The Guide to Major Trusts 2025-26. DSC (Directory of Social Change)

A pledge too far

Howard Lake | 24 January 1998 | News

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago is suing two donors who pledged a $5 million donation but who failed to hand over the money.

Paul and Camille Oliver-Hoffman had argued that their letter of intent was not contractually binding. Nonprofits do from time to time contest the estates of donors who pledged gifts but who did not deliver in their Will, but this is one of the first times that a nonprofit has brought a suit against a living donor. It is all a result of a change in US accounting regulations which requires nonprofits to record pledges as income.

See also Nonprofit Sues Trying to Enforce Board Member’s Pledge by Matthew Sinclair in the Nonprofit Times (March 1998).

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