IRS Filing to be Able to Accept Tax-deductible Donations

[Kennesaw State PRSSA]

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice on what IRS forms we need to fill out to accept tax-deductible donations as a chapter. The members are working on building a sponsorship page, and I said I'd check with other chapters' faculty advisors to see if anyone has done something similar and could offer them any advice.

Thanks,

Debra

[Gemma Puglisi]

Hi there Debra,

Honestly, at American, we have to reach out to both our advancement office and our finance department because if these are donations-- each school is different on how to handle all this-- and how they deal with donations. 

My understanding is that the school is receiving these donations -- not PRSA or Prssa National. 

I would check with your finance and advancement teams at your school. 

Ben and Susan?  

Thx so much for reaching out!  

Gemma

Professor Gemma Puglisi

pug...@american.edu

202-885-2153

cell:  703-772-9174

Assistant Professor

School of Communication

American University

Public Communication Division

AU PRSSA Faculty Adviser 

PRSSA National Faculty Adviser, 2025-2027

PRSA Past Chair, Educators Academy 2017

twitter @Gemma Puglisi

Author:  PR Campaigns & Portfolio Building, Allyn & Bacon, Pearson Educator

Recipient: Knighted: The Republic of Italy, Order of the Star, 2024

Recipient: Wise Woman, National Organization of Italian American Women, 2016

Recipient:  NCC PRSA Hall of Fame Honoree, 2020

Recipient:  PRNEWS Top Women in PR, Mentor, 2021

Recipient:  Campus Compact Mid-Atlantic Award: The Alan G. Penczek Service-Learning Faculty Award, 2021

Recipient: Washington PR Women, “Washington PR woman of the Year, 2022

Recipient: PR Daily Awards: Communicator of the Year, honorable mention, 2023

Recipient: National Press Club, Vivian award, 2024

Recipient: Outstanding teaching by a Faculty member, term faculty, 2025

---

From: prssa-a...@googlegroups.com <prssa-a...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kennesaw State PRSSA <kennes...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2026 12:03 PM
To: PRSSA Advisers <prssa-a...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: {PRSSA Advisers} IRS Filing to be Able to Accept Tax-deductible Donations

 

You don't often get email from kennes...@gmail.com. Learn why this is important

External Email: Use caution with links and attachments.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PRSSA Advisers" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to prssa-adviser...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/prssa-advisers/68d69c63-e83e-46f0-b64f-0c5375847e9en%40googlegroups.com.

[Alisa Agozzino]

Yes, same here. If they want to write it off as a tax deduction we go through our university and it gets deposited into our organization budget through the university. If they don't need the write-off we have a checking account for the group at a local bank and we put it in that account and avoid the red tape of the university.  But that is how we get around the taxes part for the student organization. 
cheers,

Aggie

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/prssa-advisers/BLAPR06MB6883F6358674D91222FA25FEC32D2%40BLAPR06MB6883.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.

--

Dr. Aggie Alisa Agozzino | Professor of Public Relations and Social Media 2023-2024  PRSA Educator of the Year 2023-2024 Plank Center Bruce Berger Educator Award Co-author of Principles of Public Relations textbook James F. Dicke College of Business Administration | 207C 419-772-2054 |  a-ago...@onu.edu

[Gemma Puglisi]

thanks a million for sharing!

---

From: Alisa Agozzino <a-ago...@onu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2026 1:40 PM
To: Gemma Puglisi <pug...@american.edu>
Cc: Kennesaw State PRSSA <kennes...@gmail.com>; PRSSA Advisers <prssa-a...@googlegroups.com>; Ben Castleman <ben.ca...@prsa.org>; Susan Belanich <susan.b...@prsa.org>
Subject: Re: {PRSSA Advisers} IRS Filing to be Able to Accept Tax-deductible Donations

 

[Kennesaw State PRSSA]

I almost forgot: part of this request is that the students need to develop a policy on what the donated funds can be used for, and how they are disbursed. We already know that the university policy for this is that the School of Communication and Media within which the PR major is located will supervise the student funds. We just have to develop the rules on how we handle this.

Thanks!