It is the policy of the Foundation to sell all securities as soon as practical after the securities have been received by the Foundation. In order to expedite this process, the Foundation has established an account with Merrill Lynch to handle these transactions. The preferred method of transfer is for the securities to be transferred by the Depository Trust Company (DTC). An alternate means of transfer is for the actual certificate to be transferred to the Foundation and registered in the name of the Foundation, but this method is much slower. After Merrill Lynch has received the securities, they will immediately sell the securities and forward the proceeds to or for the benefit of the Foundation as designated by the donor. The instructions for both methods are at the end of this section. For all gifts of marketable securities, Gift Accounting will obtain the high and low price for the date the gift officially transferred into the name of the Foundation. The valuation is based on the average of the high and low price quoted for that date. The average price sets the price per share for gift valuation.
In many cases, there is a period of time between the date of the gift and the date of the sale. It is common that a gain or loss may be recognized on the sale of the stock. The gain/loss will be booked to the fund receiving the gift. The gift valuation for the donor is not adjusted. For split gifts of donated stock (designated to benefit more than one fund), all gains/losses will be split according to the original gift designation unless otherwise requested in writing by the donor.
In certain circumstances, the donor(s) may request that another broker be used to receive and sell the securities on behalf of the Foundation. In this situation, to be done on an exception basis, the broker will establish an account with his/her firm in the name of the Foundation. The broker will work with Gift Accounting to obtain the necessary corporate information to open the account.
After the account has been opened and the securities transferred to the account, the broker will sell the security and send the proceeds, the net of commissions, to the Foundation.