7
The next evening we picked up where we had left off.
“OK Harry, we’re very curious how you propose to dramatically raise our monetary contributions.”
“Tom, I know that you guys are familiar with the concept of indulgences.”
They smiled at each other.
“So correct me if I’m wrong, but an indulgence is the Church’s forgiveness for having committed a sin. And it is granted – and I need to be careful here – in exchange for a substantial monetary payment.”
“Well,” answered Tom, “while the Church may phrase that somewhat more elegantly, your description is pretty close to the mark.”
“Good! So then, what I’d like to propose is that “Daily Bread,” with a genuflection to the Church, grant indulgences in the form of tax deductions.”
“But we already do just that.”
“Yes Theresa, but surely you can do that on a much a much grander scale.”
‘Exactly how much grander do you have in mind?”
“Oh, maybe doubling contributions over the next few months.
“I’ll give you a numerical example. Joe Schmo has been donating $100 a month, and each month you give him a receipt for that amount. Suppose you make him an offer: If he’ll double his donation, you’ll quadruple the amount on each receipt.”
“Let me do the math,” said Theresa. “Joe now gives us $200 and we give him a receipt for $800.”
“Hey, maybe you picked the wrong vocation. You could still become a CPA.”
“Thanks a lot!”
“Don’t mention it!”
Then Tom observed: “This would easily work for cash contributions, but wouldn’t the IRS notice that a contributor’s deduction was twice the sum of his checks?”
“Yeah, if they actually looked. But their practice is to look mainly at the receipts from the charities rather than the charitable deductions claimed by taxpayers.
“The IRS knows that some charities inflate the value of the donations they receive, but most taxpayers probably inflate the value of the donations they make. So the IRS examiners figure a receipt from a charity is more reliable than the deduction claimed by a taxpayer.”
“You know, Harry, this can certainly work to some degree with our donors, but over a year, maybe just a few hundred people give us more than, say, twenty-five dollars.”
“That sounds about right,” added Theresa.
“Well, that’s a start. You can ask your contributors to help spread the word. But I’ve saved the best for last.”
They looked at me expectantly.
“I just happen to have a few dozen clients who might be interested in making contributions to “Daily Bread” if you would be willing to provide them with inflated receipts. And better yet, some of the partners at my firm might want to help out as well, especially if they could take nice deductions for contributing to a good cause.”
They glanced at each other. Then Tom suggested that they each sleep on it, and try to reach a decision the next day.
