Tax-deductible gifts can provide support for collections, spaces, and services. Book donations may fill existing gaps and support the curriculum; these types of donations are treated as new acquisitions and thus are evaluated by the same standards applied to new purchases to safeguard quality, consistency, and relevance to the needs of the College.
If you are considering donating to the Library, we urge you to contact us to speak about the quantity and usefulness of the proposed gift. The Library is not obligated to accept any donation nor add donated books to the collection. If books are accepted as a donation but not added to the collection, they may be sold with the proceeds benefiting the Library.
Upon donating books, you will be required to complete a donor record form and document the number of items and the approximate value of the donation. All material gifts to Whittier College are considered non-cash charitable donations (also known as gifts-in-kind). Prospective book donors often wish to know about the tax status of their gift and are frequently interested in having their gift appraised for tax deduction purposes. Because of legal restrictions, Whittier College and Wardman Library are unable to provide appraisals.
Donors of gifts with an estimated value between $500 and $5,000 should read IRS publication 526, Charitable Contributionsand/or publication 561, Determining the Value of Donated Property, both available from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Donors of gifts exceeding $5,000 in value also should read these publications and should discuss tax considerations with an attorney or an accountant. An appraisal is required to substantiate a tax deduction of more than $5,000 for a non-cash gift.
Please note that once a gift-in-kind enters our processing workflow, we can no longer accommodate an appraiser; therefore, if you are considering a tax deduction and wish to have your collection appraised, you should do so prior to making the donation.
