Written by Erin Delehanty.
NC State receives dozens of gifts of tangible and intangible property each year. Tangible property includes items like books, artwork, automobiles and livestock. Intangible property includes items like software, patents and copyrights. These gifts of property can be valuable to the university.
While the university and the university associated entities are both able to accept these types of gifts, these gifts are generally made to the university. The university is able to accept different types of assets because of their capital asset management system, insulation from liability and its ability to easily insure a variety of gifts.
Things to Consider
There are many things to consider when accepting a gift of personal property:
- Is this property related to the university’s mission?
- Will the university keep the property or sell it?
- Are there associated costs with accepting or keeping the property?
- Will the item be part of an auction?
- Does the donor need to obtain an appraisal for deduction purposes?
- If we sell the property, will that affect the donor’s deductibility?
Additionally, Gift Acceptance Committee approval is required prior to accepting certain types of gifts because of their complexity.
Prior to accepting a gift of personal property, be sure to review the rules for accepting the gift as well as the steps on how to manage the gift. Details can be found by visiting the Standard Operating Procedures for Acceptance of Gifts.