Recently, our university reorganized some campus departments into other colleges and eliminated others. Since then, we've used successor language in the criteria of our gift agreements to make funds sustainable long-term. Currently, we're working on an excellence fund for the Department of Botany. Here's the language:
- The Fund shall be used to foster excellence and provide financial support to the University of Wyoming Department of Botany (or the successor thereof). Uses of the Fund may include but are not limited to: faculty support, student support, program support, and equipment in or important for botany-related research on controlled plant environments.
At their discretion, the Department Head of Botany (or the successor thereof) may award money from the Fund for the purpose described above. If the Department Head of Botany (or the successor thereof) determines there is no eligible use during a particular year, in keeping with the Foundation's Investment Policy, money available from the Fund may accumulate and be used at a later time or may be permanently added to the corpus of the Fund.
The gift officer working with the donor believes the language is distracting, considering that the donor really wants to fund the Botany Department. The donor fears that the use of such language is an "out" for the University.
We do use an "out" clause in our agreements that looks like this:This Agreement may be amended at any time by written agreement signed by each party. If the Foundation Board of Directors determine that all or part of the gift cannot be used for the purposes outlined in this Agreement, after due consultation with the University of Wyoming President and the Donor, if possible, the Foundation may determine another purpose for the gift that is most nearly aligned with the Donor's original intent.
Is there a way to write the successor language into this out clause that would make the donor feel more comfortable?
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Elizabeth Jenkins
University of Wyoming Foundation
elizabeth.jenkins@uwyo.edu------------------------------