MEMORANDUM

To: Distribution

From: Ms. Yoke San. L. Reynolds, Vice President for Finance

Date: August 12, 2002

Re: Foundation Gifts of Property

This memo is to alert you to a problem recently brought to our attention and to ask for your cooperation in solving the problem.

The University has a policy and procedures for recording gifts of property received from donors outside of the University such as alumni, friends, and corporations. For more information on these policies, we refer you to University Policy IX.A.11. at http://www.virginia.edu/~polproc/pol/ixa11.html. The procedure is structured such that the donor gets a gift receipt and the University obtains the information necessary to record the property in the accounting records. We have learned that this property gift procedure is not being consistently applied to gifts of property received by University schools/departments from University-related foundations.

In the case in point, gifts of property that had been received by a particular school from its related foundation apparently were not reported to the Development Office as gifts. As a result, these gifts were not recorded on the University's accounting records. We became aware of this only because the property was stolen and an insurance claim was filed without evidence of University ownership. It is the responsibility of the department suffering the loss to provide evidence that the property belongs to the University in order to receive insurance compensation for the loss. Not recording such assets also results in understating the assests of the University.

Starting immediately, property from University-related foundations should be handled in a similar manner to gifts of property received from outside donors. This will improve our ability to record and manage property received from related foundations. The forms and procedures for receipting gifts of property are at:

http://uvaforms.virginia.edu/cgi-local/formsDir.cgi?submit=list

Please remember that the Office of University Development is the only office authorized to accept gifts on behalf of the University. Also, the Gift Accounting Department has sole responsibility for issuing tax receipts for gifts of property and signing any tax forms related to these gifts.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please contact Mike Lutz at 924-6027 if you have any questions about this policy, and/or procedures.