Solicitations and fundraising at UA

September 5, 2019

University Relations

As the new academic year begins, this is a good opportunity to remind everyone of the processes for handling and soliciting donations from the public and accomplishing fundraising events for university departments.

Per Board of Regents policy (05.14), all donations to the UA system are to be deposited with the University of Alaska Foundation. Send* all gifts to the UA Foundation as soon as they are received or within one business day. Any accompanying documents should be submitted with the donation. Please do not sign or fill out any accompanying paperwork, as it will be handled by the foundation.

Check law requires that because the UA Foundation is a separate legal, entity checks must be made out to the University of Alaska Foundation (or UA Foundation). Please keep this in mind when working with donors. Fund/gift designations may be noted via a cover letter or notation on the check's memo. If we receive a check made out to a university program, the bank will not accept the donation and the donor would have to reissue it.

The foundation must review and approve all solicitation forms before finalizing. Contact the foundation fund and gift services team via email at ua-foundationfundgift@alaska.edu or at 907-474-5987 (Gunnar Keizer, in the Fairbanks office) for this review and approval. This review applies to forms used in prior years that are being reprinted for use in a new year and any forms/email solicitations sent by UA volunteers, as regulations and guidelines often change from year to year. Online giving forms have all been transitioned to the foundation’s new NetCommunity platform; please also contact Amber Gichard at argichard@alaska.edu if your unit is looking to accept donations online. Foundation fund and gift services will also notify the campus development office, who will also communicate the UAF donor coordination policy, so they are aware of the solicitation and can provide additional guidance if necessary.

If you are planning a fundraising event to benefit any UA unit, your campus development office and the same campus-based foundation fund and gift services office mentioned above will need to be consulted well in advance of the event.

As we focus on the UA systemwide philanthropic campaign and fundraising across the system, we want to challenge your thinking about events. This is an opportune time to look at all of our outreach and development efforts with fresh eyes. You need not allow precedent to dictate the future. Let’s think beyond chicken/beef/vegetarian menus, raffle tickets and auction items. Systemwide, the UA Foundation supports over 40 events with a fundraising component each year. Leaders are often unaware of total staff time required for planning and execution, but event management uses valuable UA staff resources at all levels. Less than half of UA fundraising events raise $5,000 or more net of expenses, and some operate at a net loss every year. We encourage you to work with your university leadership, campus development office and the foundation to create meaningful ways to raise donor support.

If you have questions about these procedures, feel free to contact Gunnar Keizer directly at 907-474-5987 or gkeizer@alaska.edu. Please share this information with others.

*At UAF and Statewide, the campus courier service, U.S. mail and hand delivery to the Foundation’s Fairbanks office in Butrovich 106 are acceptable methods of transporting donations. Due to recent changes in gift acceptance, all donors should be directed to mail their donations directly to the Foundation’s office: 2025 Yukon Drive, Suite 106 Fairbanks, AK 99775.