Gift agreement template

Most gift agreement problems are not disputes. They are omissions. A term everyone assumed was understood was never written down, and years later, when the people who understood it are gone, there is nothing to point to. This template is built around the clauses that most often go missing, so the agreement you sign says what you both actually mean.

Use it as a starting point and have your own counsel review anything that creates a real obligation.

The template

1. Parties and date. The full legal name of the donor and the institution, and the effective date of the agreement.

2. The gift. The amount, or a description of non-cash gifts, and the form it takes (outright, pledge, planned gift, gift of securities or property).

3. Purpose and restriction. Exactly what the gift supports, in specific terms. If it funds scholarships, say for whom and under what criteria. Vague purpose language is the single most common source of trouble a decade later.

4. Fund type. Whether the gift creates or adds to an endowed fund or a current-use fund, and if endowed, the spending policy that applies.

5. Naming. What is named, the exact form of the name, where and how it appears, and any conditions or review points attached to the naming right. Note how long the name lasts and what triggers a review.

6. Payment schedule. For pledges, the installment amounts and dates, and how reminders and receipts will be handled.

7. Reporting and stewardship. What the institution will report to the donor, and how often. Name the cadence explicitly (annual, at minimum) so the obligation is a date, not a good intention.

8. Variance and changed circumstances. What happens if the purpose can no longer be fulfilled. A variance clause that lets the institution redirect the gift to a related purpose, with a stated process, prevents a fund from becoming unusable when a program closes.

9. Amendment. How the agreement can be changed, and by whom. Require that amendments be in writing and reference the original.

10. Signatures. Signature blocks for the donor and an authorized institutional officer, with titles and dates.

What usually goes missing

If you take nothing else from this template, check these three before anyone signs. They are the terms most likely to be assumed rather than written, and the most expensive to have missing.

For more, read what belongs in a gift agreement file.

After it is signed

A template gets the terms right on paper. Keeping them right over the years is a different job. Once an agreement is signed, PaperlessZen™ reads it, files it against the donor, and pulls the obligations, the reporting dates, the naming conditions, the pledge schedule, into tracked dates, so the promises inside the agreement do not depend on anyone remembering them. See the whole workflow for gift agreements, or book a demo.