Nonprofits Decline Gifts With Too Many Strings or Misaligned Values, Survey Finds

Forty percent of nonprofits have declined a gift, according to a new survey, and the most common reason cited by those nonprofits (39 percent) was that it came with too many strings attached.

Asked for examples, one nonprofit official said a donor wanted the organization to start a program that did not align with its mission. Another said it declined a donor who wanted too much control over the organization.

The data is from a survey by the Center for Effective Philanthropy.

The second most common reason listed for denying a donor (27 percent) had more to do with the practicality of the contribution: the gift would have been too hard to liquidate or would have been a liability. One respondent declined a gift of property because the land could not be redeveloped and the existing building was too expensive to renovate. Another respondent declined a “collection which would have cost more to archive and clear out than it would have brought in for the organization.”

The third most common reason (26 percent) was a conflict between the donor’s values and the values of the recipient organization.

When the entire pool of participants were asked why their organization might decline a gift in the future, the top concerns were similar. Thirty-nine percent said they would turn down a gift if it had too many conditions, and 39 percent do so if the donor’s mission or values conflicted with the organization’s. The third most commonly cited reason was hard-to-handle assets, at 20 percent.

The Center for Effective Philanthropy gathered responses from 419 nonprofits with annual expenses ranging from $100,000 to $88 million. The surveys were completed by CEOs, development directors, or finance directors. The participating organizations had received at least one grant from a foundation that gives $5 million or more a year.

Gift-Acceptance Policies

According to the survey, only 55 percent of nonprofits have a gift-acceptance policy of any kind. Of those, 86 percent say their gift-acceptance policy is documented.

The survey also found that:

• 68 percent of nonprofits reported their staff had discussed criteria under which their organizations would decline a gift, and 64 percent said their board had discussed similar criteria.

• Among groups that have previously declined a gift, 67 percent had turned down a contribution from an individual, 35 percent from a corporation, 11 percent from a foundation, and 8 percent from a government source.