main content Memorial and Honorarium Gift Procedure

Memorial and Honorarium Gifts Procedure

Drafted: Candice A. Dowler

Director of Annual Giving and Development Operations

January 19, 2005

Revised: A. James Minehart

Director of Advancement Services

July 25, 2007

Distributed:

August 16, 2007

 

Purpose

The purpose of this procedure is to appropriately receipt and acknowledge memorial and honorarium gifts. The following procedure applies to CAS and Graduate School constituents and funds only. The Law School has opted to process memorial and honorarium gifts after they have been appropriately posted to Benefactor.

Alumni, Trustees/Life Trustees, Friends

When L&C is notified that a member of our constituency has died and L&C either expects to, or has been notified that it will receive gifts in memory of that individual, the following issues are to be addressed as soon as possible:

• Determine who the appropriate L&C representative is to send a condolence letter to the family.
• The Vice President for Institutional Advancement, with recommendations as needed, is to determine which family member will be contacted by L&C, and which L&C representative will be the family liaison.

Current Faculty and Staff, Faculty Emeriti

When a member of the faculty or staff, or a faculty emeritus dies, L&C should anticipate receiving gifts in their memory. The following issues are to be addressed as soon as possible:

• Determine who the appropriate L&C representative is to send a condolence letter to the family.
• The Vice President for Institutional Advancement will work with the Executive Council to determine an appropriate response from L&C, such as the naming of a scholarship, bench, etc.
• The Vice President for Institutional Advancement, with recommendations as needed, is to determine which family member will be contacted by L&C, and which L&C representative will be the family liaison.

 

Gift Posting, Receipting & Acknowledgment

The following procedure should guide how memorial gifts are receipted and acknowledged by L&C:

1. Memorial gifts are entered according to existing gift entry protocols.

2. A tax receipt is prepared using the standard tax receipt with appropriate wording modifications regarding the memorial information.

3. Acknowledgment data for memoriam gifts is pushed to the Advancement Services Assistant (ASA).

4. The ASA will hand write “A Gift in Memory Of” card, to be sent to the appropriate family member. When many gifts are received in memory of an individual the ASA may fill out this card once weekly rather than inundate the family. If gifts are received by the next of kin a notification card will not be sent to that individual but the donor will still receive the special tax receipt.

5. Maintain a log of the donor, their ID, gift date and amount, to whom the card was sent, and the date the card was sent. A subset of this information will be provided to L&C representative who is acting as the family liaison. This tabulation will enable that person to talk about the total amount raised (careful not to share gift amounts per donor) with the family.

6. Family members may request lists of donors who made gifts in memory so that they may personally thank these individuals. In these instances L&C will provide mailing information for the preferred address of the donor. No gift amounts are to be provided.

 

The following procedure should guide how honorarium gifts are receipted and acknowledged by L&C:

1. Honorarium gifts are entered according to existing gift entry protocols.

2. A tax receipt is prepared using the standard tax receipt with appropriate wording modifications regarding the honorarium information.

3. Acknowledgment data for honorarium gifts is pushed to the Advancement Services Assistant (ASA).

4. The ASA will hand write “A Gift in Honor Of” card, to be sent to the honoree.

 

*Special procedure: If a memorial or honorarium gift is received but the honoree is unknown to the institution a card will not be sent to the family because of a lack of contact information. However this information will still be tracked in Benefactor.