 |
|
|
December 13, 2002
Foundation info policy gets OK
by Linda Charles
The ISU Foundation has a new public information policy, approved by the
foundation's board of directors and released earlier this month.
"Since private gift support is an important part of student, faculty and
program success, we know that our many stakeholders deserve a clear
explanation of how information is handled," noted Peg Armstrong-Gustafson,
interim president and CEO. "We believe in openness and accountability."
The new policy divides information into three groups: "legally public," "not
public" and "voluntarily made public."
Legally, the foundation is required to disclose its tax returns for the last
three years, tax-exempt status forms, articles of incorporation and its
biennial report.
Under the policy, the foundation will not make public personal information
about donors, prospective donors and employees, and strategic and
competitive information. This includes:
- Personal information, such as donors' families or residences, or
financial information, such as net worth, stock holdings, estate plans, gift
amounts (unless the donor agrees gifts can be made public), and employee
information. (The foundation also will honor donors' requests to keep other
information private, even if normally that information would be released.)
- Strategic and competitive business practices, such as plans for
fund-raising campaigns or lists of potential donors.
The foundation voluntarily will make the rest of its information public,
although in some cases, information may be summarized to protect donor
confidentiality. For example, the foundation will provide information about
the total amount it spends to cultivate donors, but will not make public how
much was spent on a specific person. Information that will be public
includes:
- Administrative information, such as names of the foundation's
governors and directors, the foundation's by-laws and tax returns beyond the
required three years.
- Financial information, including the foundation's annual audit, annual
reports and operating budget summary.
- Information related to fund raising, such as guidelines for named
endowed positions and scholarships, gift acceptance policy and gift club
levels.
- Foundation investment information, including policies and financial
investments.
- Funds information, including the foundation's disbursement guide-lines
for endowments and the university's annual review of endowments.
The policy also requires foundation staff to help the public under-stand the
documents that are public. As part of that effort, Phyllis Lepke, vice
president for public information and legal affairs, will be the foundation's
public information liaison.
|
Ames, Iowa 50011, (515) 294-4111
Published by: University Relations,
online@iastate.edu
Copyright © 1995-2001, Iowa State University. All rights reserved.
|
|