SUBJECT:  Calendar Year-End Gift Handling Process

This is a reminder that special handling will be required of departmental personnel for all charitable gifts received by UCSD during the final days of calendar year 2003. 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 Processing Office, Mail Code 0940 (or delivered to 10300 North Torrey Pines Road, Second floor) as soon after they are received as possible. Departments should not hold checks or cash, and 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 Processing as usual. We will have staff available during the holiday season. Obviously, any gift received in Gift Processing prior to December 31, 2003 will be receipted as such.

For gifts made very close to, or at calendar year-end, which are not deposited or processed until January 2004, the IRS requires that charities be able to produce concrete evidence that donors relinquished possession of their gifts on or before December 31, 2003. 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, 2003 but was not able to send it to Gift Processing until January 2004; or 2) for gifts received through the U.S. Mail, the envelope bearing a postmark on or before December 31, 2003 must be retained with the gift and attached to the transmittal sent to the UCSD Gift Processing Office. In the absence of such evidence, the gifts will be receipted as having been made in 2004.

All calendar year end gifts to be receipted with a December 2003 date must arrive in the UCSD Gift Processing Office no later than January 9, 2004. For gifts sent to Gift Processing 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, 2003, the gift will be receipted as having been made in January 2004. This is a matter of great importance and economic consequence to donors. We appreciate your detail attention to this matter and thank you for your cooperation in processing these calendar year-end gifts.

                                                Sandra L. Stewart
                                                Manager
                                                Gift Processing