Cincy | Did a $90K gift breach foundation rules?

In an earlier post, I said new public documents showed the Gannett Foundation last year matched $90,035 of a total 280 employee gifts to the Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts.

Now, it appears the foundation may have done so despite a ban on bundled gifts in the employee GannettMatch program. In a list of contributions it won't match, the guidelines include: "Pooled gifts (i.e. funds collected from a group of individuals or raised from a fundraising activity), whether or not the contributors are individually eligible as participants."

I also found another instance last year where the foundation matched gifts that aren't eligible under the guidelines. It gave $12,500 to the United Way for Southeastern Michigan in Detroit, even though the guidelines say it won't match United Way contributions.

I discovered these departures from the guidelines while researching a reader's question today about gifts under the foundation's exclusive executive grant-making program. It's important to note, however, that there's nothing illegal about the Cincinnati and Detroit grants; the foundation can always make exceptions to its own rules.

How it works
Under the GannettMatch program, the foundation matches dollar-for-dollar employee donations of $50 to a maximum $10,000 per year to non-profits. In 2009, the foundation matched a combined $1.39 million of employee contributions.