[GNC] Further to restricted/unrestricted funds

[Michael or Penny Novack]

On 8/29/2020 6:40 AM, Chris Green wrote:
> I have been doing some reading around this restricted/unrestricted
> funds issue.
>
> I think in reality we have *no* restricted funds in our PCC.  What I
> *thought* were restricted funds are actually 'designated' funds.  I.e.
> we (the PCC) have made a collection for example 'for repairs to the
> church roof', this is (as I understand it anyway) designated and while
> it will probably be used to mend the roof the PCC is quite at liberty
> to change its mind and do something else with the money.
>
> A restricted fund is something where the *donor* has specified that
> the money is to be used for a specific purpose and is often long term
> and may actually (though not necessarily) be an endowment or some such.
>
> I don't think I need to manage 'restricted' funds as we don't have any
> in our tiny little church.
>
WELL --- you might not have any restricted funds in the legal sense of 
the term. But there might be moral considerations. Thus one organization 
for which I kept books received a donation for a fund for a stage in the 
project years in the future that the donor did not expect to live long 
enough to see. He specifically made the restriction informal (we could, 
if necessary, use the money for something else). But we DID track this 
as a restricted fund.

But there is also the matter of grants. You do have to treat those as 
restricted funds because you report to the granting entity. Even when 
you are not legally required to use the funds that way, you better, or 
you'll never get a grant from that entity again. To give another example 
(from the organization above) we had a grant "to build a fence for 
orchard X". When THAT didn't materialize within the required time period 
we ASKED the entity to change the conditions so still for orchard 
fencing but elsewhere (they agreed).

Michael D Novack

-- 
There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the equality of the grave.