I won't pretend to be an expert but I don't see how this award could be
considered a charitable contribution by the company and I would not sign a
form that referenced such terms.  In my opinion once the company issued a
"document" be it in whatever format, they are receiving services and
therefore cannot consider payment a contribution.  Good luck!!

Paul Parker

>Scenario
>We have an internal research funding program whereby a PI submits a
>proposal to the "program" while also getting a commitment of support
>from an extramural sponsor (usually a commercial entity) who will, if
>the proposal is funded, share the costs of the research.  So, for
>example, Prof. Smith submitted a proposal to this program with a budget
>of $300K.  The University awards $200K to Smith for this research and
>the private sponsor kicks in the other $100K.
>
>The University receives the $100K via a research agreement as opposed to
>a gift.  This research agreement, among other things, includes a
>standard termination clause (any advanced funds not expended at the time
>of termination after considering all commitments and uncancelable
>obligations shall be returned to the sponsor) and intellectual property
>clauses that only grant the sponsor limited rights to use copyrightable
>works and which obligate us (to the extent we are legally able to do so)
>to enter into licensing negotiations with the sponsor should any
>patentable  inventions result from the work.
>
>After we executed the research agreement and received the check for
>$100K, the sponsor sent us a "receipt of a charitable contribution" form
>which we're supposed to sign and return.  The form asks us to indicate
>how much we received and what, if any, goods or services were provided
>in return.
>
>Question
>
>Should we sign/is there any harm in signing this form and sending it
>back to the Sponsor?
>
>Since we are a 501(C)3 organization, and since the $100K was for
>scientific research, and since the sponsor wasn't getting anything of
>real value from the "donation", I'm thinking that the IRS may in fact
>consider this a charitable contribution, even though INTERNALLY, we did
>not treat it as a gift.  However, my gut feeling is that we can/should
>sign and return the form, because in any event the burden is on the
>Sponsor to prove that this payment meets the IRS's requirements for a
>"charitable contribution", and all we're doing is providing formal
>information.
>
>Any insight would be greatly appreciated and may be sent to the list or
>privately at xxxxxx@srnet.ucla.edu.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Lesley
>Lesley K. Cephas, Industry Contract Officer
>UCLA Sponsored Research
>Los Angeles, CA  90095-1406
>Voice: (310) 825-1431
>Fax:    (310) 206-3619
>E-Mail: xxxxxx@srnet.ucla.edu
>http://www.research.ucla.edu/sr.htm

Paul C. Parker, Director
Sponsored Funds Administration
State University of New York
PO Box 6000
Binghamton, NY  13902-6000
607-777-6752   fax 607-777-4354
email:  xxxxxx@binghamton.edu