Paypal Donations and Online Order Forms

[jvriezen]

Just an FYI:

I spoke with Mark (don't recall last name) at the FIRST eWatt Saver program. I had asked how much bulb purchasers could claim as a tax deduction for charitable donation when buying a bulb at $20.

After he consulted with his legal/finance folks, the answer was $0. This is because the 'fair market value' of the bulb is $20 (based on prices at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.) I know it sounds weird when they just effectively donated $14 to the team, but also keep in mind that Google with its $3M donation really made that donation (or at least a very large portion of it)

The link above didn't work for me but I had visited it previously and noticed it claimed a tax deduction was possible. I'd hate for some business to buy a few hundred bulbs, claim a tax writeoff and then find out in an IRS audit that they shouldn't have.


John Vriezen
Team 2530 "Inconceivable"
Mentor, Drive coach, Inspector

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by jvriezen

Just an FYI:

I spoke with Mark (don't recall last name) at the FIRST eWatt Saver program. I had asked how much bulb purchasers could claim as a tax deduction for charitable donation when buying a bulb at $20.

After he consulted with his legal/finance folks, the answer was $0. This is because the 'fair market value' of the bulb is $20 (based on prices at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.) I know it sounds weird when they just effectively donated $14 to the team, but also keep in mind that Google with its $3M donation really made that donation (or at least a very large portion of it)

The link above didn't work for me but I had visited it previously and noticed it claimed a tax deduction was possible. I'd hate for some business to buy a few hundred bulbs, claim a tax writeoff and then find out in an IRS audit that they shouldn't have.


John Vriezen
Team 2530 "Inconceivable"
Mentor, Drive coach, Inspector

Thanks for the information, I will have it corrected.

It should read that the donations count as write-offs, we know the lightbulb sales are not tax deductible.

[eli2410]

Another way to do online payments, if you don't want to set up a Paypal, is through Google Checkout, which we did (Metal Mustangs, 2410). There are many ways to do it through Google Checkout and you can have multiple shipping methods. Yet another way is Checkout by Amazon. Here is the link to our page, which uses Google Checkout. http://mmr2410.com/2011/Resources/fundraiser.html

[pilum40]

We're kicking around using this program. Has anyone had any experience with it? Good? Bad? Effective? Non-effective?

Any pearls o' wisdom about the program would be great!

Thanks!

Steve Miller
Coach FIRST FRC Team 3355
The Purple Vipers

[eli2410]

Using what program?

[pilum40]

i was referring to the EWatt program. I wanted to get some feedback about it before jumping in. Thanks!

[eli2410]

That's what I thought, but just wanted to make sure.

You really need to get everyone excited about it. Maybe also make it a requirement to sell a certain number, or what we did was that half of the profit went to the team and half went to pay for the student's (who sold it) travel fund. I would recommend using some sort of online payment system, but if you do, you probably need to open that now, as a few of them have probationary periods for new members. Make sure to have some in stock before you start.

The people at FIRST are extremely helpful with this program. The only problem that I've had with a bulb is that one of the second generation ones went out in my kitchen a couple days ago. But considering that is among about 30-40 that I have installed and that is the only one that I know of that's failed, I say they work really well.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. I ran my team's light bulb program my sophomore year.