Budget Question Regarding Camp Reservation Cancellation

The young women's organization has a category of funds that is part of the budget, not member financed, that is for girls camp. A site was secured for camp and a deposit was put down so we reimbursed a member for the deposit. Something has come up with the property owner and that location is no longer available and has cancelled the reservation and returned the deposit to the member who booked it. Because the member has already cashed the check from the ward for reimbursement, they now are in possession of the deposit amount from both the camp location and the ward.

My understanding is that funds cannot be donated by members into a "budget" category, so the question is how we should process these funds back into the ward so we have the correct financial tracking? We could have the member donate the reimbursement amount back to the ward and create an "other" category specific for girls camp. My only concern with this procedure is that if for whatever reason that amount of money is not used by the organization for camp, we would have to return that money back to the member at year end to zero out the account.

We want to ensure that we are abiding by the policies laid out by the Church and that all the funds and transactions are properly accounted for. Any guidance or insight into the matter would be greatly appreciated.

tjdungan wrote:My understanding is that funds cannot be donated by members into a "budget" category,

Yes and no.

Members cannot "donate" funds to increase the budget, but they can return funds. They can't do this electronically, they'll have to do it by check & paper slip. Under "Other" write "Budget".

When processing the "donation" the clerk can put the funds back into the budget category they were taken from.

This "donation" will not appear on their end-of-year tax statement.