If you are a team in training athlete, are the contributions you make to your own campaign deductible?
Team in training is a program where you perform in an athletic task such as biking, swimming, jogging. Friends, family, companies, sponsor you. You raise money for leukhemia research. Donations to team in training are deductible.
Some events take place in other cities, so part of the money you raise is used for hotel, airfare. In any case, part of the money is used to pay the experts who train you.
Now some events have a target of 5k or more. If you fall short, the organization may ask you for the difference. Say your friends and family only gave 4k, then you pay the remaining 1k. So is this 1k deductible?
On one hand, it appears that you receive a benefit from the donation (such as airfare and hotel), so only the excess above the FMV of this benefit is deductible.
On the other hand, say your friends and family sponsored you to the tune of 5k. Then all that 5k would be deductible to them. So why can't you take a deduction for that 1k. For that matter, you could have gifted 1k to your family and they could have donated it and got the deduction -- so almost the same result to the IRS.