Standards

Unrestricted gifts for designated Baptist causes, where feasible, shall be pooled with other assets held as endowment for the same causes.

Two or more Baptist and/or other charitable causes which are beneficiaries of living trusts, where feasible, shall be treated as separate gifts according to the interest each of the beneficiary causes owns in such trust, and shall be pooled with other assets held as endowment for the same causes.

Restricted gifts for designated Baptist and/or other charitable causes shall be administered as separate trusts, but the income therefrom shall be distributed to beneficiary causes only when the trust corpus with additions of accumulated undistributed income and/or additional contributions to the corpus reaches $10,000.00.

Where restricted gifts are administered as separate trusts and have two or more Baptist and/or other charitable causes as beneficiaries, at least 50% of that portion of the gift for charitable causes must be designated for causes represented by the local church, the New Mexico Baptist Foundation, the Baptist Convention of New Mexico, the Southern Baptist Convention, or Southern Baptist ministries conducted by other state Baptist conventions.  The Board of Directors of The New Mexico Baptist Foundation shall have the prerogative of declining any trust that is not in part for the benefit of Baptist causes.  In order for the Foundation to serve as Trustee of trusts which include non-Baptist causes, as charitable beneficiaries, the non-Baptist cause must be acceptable to the Board.

Gifts contingent on the initiation or dramatic expansion of state denominational ministries, or capital expenditures for the construction of certain facilities, or acquisition of additional properties, or equipment must be approved by the appropriate committee of the State Executive Board of The Baptist Convention of New Mexico before they shall be accepted and administered by The New Mexico Baptist Foundation.

Gifts designated for institutional purposes such as construction of facilities named for donors, scholarships, professorships, chairs of instruction, etc. shall be administered according to guidelines established by that institution.

The value of assets transferred to the ownership of The New Mexico Baptist Foundation as Trustee shall be established at the time of transfer, based on fair market value.

1. When such assets as real estate, metals, coins, antiques, works of art, etc. are given to the Foundation as Trustee for designated causes, an independent certified appraisal of such properties is required to fix values acceptable to the Internal Revenue Service for the donor's charitable income tax deduction.  Such appraisals shall be obtained at the donor's expense.
2. When such assets as real estate, metals, coins, antiques, works of art, etc. are transferred to the Foundation but are not considered as gifts for charitable income tax deductions to donors, the Foundation staff members, in consultation with other professionals, shall appraise the value of such assets.
3. The value of securities shall be determined by the average of the high and low market price on the date of the transfer of ownership.
4. The value of life insurance is determined by the owner’s value in the policy as declared by the insurance company at the time of transfer.
5. Non-producing mineral interests shall be valued at $1.00 unless otherwise valued by an independent certified appraisal obtained at the donor's expense.
6. Producing mineral interest values shall be determined by a formula which takes into account such factors as the present market price, quality, and quantity of production, state of production , and projected period of production, etc.
7. Cash, cash accounts and/or cash equivalency instruments shall be valued at their face amount along with accrued interest included in the gift.
8. All transactions related to restricted gifts, donor contracts and/or trust agreements involving life income beneficiaries shall be reviewed by the Trust Committee of The Foundation Board of Directors to insure compliance with these trust administration policies.  The Board shall have the right to decline accepting burdensome assets in trust.

Exceptions to these standards may be authorized only by action of the Board of Directors of The New Mexico Baptist Foundation.

In each case donors should obtain professional and legal assistance from their own sources.  If requested, the Foundation may attempt to answer questions and refer to legal and other professional counsel available in New Mexico. At no time will the staff of the Foundation offer legal advice.