts dated in December and received at the Foundation office by Monday, Jan. 7 will be credited to the donor for 2018. Anything received after Jan. 7 will be a 2019 donation regardless of the date on the check. If you happen to receive a donation by mail or in person in the first few days of January, dated and postmarked in December it will only be credited as a 2018 donation if we receive it in our office by Jan. 7.
Thank you again for all of your work this past year, and for helping us make sure we are honoring the intent of your donors!
About the Author: Jeff Vetsch serves as Community Philanthropy Officer at Southwest Initiative Foundation.
