Sheila Hard
CharitablePlanning.com Author
Biography
Sheila A. Hard has over 30 years' experience in charitable gift planning. She began her career in the University of California system-wide Office of Development Policy and Administration, where she edited a policy and procedures manual. Her fundraising positions have included Associate Director of Planned Giving for UC Berkeley; Executive Director of the Episcopal Foundation of Northern California; Director of Planned Giving at California State University, Sacramento; and Director of Gift Planning at the University of New Mexico Foundation. She currently serves part-time as Senior Planned Giving Officer at the University of the Pacific (UoP). Sheila received her J.D. from UoP's McGeorge School of Law in 2009. While in law school she served as a consultant and wrote and produced an E-Bulletin aimed primarily at professional advisors.
Accepting Complex Gifts of Real Estate: A Builder's Guide-
Our Real Estate Gift Acceptance Procedure Manual was born out of necessity. This article will cover each phase of the acceptance process using examples from the recent gift of a retained estate for a term of years. We will take participants step by step from the beginning (initial donor interaction or proposal) through the "finish-line" (recording the deed and beyond). Phase one, the introduction, will cover how to have and document clear and consistent communication with the donor throughout the entire transaction; phase two will define due diligence and explain the importance of receiving conditional acceptance from leadership; and the final phase explains how to successfully close the real estate gift. Significant focus will be given to the importance of continuous donor communication, the gathering of key information and documents using templates, the importance of due diligence including utilizing real estate professionals such as brokers, title companies and appraisers, as well as how to create an organizational work-flow chart and template documents.