We assess a 5% fee at the time the gift is received. Here are my thoughts:
Flat fee: There are some campus agreements for 0% or 2% fee that were allowed in the past, both donor and fund-specific. The fee split is built into our appeal code, so there are times where the 0% 2% and 5%. As you may imagine this causes extra processing and adjustment work for our gift processing staff. My only suggestion would be to apply the same fee across the board so that all funds, appeals, and donors are handled in a streamlined way.
Policy: A policy around the gift fee and what it accomplishes for fundraisers and donor education. In the rare instance a donor/fundraiser advocates for fee waiver we require VP approval and usually require the department to pay the fee on behalf of the donor. Usually, this is alarming for the department and they work to educate the donor. We also write the fee into gift agreements "a gift fee, currently 5%, will be assessed on all gifts to this fund".
Calculation tool: We also provide a calculator to help back-calculate the 5% to ensure the gift is enough to cover the intended purpose (hint, the gift is not 105%) so if a donor wants the department to receive $10,000 the gift is not $10,500 it is $10,526.32
| Reverse gift calculator |
|
|
| Donation |
|
10,526.32 |
| Gift fee |
5.00% |
(526.32) |
| Donation after Gift fee |
|
10,000.00 |
Happy to chat more if you have additional questions about our experience and how we handle it.
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Jayme Fancher
San Diego State University
jfancher@sdsu.edu
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-16-2024 10:02 AM
From: John Taylor
Subject: Considerations for Implementing Gift Fees
I continue to speak frequently on this topic. There is a little new, although I see fee growth in both use and amount.
Many institutions overlook that a fee on endowment earnings can also affect the formula. Those fees are often much easier to implement!
John
John H. Taylor, Principal
John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
2604 Sevier Street
Durham, NC 27705
919.816.5903 (cell/text)
Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987
Original Message:
Sent: 12/16/2024 10:57:00 AM
From: Emily Brock
Subject: Considerations for Implementing Gift Fees
Hello,
Our administration is currently considering implementing a gift fee of 5% on all new gifts in FY26. We know that gift fees are standard practice at many universities but this will be the first time we are instituting something like this at our university. I've reviewed the 2017 Best Practice on Advancement and Campaign Funding document available on the KnowledgeBase, which has a lot of good information. We just wanted to ask if there are any other considerations that have arisen since 2017 that we should be aware of as we work to implement a new gift fee. Thanks!
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Emily Brock
Grand Valley State University
brockemi@gvsu.edu
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