Deposit a Check Written to the Troop?

[atticusewig]

I think one easy workaround might be to see if people are comfortable writing a check to the Scoutmaster,
who then would cash it and donate it to the church's scout account.

[aebrown]

I fail to see how this would be deceptive. If done, the money would go directly where the author of the check thinks it is going - to the Scout troop (assuming the Financial Clerk is managing the funds properly). What is deceptive is the very problem I am referring to, a check written to the Church that really goes to the Scouting program - that's deceptive.

The person who wrote the check has access to see how it was endorsed. The endorsement will say that it is being cashed by a Church entity. If the check-writer sees the endorsement by an entity they specifically chose not to give money to (in your scenario), I don't see how they would not feel deceived -- and rightly so.

[atticusewig]

I think people would have a problem writing the check to the church because they believe
that their money would be used for church (and not scout) related purposes. To ease their
fears you could assure them that scout funds are never used for religious purposes, or you
could accept donations to the troop in-kind (tents, pocketknives, or ropes instead of cash).

[wrigjef]

I've never been in this situation but if someone did not feel comfortable giving money to the church but wanted to support the scouts and get a tax deduction, I'd recommend that they write a check to BSA and send it to a local area council. Perhaps even holding on to their money until a FOS drive, then they could make it out to BSA and it could be collected by whomever the ward desiganates.

[86Bengal]

The person who wrote the check has access to see how it was endorsed. The endorsement will say that it is being cashed by a Church entity. If the check-writer sees the endorsement by an entity they specifically chose not to give money to (in your scenario), I don't see how they would not feel deceived -- and rightly so.

I completely agree. And yet the scenario I described above happens. How? I suspect that the people take comfort in writing a check to a non-Church payee, and then never discover the reality of who cashed it.

Nowadays nobody gets cashed checks back from the bank. You have to go on-line to look at them or request a photocopy from the bank. And most people are just too lazy or unconcerned to do this unless they become aware of a problem. So, the endorsement goes unnoticed. (With the same complacency, people don't balance their checkbooks regularly anymore. And they decline or throw away their credit card and ATM receipts. Etc....)

[bretpetersen1]

We have had similar problems with our flag posting service. The church has sent me warnings about depositing checks written to the troop but the bank has always allowed the deposit. My solution to make everyone happy is this: just have the non-members write their check to "Your Ward name - BSA Troop #". This allows the non-member to see they are giving money to the troop and the church and bank to see the proper name of the ward account. So far no one has complained.