August 21, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
In an attempt to help colleges and private schools improve the accuracy of the fund-raising figures they report to the public, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, in Washington, has revised its guidelines for institutions.
Chief among the reasons for the changes was the need for better fund-raising comparisons between peer institutions that might count gifts in different ways, as well as the fear that news of a few big capital campaigns had caused donors to believe all institutions were less in need of assistance.
“Although only a score of institutions have successfully mounted or completed campaigns in excess of $1-billion thus far, the perception of many donors and legislators was that higher education was increasingly able to take care of itself and did not need their support as much as in the past,” wrote Vance T. Peterson, CASE’s president, in a memorandum to members explaining the changes last month.
As a result, the new guidelines stipulate that institutions should no longer count gifts and pledges that the donor has the ability to revoke. For example, if a donor retains the right to change the beneficiary of a charitable remainder trust — under which an institution receives the balance of the money in a trust after the donor dies — the gift should not be counted.
What’s more, educational institutions should report deferred gifts, usually money a donor has pledged to give after he or she dies, only at the amount the gifts will be worth when the school is expected to receive the money. Previously, institutions reported both the face value of the gift and its future value.
The guidelines also state that the total amount of deferred gifts promised to an institution should be listed separately from the sums a college or school expects to receive in the current year. The change is intended to show more clearly how much money institutions will realize now, and how much they will receive many years from now.
“The standards are about providing a level playing field with one set of rules that everyone can follow consistently to do true comparisons between schools,” says John H. Taylor, the council’s vice president for research and data services.
The guidelines are intended to cover fund raising in fiscal 2003-4 and beyond.
The new standards will be part of a book available this fall updating how institutions should record gifts. CASE Management and Reporting Standards: Standards for Annual Giving and Campaigns in Educational Fund Raising will be available for $46.95 for CASE members and $62.95 for nonmembers. To order a copy, contact CASE Books Order Department, Dept. 4022, Washington, D.C. 20042-4022; (800) 554-8536; or e-mail Bob Bolin, Books Associate, bolin@case.org.
