Birmingham First Endowment Board
Gift Acceptance Guidelines and Administrative Procedures

1. The Endowment Board welcomes and encourages gifts, bequests, trust distributions, and beneficiary designations directed to the Endowment Fund. Gifts may include, but not be limited to, cash, stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit, real estate, and personal property. The donor may transfer such property to the Endowment Fund by outright gift, life estate gift, or any one of several deferred giving arrangements (planned gifts).
2. The Endowment Board must approve any gift offered to the Endowment Fund before being officially accepted. Staff members directly working with and responsible to the Endowment Board may provisionally accept a gift subject to confirmation at the next meeting of the Endowment Board.
3. The Endowment Board cannot accept a gift that is designated to benefit or be channeled to an individual staff member of the Church or to any other individual.
4. The Endowment Board reserves the right to decline or otherwise refuse any gift offered to the Endowment Fund, with or without cause. Reasons that a gift may be declined include, but are not limited to, the following:
   • The Endowment Board does not believe it is in the best interest of the Church or Endowment Fund to abide by the restrictions placed on the gift by the donor.
   • The costs to maintain the gift, or to meet the restrictions placed on the gift by the donor, are deemed to be excessive for the Endowment Fund.
   • The gift is inappropriate or unrelated to the tax-exempt purposes of the Endowment Fund or the Church.
   • The gift may result in inappropriate or undesirable publicity.
5. Named Funds may be established in accordance with the Amended Endowment Resolution dated July 23, 2018 (for a copy, contact Shawn Lewis-Lakin at [email protected] or by calling 734-717-8947). The Church recognizes that the designated Purpose of a Named Fund is intended for an indefinite period. However, the Church further recognizes that the passage of time, or other circumstances, may make the conditions of such a designation impossible or impractical. Therefore, by a 2/3 vote of the Endowment Board, any such gift that has become impossible or impractical to administer may be transferred without condition or reservation to another existing endowment account, which has similar purposes. If an account with similar purposes does not exist, the funds may be placed in the General Endowment Fund.
6. If the Endowment Board determines that a restriction contained in any Named Fund is unlawful, impracticable, impossible to achieve, or wasteful, the Endowment Board may by a 2/3 vote of the Board release or modify the restriction, in whole or part. It is presumed that any individual or entity making a gift, bequest, or devise to the Endowment Fund is aware of the conditions of these guidelines and procedures. Therefore, no such gift shall fail or revert because of changed circumstances, which make the continued administration of any Named Fund impossible or impractical.