Hi, Julie --
It's not unusual for museums to obtain or fabricate "props" which is how I've always thought of the item/object/specimen in the type of situation you are describing. They are similar to the props a theater company or set designer on a film would use to make a scene more realistic. (Unaccessioned items is a mouthful and probably meaningless to most people outside the profession. If there's a better word out there, would someone reading this please share it?)
The purpose would be to add content or context to an exhibit. There are a variety of reasons why such props would be used -- no original item is available/affordable, the original is too fragile to withstand exhibits, the item is of a sort of murky provenance (such as an undocumented loan). Such items would not be accessioned, unless a separate catalog of unaccessioned items is maintained for inventory or financial and tax-reporting purposes, because they would not be kept once the exhibit has been replaced.
It make sense to use whatever internal form you use for other types of donations, just cross off any information that would indicate an item has actually been accessioned and cataloged.
In the matter of the donor's tax deduction for the gift, the IRS requires that you keep the item for 3 years. If you dispose of the item before the 3 years have passed (because it breaks down, for example) there's a special form to report this. The IRS web site has forms, instructions and publications -- go to the bottom of this page for donations:
http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=99186,00.html
Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI
--- On Sat, 9/13/08, Julie Blood <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The museum I work for borrows its artifacts from a
> city/county repository. Recently the museum was given some
> printing equipment to be used in one of our exhibits, which
> is also a working print shop. We cannot accession any
> donations and the city/county repository does not want them
> because they already have a lot of printing equipment in
> their collections.
>
> Has anyone come across this before? We want to accept them
> into the museum so they can be used in the print shop as a
> tool. I believe the donor understands this, but I was told
> to create a form that specifically informs the donor (in
> writing) that these items will be used as tools in the
> museum and will not be part of the collections. Can I just
> use a Deed of Gift form and make the stipulation that these
> items will not be accessioned and will be used on a daily
> basis in the shop? Also, we are a non-profit organization,
> can this type of donation be used for tax deductions?
>
> Thanks,
> Julie
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