I haven't seen quasi endowments discussed... Could someone direct me to more information about them?
As background - we just received an unsolicited and unexpected gift from a bequest restricted to "setting up an endowment" (the executor has given the Board leeway in setting up true or quasi endowment). To make an informed decision we need more information about quasi endowments.
Because our individual donor development is weak (though growing) and our federal grant funding may change in the future, the quasi endowment seems attractive. We would set up a restrictive policy so that we don't raid the corpus for non-emergencies; yet, we need the flexibility of using the corpus should the federal grant funding disappear before our donor development efforts are strong enough to manage the gap in funding. Strengthening our donor development is a key part of our strategic planning to reduce our reliance on federal funding. Further, our 5-10 year goal is to create a true endowment. Setting up the quasi endowment would seem to be a short-term solution to this restricted gift and a way to prevent a possible funding crisis.
That said - we need more information about quasi endowment (how they work, etc.) and the general legal/tax/fundraising/administrative/investment implications so that we can ask the right questions to our lawyer and to investment firms.
Is there a good resource out there? So far, I've only found basic definitions and policies created.
