Collections Policy
Mission
The mission of the 95th Bomb Group Memorials Foundation is to educate the public regarding the history of the 95th Bomb Group and its role in the air campaign over central Europe during World War II; to promote the study and recognition of the total involvement of the air crews and their related support units; and to provide and maintain appropriate recognition of all members of the 95th Bomb Group who gave up their lives in the successful effort to preserve freedom as their legacy to future generations.
Policy on Collecting
The board of directors of the 95th Bomb Group Memorials Foundation, Inc., registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a non-profit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, hereby decrees that the Foundation is a non-collecting organization.
However, in the interest of facilitating the transfer of material relating to the mission of the organization from veterans of the 95th Bomb Group, their families, or other interested parties to non-profit organizations with complementing missions that are organized and appropriately funded as collecting institutions, the Foundation may accept gifts of related material from said parties with the understanding that their gifts will ultimately be transferred to such other non-profit organizations.
The Foundation will only accept material directly related to its mission and it is the responsibility of the Donor to ship it to the site specified by the Foundation.
Donors must complete a Deed of Gift form, accepted and signed in turn by an official of the Foundation, accompanied by a full inventory of material to be donated, representing and warranting that he/she is the sole owner of the material and has full power and authority to give the material to the Foundation. Furthermore, the donor must make an absolute, unrestricted, and unconditional gift of the material, including not only legal and beneficial title but also copyright and literary rights associated with the material, and must agree that the Foundation shall have the continuing right to retain or to transfer the material to another appropriate non-profit organization.
Donors are encouraged to seek the advice of counsel before claiming tax deductions for material donated to the Foundation, which shall not appraise donations for tax purposes.
Disposition of Donated Material
In the interest of serving its donors and the veterans of the 95th Bomb Group well, the Foundation will carefully research all proposed recipient non-profit organizations to assure that organizations chosen to receive material donated to the Foundation have:
A mission that complements that of the Foundation.
A professionally staffed facility that meets or exceeds all standards of operations for museums, libraries, and archives.
A staff that is appropriately trained, qualified, and experienced to handle historical material.
Existing collections that are effectively managed, housed, secured, documented, and conserved.
A policy of access to its collections for researchers and a program to allow exhibition and interpretation of the collections to the public.
Leadership from board and staff to develop and manage plans and procedures to assure that the organization acquires, develops, and allocates its resources in a way that advances its mission and sustains its financial viability.
Evidence of adequate current and future financial support.
When the Foundation ultimately transfers donated material to another non-profit organization, it will notify the donor of the transfer. At that point, the transferred material will be a gift from the Foundation to the receiving non-profit organization. Notification to the original donor is a courtesy only.
The Foundation cannot assure that the organizations that ultimately receive donated material will display it, nor can it assure that the organizations will even retain it, for their owncollectionspolicieswillbetheoperatingpoliciesaftertransferofgifts. The Foundation will review the collections policies of potential recipient organizations to insure that they, too, have responsible disposition policies in place should they decide to remove duplicate, inappropriate, or damaged material from their collections.
Adopted by the Board of Directors of the 95th Bomb Group Memorials Foundation, Inc. on December 8, 1997.