I'm glad that Charna has a good relationship with the Advancement Office,
but I would like to propose a more "formalized" decision rule for
categorizing foundation's and other donors' dollars as either gift or
grant(sponsored project).

It all depends on the donative requirement of the donor. If the donor,
foundation or individual, requires that the moneys be used for research and
a final report of the research effort be submitted at the end of the project
then it is a grant and must be processed by the Office of Grants and
Contracts. The idea is that the dollars come to the institution with similar
constraints as those that come from grants or contracts. If the faculty or
the institution does not have to report the results or progress of the
research activity, the dollars should be treated as gift and should be
handled by the Advancement Office.

This argument is of great importance during the preparation of the indirect
(facility and admin) cost rate proposal, a true gift account even though may
have the title "cancer research blah blah..." is not a sponsored account,
the recipient faculty has a lot freedom to spend the gift, such as on
scholarly or departmental research (instruction), proposal preparation,
admin, books, travel, supplies, and so on.

Hope this help, Louis.
>
>Nancy,
>at 12:50 PM 7/9/96 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Here at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro we have a rather
>informal (undocumented) working relationship with our Advancement
>Office.  Depending upon who the faculty member speaks to first, we both
>seach for private sponsors.  They keep us informed of sponsors with
>whom they are currently working or planning to work.  In turn we direct
>faculty interested in those sponsors or in need of a "gift" to the
>Advancement Office.  The Advancement Office routes proposals that are
>project oriented through us.
>
>Clear as mud, but it seems to work.
>
>
>Charna K. Howson
>Assistant Director
>Office of Research Services
>The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
>xxxxxx@fagan.uncg.edu
>910/334-5878
>fax: 910/334-3140
>
>
>
Louis Guin, PhD
Assistant Vice President
Office of Financial Analysis
University of Southern California
Univ Gardens Bldg Suite 107, Los Angeles CA 90089-8002
(P) 213 743-2454
(F) 213 748-0871
(e) xxxxxx@usc.edu