Counting Chickens Before they Hatch: True Stories Below w/Prevention Measures

Overwhelmingly, nonprofits do a terrific job of knowing when to count and book a gift in their records.

However, sometimes this does not work out so well:

🏣 University of the Arts in Philadelphia counted its gifts and started spending before they were cleared in the bank (source: Philadelphia magazine: https://lnkd.in/efe3U7Vu).

🏝 Recently, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University saw its President resign after the organization failed to vet a $237M gift of stock which was fraudulently valued by the donor and the school did not vet the contribution by a third party (source: AP News: https://lnkd.in/ejim9Va6)

💲 💲 💲 And sometimes gifts are rescinded, considered for returning, or actually returned because the donor is tainted, triggering for some organizations a removal of recognition by the hashtag#nonprofit (examples include The New York Public Library, Queen's University, Brown University, University of Michigan, Harvard University, and Greenwich Hospital - source: Nonprofit Quarterly: https://lnkd.in/eXqdApxf).

====> Although many problems are surprises, ones we can never predict, there are policies which can be crafted to provide solid procedures when encountering issues related to donors and their negative public behavior, public recognition of gifts, gift counting, and the circumstances when returning a gift makes the most sense.

****Gratefully, most larger institutions have safeguards in place and for those looking for example policies, one can ask a national fundraising organization, licensed consultant, nonprofit legal expert, or a statewide/national nonprofit association for guidance.