Open Forum

My organization has previously allowed for potential donations to be left on-site until a decision about their acceptance has been made. For items that are not accepted, I have been having a difficult time getting in contact with the donor to pick up their donation. Now, we have several items that have been abandoned by their donor. My organization does not have an abandoned property policy and I have been unsuccessful in finding an Idaho code/statute/act/law for historical societies and museums for abandoned property. With that, I am writing an abandoned property policy for our Collections Committee to approve. Has anyone had to write one before? I know other state policies usually state to hold on to the property for 5-10 years, but we are hoping to base the duration on the number of times contacted and the time elapsed between each contact. I'm open to any suggestions! Thank you! 

My organization has previously allowed for potential donations to be left on-site until a decision about their acceptance has been made. For items that are not accepted, I have been having a difficult time getting in contact with the donor to pick up their donation. Now, we have several items that have been abandoned by their donor. My organization does not have an abandoned property policy and I have been unsuccessful in finding an Idaho code/statute/act/law for historical societies and museums for abandoned property. With that, I am writing an abandoned property policy for our Collections Committee to approve. Has anyone had to write one before? I know other state policies usually state to hold on to the property for 5-10 years, but we are hoping to base the duration on the number of times contacted and the time elapsed between each contact. I'm open to any suggestions! Thank you! 

My organization has previously allowed for potential donations to be left on-site until a decision about their acceptance has been made. For items that are not accepted, I have been having a difficult time getting in contact with the donor to pick up their donation. Now, we have several items that have been abandoned by their donor. My organization does not have an abandoned property policy and I have been unsuccessful in finding an Idaho code/statute/act/law for historical societies and museums for abandoned property. With that, I am writing an abandoned property policy for our Collections Committee to approve. Has anyone had to write one before? I know other state policies usually state to hold on to the property for 5-10 years, but we are hoping to base the duration on the number of times contacted and the time elapsed between each contact. I'm open to any suggestions! Thank you! 

My organization has previously allowed for potential donations to be left on-site until a decision about their acceptance has been made. For items that are not accepted, I have been having a difficult time getting in contact with the donor to pick up their donation. Now, we have several items that have been abandoned by their donor. My organization does not have an abandoned property policy and I have been unsuccessful in finding an Idaho code/statute/act/law for historical societies and museums for abandoned property. With that, I am writing an abandoned property policy for our Collections Committee to approve. Has anyone had to write one before? I know other state policies usually state to hold on to the property for 5-10 years, but we are hoping to base the duration on the number of times contacted and the time elapsed between each contact. I'm open to any suggestions! Thank you! 

Hi Kaitlynn,
 This was a long time practice at our institution and caused us similar headaches, we changed the policy to absolutely no drop offs of any items for any reason. It got to the point we would rather miss out on a potentially relevant donation than deal with the headaches involved with items dropped off that had no relation to our site, as you state, trying to find owner and storing the item for years until we could properly dispose of the item.

We request the potential donor send pictures of the item which we review and research, we have the time to consult our collection to make sure we are not duplicating existing and can get a good idea of the condition of the item. The hardest part was educating our front line staff not to accept anything, as they had previously. 

My organization has previously allowed for potential donations to be left on-site until a decision about their acceptance has been made. For items that are not accepted, I have been having a difficult time getting in contact with the donor to pick up their donation. Now, we have several items that have been abandoned by their donor. My organization does not have an abandoned property policy and I have been unsuccessful in finding an Idaho code/statute/act/law for historical societies and museums for abandoned property. With that, I am writing an abandoned property policy for our Collections Committee to approve. Has anyone had to write one before? I know other state policies usually state to hold on to the property for 5-10 years, but we are hoping to base the duration on the number of times contacted and the time elapsed between each contact. I'm open to any suggestions! Thank you! 

Hi Brent,

Thank you for the information. The organization I previously worked at followed the same approach, which I actually thought worked best. However, when all of the staff wasn't on the same page or potential donors became disgruntled over this procedure, it was a big issue. Unfortunately, I don't think the same procedure would work at my current organization. Similar to other places, the community has become used to leaving items on-site and not being told to send information and pictures prior to bringing in the item. 

Hi Kaitlynn,
 This was a long time practice at our institution and caused us similar headaches, we changed the policy to absolutely no drop offs of any items for any reason. It got to the point we would rather miss out on a potentially relevant donation than deal with the headaches involved with items dropped off that had no relation to our site, as you state, trying to find owner and storing the item for years until we could properly dispose of the item.

We request the potential donor send pictures of the item which we review and research, we have the time to consult our collection to make sure we are not duplicating existing and can get a good idea of the condition of the item. The hardest part was educating our front line staff not to accept anything, as they had previously. 

My organization has previously allowed for potential donations to be left on-site until a decision about their acceptance has been made. For items that are not accepted, I have been having a difficult time getting in contact with the donor to pick up their donation. Now, we have several items that have been abandoned by their donor. My organization does not have an abandoned property policy and I have been unsuccessful in finding an Idaho code/statute/act/law for historical societies and museums for abandoned property. With that, I am writing an abandoned property policy for our Collections Committee to approve. Has anyone had to write one before? I know other state policies usually state to hold on to the property for 5-10 years, but we are hoping to base the duration on the number of times contacted and the time elapsed between each contact. I'm open to any suggestions! Thank you! 

My organization has previously allowed for potential donations to be left on-site until a decision about their acceptance has been made. For items that are not accepted, I have been having a difficult time getting in contact with the donor to pick up their donation. Now, we have several items that have been abandoned by their donor. My organization does not have an abandoned property policy and I have been unsuccessful in finding an Idaho code/statute/act/law for historical societies and museums for abandoned property. With that, I am writing an abandoned property policy for our Collections Committee to approve. Has anyone had to write one before? I know other state policies usually state to hold on to the property for 5-10 years, but we are hoping to base the duration on the number of times contacted and the time elapsed between each contact. I'm open to any suggestions! Thank you! 

Hi Everyone!

Thank you so much for your useful insight! Below is the draft of the policy that will be brought in front of our Collections Committee for discussion.

"If a donation is not accepted, the Curator will notify the donor within thirty days of the deposit date in order for the donor to reclaim their property at once. In the donor's failure to do so, the Society will contact the donor twice via postal mail, email, or phone in a thirty-day period. If the donation remains unclaimed at the end of the said thirty-day period, title to the donation vests in the Society, free of all claims of the owner and of all persons claiming through or under the owner. Donations presented to the Society prior to the enactment of this policy in the last five years shall be grandfathered in and follow said policy. In the event that the donor is deceased, the legal representative shall be contacted and provide a decision regarding the donation."

My organization has previously allowed for potential donations to be left on-site until a decision about their acceptance has been made. For items that are not accepted, I have been having a difficult time getting in contact with the donor to pick up their donation. Now, we have several items that have been abandoned by their donor. My organization does not have an abandoned property policy and I have been unsuccessful in finding an Idaho code/statute/act/law for historical societies and museums for abandoned property. With that, I am writing an abandoned property policy for our Collections Committee to approve. Has anyone had to write one before? I know other state policies usually state to hold on to the property for 5-10 years, but we are hoping to base the duration on the number of times contacted and the time elapsed between each contact. I'm open to any suggestions! Thank you!