Accept support that strengthens the mission and protects the Institute.

Acceptance Authority

Ordinary cash and online gifts may be accepted through approved fundraising and financial processes.

Complex, unusual, restricted, high-value, illiquid, encumbered, or potentially hazardous gifts should be reviewed by authorized leadership and, when appropriate, the Board of Trustees, legal counsel, tax advisors, appraisers, insurers, or technical specialists.

Restricted and Designated Gifts

Donors may propose that a gift support a particular program, field, facility, collection, scholarship, research purpose, or other mission-aligned activity.

The Institute should accept a restriction only when it is lawful, clear, administratively feasible, financially sustainable, consistent with the mission, and documented in writing.

Due Diligence

Review may consider title, ownership, liens, debt, environmental conditions, insurance, taxes, maintenance, marketability, authenticity, provenance, privacy, legal claims, security, export controls, and reputational risk.

• Confirm the donor has authority to transfer the asset
• Identify restrictions, obligations, or retained rights
• Estimate acquisition, holding, maintenance, and disposal costs
• Review conflicts of interest and related-party concerns
• Determine whether the asset can be used, sold, leased, or preserved lawfully

Valuation, Appraisals, and Tax Advice

Donors are responsible for obtaining their own independent legal, financial, and tax advice and any appraisal required to support a charitable deduction.

The Institute should not provide personal tax advice, guarantee deductibility, or assign a value to donated property beyond the acknowledgments and reporting required by law.

Real Estate

Proposed gifts of real property may require title review, appraisal, inspection, environmental assessment, zoning review, survey, insurance analysis, operating-cost estimates, and a plan for use or disposition.

• Identify mortgages, liens, leases, easements, or restrictions
• Review contamination, hazardous materials, and environmental liability
• Estimate taxes, utilities, maintenance, security, and capital needs
• Confirm the property supports mission or can be sold responsibly
• Document board approval for material transactions

Vehicles, Equipment, Collections, and Other Property

The Institute may consider whether personal property can be used in programs, preserved as part of a collection, sold without disproportionate cost, or transferred lawfully.

Items that require unusual storage, licensing, security, maintenance, hazardous-material controls, restoration, or specialized expertise may require additional review.

Intellectual Property and Digital Assets

Gifts of patents, copyrights, trademarks, software, data, domains, royalties, licenses, or digital collections should be reviewed for ownership, infringement risk, privacy, security, maintenance, revenue obligations, open-source terms, and continuing contractual duties.

Planned and Deferred Gifts

Bequests and beneficiary designations may generally be accepted subject to final review when the gift is received.

Trusts, life-income arrangements, retained life estates, and other deferred gifts should be reviewed before the Institute accepts legal, administrative, investment, or payment obligations.

Donor Recognition and Naming

Recognition should reflect the gift agreement, the Institute’s mission, the scale and duration of support, and any board-approved naming policy.

Naming is not permanent unless expressly approved as permanent. The Institute should reserve the right to modify or remove recognition when circumstances materially change, a program ends, a facility is replaced, or continued association would harm the mission.

When the Institute May Decline a Gift

A gift may be declined when it:

• Conflicts with the Institute’s mission or legal obligations
• Creates excessive cost, liability, risk, or administrative burden
• Contains restrictions the Institute cannot responsibly fulfill
• Threatens research independence or governance
• Involves disputed ownership, unlawful activity, or unclear provenance
• Could create improper private benefit or reputational harm
• Cannot be safely held, used, sold, transferred, or destroyed

Framework date: July 2026