Proposed accounting update clarifies contributions versus transactional exchanges

• Date: 01 January 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30397
• Published date: 01 January 2018

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conference for senior annual giving professionals;

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Foundations: Earmark funds for board development,

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Fundraising: Knowledge gap stands in the way of

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Industry news: Legal experts: Parks Foundation case

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Survey: Donors expect 2017

giving to top 2016

While charities tabulate their haul for the 2017

end-of-year giving season, donor surveys suggest it

should be a good year for nonprots. Per a recent

“Pulse Check” survey conducted by Exponent Phi-

lanthropy in November, nearly half of experienced

donors expect to close out 2017 having given more

to charity than the year prior, while just 7 percent

expect their 2017 giving to be less than in 2016.

A fth of experienced donors cited the po-

litical and regulatory environment as impacting

their 2017 giving. Other factors having an impact

include:

• Community needs (43 percent).

• Market performance (31 percent).

• Desire to maximize impact (28 percent).

These ndings were consistent with a late April

“Pulse Check” in which 22 percent of the same

population said they “expect to make changes to

their 2017 giving as a direct result of recent changes

in Washington,” Exponent Philanthropy said.

Other ndings from the survey include:

• Past recipients of giving are a strong indicator

of future giving distributions. Despite constant

changes in societal need and funding outlets, ex-

perienced donors prefer to give to institutions and

nonprots where an existing connection exists. Less

than 3 percent of respondents said they would be

“mostly giving to organizations not previously

supported.”

• Most personal giving takes place at the end of

the year. No surprise here: A third of donors said

they expected to conduct half of their annual giving

during the last two months of the year, while an ad-

ditional 27 percent will be giving between 26 and 50

percent of their giving in November and December.

To read the group’s “Pulse Check” reports in full,

visit http://www.exponentphilanthropy.org/. ■

Proposed accounting update claries

contributions versus transactional exchanges

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has

proposed an update to clarify the accounting guid-

ance for contributions received and contributions

made by foundations, nonprofit organizations,

government agencies and other entities. The amend-

ments in this proposal would assist affected entities in

evaluating whether transactions should be accounted

for as contributions (i.e., nonreciprocal transactions)

within the scope of Topic 958, Not-for-Prot Entities,

or as exchange (i.e., reciprocal) transactions subject

to other guidance. The proposal would also help im-

pacted organizations distinguish between conditional

contributions and unconditional contributions, which

are subject to different accounting requirements.

According to Lee Klumpp, national assurance

Vol. 340 January 2018

(See FASB on page 2)