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What are gift funds?

A gift is anything of value given to the university by an external party (donor) who expects nothing of significant value in return, other than acknowledgement of the gift and disposition of the gift in accordance with the donor’s wishes.

With a gift, there is no quid pro quo, exchange transactions, or deliverable obligations to the donor. The contribution is a nonreciprocal transfer in that there is no implicit or explicit statement of exchange, purchase of services, or provision of exclusive information. Gifts are irrevocable. For more info on gift funds, please see chapter 15 of The Guide. 

Your Available Balance

Gift funds are net asset, or cash-based, speedtypes; they are not budget-based. To check your available balance, you can run a Speedtype Summary or Operating Summary report in CU-Data. The available balance is calculated by looking at the cash balance on the speedtype plus any available balance on the linked foundation fund.

Linked Speedtypes

Most gift funds are linked to CU Foundation (CUF) funds. CUF is an independent, privately governed, non-profit corporation that was established to raise and manage funds for the benefit of the University of Colorado. Speedtypes are linked in a one-to-one relationship with a foundation fund. All the spending occurs on the speedtype and cash is wired from the foundation, assuming availability, to cover those expenses on a weekly and end-of-month basis. No department actions are needed to get this completed. Once a cash deficit occurs on the speedtype, the wire is triggered.

Spending on Gift Funds

One of the most important concepts for operating a gift fund is ensuring that your expenses and transfers adhere to donor intent. If a donor tells us we need to spend the funds on scholarships to students from Illinois, we need to spend it on those specific scholarships. We should not use those funds to fund faculty travel, office supplies for the department, etc. Failure to adhere to donor intent can cause our donors to ask for their gift to be returned and diminished gifts in the future.

Each gift fund has a gift purpose code (GPC) and a gift description. View a general description of  on the OUC website. To find the GPC and gift description in the PeopleSoft Finance System, follow this path:'

Main Menu> Set Up Financials/Supply Chain> Common Definitions> Design ChartFields> Define Values> CU Speedtypes> click on the 'Gift Attributes' tab

If there is a GPC 2 of Y, you can use these funds to purchase alcohol at official functions or CU-sponsored conferences. For more guidance on appropriate times to purchase alcohol, please see the policy on .

You can only complete cash transfers out of a gift fund to another gift fund or fund 71. In order to do this, the speedtypes must have compatible gift purpose codes. In other words, the speedtype you are transferring funds to must be equally or more restrictive than the one the funds are coming from.

Also, remember that fringe benefits are charged directly to the speedtype on any salary posted, but there are no other overhead costs such as GAIR or F&A.

Questions

• See the Accounting Handbook for guidance on .
• For access to Financial Edge, the CU Foundation reporting system, please email accounting@cufund.org.
• Any questions about managing gift fund speedtypes can be directed to Russ Jeans at russell.jeans@colorado.edu.