Fundraising Policy

Knox College depends upon the ongoing and generous financial support it receives each year from alumni, friends of the College, local businesses, foundations, and other donors. These gifts provide financial aid for our students, salaries for faculty and staff, and other crucial operation expenses.

To ensure that this support continues and grows, it is essential the College be aware of all fundraising appeals that are in any way connected to Knox -- whether you may be fundraising for the College directly or fundraising through a Greek chapter, club, or organization for another non-profit organization. This communication is essential to assure that contact with various audiences does not inadvertently jeopardize our relationships with our important supporters. Whether as a student, faculty, staff, or College-affiliated organization, we all play an important role in these relationships, and we ask that you work with others at the College to maximize the results for all of us.

The purpose of this policy is to coordinate all fundraising efforts and to ensure that communications from Knox with donors are consistent with our overall needs and priorities. All fundraising efforts must support, and not compete with, the College's overall efforts to secure from these donors support for our annual operating needs and gifts to build the College's endowment and facilities.

Knox College Policy on Fundraising Appeals by Academic Departments, Programs, Student Organizations, or other College-Affiliated Groups

The Office of Advancement is responsible for coordinating the cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of donors and, therefore, oversees all fundraising appeals to any College constituents: alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff, friends, local businesses, foundations, and corporations. Two fundamental principles guide Advancement efforts:

1. that the College's overall interests take precedence over the special interests of individual departments, organizations, teams, clubs, fraternities, sororities, or other groups; and
2. that all fundraising on behalf the College must be in compliance with Sec. 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, which governs non-profit tax-exempt organizations.

The College recognizes that individual departments, organizations, teams, clubs, fraternities, and sororities have a need for occasional fundraising activities for the group's benefit or for the benefit of designated charities; however, multiple and overlapping solicitations to the same constituents may have unintended negative consequences. All such efforts shall be coordinated through Advancement.

The purpose of this policy is to enable fundraising to proceed productively, with your appeals complementing the College's fundraising priorities.

Thank you for reading and abiding by this policy.

I. Submission of Fundraising Proposals by Campus Groups
Any department, organization, team, or club (other than those mentioned in section B below) that plans to solicit among the College's constituents, whether for a gift for the College or for some other purpose, must, no later than two months before the solicitation is planned, submit the planning form to the Office of Advancement. View the form. Send the completed form to the Office of Advancement, Box K-230.

A. The form includes:

1. The purpose of the solicitation.
2. The identity (either by name or group affiliation) of those the group would like to solicit.
3. Information about how the group will make contact-e.g., direct mail, telephone calls, personal visits, e-mail, campus events, etc.
4. The proposed timing for the solicitation.
5. The dollar goal for the solicitation or the nature of the assistance desired (ads in programs, gift certificates, door prizes, ticket, etc.)

B. Fundraising Proposals by Affinity Groups: Fraternities, sororities, A.B.L.E., and other affinity alumni groups, such as the Chicago Lawyers Club, are groups that have an ongoing history of fundraising among Knox's constituent groups. They must follow the procedures and timing listed in Sec. A above and also work with the Office of Advancement.

C. Determination: Advancement will approve the solicitation proposal as submitted, make recommendations regarding its timing, method of solicitation, or other aspect of the proposal, or may deny permission to proceed at that time. A denial will include explanation of why the request was turned down.

D. Response: Every effort will be made to respond promptly to inquiries, recognizing that there are times when Advancement may need to obtain approval from other campus representatives.

E. Recognition and Stewardship: Stewardship is an essential component of fundraising. All campus groups that receive contributions -- either of cash or of the type of in-kind items listed in A5 above -- should report the contribution to Advancement. If public recognition of donors is part of your plan (brochure, plaque, advertisement), please share the list of donors and the verbiage for the recognition piece with the director of advancement communications (Megan Scott, ext. 7760) to assure correct spelling of donor names, class years, etc. The procedures for processing and acknowledging gifts will be determined with the Office of Advancement in response to the student fundraising form or meeting.

II. Black-Out Periods
No fundraising appeals from departments, organizations, teams, clubs, fraternities, or sororities may occur during November, December (end of the calendar year) and May, and June (end of the College's fiscal year). These "black-out" periods are the times when the College is concentrating fundraising among constituents in support of the Knox Fund and other College priorities. Such a black-out period is typical across most colleges and universities.

III. Soliciting on behalf of Individuals
Knox College prohibits the use of College trademarks and College-provided or College-originated contact lists (mailing lists, phone lists, e mail lists, directories and the like) for the solicitation of funds to benefit specific individuals as individuals do not have designated non-profit status. This does not preclude fundraising efforts to recognize an individual associated with the College where the resulting funds are used to benefit the College (e.g. classroom to honor a retiring faculty member or a book fund to memorialize a deceased staff member or student). All such fundraising efforts do come under this policy and should be coordinated through Advancement.

IV. Applying for Grants
The College encourages faculty members to seek grant support and is eager to assist. All proposals to government agencies or private organizations for grants in support of research, creative work, or educational purposes must be coordinated through the director of corporate and foundation relations (Sandra Mehl, ext. 7793). Most grants are made to Knox College, not to individuals or unincorporated groups, and constitute a contract between the College and the granting agency. Therefore, all proposals for such grants must be approved by an officer of the College (president or vice president). The director of corporate and foundation relations will coordinate such approval.

With rare exceptions (specific scholarships and fellowships), government agencies and private organizations do not make grants to undergraduate students or student organizations, and Advancement cannot normally assist individual students or student groups in identifying grant opportunities.

V. Separately Organized Groups/Associations for Which the College Provides Infrastructure Support
From time to time, there will be groups and associations, separately organized from the College, for which the College believes it advantageous to provide limited infrastructure support. This support can include physical space on campus, agency accounts in the business office, etc. These groups and associations should not interpret this support as a commitment by the College to undertake or facilitate their separate fundraising ventures, or as authorization to solicit Knox College alumni and friends.

VI. Education and Campus Outreach
Advancement staff will communicate during each academic year with the heads and advisors of organizations, departments, teams, clubs, fraternities, and sororities to review this fundraising policy, remind potential applicants of the deadlines and blackout periods, and describe the types and level of support that Advancement can provide.

VII. Exclusions from Policy
This policy does not prohibit or limit in any way fundraising efforts by departments, organizations, teams, clubs, fraternities, or sororities that take the form of advertising in publications or programs; car washes; sales of baked goods, calendars, trinkets, t-shirts; ticketed performances; personal chore services, etc., in which the buyer of such goods or services receives a tangible benefit as a result of the transaction. Because of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations, the College cannot issue gift receipts for these transactions.