GIFT ACCEPTANCE POLICIES

While most planned gifts are simple beneficiary gifts, you will most likely encounter a donor who would like to make a gift beyond the “ordinary.” What will you do when a donor wants to donate their house, business, art collection, or property? Does the property have environmental implications? How will you handle those opportunities? How will you ensure that you minimize your organization’s risk and keep the donor happy? Written gift acceptance policies will help you do all this.

Important: Never reject a noncash gift opportunity without giving it serious consideration. There are strategies your donor can implement like starting an LLC or a Donor Advised Fund and donating the asset there. There are also organizations like Charitable Solutions (Bryan Clontz and team) who can potentially handle the gift transaction on your behalf, relieving you of all risk and work. They take a very small fee and send you a check. (more…)

COUNTING VS ACCOUNTING

Many people ask me how to count planned gifts. The first thing to keep in mind is that there is a difference between counting and accounting. “Accounting” relates to how gifts are counted with the finance office. These are the numbers we report on our tax returns. “Counting” relates to how you report on gift totals to donors and the general public. These are the numbers we use on our website, in our marketing materials, and in our presentations. The two numbers will never be the same.

There are several associations that publish recommended counting guidelines for planned gifts. The two my colleagues and I recommend are the CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) gift-counting standards for counting outright gifts and the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning (PPP) gift-counting standards for counting future gifts.

They suggest you count gifts in one of 3 categories: (more…)