American Indian College Fund
Donor's Bill of Rights

“The American Indian College Fund's mission is to raise scholarship funds for American Indian students at qualified tribal colleges and universities and to generate broad awareness of those institutions and the College Fund itself. The organization also raises resources for other needs at the schools, including capital projects, operations, endowments, or program initiatives, and it will conduct fundraising and related activities for any other Board-directed initiatives.”

A major strategic initiative is to assure that “the American Indian College Fund will be one of the premier American Indian organizations in the country. We will honor and practice organizational values of respect, relationships, responsibility, reasoning and reciprocity. The American Indian College Fund will have the highest standards for all operations across all departments and practice consistent processes that produce positive, decisive results for constituents and employees.” As a part of this initiative, the Fund is committed to meet high standards of accountability to earn our donors deepest confidence.

We endorse and adopt the “Donor's Bill of Rights” developed by the American Association of Fund Raising Counsel, the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. This document has also been endorsed by other organizations including the Independent Sector, the National Catholic Development Conference, the National Committee on Planned Giving, the National Council for Resource Development and the United Way of America , among others.

“THE DONOR BILL OF RIGHTS”

“Philanthropy is based on voluntary action for the common good. It is a tradition of giving and sharing that is primary to the quality of life. To ensure that philanthropy merits the respect and trust of the general public, and that donors and prospective donors can have full confidence in the nonprofit organizations and causes they are asked to support, we declare that all donors have these rights:

1. To be informed of the organization's mission, of the way the organization intends to use donated resources, and of its capacity to use donations effectively for their intended purposes.
2. To be informed of the identity of those serving on the organization's governing board, and to expect the board to exercise prudent judgment in its stewardship responsibilities.
3. To have access to the organization's most recent financial statements.
4. To be assured their gifts will be used for the purposes for which they were given.
5. To receive appropriate acknowledgement and recognition.
6. To be assured that information about their donation is handled with respect and with confidentiality to the extent provided by law.
7. To expect that all relationships with individuals representing organizations of interest to the donor will be professional in nature.
8. To be informed whether those seeking donations are volunteers, employees of the organization or hired solicitors.
9. To have the opportunity for their names to be deleted from mailing lists that an organization may intend to share.
10. To feel free to ask questions when making a donation and to receive prompt, truthful and forthright answers.”

We encourage donors or potential donors to contact us regarding any questions or concerns regarding the “Donor Bill of Rights” and hope that our adherence to these rights strengthens the trust our donors have shown in us.

Thank you for supporting the American Indian College Fund, its member tribal colleges and thousands of American Indian students striving for an education.