Donor Bill of Rights

Phil­an­thropy is based on vol­un­tary action for the com­mon good. It is a tra­di­tion of giv­ing and shar­ing that is pri­ma­ry to the qual­i­ty of life. To ensure that phil­an­thropy mer­its the respect and trust of the gen­er­al pub­lic, and that donors and prospec­tive donors can have full con­fi­dence in the non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions and caus­es they are asked to sup­port, we declare that all donors have these rights:

1. To be informed of the orga­ni­za­tion’s mis­sion, of the way the orga­ni­za­tion intends to use donat­ed resources, and of its capac­i­ty to use dona­tions effec­tive­ly for their intend­ed purposes.
2. To be informed of the iden­ti­ty of those serv­ing on the orga­ni­za­tion’s gov­ern­ing board, and to expect the board to exer­cise pru­dent judg­ment in its stew­ard­ship responsibilities.
3. To have access to the orga­ni­za­tion’s most recent finan­cial statements.
4. To be assured their gifts will be used for the pur­pos­es for which they were given.
5. To receive appro­pri­ate acknowl­edge­ment and recognition.
6. To be assured that infor­ma­tion about their dona­tion is han­dled with respect and with con­fi­den­tial­i­ty to the extent pro­vid­ed by law.
7. To expect that all rela­tion­ships with indi­vid­u­als rep­re­sent­ing orga­ni­za­tions of inter­est to the donor will be pro­fes­sion­al in nature.
8. To be informed whether those seek­ing dona­tions are vol­un­teers, employ­ees of the orga­ni­za­tion or hired solicitors.
9. To have the oppor­tu­ni­ty for their names to be delet­ed from mail­ing lists that an orga­ni­za­tion may intend to share.
10. To feel free to ask ques­tions when mak­ing a dona­tion and to receive prompt, truth­ful and forth­right answers.