SUBJECT:

Receipt and Certification of Calendar Year-End Gifts

This is a reminder that special handling will be required of
departmental personnel for all charitable gifts received during the
final days of calendar year 1997. This is especially important for
divisions that close down during the holidays and have substantial
amounts of mail to process upon their return.

It is important that all gifts be delivered to the UCSD Gift
Administration Office, Mail Code 0940, as soon after they are received
as possible. Donors should be receipted and thanked for their gifts in
a timely manner. For those departments that remain open during the
holidays, we encourage daily transmittals to Gift Administration.
Obviously, any gift received by Gift Administration by December 31, 1997
will be receipted as such.

For gifts made very close to, or at calendar year-end, which were not
deposited or processed until January, the IRS requires that charities be
able to produce concrete evidence that donors relinquished possession of
their gifts on or before December 31. Otherwise, such gifts may not be
receipted as a TAX-DEDUCTIBLE charitable contribution for that tax year.
This evidence may take one of two forms: 1) for hand-delivered gifts, a
written attestation from a department representative stating that he/she
personally received the gift on or before December 31, 1997 but was not
able to send it to Gift Administration until January; or 2) for gifts
received through the U.S. Mail, the envelope bearing a postmark on or
before December 31, 1997. The envelope bearing the postal cancellation
date on or before December 31, 1997 must be retained with the gift and
attached to the transmittal sent to the UCSD Gift Administration Office.

All calendar year-end gifts to be receipted with a December 1997 date
must arrive in the UCSD Gift Administration Office no later than January
12, 1998. For gifts arriving in Gift Administration in January, if
either the hand-delivered attestation statement or the postmarked
envelope is not attached to the documentation as evidence of effective
delivery as of December 31, 1997, the gift will be receipted as having
been made in January.

Hospital personnel should follow the above guidelines, but forward gifts
to the Development Office, UCSD Medical Center, 8982.

This is a matter of great importance and economic consequence to donors.
Thank you for your cooperation in processing these calendar year-end
gifts.

Marlene D. Shaver Director