Both institutions I've worked for are fairly small and grants are not a frequent occurrence. As a result, the respective advancement offices have handled recording them inconsistently and I've never had an opportunity to learn a great deal about the specifics of how they should be recorded and counted. Now that I'm in a more senior role and we have received a grant, I need to learn more! Please, enlighten me and/or point me to some resources so that I can educate myself. I have already reviewed the Knowledgebase article "Best Practice in Gift Administration – Gifts versus Grants versus Contracts," and I understand that it is typically acceptable to record grant payments as gifts, but are there any stipulations to this? Particularly if the grant is from a government entity (in this specific case, NASA) and we are drawing funds after expenses are made?
In my limited experience, we have recorded grant payments as gifts in advancement, but this time around I'm receiving pushback from our controller insisting that it be recorded as income rather than a gift (and yes, I know finance may have a different preference than we do).
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Gabrielle Read-Hess
Coe College
greadhess@coe.edu------------------------------