Ethics in Practice: The AFP Code, the Donor Bill of Rights, and Gift Acceptance
What a donor is owed, what the profession has promised, and what to do when a gift should not be taken as offered. The reviewer's first look, and the module that makes the discipline's name true.
Through the Arts & Culture lens
Naming a gallery or a season after a donor is routine business for a museum or theater, which means a board objecting to a donor's reputation is not an edge case, it is a policy that needs settling before the offer arrives. Gift acceptance also runs straight into the cost-versus-value question every time someone offers a painting or a private collection, and the rule that a donor obtains their own appraisal while the organization acknowledges only what was received protects both sides from a well-meaning but improper favor.
Continuing education
1.25 points
Ethics, Accountability and Professionalism · Leadership and Management
Learning objectives
- State the ethical basis for asking in the profession's own terms and in The Fundraising Co.'s: a gift freely given is good for the giver, and the fundraiser's first duty is to keep it free.
- Apply the Donor Bill of Rights and the AFP Code of Ethical Standards to everyday decisions about solicitation, acknowledgment, donor data, and compensation.
- Decide, using a written policy, whether to accept a gift as offered, accept it with conditions, or decline it, and explain the decision to the donor with gratitude intact.
- Adopt a donor privacy standard covering what is recorded, who sees it, what is shared, and how a donor can see or correct it.
Designed for CFRE continuing education. Not yet accepted; no CFRE points can be claimed.
Lessons
- 20 min
Video lesson
What the donor is owed
I Pause · Ethics, Accountability and Professionalism
- 20 min
Field guide· PDF
Gift acceptance: when to say yes, when to say not like this, when to say no
III Discern · Ethics, Accountability and Professionalism
- 22 min
Template· DOCX
Gift acceptance policy and donor privacy standard (starter)
V Receive · Ethics, Accountability and Professionalism
- 16 min
Worksheet· XLSX
Ethics case drills: eight situations and the Code
III Discern · Ethics, Accountability and Professionalism
This is members-only material.
Members get every lesson, template, and worksheet in all eight tracks, plus the support to put them to work in your shop.
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