Question: How Do We Document and Value a Gift-In-Kind of Lab Mice?
We are a medical research department at a major university that purchases and uses laboratory mice in our work. We have an alumnus who owns a rodent supply company who has informed us that he, through his company, will gift us a quantity of lab mice. How do we record and value this gift?
Answer:
Start off by saying a big “thank you” as his gift will be saving you department expense budget dollars. The lab mice are classified as a “gift-in-kind” (GIK). Per CASE reporting standards, you record the value you would have paid for the mice if you had purchased them outright. For example, if your department would have paid $1 a piece and his company donated 1,000 mice, you would record a value of $1,000 for the GIK.
The GIK would be hard credited to his company based on him telling you the gift was from his company. You would soft credit his alumnus record. You do not get involved in the value his company puts on the GIK for its tax records.
The gift acknowledgement letter would thank the company for its gift of 1,000 laboratory mice with no mention of dollar value.