Recently, fundraising has seen various high-profile cases of gift policies and procedures gone wrong with damaging results for everyone involved.
As a result, every vice president and advancement leader should be prepared to answer these pressing questions during their next board meeting. And, if your answers to these questions don’t closely match the guide below, it’s time to find a proactive solution immediately.
6 Gift Policy and Procedure Questions VPs Need to Be Prepared For
1. Could this happen to us?
No, this will not happen to us because we have: Gift acceptance and gift documentation policies and procedures in place Safeguards to ensure these policies and procedures are followed.
2. Do we have policies and procedures put in place to prevent this?
Yes, these policies are reviewed and approved every year at our board meetings and are accessible in shared drives, and online. Thorough review and sign off on the policies are part of all new employee onboardings and orientations. Also, our policies and safeguards don’t allow any single employee or board member, regardless of title, to accept a gift that has not followed acceptance protocol.
3. How do we execute on these policies and procedures?
Advancement Services is our gatekeeper. They review the gift, match it with the approval steps identified in our policies, potentially elevating it to the gift acceptance committee, and then oversee all necessary documentation required.
4. Do we have donors in our network that look like red flags?
All organizations have donors in their network that could be potential red-flags. Critical steps to identify and mitigate risk with those donors include: We look at who is giving – their connection to the organization, their motivation to give, and who they are so we can ensure that our relationship is valid. We look at the donors' investments to ensure they are sound and that receiving a gift wouldn’t put our organization at unnecessary risk. We look to see if the donor has any pending lawsuits and to what degree they present risk to our organization. We also consider if the gift is irregular in any way. Is it outside of our typical standards for pledge payments? Is the gift in-line with what our organization is invested in achieving?
5. How do we handle gifts of closely held stock?
When we have a gift of closely held stock, we first recognize that there is no guarantee that the security can or ever will be sold. Gifts of closely held stock is valued at a per-share cash purchase price of the most recent transaction. Normally, this transaction is the redemption of the stock by the corporation. If no redemption has occurred during the reporting period, an independent certified public accountant (CPA) who maintains the books for that corporation is qualified to value its stock. The gift acceptance committee also conducts a careful review as to whether the nature of the business of the institution is about to become a partial ofwer of is consistent with our organization’s own mission. We conduct all of these steps before gift documentation begins and any gift announcement is prepared.
6. What technology solutions exist to help us to safeguard against human error in executing gift documentation and gift acceptance policies?
Givzey’s Intelligent Gift Documentation Management is the only proactive solution that’s built specifically for fundraising. It’s a platform solution that uses smart gift agreements, dynamic workflows for major and complex gifts, automated pledge reminders, intelligent invoicing, and a central repository to ensure all gifts have the proper documentation, comply with our policies and procedures, and move through the gift process in ways that elevate the overall donor experience.
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