Open Forum

I'm working on our policy regarding offering complimentary memberships to donors who give over $X amount annually. However, I'm not sure if I should include donors who provide in-kind gifts or just those who make monetary donations. I'd like to treat those who make in-kind gifts the same as other donors, but that seems to open a can of worms since a) I don't always know the fair market value of what has been donated (e.g., a used cart for our gardens), b) am uncertain how to handle materials donated to our annual benefit (e.g., a week at a vacation home), and c) don't know about companies that donate services (e.g., a caterer who caters a donor event for free).

What have been your experiences?

Thank you!

Lauren

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Lauren Silberman
Deputy Director
Historic London Town and Gardens
Edgewater MD
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Ms. Silberman,

I would be hesitant to offer membership to donors because they can claim their donations on their taxes (unless your donors subtract the cost of membership and all related benefits from the amount that they are claiming).

Ms. Silberman,

I have an idea that might solve this issue. At a different museum where I worked, that museum had a regular structure of gift memberships, where another member would pay for the membership of someone else. That way the membership is not "free" but still has a donation tied to it. In the case of large donations (defined by whatever level your museum is at and at whatever dollar level is set to be "large"), no matter whether cash or non cash, that person was often honored at an annual ceremony structured for that purpose. And of course, all donors receive a printed letter of thanks/appreciation/whatever.

Of course, you can always define a "membership" level specifically for large donors with whatever perks determined.

I hope this helps.

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RG de Stolfe
Temple Israel Foundation
Leadville, Colorado
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We have levels of Friendship from $35 to $10,000+, with certain benefits associated with each.  If someone wanted the full tax deduction, we would count it as a simple donation, without extending a Friendship/benefits.  We count in-kind donations for museum operations at the same levels as other donations, but we require submission of an invoice or statement of services with "Donation" written on it, and we only accept in-kind donations for things that we need (legal services, solicited catering, building repairs, advertising, etc.).  All in-kind donations must be approved by our board for acceptance.  We feel like this keeps people "honest"--i.e. reduces any temptation to inflate values.  Donations to the museum collection are not counted as in-kind.  Donors to the annual fundraising auction are also handled differently, with benefits tied to the event only--for high dollar donations.  We probably would not count the donation of a used garden cart; the donor can write it off, but benefits that would cost the museum would not be applied. Hope this helps!

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Marsha Rankin
Executive Director
Museum of South Texas History
Edinburg TX
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