Donations

A donation is a voluntary and irrevocable transfer of property (including cash, securities, life insurance interest, art or real property) to the university in return for which no valuable benefit flows to the donor.

All donations and donation receipts are processed by the Office of Advancement through the Donation Deposit/Pledge Transmittal Form. All cheques for donations must be forwarded to the Office of Advancement on a daily basis. In rare cases where cash donations (bank notes and currency) are collected, units must deposit these through the Staff Service Centre (code to account 108131 - Clearing Campus Cash Donations) and must notify the Office of Advancement by submitting the Donation Deposit/Pledge Transmittal Form and copies of all supporting documentation to the Office of the Recording Secretary. Upon receipt and approval, Office of Advancement will process the donation.

Most university charitable fundraising activities are GST exempt; however, there are instances where GST may apply. Please contact the Office of Advancement to determine the correct treatment of GST for charitable fundraising activities.

Primarily all government funding received by the university is classified as a grant; however, in unique situations a government entity may provide a donation. These, like all other donations, must be sent to the Office of Advancement for processing.

Donation pledges are not recorded in the university's financial system until received, because a pledge is not legally binding. When the pledge donation is received, it is processed by the Office of Advancement. The Office of Advancement sends pledge reminders to all donors.

Note: The University's Advancement Fund Raising Report is based on counting guidelines outlined by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Also refer to UAPPOL - Counting Practices for Philanthropic Support Procedure. These allow for the counting of certain grants and sponsorship (which is an external sale) when reporting on fundraising achievement.

Also note: Grants are only processed by central service units (FS and RSO) and external sales of services and products (sponsorship) is processed by units and coded to revenue account 402182. They are not processed through the Office of Advancement.

Further information for administrators regarding donations is available on the Office of Advancement's Advancement Knowledge Net (KNET) secure site. If you require access to this site, contact recsec@ualberta.ca.

Links:

Advancement Knowledge Net (KNET)

Click on Fundraising Tools:

  • Gift Services (for all related forms)
  • Donation Tracker for information on status of particular agreements or requests
  • Donation Acceptance Tool Kit for procedural information

UAPPOL Policy and Procedures:

Donation Acceptance Policy

Donation Acceptance Procedure

Counting Practices for Philanthropic Support Procedure

 

Last Update: September 2016