First, I want to start by saying THANK YOU! Many gifts have been made to MRN by many of YOU who are following us online. We are so grateful! May the Lord richly bless you as you have been faithful to Him and his Word and to promoting God’s word in Malawi! We trust the Lord when He compels us that the fields are white unto the harvest. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Because of the generosity of many of you, workers will be added in Malawi, even this year!
We have had a couple of questions about our connection to The National Christian Foundation. Why, when you give to MRN online, does the money go to the National Christian Foundation? Let me explain.
The National Christian Foundation has existed for decades to help further the spread of the gospel by helping people give more money away in legal, tax deductible and creative ways. One of the services they provide for organizations like ours is called a Single Charity Fund (SCF). Our Single Charity Fund with NCF exists for the sole benefit of MRN. We use them for a few reasons.
1. NCF handles all of the end of year tax reporting
When you give money to a qualified 501(c)(3) you can take a tax deduction for that gift. MRN is a qualified 501c3 non-profit organization. For a very small monthly cost (it’s closer to nothing than anything to mention), NCF handles all of the reporting for MRN so that you can have your tax deduction and MRN can receive the gift. We are blessed to not have to set up that system in house just yet.
2. NCF has been doing this for a long time and are very good at it.
They have a stellar reputation with the IRS and with very large non-profit organizations for handling these important transactions in a way that meets will all regulations and rules. As MRN is relatively new, and we seek to fund raise, this partnership gives us a high level of credibility. We were introduced to NCF by a foundation that wanted to give to us and wanted us to have this connection for their own peace of mind. As it turns out, the benefits of the association and the Single Charity Fund we have with them are numerous.
As MRN is relatively new, and we seek to fund raise, this partnership gives us a high level of credibility.Tweet it
3. Complications of “Cross Border Giving”
Lastly, as I have written about before, one challenge we faced in starting MRN was that we were going to give some of the funds to projects IN Malawi. This brings us into the world of “Cross Border Giving”, a topic so nuanced and complicated that books have been written about it. Here again, staying on the right side of the law is so important when talking about tax deductibility and this particular part of the tax code, which intersects with the Patriot Act, starts to get cumbersome. NCF has helped us understand the rules and our partnership with them will insure that we play by them.
So, your money goes into the NCF Single Charity Fund in our name. NCF issues us a check each month for the balance of the account. We deposit that check into MRN’s bank account. You receive a year end statement for your taxes from NCF. Simple, legal, accurate.
If you are interested in learning more about cross border giving and/or how to be a very creative giver of the resources with which God has blessed your family. Please call me. I’d love to share with you what I’ve learned and if it would helpful, introduce you to the NCF team in Michigan.
Thank you again for following and supporting MRN!
Evan Vanderwey
Chairman of the Board