Revenue Recognition for Nonprofit Organizations

Learn best practices and common mistakes in handling exchange and contribution transactions.

Many nonprofits have had difficulty with the implementation of the new revenue standard and contribution standard because they do not fully understand the difference between a contribution and an exchange transaction. It is important for the finance and accounting staff who work with nonprofits to be able to recognize whether a transaction is an exchange or a contribution, as well as how the revenue from that transaction should be recognized and presented on the financial statements. This topic will provide clarification on the differences between exchange transactions and contributions through discussion and examples. Review how conditional and unconditional contributions differ and explore the difference between a restriction and a condition. Further, we will discuss and go over examples of how to break out activities that have elements of both exchange and contribution. In the end we will put this all together into some best practices and go over required disclosures and common mistakes.

Learning Objectives

• You will be able to identify the requirements guiding Contributions and Exchange transactions
• You will be able to identify the characteristics of a Contribution
• You will be able to recognize the characteristics of an Exchange Transaction
• You will be able to differentiate between which indicators are correct when determining the Contribution and Exchange portions of membership dues.