Does your unit ever receive donated goods or donated services? If so, keep the following points in mind:
- Donations of tangible items and donations of services are classified as in-kind contributions. This is a type of charitable giving in which the contributions take the form of goods or services (as opposed to money) and where the donor receives no bargained-for-benefit and requires nothing in exchange (beyond an assurance that the intent of the contribution will be honored).
- In-kind contributions must be reported to the UI Foundation (UIF) via an applicable Gift-in-Kind Transmittal form.
- To ensure proper financial reporting, it is important to report these gift-in-kind donations on a timely basis (i.e., as soon as the donated good or service is received from the donor, and within the same accounting period and fiscal year that donated good or service was received).
- However, gift-in-kind donations should not be reported if the donated goods or services were simply pledged, and not yet received. Reporting to UIF should only take place once the in-kind donation has actually been received.
- Also, if the gift-in-kind is subsequently sold as a part of a charitable auction, then it is important to denote the appropriate gift and non-gift values of the good or service that was sold when reporting the proceeds to UIF on the applicable cash, check, or credit card transmittal form.
- For example, if a donated item with a fair market value of $100 is sold at a charitable auction for $500, then you would need to report:
- $100 of the payment as a non-gift (within the Designation Information section of the applicable transmittal form), and
- $400 of the payment as a gift (within the Designation Information section of the applicable transmittal form).
Contact
If you have further questions, feel free to reach out to UAFR’s applicable subject matter experts within the Gift Funds section of UAFR’s Who to Ask list.
In addition, the administrative staff at UIF can also assist with questions on this topic. They can be reached by phone at (217) 333-0675 or email at giftadmin@uif.uillinois.edu
