Ministry Trips - Short Term 0007-01 --- ZZall

Ministry Trips - Short Term 0007-01 --- ZZall
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                           TO: Interested Ministries                                                                                         FROM: Jim Bramer, Retired CPA-Auditor
                                                                                                                                                                  FILE: 0007-01/all

                            RE: Short Term Ministry Trips                                                                               Originated February 2000

         What follows is our view of various Ministry Finance features of Short Term Ministry Trips. This especially pertains to Ministries like Churches, Schools and Mission Agencies. Click on 0020 about Personalized Giving.

SHORT TERM MINISTRY TRIPS

         The Ministry discovers needs in other parts of the world ... or it could simply be across the town or perhaps way around the world ... that are consonant with the reason the Ministry exists. Some times a certain group of a Church has such an interest.
         So the Ministry decides to marshal resources/people and arranges to meet some of these needs via a Short Term Ministry Trip. Please note that the primary objective of the trip is to extend its ministry purpose and NOT to be a "Sight Seeing" excursion.
         Features of this endeavor include:

        The Ministry budgets what the project will cost (including some way of reimbursement for Ministry Overhead costs). From this the Ministry determines how much money each trip Participant must raise. Or each Participant must fund raise a specified dollar amount. The amount required by multiple family member Participants may vary. Example: the amount expected for one family member Participant is $100.00, if there are two family member Participants, the family needs to only raise $175.00, etc. See item below if Participant does NOT raise enough funds and can NOT go on the trip.

        The Ministry might have some money in generic SHORT TERM MINISTRY TRIP SCHOLARSHIP FUND. A certain group of the Ministry (like a Church Missions Committee) should have an objective method for Scholarship entitlement determination.

         Since this trip is a Ministry leadership approved and controlled Short Term Mission Trip endeavor, any donor entity responding to the "Fund Raising" appeal is entitled to a tax deductible charitable contribution. Often this is non-church member relatives of Participants.

       Continued Indications of this control include:

>      All donation income and other trip expenses flow through the Ministry's books;
>     The Ministry has an approved Budget (see above) for this endeavor and all such expenses paid out go through the usually Ministry's expense approval and payment process.
>     PARTICIPANTS SHOULD NOT PAY ANY OF THE TRIP'S BILLS DIRECTLY TO A VENDOR...... especially travel agency bills.

     The Ministry often sets up "Expected Receipts (like Acct Receivable records) for the amount required to be raised by the Participant (or Family) so that unpaid amounts can be readily determined and reported on a regular basis.

      If insufficient donations come in, Participants can not go on the trip and the money is NOT returned to the Donors. When funds were solicited from Donors, they were given some Ministry use preferences in case this should happen. One such choice would be the SHORT TERM MINISTRY SCHOLARSHIP FUND mentioned above.

     This Short Term Mission Trip qualifies as SCRIP project of your Ministry. Click here for more SCRIP info. This means that SCRIP Residuals used for this project are tax deductible donations.

      The Ministry is to be VERY discrete about spending Short Term Mission Trip resources on personal "Sight Seeing, etc;" if material in amount, an applicable percentage of each of these donations would NOT be tax deductible.

                                                                              CHURCH

       A Short Term Ministry Trip Participant is a Church Regular. Payments/donations they make toward this project are tax deductible. For such trips for youth, this is often funded by non-church member relatives (like grand-parents, etc) of Participants.

       Donations are tax deductible.

                                                                     SCHOOL

       A Short Term Ministry Trip Participant is a School Staff or Board member. Payments/donations they make toward this project are tax deductible

       Donations make by Participant's family and friends are tax deductible.

                                                     MISSION AGENCY

       A Short Term Ministry Trip Participant is a Mission Agency Staff or Board member ..... or they might simply be a Mission Agency constituent, etc. Payments/donations they make toward this project are tax deductible

       Donations make by Participant's family and friends are tax deductible.

   The bulk of this Publication originated in February 2000 and . UPTD: December 02, 2008

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      (1) An Online Document, or WRIT (Writing), may be applicable to all Ministries, or it may be designed for just groups like: Evangelical Church, School, Missionary Agency or Organization, Christian Camp / Conference, or other named group.
      (2) WRIT formats include the perspective of   Jim@bcidot.org via IOMs (Inter-Office Memos) to the Ministry Finance Team (MFTeam); THRDs, a hypothetical Online conversation with members of the MFTeam; GLEANINGS, or Scripture within context of the MFTeam; FWIW; A periodic editorial (For What it is Worth); TRUISM, or believed Ministry Finance principles; and FAQ, response to Frequently Asked Questions