The Elements of a Good Gift Acceptance PolicyThe Elements of a Good Gift Acceptance Policy

Most charities have gift acceptance policies (GAPs). I’ve never seen a GAP I liked.

What’s a GAP?

Conceptually, a GAP deals with matters pertaining to a charity’s acceptance of gifts, involving money, credit cards, tangible personal property, marketable securities, life insurance, real property and so on.

In practice, the typical GAP prattles on about the charity’s mission, the charity’s adherence to ethical principles, how various gift arrangements work, a description (usually flawed) of date-of-gift rules and other matters irrelevant to gift acceptance.

Purpose of a GAP

A GAP has one purpose, which is to keep the charity and its development officers (DOs) out of trouble in the charity’s dealing with donors.

What sort of trouble? Well, for ex...