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  • 1.  For those leading college or university galleries/collections

    Posted 05-30-2024 01:20 PM
    Good afternoon,
    Where do your Deed of Gift forms originate? Do they come from your office and go to advancement/development, and then on to the donor, or do you send information regarding the gift to advancement for them to complete a deed of gift?
    Thanks,
    Joan
    --
    Joan H. Baldwin
    Curator of Special Collections
    The Hotchkiss School
    11 Interlaken Road
    Lakeville CT 06039
    860-435-3251
    She/Her/Hers

    "Memory (the deliberate act of remembering) is a form of willed creation. It is not an effort to find out the way it really was-that is research. The point is to dwell on the way it appeared and why it appeared in that particular way."
    - Toni Morrison

    "Sometimes when you do a decision, you fix one problem and make a whole other problem." 
    -Declan Finn




  • 2.  RE: For those leading college or university galleries/collections

    Posted 05-31-2024 08:36 AM
    Hi Joan: Melina here from The Lawrenceville School. I work with the donor first - providing and overseeing completion of deed of gift forms with signatures and appropriate provenance info as well as relevant tax forms, then I keep a copy of the DOG and forward the documents to our Development team so that they can record the gift and send a thank you and donation acknowledgement for the donor's tax records. (I send my own thank you as well.)

    Hope this helps!
    Melina

    --
    Melina Guarino
    Curator and Gallery Director
    Hutchins Galleries
    The Lawrenceville School
    Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
    609.620.6026





  • 3.  RE: For those leading college or university galleries/collections

    Posted 05-31-2024 09:24 AM

    Just wanted to clarify that we do not assist or insist they fill out the IRS form 8283, but only provide along with the deed of gift should they choose to use!

    Thanks!



    ------------------------------
    Melina Guarino
    Curator & Gallery Director
    The Lawrenceville School
    Lawrenceville NJ
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: For those leading college or university galleries/collections

    Posted 05-31-2024 09:17 AM
    Dear Joan - I love this question!  Not only for the complexity necessary for the answer, but because, I, too (before retiring recently) worked in an academic museum within a high school.

    Our deeds of gift were issued by our Foundation, a corporation [(501(c)(3)] separate from the school, also 501(c)(3).  The museum was not a separate corporation.  The Foundation "received" all gifts on behalf of the school, including "gifts in kind," as Foundation referred to them.  The latter included museum objects.  Honestly, until a more collegial and professional Foundation director arrived, it was a struggle for the museum to obtain copies (or even records) of the deeds.

    By the time I retired, the drafting of the deeds was a collaborative effort, especially considering that museological descriptions of objects are important for the donor's tax records.  The museum was also often helpful in finding the donor an appropriate appraiser.

    On the more mechanical side of the discussion, if you use PastPerfect, you'll find it has that function.  But you may also find that it's not necessarily what you're looking for or what your lawyers, Foundation, and whomever else is involved thinks is sufficient.

    Happy to talk more about this offline.  Vivian





  • 5.  RE: For those leading college or university galleries/collections

    Posted 05-31-2024 10:39 AM

    I would love to know this, too. We're trying to formalize channels of communications between us and our Advancement office and would love some examples to share.

     

    Amanda

     

    Windgate Museum of Art

    Hendrix College

    Conway AR

     

     

     

     

     






  • 6.  RE: For those leading college or university galleries/collections

    Posted 05-31-2024 12:34 PM

    Hello -  I work with the donors and museum staff to prepare an acquisition proposal form. Once the acquisitions committee accepts the gift I prepare the deed of gift form. That form is sent to the donor for signature and then forwarded to our development department where designee to receive gifts for the President signs. The form is returned to the museum and we send a countersigned copy to the donor and keep one on file. The tax letter comes from the development department.   If the donor gets an appraisal we request a copy for our files. 



    ------------------------------
    Merry Scully
    Director
    Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art
    San Bernardino CA
    ------------------------------