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• Make sure name and address of account holder are printed legibly on the check (many students open new accounts and use starter checks with no name or address on them, and we can’t read the signature)
• ALL checks must be clearly marked with the participants name that it should be credited to. 
• We would strongly prefer only one check or money order per participant, per collection payment.  However, we know there are exceptions that will need to occur.  We will for example allow a paycheck to be written over to GCM (or a money order created from tip money from work) and allow the student to make up the difference with a personal check. 
  
  

  Ensure that each check or money order received has the following information printed legibly on it:

  •  Participant’s name – printed legibly
  •  Address
  •  Amount – numeric amount should match written amount
  •  Check or money order number associated with the payment.  (please assign unique numbers to starter checks, write it on the check and in the ledger sheet)
  •  Date
  •  Signature
  
  
  
• Students raising financial support on their own (are required to fill out the FINANCIAL INTEGRITY FORM) must have their donors make their checks payable to the student, not to GCM, and donor checks must be given directly to the student.
• The program participant will always need to pay GCM with a check or money order written from the participant or from a parent with the same last name with the exception of accepting a work paycheck written over to GCM). 
• All other checks received by the participants from the donors need to be deposited into the participants account and a new check must be written to GCM from the participant. We will not allow students to sign over to GCM a donor’s check written to them (PAY TO THE ORDER OF GCM on the back) because that check from the donor to the participant is not tax deductible. 
• If a student receives a check from a supporter/donor written directly to GCM they will need to return the check to the donor and ask them to rewrite the check payable to the student. 
• The only exception for signing over checks to GCM is if a student wants to sign over a paycheck from their employer that was written to them.  GCM will accept a paycheck written to the student and signed over to GCM (by writing PAY TO THE ORDER OF GCM on the back and then signing it). 

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If a student wants to contribute to another students fees they will need to write a check to the other student directly and that student will need to write a new check from their own account.   Or they can anonymously donate cash to the underpaid student who will then have to go get a money order with the cash or deposit it and write a check from their own account.  We cannot accept any form of payment from anyone other than the participant with the outstanding fee or their parent with the same name or their church.

Donations/Tithing 

Donating towards payments for other students program fees.

If a participant wants to contribute to another students fees they will either need to…

• • •  write a check to the other student directly and that other student will need to write a new check from their own account to GCM.  
    •  Or they can anonymously donate cash to the underpaid student who will then have to go get a money order with the cash or deposit it and write a check from their own account to GCM. 
    •  Or they can anonymously get a money order written to GCM on behalf of that student.

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We cannot accept any form of payment from anyone other than the participant with the outstanding fee or their parent with the same name or from the participant’s church.

In the past, the summer program finance administrator in charge of collections has been allowed to write a check on behalf of students to GCM to help make payments when others who gave to help their payments have wanted to remain anonymous. This is no longer allowed.  The summer program finance administrator could however, go get a money order and send that money order to GCM on behalf of another student. If the summer program administrator has collected multiple donated payments for multiple participants they will need to send a list with the money order listing which participants the payments should go towards and how much.

Donating towards your summer program.

If your summer program participants wish to donate or tithe to your specific summer program they should write a separate check or money order that is clearly labeled with the purpose of donation/tithe from that participant to avoid possibleconfusion as a summer program payment.  Also, any checks/money orders that are donations or tithes need to be listed on a separate ledger sheet than the one that includes summer program payments.  These donations to the summer program itself will be considered charitable tax-deductible gifts.

If you are the administrator for collections, and participants are writing checks made payable to you personally or handing you cash to donate towards the summer program, you will need to go get a money order for the total amount you have collected to be given to GCM (you cannot write a personal check from yourself to GCM for donation money that you have collected from summer program participants).  

Also, attach to the separate ledger sheet created for donations (separate from program payments), the list of summer participants that gave donations on this money order and how much each of them gave. Their donations to the summer program will be considered charitable tax-deductible gifts.

Collections Procedures

Only authorized staff, that are familiar with the Collections Policies and Procedures should handle the collection of any monies.  The Program Director and the person delegated responsibility as Collections Administrator (in the Event Set Up document) are ultimately responsible for ensuring these policies and procedures are followed.

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