Our annual fundraiser for scout camp (or whatever the big summer activity) is the Christmas tree pickup. We pass out flyers with envelopes and people then hang the envelop with a check in it on their tree by the curb and we pick them up on a specific date.When you make your weekly deposits, never include checks made out to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). If you receive a check made out to BSA or a specific troop, please have the donor make a replacement check out to the ward or branch. Only checks made out to the ward or branch name (or Church name) will be accepted at the deposit bank.
During the Friends of Scouting drive, checks should be made out to the Boys Scouts of America, but they should not be placed in the ward or branch checking account. Checks for Friends of Scouting should be delivered directly to the local Scout Council.
No matter who we ask them to make the checks out too, they still make them out Boy Scouts of America sometimes because it is a scout fund raiser. Also, since we are in Washington State, the majority of scout troops are not organized by the church, so non-members do not associate the two. If we request checks made out to the Church that may induce confusion or result in reduced donations.
This issue is that since the check is left at the curb and the donor is often not home there is no way to get them to re-write the check to the correct name. Also the boys do not always open the envelopes to inspect the donations until the money is counted back at the church.
I sent a query to CHQ through MLS explaining this, but their response just said:
Which doesn’t clarify things any as that is exactly what we were doing. How should we handle these checks? Attempting to contact the individual donors for new checks after the fact would be quite an undertaking. Likewise, if we give all the funds raised during our fundraiser to the local council then they would keep the money and our troop would be under funded.follow the instructions in the handbook about fundraisers found on section 13.6.8 of handbook 2. These funds for boyscouts should be put into an other account for boyscouts and used for boyscout camps or youth camps related to boyscouts.
I understand this may be a restriction by the bang since the account is setup for the church and not the troop.
Thanks!