When your organization accepts a donation, does it first consider the source of the donation?
The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund did just that when it turned down more than $250,000 in gifts last year from organizations founded by sons of Bernie Madoff. The Fund isn’t making public why it rejected the funds, but possible reasons could include the bad press that follows the Madoffs everywhere or bankruptcy trustees recently “clawing back” donations of funds distributed by the foundations to make ponzi scheme victims whole.
Regardless, this is a good reminder for your nonprofit to create a policy setting forth the considerations that should be made when accepting donations, especially those that are in-kind, and to follow that policy.