what is a quid pro quo contribution 
many nonprofit foundations and organizations rely on charitable donations from corporate sponsors and individuals to meet a large part of their funding needs these can be solicited in many different forms from one off contributions to ongoing sponsorships from businesses in the community during the holidays it is not uncommon to see organizations such as the salvation army collecting individual donations from patrons as they enter or exit retail establishments generally these donations are made without the donor expecting anything in return except an itemized tax deduction a quid pro quo contribution however is a charitable donation for which the donor gets something of value from the recipient in exchange for their funds 1 the organization has created an incentive to the donation it s a device designed to grease the wheels of fundraising understanding a quid pro quo contributiona typical charitable donation is different from a quid pro quo contribution in that the donor receives nothing from the charity in return for the gift or deposit the rules for tax deductions for quid pro quo contributions are also different with a typical donation the donor can deduct the full amount as long as the donation meets eligibility requirements with a quid pro quo contribution the deductible amount is the difference between the donation and the fair market value of the goods or services that the charity provided the donor with in exchange 1for the 2021 tax year even taxpayers who take the standard deduction rather than itemize are allowed to deduct a certain amount of charitable contributions with the limit being 300 for single filers and 600 for a married couple filing jointly 2an example of a quid pro quo contributionduring summer vacation beth sees that her daughter lauren s school is trying to raise money to buy plants and materials to make a school garden beth is excited about the prospect of her daughter learning how to grow fresh fruits and vegetables and gladly donates 75 to the school as a thank you the school offers some of the top donors gift certificates to the farm stand that they will be setting up at the end of the school year to sell off the surplus fruits and vegetables harvested from the garden this is a quid pro quo donation as beth received something in return for her monetary contribution if the school was only soliciting funds and not offering anything in return then it would not qualify as quid pro quo 