Quid Pro Quo Contribution

What Is a Quid Pro Quo Contribution?

Many nonprofit foundations and organizations rely on charitable donations from corporate sponsors and individuals to meet a large part of their funding needs. These can be solicited in many different forms, from one-off contributions to ongoing sponsorships from businesses in the community.

During the holidays, it is not uncommon to see organizations such as The Salvation Army collecting individual donations from patrons as they enter or exit retail establishments. Generally, these donations are made without the donor expecting anything in return except an itemized tax deduction.

A quid pro quo contribution, however, is a charitable donation for which the donor gets something of value from the recipient in exchange for their funds. The organization has created an incentive to the donation. It’s a device designed to grease the wheels of fundraising.

Understanding a Quid Pro Quo Contribution

A typical charitable donation is different from a quid pro quo contribution in that the donor receives nothing from the charity in return for the gift or deposit. The rules for tax deductions for quid pro quo contributions are also different.

With a typical donation, the donor can deduct the full amount as long as the donation meets eligibility requirements. With a quid pro quo contribution, the deductible amount is the difference between the donation and the fair market value of the goods or services that the charity provided the donor with in exchange.

An Example of a Quid Pro Quo Contribution

During summer vacation, Beth sees that her daughter Lauren’s school is trying to raise money to buy plants and materials to make a school garden. Beth is excited about the prospect of her daughter learning how to grow fresh fruits and vegetables and gladly donates $75 to the school. As a thank you, the school offers some of the top donors gift certificates to the farm stand that they will be setting up at the end of the school year to sell off the surplus fruits and vegetables harvested from the garden. This is a quid pro quo donation, as Beth received something in return for her monetary contribution. If the school was only soliciting funds and not offering anything in return, then it would not qualify as quid pro quo.

When it is time for Beth to file her taxes, she remembers the $75 donation and the $5 gift card that she received in exchange. When she goes to add the contribution to her itemized deductions for the tax year, she can only use $70 from the donation, which is the difference between the donation and the gift that she received in return. If she hadn’t received the gift card, she would have been able to use the entire balance of the $75 donation.

The charity, however, does not have to remind Beth of the $5 gift card. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) only requires written disclosure statements to be sent to donors if their total quid quo pro contribution (not just the deductible amount) was greater than $75. Beth, however, would be responsible for remembering it herself and deducting $70 rather than $75.