A pledge too far
Howard Lake | 24 January 1998 | News
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago is suing two donors who pledged a $5 million donation but who failed to hand over the money.
Paul and Camille Oliver-Hoffman had argued that their letter of intent was not contractually binding. Nonprofits do from time to time contest the estates of donors who pledged gifts but who did not deliver in their Will, but this is one of the first times that a nonprofit has brought a suit against a living donor. It is all a result of a change in US accounting regulations which requires nonprofits to record pledges as income.
See also Nonprofit Sues Trying to Enforce Board Member’s Pledge by Matthew Sinclair in the Nonprofit Times (March 1998).
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.