One other factor to keep in mind is that "restricted" tends to mean something slightly different under accounting standards than under CASE standards.
Under CASE standards (for reporting on the VSE, etc.), it generally just means that the donor specified the use of the funds.
In accounting there is the concept that gifts with "restrictions of a general nature" can be considered unrestricted. "Restricted" under those standards means that there is some substantive limitation on the spending of the funds that comes from outside the nonprofit institution, and the overhead to assure that those constraints are met is somewhat involved (creating a restricted fund, putting the money into the restricted fund, verifying that funds meeting the restriction have been expended, releasing the restriction, moving the funds to the unrestricted asset class, etc.). That's an unreasonable amount of work for a relatively modest gift to be used for a purpose that you're going to spend that amount of money and more on regardless. While you could go through the whole process, the analysis is essentially that it wouldn't have a material effect on the financial position of the organization, so the funds can be considered to be without donor restriction.
So it seems to me that, at least on the accounting side, those funds could well be considered unrestricted.
My US$0.02 worth; the usual disclaimers apply.
Good luck!
Alan
Alan S. Hejnal
Data Quality Manager
Smithsonian Institution - Office of Advancement
600 Maryland Avenue SW, Suite 600E
P.O. Box 37012, MRC 527
Washington, DC 20013-7012
*: 202-633-8754 | *:
HejnalA@si.edu<mailto:
HejnalA@si.edu>
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From: Advancement Services Discussion List <
FUNDSVCS@LISTSERV.FUNDSVCS.ORG> On Behalf Of Semere-Ab Abiyo
Sent: Tuesday, January 8, 2019 5:39 PM
To:
FUNDSVCS@LISTSERV.FUNDSVCS.ORG
Subject: Re: [FUNDSVCS] Question about language in letter that accompanied a gift
We treat gifts with the slightest of restrictions as restricted and put them in a fund on their own or in a fund with similar restrictions, if any. This one will be placed in its own fund or in an existing fund that may fit its restrictions. I doubt we have any existing fund for this type of restriction.
In reality and for spending purposes, this gift is highly flexible and borderline unrestricted. Whoever uses the fund, i.e., the president, VP etc... will have a lot of flexibility within the limitations. But for the purpose of audit, fundraising and other reports, it will be classified restricted.
Semere.
Semere-Ab S. Abiyo, CPA, CGA, CPA (US)
Director, Alumni and Donor Services
Division of University Advancement, University of Toronto
J. Robert S. Prichard Alumni House
21 King's College Circle
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3J3
E-mail:
semere.abiyo@utoronto.ca<mailto:
semere.abiyo@utoronto.ca>
Tel: +1 416 978-4886
Fax:+1 416 978-1066
________________________________
From: Advancement Services Discussion List <
FUNDSVCS@LISTSERV.FUNDSVCS.ORG<mailto:
FUNDSVCS@LISTSERV.FUNDSVCS.ORG>> on behalf of Marianne Pelletier <
marianne@STAUPELL.COM<mailto:
marianne@STAUPELL.COM>>
Sent: Tuesday, January 8, 2019 5:25 PM
To:
FUNDSVCS@LISTSERV.FUNDSVCS.ORG<mailto:
FUNDSVCS@LISTSERV.FUNDSVCS.ORG>
Subject: Re: [FUNDSVCS] Question about language in letter that accompanied a gift
I would: they restricted the gift to programs.
Marianne
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 8, 2019, at 5:14 PM, Carper Stephanie <
stephanie.carper@us.mcd.com<mailto:
stephanie.carper@us.mcd.com>> wrote:
We recently received a gift from a family foundation. The gift was accompanied by a note that included the following statement:
"We would like for this contribution to be used exclusively for your organization's main purpose, and not for miscellaneous mailings, fund raising etc."
Would you take this language to mean that we cannot put the gift into an unrestricted fund?
Thank you,
Stephanie
Stephanie Carper | Development Manager, Major and Planned Gifts
Ronald McDonald House Charities, Inc.
110 N. Carpenter St, Chicago, IL 60607-2101
Cell: 312.520.8370
stephanie.carper@us.mcd.com<mailto:
stephanie.carper@us.mcd.com> |
www.rmhc.org<http://www.rmhc.org>
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