Kirstin:

This is not at all unusual, and mostly it just makes for a little more
paperwork.

Have your donor check with his tax attorney or his estate attorney, either
one should know how to draw up the papers; or if you have a museum attorney,
ask him/her how you need to amend your deed of gift.  I think you just have
him sign a deed of gift each year for another 25% until the gift is
finished.  To protect the museum's interest, ask him to leave any undonated
portion of the gift to the museum in his will (in other words, in case he
dies before the 4 years is up).  Some donors plan it that way: some
perecentage of the ownership at the time of donation, the rest comes to the
museum in a bequest.

Either way he'll have to pay an independent appraiser for a valuation (and
it's my understanding that he can also deduct the cost of the appraisal).
Personally I would also ask him to write a letter of intent for your files.

best,
Jill R. Chancey, Curator
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art
Laurel, MS
[log in to unmask]
(phone) 601-649-6374
(fax) 601-649-6379



----- Original Message -----
From: "Kirstin Holm" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 5:22 PM
Subject: fractional or partial donations


> Hello all,
>     I am looking for anyone who has experience with, or a policy for
> dealing with, fractional donations of collection objects. For example, a
> donor who wants to donate 25% of an interest in his collection of 100
> buttons in one year, so as to spread the tax benefits over as many years
as
> possible. The whole idea makes me very nervous, and I'd love to find out
> what other institutions may have done in those circumstances.
>
> thanks in advance for any help you can give!
>
> Kirstin Holm
> Registrar
> San Diego Historical Society
>
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