Acceptable forms of payments by the participants: 

• Credit card payment online
• Credit card payment over phone through Summer Programs Coordinator, at the GCM office
• Personal check written to GCM from the participant 
• Money order from the participant 
• Online banking- send your e-check to GCM at PO BOX 7101, Winter Park, FL 32793-7101.  Please make sure that you write the name of your summer program and your name in the memo line of the check. And notifiy Judi Major (judi.major@gcmweb.org) to let her know to look for it.

OR...

• Personal check written to GCM from parent with same last name as the participant (GCM will credit the check to the participant’s record, not the parent’s)
• Check from the participant’s church clearly stating whom payment is for.  If payment is for multiple people there must be a note included with the check that states each participant’s name and the amount to credit each participant.
  
  

Onsite collections. 

Summer Program Directors will decide when to schedule payments and how much will be due at each payment before the program begins on the Event Set Up form.  These dates will be 

Personal check guidelines for participant payments being collected onsite:

• 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). 

Handling Cash payments from students.

• Never collect cash if at all possible.
• If participants have cash they should go purchase a money order (usually costs between $3-$5 at your local grocery store, convenience store or bank) for the exact amount needed and use that in place of cash.
• If cash must be collected from students (as sometimes is the special case of our remote summer programs that lack access to banks and stores) then the administrator will need to go buy a money order on behalf of the student(s) that could only give cash and it should be written to GCM for that total amount of cash collected from all the individuals.  A note must be attached to that money order detailing the names and amounts for each participant.  Please mark the memo line as “cash payments received”.  These payments will be entered as a cash payment in each of the participants’ records.
• All cash received must be submitted to the GCM Gift Processing Department using the guidelines written above. Do not deposit it into your petty cash. 
  
  

Over payments/ Unpaid fees

It is the responsibility of the program’s leadership to work with the students who have not paid their program fees.

One student’s already made overpayments to the program will not be switched to another student’s underpaid registration.  Students who have over paid can either have the over payments refunded by calling GCM directly or they can donate that over payment to the summer program’s general fund with the approval of that student. Students that wish to donate their overpayments to the programs general fund need to let the Summer Programs Coordinator know so that this can be adjusted in the system.  If the payment is left as a credit to the student, GCM may refund the student at their request. 

• The only exceptions is if a church sends in payments to help the students in their church, payment amounts may be switched from an overpaid student to an underpaid one. The church needs to provide written confirmation that this is acceptable to them. 

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.

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.

All money collected onsite should be documented on the Ledger Sheet. 

• When sending in a group of checks after a collection, the checks must be accompanied by the ledger sheet. The total on the ledger MUST equal the total amount of checks/money orders sent in and must be filled out completely.   If this is not the case it will be sent back to the summer program.
• Any special instructions for a check or money order need to be attached to that check or money order.  For example, if a church sends a check for multiple participants be sure that attached to the check is a list of the participants and the amount to credit each participant.
• Please send another separate ledger sheet for any checks and income earned for something other than the payments towards each participant fees. (ex. Donations to the summer program that are not payments for participant’s fees (ex. Kroger), income from renting out program housing, etc.)
• All checks received onsite should be mailed to the GCM office promptly, within 3 business days of receiving them.  This will help to avoid problems of checks being returned to GCM marked non sufficient funds.
• Receipts will be automatically sent out from the GCM office to the participant once payment has been put in to the system.  However, you may want to provide an immediate receipt at the time you receive a check from a participant.  The receipt should include:

• • Participant’s Name
  • Issuing Church/Organization/Ministry (IE.  New Life Church or GCMC)
  • Issuing Church/Organization Contact Information
  • Event Name and/or Description
  • Payment Amount and Method of Payment
  • Check # or Money Order #
  • Date payment is received
  • Printed Name of Collections Person
  • Signature of Collections Person