Missing Donor Check

I seem to recall there was a post on here some time ago about this, but I can't find it and the subject isn't mentioned in the wiki, so here goes:

We have a member that donated about a month ago by check. Recently, he's contacted me because he's concerned his donation check hasn't cleared. I double-checked the deposit report for that day to make sure we processed the check (we did) and looked through the envelope where we keep all the records and slips for that day to make sure we didn't accidentally keep the check with the slips (we didn't).

Our LUFS hasn't arrived for March, so I can't see if the bank reported a deposit less than call yet, but we haven't received any messages about a check being returned, and his donation is still intact. I've told the member not to replace the check until I can determine what became of his old one.

Is there anything else I can do? I used to work in the banking industry, and I can't imagine a check taking that long to either clear or be returned, unless the bank sent it for collections, and I just don't see them doing that in this case.

allenjpl wrote:We have a member that donated about a month ago by check. Recently, he's contacted me because he's concerned his donation check hasn't cleared. I double-checked the deposit report for that day to make sure we processed the check (we did) and looked through the envelope where we keep all the records and slips for that day to make sure we didn't accidentally keep the check with the slips (we didn't).

The thread Lost Donation dealt with a situation where an entire deposit was never processed by a bank. That thread raises some of the same issues. I suppose it's possible that you are dealing with the same situation, but only one member has reported an uncleared check so far (which wouldn't be too surprising -- lots of people don't ever reconcile their personal checking accounts, or are slow to do so).

allenjpl wrote:We have a member that donated about a month ago by check. Recently, he's contacted me because he's concerned his donation check hasn't cleared. I double-checked the deposit report for that day to make sure we processed the check (we did) and looked through the envelope where we keep all the records and slips for that day to make sure we didn't accidentally keep the check with the slips (we didn't).

Our LUFS hasn't arrived for March, so I can't see if the bank reported a deposit less than call yet, but we haven't received any messages about a check being returned, and his donation is still intact. I've told the member not to replace the check until I can determine what became of his old one.

Is there anything else I can do?

The March UFS should arrive on this Sunday's send/receive if the same timeline as for the February UFS holds. If you can't wait that long you could call LUS and have them check on the status of the batch and the check.

As a followup to this thread, I called CHQ, and the analyst told me that although their records show the check as having been received, there was no way to trace the check. So, for now, the check is in the ether, and one of the banks involved is going to have to take some proactive steps to recognize that they never fully processed the check.