Effective Gift Acceptance Policies and Procedures

The author describes a process and best practices for preparing and adopting gift acceptance policies and procedures. He notes that the process must encourage responsible staff members, executives and board members to reflect on factors that are unique to their institution since one size does not fit all. The finished product, especially in the case of the statement of policy, should be both broad and brief to ensure that it is regularly consulted, while the procedures should ideally be maintained as a separate document since they are directed toward the staff responsible for their implementation and should lay out the rules to be observed and the steps to be followed in the gift acceptance process, while identifying in each case the persons authorized and responsible for deviations from default rules or judgment calls regarding specific issues. Gift acceptance policies and procedures prepared and adopted using this approach are critical elements in the good governance and effective operations of a charitable organization.