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  • 1.  Complicated donation

    Posted 06-29-2022 09:37 AM
    Hi all, 

    I'm wondering if any one can give me some suggestions on how to handle a complicated donation situation we are currently facing. We've been in discussion with a donor for the past few months who wants to give a sizeable collection of photographs and other items to our museum. They have offered to let us have anything we want from the collection and to leave the rest. We had planned to travel and meet with the donor to go through the collection with them and get a sense of what we will accept, but they fell ill and were hospitalized the week before our flight. They are out of hospital and in good spirits now, but are on hospice care and we don't know how much time they have left. The donor's caretaker/power of attorney has offered to box up the collection and send it to us to review and accession as we see fit. My question is, what paperwork should we use to document this transfer? I've considered a general temporary custody agreement, but my fear is that the donor may pass before we can finalize the donation and then we will be stuck in limbo. Has anyone ever encountered a similar situation?

    Many thanks,
    Morgan

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    Morgan Smith
    Registrar
    American Jazz Museum
    Kansas City, MO
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  • 2.  RE: Complicated donation

    Posted 06-30-2022 07:56 AM

    Can you simply accept the entire collection now by gift, review it as you're able, and accession only what you want, with the disposal plan for the rest to be returned to the donor or their estate? It seems you could accomplish the gift quickly, which allows you to receive the whole collection without being obligated to accession everything you receive.  


    Mike Moline
    Student
    Minnesota



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    Michael Moline
    Student
    Vadnais Heights MN
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  • 3.  RE: Complicated donation

    Posted 06-30-2022 09:21 AM
    In similar situations we have the donor sign a Deed of Gift and any associated donation forms you have.  The Deed of Gift can contain provisions that would allow you to deaccession whatever part of the donation you either do not want or do not have the space to store.  

    GENERAL ATTORNEY ADVERTISING AND NOT LEGAL ADVICE

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    Michael Oropallo JD
    Attorney
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  • 4.  RE: Complicated donation

    Posted 06-30-2022 10:31 AM
    I agree with the first two comments - you should be able to execute a Deed of Gift that describes the donation in very general terms and still allows for weeding as it is processed. If, however, you would feel more comfortable with a detailed, itemized Deed of Gift that is signed after staff has gone through the donation, you can accept everything under temporary custody and do final paperwork later like you would normally. In that case, you could speak to your donor about connecting you with who would be the executor of their estate should they pass before the donation is complete. I've had about five donations total where the donor passed away suddenly while everything was still held under temporary custody - it seems really daunting at first, but it is usually as simple as getting a signature from a relative and the families I've worked with were all happy to help.

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    Whitney Broadaway
    Director
    Southeast Museum of Photography
    Daytona Beach FL
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  • 5.  RE: Complicated donation

    Posted 06-30-2022 02:47 PM

    Hello Morgan,

     

    We've definitely had situations like this, often after a person has already passed. I'll be curious to see what others have done but our typical approach is to generate a deed of gift that defines the collection in general terms (e.g. "the Jerry Eagon papers" or the "Pedler instrument collection") and then we weed after the fact, creating the more detailed list as we process the collection and create records in our database. I always confirm with the donor that items may be weeded and record that in my accession files.

     

    I will say this approach only works (or at least works best) if the donor is okay not getting weeded items back. I very rarely agree to return weeded items because of the limbo situation and the length of time processing usually takes. This would be especially difficult if air travel and/or shipping would be involved in getting it back to them. If the potential donor or their estate will only make the gift with those terms (that they get any items back you don't want), I would think hard about how important the collection is and, if you still decided to take it with those restrictions, get very clear info in writing about who the collection should be returned to in the unfortunate event of the donor's passing.  Also, have a plan for how that will happen; experience has told me you can't generally count on folks to retrieve items in a timely manner (I'm talking years) so you may need to budget for the cost of shipping or travel to return them.

     

    Good luck and feel free to reach out if you need someone to be a sounding board.

     

    p.s. I just returned from HLI with Dr. Dina Bennett. Say "Hi" to her for me! ^_^

     

    emailMichelle Nash
    Curator of Collections
    Elkhart County Historical Museum
    Facebook28803-200

     

    "Museum collection storage is both a physical space and an ongoing process."- NPS

     






  • 6.  RE: Complicated donation

    Posted 06-30-2022 02:57 PM
    Hi Morgan,

    My inclination would be to use your Deed of Gift  to accept the entire collection as a gift, with an addendum that you have the donor's permission to dispose of any items that don't fit your mission.    The donor may have instructions as to what he wants to have happen to anything you don't want, and that can be included in your Deed of Gift.   

    Basically you are trying to balance the problems that would arise from the donor dying before the gift is complete and having to deal with their executor (and whatever instructions may have been put in the donor's will about the collection) and your own internal issues about disposing of items that have been acquired, but not accessioned.   Internal policies and procedures are generally easier to deal with than external legalities.

    You might also want to post this question on the new AAM Collections Stewardship Professional Network (https://community.aam-us.org/communities/community-home?communitykey=9001e54e-121b-4250-9f19-a5e24cb82990) 
    or the independent Museum Collections Care listserv (https://groups.google.com/g/museum-collections-care).

    Stay safe,

    janice
    --
    Janice Klein
    EightSixSix Consulting





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