Best Tools and Practices
The WFAA Gift and Fund Management team provides a robust array of financial services, tools, and practices, including:
- Processing gifts quickly and accurately to help ensure the donor’s intent. This protects the relationship with the donor and the campus’s responsibility in receiving the gift.
- Providing fund services like providing direct fund approvals, ensuring fund intent is accurate, setting up new funds in our system. The university has a responsibility to collaborate to guarantee that the fund is what the campus wants, needs, and can abide by.
- Reporting and evaluating funds to help UW–Madison makes better financial decisions about their budgets and money they have on key programs.
- Reviewing funds through fund agreements to ensure they are being used or closing them when drawn down.
How To
To begin disbursement requests, the approved individual by UW–Madison’s financial managers must be walked through their assigned channels. Let WFAA guide you through this process and show you the ropes on how to deposit a gift, set up a fund, withdraw funds, and more.
With WFAA’s recent launch of a new financial system FAST, some of our articles may be out of date. We are working to make updates as soon as possible. Please contact help@uwadvancement.org if you have any questions.
Within the Gift and Fund Management website, you can view fund detail information as well as create a variety of reports. This shows you more about what information can be found about a fund and various reporting available to you.
The Gift and Special Deposit Form is used to submit gift information. The form is completed through the Gift and Fund Management website, printed, and mailed to the UW Foundation, US Bank Lockbox.
With WFAA’s recent launch of a new financial system FAST, some of our articles may be out of date. We are working to make updates as soon as possible. Please contact help@uwadvancement.org if you have any questions.
Use the Gift and Fund Management website to create a printable check request. Note that only one check or ACH transfer will be generated for each check request.
The Gift and Fund Management website allows you to edit and review submitted check requests. This shows you the procedure to do so.
Donor Intent
Understandably, donors care about where and how their gifts are used. Thus, understanding donor intent is important to enhance and accomplish WFAA’s goals. For example:
- To accept any gifts, documentation is needed to clearly communicate the donor’s wishes.
- Honoring donor intent not only helps campus fundraisers work within the legal sphere, but also increases credibility with donors.
- By following the donor’s intent and transferring donors’ gifts into funds, there’s potential to raise more money since the funds provide focus.
Policies
Gift and Fund Management policies are designed to help both the WFAA financial team and the university navigate these complex processes. See more about this specific host of laws and regulations as well as other WFAA policies.
UWF is responsible for recording and receipting all gifts and pledges in accordance to Internal Revenue Code (IRS), Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) regulations. The purpose of this Policy is to address the types of gifts UWF can accept, required documentation for each type of gift asset, any applicable minimum gift amounts required, and valuation of each gift type for purposes of recording in UWF’s gift records.
These guidelines are intended to provide our community partners (both individuals and organizations) with a general understanding regarding fundraising rules and regulations along with the scope of support that UWF’s Gift Services staff can provide for community partner fundraising events. These guidelines apply to all community partners who desire to hold an event where the resulting funds will be donated to UWF for the benefit of and to support the mission of UW–Madison, its affiliates, or UW Health (including UW Carbone Cancer Center).
With WFAA’s recent launch of a new financial system FAST, some of our articles may be out of date. We are working to make updates as soon as possible. Please contact help@uwadvancement.org if you have any questions.
This policy is based on the obligations of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA) as outlined in the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA). The highest level of stewardship and fiduciary responsibility is vital to maintaining trust with our stakeholders/donors. WFAA must therefore carefully consider donor intent and the principles of prudence and reasonableness when evaluating requests to reinvest spendable endowment income.
WFAA has a strong fiduciary responsibility to donors to ensure that gifts are used for the purpose for which they were given. Everyone, including university personnel, is responsible for respecting the sacrosanct fiduciary responsibility WFAA has to donors. Expenditures must be “ordinary, necessary, and reasonable” in relation to strengthening the university’s mission. Expenditures should be supportive of the university’s objectives and should not inure to the private or personal benefit of individuals entrusted to administer the funds against these standards.
The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA) only provides event and registration services for events that contribute to the shared advancement mission of the university and WFAA. WFAA registration services can be provided for campus-driven events that meet the eligibility requirements.
With this complex financial management system, the team relies on collaboration and a service mindset to meet the university’s needs.