Gift Policy and Operations

We enable the creation, maintenance, and stewardship of UC Berkeley’s 11,000+ gift funds. We have three functional teams in our unit: stewardship, policy, and analysis.

Work across campus and UDAR to provide support in agreements, financial reporting, campuswide stewardship collaboration, policy, and educational outreach.
Communicate the impact of gift funds at UC Berkeley by creating stewardship reports that inform and inspire donors.
Manage gift acceptance, agreements, and policies to create and revise gifts and pledges on behalf of the UC Berkeley Foundation and UC Regents.
Mitigate risk to campus through the acceptance, reporting, coding, and maintenance of our funds.

Cal back to school

Gift Policy

Gift and Investment Accounting

Students walking in Sproul Plaza.

Analysis and Compliance

Gift Services

The Basics

Payments and supporting documentation must be reviewed to ensure compliance with the gift acceptance policy. Providing Gift Services with adequate documentation — gift letters, solicitations, written communications — helps answer these questions and process gifts more efficiently and effectively.

Gift Services must, at minimum, ask and verify the following:

Is there philanthropic intent?
Who is the legal donor?
Is there a stated donor intent, and does that intent align with established fund designations?
Are there stated terms and conditions that would prevent or complicate the acceptance of the payment as a gift?

The Basics

Payments and specific supporting documentation must be included and reviewed to ensure compliance with Berkeley’s gift acceptance policy.

Gift Services ensures this by asking and verifying the following for each payment:

Is there philanthropic intent?
Who is the legal donor?
Is there a stated donor intent, and does that intent align with an established fund designation?
Are there stated terms and conditions that would prevent or complicate the acceptance of the payment as a gift?

Gift Crediting

For a detailed explanation of our crediting standards, please visit our Practices for Crediting Donors page on Eureka for an overview of best practices.

Gift Data and Documentation Requirements

A gift, pledge, or payment is processed smoothly when a Gift Services’ analyst has the gift data and documentation they need to answer these questions and record a gift to Berkeley.

Providing Gift Services with adequate and timely gift, pledge, and payment data and documentation assists us greatly in ensuring the most efficient gift processing workflows for our donors and for you, our campus partners.

General Requirements

Gift Services needs the following gift data, and needs to verify that data with supporting documentation in order to record a gift to Berkeley:

The legal donor (and any associated donors)
The legal donor’s philanthropic intent
A giving fund that matches the donor’s intent
The gift amount*

*If the contribution includes both a gift and non-gift portion, we will need a breakdown of the gift that provides the gift amount, gift fund, non-gift amount, and non-gift chartstring.

Required Documentation for Specific Gifts

It is important that the required documentation for specific gifts be reviewed by Gift Policy and Operations and that all campus colleagues who work with gifts understand how and when to alert Gift Policy and Operations about potential gifts and submit specific gift solicitations to the team for review and approval.

Each link below includes guidelines or describes the correct process for submitting data and documentation for specific gifts, pledges, or payments to Gift Policy and Operations:

Faculty Research Gifts

Faculty Research gifts are directed to a specific research project led by a faculty member or are designated as general research support for faculty members. The links provide more information on research gifts, as well as a submission tool for faculty research giving:

Gifts to Berkeley

The following information contains links to content available to all Berkeley staff on the Eureka Advancement Intranet.

To ensure the timely and accurate processing of gifts, please familiarize yourself with the following before soliciting gifts to Berkeley:

Fund Types and Guidelines

To ensure gifts are spent as intended, we establish and manage specialized gift funds — both endowed and current use — that align donor intent with campus programs and priorities. The following links provide more information on establishing funds, as well as the guidelines and purposes behind fund types.

Transmitting Gifts and Gift Documentation Received in Campus Offices

The most secure ways for donors to give are outlined in Ways to Give

If you receive a gift or gifts in your office, please submit them to Gift Services via the appropriate process. (This link also includes a Ways to Give printable handout.)

Gifts via “Third Party” Fundraising Platforms

Gifts to Berkeley via third party typically create stewardship challenges and can create tax complications. Ready the following information about fundraising through “Third Party” platforms before considering this option, and get in touch with Gift Services as soon as possible if you have already engaged a third party fundraising platform.