A unique advantage of RaiseRight is the ability to share a portion of the money raised with participants. On behalf of our nonprofit organizations, we enlisted the help of one of the nation’s largest and most respected accounting and tax firms to ask the Internal Revenue Service for guidance. The result of those efforts is what is known as a private letter ruling, issued in July 2009. In 2014, our tax advisors reviewed all the information published by the IRS since the 2009 ruling, and again confirmed our understanding.
Sharing a portion of the money raised is accomplished through the definition of the money raised as a rebate, and defining which portion of that rebate belongs to the participant (not the organization). Once you've defined a portion of the rebate as belonging to the participant, they can choose to either assign that portion to fees that they owe to their organization (i.e., tuition, band camp fees, ice time, etc.), or they can choose to donate their portion to the organization, considered to be a legitimate charitable contribution. Both strategies are proven to help coordinators maximize participation and fundraising. See the sample agreement to use when sharing rebates with your participants.
You can also browse the resources below for more information: