Frequently Asked Questions

Please see the most recent version of our Guidelines for Gift Acceptance and Fundraising Progress Counting.

When mailing your contribution, please remember to specify the name of the fund you want your contribution to support. If sending your donation via regular mail, please mail your contribution to:

Rutgers University Foundation
P.O. Box 193
New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0193

If sending your donation by overnight courier service (such as UPS or Fedex), please mail your contribution to:

Rutgers University Foundation
Attn: Finance Department
335 George Street, Suite 4 #337
New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Please call (848) 932-7650, and someone will assist you.

If there an unauthorized transaction from Rutgers University Foundation on your credit card statement, please submit an inquiry through the Credit Card Gift or Subscription option on the Contact Us form, and someone will assist you.

Pending charges sometimes happen when our credit card terminal encounters errors and makes multiple attempts to process your gift. However, this does not imply that multiple gifts will be processed. Please submit an inquiry through the Credit Card Gift or Subscription option on the Contact Us form, and someone will assist you.

If you would like to change the timing or amounts of your existing subscriptions, please submit an inquiry through the Credit Card Gift or Subscription option on the Contact Us form, and someone will assist you.

Please do not email this sensitive information. For security reasons, please call (848) 932-7650, and someone will assist you.

If you made your contribution through the Rutgers University Foundation website, you should have received an email receipt shortly after you submitted your gift online. However, if your online contribution is related to registration for an event or you made your contribution through other means (e.g. over the phone, through the mail, by stock transfer), you can expect to be mailed a donor tax receipt within 10 to 15 business days. If you have still not received a receipt within this time frame, please submit an inquiry through the Donor Tax Receipts option on the Contact Us form with the appropriate receipt type selected, and someone will assist you.

Please submit an inquiry through the Donor Tax Receipts option on the Contact Us form with the appropriate receipt type selected, and someone will assist you.

Donor tax receipts are issued to the legal donor of the contribution. If you made your gift through your company or family foundation, the receipt will be issued to your company or family foundation as the legal donor. However, if you made your contribution through a donor advised fund, your donor advised fund should have issued you a receipt for tax purposes. Rutgers University Foundation does not issue donor tax receipts for contributions received through donor advised funds.

Your donor tax receipt may note that certain entities received Rutgers recognition credit for your charitable contribution. This in no way implies legal credit for tax purposes, but instead means they are being recognized in our system for helping facilitate the contribution. For example, if a contribution was made through an alumnus’ family foundation, their family foundation would be credited as the legal donor for tax purposes, and the alumnus would receive recognition credit. If you still have questions recognition credit, please feel free to submit an inquiry through the Other option on the Contact Us form, and someone will assist you.

Please register the donation under the “Rutgers University Foundation” account.

Rutgers University Foundation has confirmed the matching gift claim with your employer. If you have any questions related to a matching gift, please submit an inquiry through the Matching Gift option on the Contact Us form, and someone will assist you.

In order to make a bequest or designation to Rutgers in your estate plan, we encourage you to speak with your attorney. We also encourage you to work with the Office of Estate and Gift Planning to ensure the language will fully reflect and allow you to achieve your charitable goals. We have provided some basic language to assist you and your attorney.

To complement this language, we also use gift and fund agreements that articulate more specific instructions to Rutgers in order to make certain we fulfill your wishes regarding your legacy.

For further clarification, you or your attorney may contact Estate and Gift Planning via our staff page or email: giftplanningoffice@ruf.rutgers.edu. Please contact us for all inquiries including suggested bequest language.

A gift or fund agreement can be created to complement your bequest/beneficiary language and articulate more specific instructions to Rutgers so that we can make certain we fulfill your wishes regarding your legacy.

For more information, you or your attorney may contact Estate and Gift Planning via our staff page or email: giftplanningoffice@ruf.rutgers.edu.

Yes! Rutgers has many plans for gifts that pay you income, such as a charitable gift annuity or charitable remainder trust.

You can also provide income for a child, a grandchild, a parent, or a friend. That income can increase cash flow now and/or during retirement, pay for a college education, provide income for aging parents, or perhaps assist a loved one with special needs. You can also provide income to Rutgers by using a charitable lead trust.

Charitable gifts may be completed with many different assets such as gifts of insurance, retirement assets and real estate. Explore your giving options.

To explore giving options, contact Estate and Gift Planning via our staff page or email: giftplanningoffice@ruf.rutgers.edu to discuss creative gift ideas.

An easy and low-cost way to make a gift to Rutgers is to include Rutgers in your will or revocable trust. Gifts by will are a major source of endowment support at Rutgers. Each individual legacy contributes to our financial strength and ability to meet the needs of our students and their families. If you have not already done so, please consider putting Rutgers in your will or revocable trust. See our bequest language page for samples of how to do this. You can also designate Rutgers the beneficiary of a life insurance policy or retirement-plan benefits.

Yes! Please be sure to discuss your preference when you make your gift. Many donors direct that their gifts be used to create scholarships, support specific departments, honor a favorite faculty member, or remember a loved one.

To learn more, please contact our staff, visit our website or email: giftplanningoffice@ruf.rutgers.edu.

Donors who make charitable gifts from their estates will become permanent members of the Colonel Henry Rutgers Society. We will also honor any requests for gifts to be anonymous.

A gift to Rutgers can be used to achieve your philanthropic vision. With the ability to restrict your gift to benefit a specific department, research effort, scholarship, athletic team and more, you become invested in a better society.

Additionally, your charitable contribution is tax deductible for income tax and estate tax purposes (see state law in your specific state regarding tax deductibility against state income). By using a strategic asset, you can optimize your tax planning by avoiding capital gains on gifts of appreciated property. By contributing appreciated property to form charitable gift annuities or charitable remainder trusts, you can turn low-income producing property with a low cost basis into income producing  structures while avoiding much of the capital gains.

You may also consider transferring assets to your family with minimal gift/estate tax liability by using a charitable lead trust.  This combines current charitable gifts with a gift to your family.

Yes! The Estate and Gift Planning staff are here to assist you with your client’s specific needs.

We have provided some basic bequest/beneficiary language to help you and your client create their estate plan. Gift and fund agreements are also used to complement estate plans when appropriate.

Please contact our staff, visit our website or email: giftplanningoffice@ruf.rutgers.edu.

For a charitable gift annuity, you will receive your 1099R by January 31. The charitable remainder trust tax returns and K-1’s are sent by February 28, but this is subject to the IRS releasing the 5227 and 1041 tax forms in a timely manner.

Endowed funds at the university work much like a mutual fund: each new fund is assigned shares or units in the overall university endowment pool at the previous quarter’s market value. When a fund is established for a specific purpose (e.g. scholarships, program assistance) the available income, distributed according to the spending policy, is directed to that purpose. The annual income distribution is allocated to each endowment account in the overall investment pool based on the number of shares assigned to the account as of July 1 of the given year.

Any earnings above the spending rate are retained in the investment account to steadily grow the endowment and thus the earning potential. When donors add an endowed account during the fiscal year, shares are assigned based upon the market value per share of the entire investment pool at the end of the previous quarter.

The market value of an endowed account consists of each endowment’s shares multiplied by the market value per share of the Long-Term Investment Pool’s portfolio at the end of a specific period.

The university calculates market values monthly.

New funds will begin to receive income after 12 months of existing in the pool. This policy allows for new funds to season and start to gain investment returns before being spent. To ensure immediate spendable income, additional gifts can be directed to the operating side of an endowment.

The purpose of the endowment is to provide funding, in perpetuity, for programs at the university. The amount of this funding each year, referred to as the spending allowance, is determined by the boards’ spending policy. The boards have selected a spending rate of 4.00 percent of the average of the trailing 13 quarter-end endowment market value per share as appropriate for sustaining the purchasing power of the endowment while providing the funding for which the endowment was established. Adjustments will be made when appropriate.

The goal of creating an endowment is to ensure funding in perpetuity. A fixed percentage for spending helps to ensure the endowment’s future purchasing power.

An underwater fund has a current market value below the original gift value that opened the fund.

Yes. In June 2009, the New Jersey Legislature adopted the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, which regulates numerous facets of fund management, including fund expenditures. Even during less-than-favorable economic periods, the act allows for prudent spending to support the university. Spending distributions for funds more than 15 percent underwater will be suspended until those funds recover below this 15 percent threshold.

The annual endowment administrative fee is a 0.95 percent charge based on the 13-quarter average market value of the endowment pool at the last closed fiscal year. Rutgers’ Board of Governors established the fee to support the Foundation’s mission of growing endowment assets and strengthening the university.

As of December 31, 2021, the university’s endowment was valued at $1.98 billion. There is more information about the endowment on Rutgers’ Financial Services web pages.

In 2022, only 20.1 percent of Rutgers’ budget was covered by funding from the State of New Jersey; that’s down from 1989, when 69.9 percent was covered by the state. Tuition and fees comprise 28.1 percent. The remainder comes from other funding sources such as gifts, grants, and fees for medical care. As a result, Rutgers and institutions like it must rely on fundraising to fulfill their missions assist with meeting the priorities of the institution and the balance of their respective budgets. For more information about the Rutgers budget, please see the Budget Facts page.

The Board of Governors and the Board of Trustees have oversight of the endowment. These boards delegate their responsibility to the university’s Joint Committee on Investments (JCOI) and appoint committee members. The JCOI sets overall policy and oversees the Investment Office, which administers, implements strategy, and makes recommendations.

About 60 percent of the university’s endowment funds are permanently restricted, and 43 percent of these restricted funds are dedicated to scholarships and fellowships.

Not even close – less than one percent of Rutgers University’s annual operating budget is paid for by its endowment.

The endowment’s primary purpose is to achieve a total return averaging at least the spending rate of 4 percent, plus inflation and costs. Returns in excess of this value provide for the long-term growth of the endowment. The endowment’s time horizon is considered infinite, with a focus on long-term performance. Rutgers’ goal is to achieve strong returns at an acceptable level of risk while adhering to the highest fiduciary standards and upholding a commitment to the core values of the university.

Time horizon: The endowment has a long-term investment horizon and serves as a perpetual asset to the university.
Return: The long-term objective is to achieve a total return averaging at least the spending policy plus inflation, net of fees and expenses. Returns in excess of this amount will provide for the long-term growth of the endowment.
Risk: The overall level of risk in the endowment will be primarily mitigated by attention to asset allocation. The focus is on overall portfolio risk, not risk related to specific asset classes.
Liquidity: The endowment has a long-term investment horizon with relatively low liquidity needs. For this reason, the endowment can tolerate short- and intermediate-term volatility provided that long-term returns meet or exceed its investment objective.

For more information regarding the investment management of the endowment, please visit the Rutgers University Finance and Administration page. For Rutgers’ investment policy, please click here.

Even if you are establishing an endowed fund, the fund agreement is your insurance that the university will make every effort to comply with your intentions. The agreement also provides a historical record of the fund’s purpose for future administrators to adhere to.