Question: When an employee reaches 20 hours of volunteerism in the community they can direct a $100 contribution, paid for by the hospital, to a non-profit of their choice whose work aligns with our mission of making a healthy difference in people’s lives. Political, religious and animal charities are excluded. Can the $100 contributions be reported as community benefit by the hospital? We have not restricted the $100 contributions, in writing, to any specific programs or activities. 

Recommendation: The employee directed contributions could be reported as community benefit only if the contributions were used to address an identified community health need and the contributions were restricted, in writing, to a community benefit purpose. If you want these contributions from your organization to be reported as community benefit, you could restructure the program to offer employees a choice among many qualifying organizations and purposes.

May 2018