Donations of specimens are very important for the museum. Below is some general information and considerations for people who are thinking about making a non-monetary gift to the collection.
Specimens, books, entomological supplies, collecting gear, etc., are all considered gifts in kind by the university. Like monetary gifts, these gifts are considered charitable contributions to the university. Like monetary gifts, the paperwork surrounding these contributions are handled by the OSU Foundation.
All non-monetary gifts to the university (including specimens to the museum) are officially recorded using a Gift-in-Kind form. This form is signed by the donor and the individual receiving the gift, and has an 'estimated' monetary value that must be determined by the donor.
Please download the form and read through the instructions. Some guidance and information is also provided below. If you have any questions about this process, or about how to establish an estimated value, please reach out to christopher.marshall@oregonstate.edu for help.
Gifts are often pretty unique to each donor, but below are some general guidelines and information to help you navigate this topic.
Monetary Value. All gifts of specimens or other 'physical objects' - must be assessed a monetary value as part of the donation. This is true even if you do not intend to claim the charitable contribution for tax purposes. It's a requirement on the form we fill out that registers your gift. Details about this are supplied on the form, but in summary, gifts made that are valued (by the donor) as being worth less than or equal to $4999.00 -- do not require any additional verification. Gifts made that are valued above this require an independent appraisal (see below).
Specimen donations. The OSAC accepts many specimens from private donors each year. That said, we are not always able to take every collection we are offered. A number of things factor into whether or not we can accept a collection, but the primary ones are:
- Does the collection align well with our holdings (e.g, do they build on a strength we have and/or shore up a weakness).
- How detailed are the specimens labels associated with the collection.
- Do we have the resources necessary to accept the collection. Every collection requires some resources in terms of man-power, space, and housing. We ask that donors of larger collections consider making a corresponding monetary contribution to support the housing of their material - this is not a requirement, but it does greatly help us accommodate these collections since any material we accept requires drawers, units and cabinet/shelf space.
Housing donations (Drawers, unit trays, etc). The museum accepts drawers, units, cabinets (and other types of housing) but unless they fit our existing standards (e.g., are California Academy of Sciences standards), we will not be able to keep them. For example, if your collection is stored in Cornell style drawers, we will accept them as part of your gift. However, we cannot fit Cornell drawers into our cabinets, nor will we be able to purchase special cabinets to hold them as this makes it impossible for us to integrate your specimens into our collection. We do attempt to find suitable exchanges with other institutions that use those standards, but this is not always possible.
Library donations (Books, reprints, etc). Every year we are asked if we will accept entomological books, journals and reprints. We are willing to accept your books, but cannot guarantee they will be maintained in our small library indefinitely. We love books... but an increasing reality is that books and other library materials are competing for space with specimens in the collection. As a result, most museums (including the OSAC) are relying more and more on digital literature (eg., Biodiversity Heritage Library) in an effort to shrink the physical size of their libraries. That said, if the books you are donating are important taxonomic works that we lack in our holdings, we will likely add them to our library. Any books we must get rid of, are first offered to students/others before being disposed.
Collecting and entomological supplies. We appreciate collecting gear (light traps, nets, etc) and supplies (pins, etc). Note: we do not accept chemical supplies of any type.
Appraisals. Appraisals can be challenging. Donors should discuss options with their tax preparers to learn whether appraisals are worthwhile. We cannot provide donors with any monetary values related to their gift, but we can point you to resources that may help you establish this value on your own. For non-specimen items, you can look to online sources (market value) for the items being given. If you are having trouble finding vendors who sell these items, please reach out to us and we can point you to some vendors who deal in various entomological supplies, etc. Appraisals for the insect specimens themselves is a specialized field and fewer and fewer individuals are certified to give these appraisals. If you wish to have your collection's specimens appraised, reach out to us and we will send you names/contact for any appraisers we are aware of, but please realize, there have been times when we did not know of any such appraisers nationally. Also, it can take months to have a large collection appraised, which may impact how you wish to proceed with making your donation.
Some donors choose to make multiple smaller donations over many years, so the value each year falls below the threshold of an independent appraisal. We are happy to assist donors however they wish to proceed.