Are universities the only ones who charge a fee to make a donation?

[+ SundayZip]

It's unfortunate that the OP's post and his title for the post are misleading, implying that UCLA charges a fee over and above the amount of the donation.  As others have replied, there's administrative overhead in managing all charitable funds and UCLA may simply be disclosing the amount of the donation that is directed to administrative overhead.  Also possible, UCLA is using an outside organization to manage the charitable donations and the organization takes a fixed percent of donations in payment for its services. This thread caught me like the usual internet click-bait, stating something so unbelievable that I had to click and see for myself. 

[coriolis888]

14 minutes ago, SundayZip said:

It's unfortunate that the OP's post and his title for the post are misleading, implying that UCLA charges a fee over and above the amount of the donation.  

As others have replied, there's administrative overhead in managing all charitable funds and UCLA may simply be disclosing the amount of the donation that is directed to administrative overhead.  Also possible, UCLA is using an outside organization to manage the charitable donations and the organization takes a fixed percent of donations in payment for its services. This thread caught me like the usual internet click-bait, stating something so unbelievable that I had to click and see for myself. 

Plus one 

[Guest]

I apologize if anyone found the title misleading. It's just that I was taken aback that I wasn't allowed to make a straight donation for a specific purpose, but rather that I was required to also donate to the general fund. I have made donations to the university before and put it in the "Chancellor's Choice" fund (general fund). For me, this is simply a matter of being charged a fee from my intended donation. I suspect that they have to disclose this (it was in the agreement they sent me), as otherwise I suspect others would have taken them to task (i.e. court). It's only fair and decent for them to disclose this.

[+ Charlie]

Since it sounds like you are setting up a fund for a specific purpose, rather than donating to an existing program, it will create extra expenses for the university to administer it, so it is not unreasonable for them to let you know how much of your donation they will set aside for that purpose. They will have to advertise in some way that such scholarships are available and recruit recipients, and vetting the applicants sounds a lot more complicated than something as simple as verifying the financial resources of more typical scholarship applicants. Moreover, unless you want the whole sum to be disbursed at once, the administrative expenses will be ongoing, because the money will have to be invested to keep the fund solvent for future years.

I have no way of knowing whether the 6.5% is an appropriate charge or not, especially since I don't know how substantial the sum is or how many scholarships you hope to offer.

Edited July 14, 2021 by Charlie

[EastCoastGuy]

11 hours ago, Luv2play said:

All of which proves that universities, besides being seats of learning and scholarship, are also businesses.

Very true. Large research universities are the  primary source for research and development in science, technology, and health care, especially fields like biotechnology, cyber security, quantum computing, and materials science. Gifts from donors don’t usually come near to the amount of funding from government and private grants. 

[+ FreshFluff]

5 hours ago, Charlie said:

Since it sounds like you are setting up a fund for a specific purpose, rather than donating to an existing program, it will create extra expenses for the university to administer it, so it is not unreasonable for them to let you know how much of your donation they will set aside for that purpose. They will have to advertise in some way that such scholarships are available and recruit recipients, and vetting the applicants sounds a lot more complicated than something as simple as verifying the financial resources of more typical scholarship applicants. Moreover, unless you want the whole sum to be disbursed at once, the administrative expenses will be ongoing, because the money will have to be invested to keep the fund solvent for future years.

I have no way of knowing whether the 6.5% is an appropriate charge or not, especially since I don't know how substantial the sum is or how many scholarships you hope to offer.

According to the text Unicorn quoted, the fee applied to all donations. I’d support a fee in the circumstances you describe.