The lightbulb moment for me in these conversations is a thing called “donor intent” and “substantial return benefit”.  Both are tax concepts donors/non-profits have to consider for their own tax reporting purposes.  Donor intent sounds like a squishy term, particularly since we don’t see “intent” on the sponsored side of the house, we see rules and regulations, ha!  But intent amounts to the same thing – the donor intends for the gift/grant/award to be philanthropic.  If there is no substantial return benefit to the donor (like IP or something with real monetary value), it meets the purposes of donor intent.  Financial and technical reports are not a monetary benefit.   

 

From a recipient perspective, we end up figuring out who can best handle the reporting and compliance requirements of the project, and our development/advancement folks help to make that process smooth for the relationships they have built. 

 

It’s definitely not easy!

-LS  

 

From: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org <xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org> on behalf of Betcher, Gina <xxxxxx@oregonstate.edu>
Date: Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 9:26 AM
To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org <xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org>
Subject: [EXT]RE: [RESADM-L] Philanthropic grants

External Email

Gosh, yes, thank you Michael.

 

Gina Betcher, MFA 
Research Coordinator

College of Liberal Arts

Oregon State University 

xxxxxx@oregonstate.edu

for CLA Research Support 

From: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org <xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org> On Behalf Of Michael Spires
Sent: Tuesday, December 5, 2023 7:36 AM
To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org
Subject: RE: [RESADM-L] Philanthropic grants

 

[This email originated from outside of OSU. Use caution with links and attachments.]

Hi, Tom—

 

Only at every university I’ve ever worked for. And at the Smithsonian, too.

 

Joking aside, and as the fact that I think every research administration conference I’ve ever attended has included a session on the difference between gifts and grants attests, the distinction isn’t as clean cut as many people think. Take the Shubert Foundation for an example. You have to submit a proposal to them to be considered for funding – but they don’t ask for a project budget (just the previous year’s box office receipts). You can’t even identify a prospective amount of funding. If they like the proposal, they decide on a number, and then they give it to you as an unrestricted gift – you aren’t even required to acknowledge their support in programs or the like.

 

By contrast, Google has (or used to) a program for early-career investigators that all of their materials repeatedly call an unrestricted gift – and then goes on to detail the forty-‘leven ways in which it is totally not unrestricted or a gift. You have to identify one of their people to sponsor the project, you have to submit a work plan, you have to include a detailed budget (that has restrictions both on how much you can ask for and how you can use the funding), you have to provide both technical and financial reports, and if there are funds left over at the end of the project, you have to give them back.

 

In between those two extremes, there’s a lot of grey areas. Donors can restrict gifts in at least certain ways without shifting them from the gift side to the sponsored projects side of the ledger. Where we’ve been drawing the line is whenever there’s anything in the agreement that involves any of the following:

·         Research compliance issues (human or animal subjects, biohazards, export controls) – advancement just doesn’t have the expertise or the personnel (or the systems) to handle these issues

·         Any form of consideration that changes hands (generation of a report, for example) – that’s clearly a sponsored project, because the donor/sponsor is getting something material in exchange for the money

·         Any form of financial or technical reporting – again, advancement isn’t set up to do those things

 

Michael Spires, M.A., M.S., CRA
(He/him/his)

Research Development Officer

The Research Office

Oakland University

527 West Wilson Hall

371 Wilson Boulevard

Rochester, MI 48309-4486

(248) 370-2207

xxxxxx@oakland.edu

Past President, National Organization of Research Development Professionals

 

The best way to get in touch with me continues to be via email: I am working a hybrid schedule.

 

Note: I will be on vacation beginning the afternoon of December 15 through December 20. Oakland University will be CLOSED for the winter holiday from December 21 through January 2.

 

Oakland University resides on the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Anishinaabe, known as the Three Fires Confederacy, composed of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi. The land was ceded in the 1807 Treaty of Detroit and makes up southeast Michigan.

 

From: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org <xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org> On Behalf Of Thomas C Dowling
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2023 10:10
To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org
Subject: [RESADM-L] Philanthropic grants

 

Hi, RESADMIN Braintrust!

 

Do any of you have experience dealing with a College leader, where they would like to create a separate category for "philanthropic grants"? 

Our current grants policy makes it pretty clear that we have 2 categories: Sponsored Project vs. Gift/Donation, and each is managed by a separate VP side of the house. Have you had any situations where funding didn't fit in either of these 2 categories? If so, how was that managed? 
Thanks!

Tom

 

-------------------------

Thomas Dowling

Ferris State University

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

ORSP's FY2023 Annual Report Now Available!

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