DSO Halts Creation of ‘Gift Accounts’ for Tax-Deductible Donations to Student Groups

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University Hall in Harvard Yard. By Kathryn S. Kuhar

The Dean of Students Office has suspended the creation of new “gift accounts” for student organizations due to personnel vacancies, a DSO administrator wrote in an email to the leadership of the Harvard College Social Enterprise Association Monday.

“Unfortunately, as we are currently so short staffed on our Finance team, we have suspended the creation of new gift accounts,” Kate Colleran, senior director for student organizations and resources at the Dean of Students Office, wrote in the email.

Gift accounts are owned by the University and allow College student organizations to receive tax-deductible support from donors. Harvard can receive donations on behalf of the groups via the gift accounts and then provide official acknowledgement stating the gift is tax-deductible for use in tax reporting, according to the DSO website. Without such an account, if the group is not incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, gifts may not be tax-deductible.

Allison P. Pao ’21, who serves as HCSEA’s co-chair of International Projects, emailed Colleran Saturday to inquire about creating a gift account for donations toward an international trip. HCSEA seeks to support English education in East Asia and coordinates two service trips each spring break, according to its website.

Colleran notified HCSEA leadership in a subsequent email that low staffing levels preclude the DSO from setting up such accounts at this time, and the organization should instead continue to deposit donations into its account at Harvard University Employees Credit Union.

In an email to The Crimson Monday, Colleran attributed the suspension of gift accounts to “open positions that need to be filled.” She wrote that gift account creation will resume once the required personnel are hired over the summer.

“One position was vacated only a couple weeks ago, so someone most likely won't be hired until summer. Once the person is in, we will look to have them work on gift accounts,” Colleran wrote. “We get quite a few requests for opening gift accounts, but with a minimum of a $10,000 deposit, very few of those groups actually qualify for one.”

“Groups who do not have one, can still take donations to their bank accounts and need to be sure to be clear with their donors about that,” she added.

HCSEA Co-President Lily Gao ’21 wrote in an email to The Crimson that the group “relies almost exclusively on donations” to fund its volunteering due to restrictions placed on grants from the University and the Undergraduate Council. She wrote she is concerned the suspension of new gift accounts may impede donors’ ability to make tax-deductible contributions to the organization.

“Because our trip is international and focused on education and philanthropy, this means we can't get adequate funding from University sources,” Gao wrote. “Not having a gift account for donors to make tax-exempt donations is an unnecessary burden placed on HCSEA and its donors.”

—Staff writer Sanjana L. Narayanan can be reached at sanjana.narayanan@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Samuel W. Zwickel can be reached at samuel.zwickel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @samuel_zwickel.