Does a gift fund need to be a public fund?
No. A gift fund may be set up as a public fund but this is not necessary. However, many types of DGRs are required to be public funds. For example, necessitous circumstances funds, school building funds and ancillary funds. For a fund to meet the ‘public’ requirement the public must participate in the administration and the fund must intend to receive, and actually receive, contributions from the public. Although gift funds are set up with the expectation of receiving gifts, the public does not have to participate in their management. For more information on public funds, refer to GiftPack (NAT 3132).
