Jill,
This is the very issue that's the big taboo. As I understand
it, IRS can pull your NFP status if they catch you providing
values to donors. You have to buck up and face down the
development office. After all, would they be happy to loose
the NFP status of the entire college? After all, as things
stand now, people can take a tax donation - they just have
to get someone else to assign the value. What you can do is
provide the form (8522???) that's been discussed here. You
do not fill out the value and state, above your signature,
that the values had not been filled in at the time you
signed the form.


On Fri, 31 Aug 2001 11:34:28 -0400
 "Jill P. Dixon" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> David & others....
>
> Actually, I should have clarified - I am in the small
> boat - that is,
> most of our donations are under $500 in value. We are a
> tiny museum at a
> community college. The college requires me to give a
> value to the
> donation so that the business office can send an
> acknowledgement to the
> donor. (The college receives a lot of cash donations, as
> well and so at
> the end of the year they also send out a thank you from
> the President).
>
> If I stop giving a valuation then my donations may dry
> up. We rely
> solely on donations for collections acquisition.
> Typically, 1 in 8
> donors wants some information for their tax records on
> what they've
> given. We (and usually they) are not in a position to
> find and pay for
> an
> appraisal on the items.  However, we don't give any value
> until we've
> accepted the item and gotten a our donation form signed.
> In the thank
> you letter we say "the museum has placed a value of $200
> on your
> donation" - then that is what the business office (which
> fills out all
> the
> pesky paperwork for the IRS forms) puts down. I am
> thinking of a
> disclaimer that says something about the fact that we
> aren't appraisers,
> etc etc.
>
> We NEVER offer any sort of monetary value on something
> when someone just
> "wants to know what it's worth" and do the song & dance
> about museum
> ethics & not appraising.
>
> Jill Dixon, Director
> SMC Museum
>
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