Skip To Main Content

District Home

District Home

Our Schools

Procedure for Accepting Grants and Donations

Gifts and Grants Acceptance Guidelines

Purpose:

This procedure shall establish an acceptance process for all grants, gifts, and donations received by any central office, network or school unit. Establishing the administrative requirements in this procedure will ensure the uniform implementation and management of all grants, gifts and donations, and also ensure that the District meets its responsibilities as the grant, gifts or donation recipient. The acceptance of a grant, gift, or donation should be equitable to all impacted parties, while aligning with the Fort Worth ISD mission, vision, and strategic plan. 

Board Policy

Acceptance Of Grants, Gifts and Donations 

Pursuant to CDC — Other Revenues: Gifts and Solicitations, When a gift or donation with a cost or market value of $10,000 or less is offered to a department, campus activity fund, or student activity fund, the Board delegates to the department head, principal, or sponsor, as applicable, the authority to accept unsolicited gifts on behalf of the District. However, any gift with a cost or market value over $10,000, any gift that the potential donor has expressly made conditional upon the District's use for a specified purpose, or any gift of real property, shall require approval from the Superintendent or designee. Once accepted, a gift becomes the sole property of the District. 

Procedure for receipt of grants:

It is the obligation of the receiving unit, to obtain and deliver to the Grants & Development Department in a New Grant Questionnaire for review and approval, all related grant documents, including, but not limited to: award letters, approved budgets, budget narratives, contracts and agreements, guidelines, reporting requirements, government funding sources, government checks, and non-governmental checks for salaries or consultants. Upon acceptance, the Executive Director of Grants & Development will send electronic notification to the receiving unit, and the Chief Financial Officer. 

Procedure for the receipt of donations:

All donors of charitable gifts to the District or individual school program will be provided with an acknowledgment of contributions from the District. These receipts will be generated automatically for electronic cash donations, or by Grants and Development or the Superintendent’s office where applicable, depending upon initiative. Coordination of all donations will be led by the Grants & Development Department.  

Donations are defined as a non-expiring gift, whether solicited or unsolicited, that is made to a campus, department, or the District as a whole, whether monetary or non-monetary in nature. Different classes of gifts have different guidelines and procedures for review and acceptance. 

Donations, whether in-kind or otherwise, shall be complete transfers of ownership, rights, privileges, and/or title in or to the donated goods and services and become exclusive property of the District upon delivery. 

Donations or gifts shall not be accepted that advertise or depict products that are prohibited by law for sale or use by minors, such as alcohol, tobacco, or other substances that are known to endanger the health and well-being of students, nor will donations be accepted from institutions that promote those substances or any others contrary to the values of public education. 

Monetary Donations:

$10,000 OR LESS 

All monetary donations of $10,000 or less will be managed by the receiving campus or department. Recipients of donations of $10,000 or less, unless funds are donated electronically, are responsible for issuing a Donation Acknowledgement Form to their donor. Superintedent initiatives will be managed by and acknowledged by the Superintedent’s office. 

ABOVE $10,000 

All monetary donations above $10,000 will be placed in a special revenue account and transfers and requisitions will be subject to approval by Grants & Development staff. Contact Grants & Development (link) upon notification of receipt of a donation for proper routing. Management & Budget is responsible for loading the funds in the appropriate budget lines with guidance from Grants & Development.  

The Budget Owner identified by the receiving unit to Grants & Development when requesting acceptance is responsible for:  

(1) the financial and performance oversight of the grant,  

(2) ensuring the correct loading of funds as defined by the funding agency and designated by Grants & Development,  

(3) monitoring grant fund spending activity within the approved budget,  

(4) delivery of goods and services prior to the grant end date and subsequent issue of payment prior to any reporting deadline for the grant period, and  

(5) resolving all un-reimbursable expenditures with any vendor. 

Non-monetary Donations:

All donations of goods or services are subject to vetting for alignment to District priorities, for safety or appropriateness, for evaluation of potential maintenance needs, and for the ability of the District to support such gifts. Recipients shall report gifts of goods and services by electronic means to Grants & Development within seven days of announcement of the donation by the donor, and may not take receipt of the item or items or utilize the services until vetting is complete and approval is granted in writing. 

Gifts defined as capital assets, such as vehicles, structures, equipment over $5,000, etc. must be reported for tracking as such. 

Action Steps for gifts of a non-monetary nature:

  1. Once the potential recipient is notified of an intended non-monetary gift, they must contact the Director of Development (link) within seven days.  

  1. The potential recipient must complete the appropriate approval form, whether for a vehicle (link), technology or equipment (link), or for any other non-monetary item (link). 

  1. Grants & Development will route the aforementioned forms to the appropriate parties for vetting and approval. 

  1. Once approval is obtained, Grants & Development will notify the intended recipient that they may take possession of the donation. 

  1. Grants & Development will issue a Donor Acknowledgement Form to the donor but will not assign a value for the item/items.  

  1. If a donation cannot be received for any reason, Grants & Development will notify the intended recipient and will issue a letter of explanation to the donor. 

  1. Donations above $5,000 or with a useful life of more than a year are considered a capital asset and will be reported to Financial Services through routing of the forms above. 

  1. For motor vehicles, once approved through Grants & Development, the title must be submitted to Financial Services prior to the receipt of the vehicle by FWISD, the campus, or department.