Michigan 4-H Youth Development


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4-H Youth Development Michigan State University 160 Agriculture Hall East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 USA Phone: 517-432-7575 Fax: 517-355-6748 Email: msue4h@msu.edu Disclaimer & Indicia

Frequently Asked Questions About the Michigan 4-H Youth Participation Fee

Managing the Money

How is the fee collected?
Clubs/counties have a number of options:

The club leader collects the fee from families at the time of youth enrollment in a 4-H club.
The club leader collects the fee from families of youth in the club at a time other than during enrollment.
The club undertakes a fundraising event or finds a sponsor to cover all or part of the participation fee for all or part of its club members.
The county undertakes a fundraising event or finds a sponsor to cover all or part of the participation fee for all or part of the county’s youth members.
The county’s 4-H Council covers all or part of the participation fee for all or part of the county’s youth members.
Some combination of the above.

The Blue Ribbon enrollment form has been modified to include a check-off box for fee payment and a box to indicate if the fee is being covered by a scholarship; a second version also adds a box for indicating eligibility for free or reduced lunch. If clubs collect the fee or engage in fundraising or sponsorship to raise the fee, the club leader sends the money to their county office by no later than September 1 for the program year that just ended on August 31. County offices must send the 4-H state office portion of the fee to the state office by no later than October 1 for the previous program year. Clubs/counties may send the money earlier, either in one lump sum or in a series of payments. Counties should do what works best in their county.

Where should these fees be deposited, in the county office or with the County Leaders Council/Advisory Group?
This decision is up to the local county unit. For some counties, it may make more sense to have the funds in one or the other of the structures for ease of collection, tracking and accountability and for disbursement for programming. Accounting practices will be the same for either.

Who manages the fund, the Council or the MSUE office?
Depends on the county. There are many different arrangements throughout Michigan, and each county has to involve all appropriate parties (Council, MSUE, county officials, etc.) to decide how the fund is managed.

Can the 4-H Extension Advisory Committee manage the county’s portion of participation fees?
Yes, if your county decides that is the best way to handle the funds.

Is it possible to put the money in an interest-bearing account or invest it in a six-month CD until it needs to go to the state office?
Yes.

If the money is put into a CD or interest-bearing account, can the interest earned on that CD be used to pay for fee scholarships?
Yes.

Who keeps track of who has paid and who hasn’t?
Club leaders keep track of which of their members have paid (see the club form and club form instruction sheet). Counties track and report how many participant fees are included when money is sent to the state office, and how many participants have qualified for a fee scholarship (see the county form).

Does the annual fee need to be used on programming each year or can it be saved to be used in future years?
The money may be rolled over from year to year, but the intent of the fund is that it be used to address real programming issues in each county. However, counties may purposefully choose to save a portion of the dollars to address a long-term programming goal. This is not a case of “use it or lose it.”

Our county 4-H Council is collecting the participation fees in my county. We do several large fund raisers to support programming and are afraid the participant fee will put us over the $25,000 mark and require us to begin filing an IRS Form 990. How do we handle this?
Your council can open a separate account for the participation fees and request a unique EIN number for that account. This account can still be managed by the council, but this approach will help you keep track of dollars that come in from participation fees, payments made to campus and how the county portion of these dollars have been used each year. This approach will also eliminate the possibility that you will exceed the $25,000 threshold in three years, due to participation fee payments. If you need information on requesting EIN’s for groups, please check the 4-H Treasurer’s Record book.

Michigan 4-H Youth Participation Fee Information FAQ's :