Hello, I am a new-ish Committee Chair trying to get a handle on fundraising/donation policies and rules and regs. We have a scenario right now where a registered parent of a scout has donated money (say $500) through a company's Charitable Matching program they have. It's a big banking company and the program is legit. They expected the money to be matched, then when the company matched it and sent a check through our chartered church to our troop as a $1000 (for example). Once the money comes to our treasurer, the parent is expecting half the money back, to be used for his son's troop activity fee, summer camp fee, etc. Kind of like an individual scout account. I have told her this is not how charitable donations work. The parent wants to tell other parents how to get this done through their company's match programs too. I thought the check would be decided on how to be used by the troops committee for the good of the troop.
I feel that they are either defrauding the company, or taking the money out of the scout's pocket once it comes back to us. It was a donation and not an investment that gets doubled. Am I right in thinking this way? Or should we be giving a percentage back to the scout that donated the money?
As far as I know, we do not have solid troop policies in place for donations and and individual scout accounts. We do fundraising activities, like car washes, chocolate sales etc. where all the money raised just goes to the troop. But I would like to put together some things in place for the parents to follow for the donations and fundraising, where we are following actual legal rules and regulations.
Thank you for your help and input!
