Procedures for receiving donations via the Development and Alumni Relations office (CUDAR)
Regardless of the method of donation the steps that the Department must follow are the same.
Topics covered in this section are:
Donation receipt
The Development and Alumni Relations office (CUDAR) is the University's designated office equipped to deal with donations, including donations destined for individual departments. For this reason, donations should always wherever possible be directed to CUDAR. CUDAR is able to process donations made payable to:
- The University of Cambridge
- Individual University departments
- The Cambridge Foundation
One-off donations
Upon receipt of the donation CUDAR will invite UK donors to complete a Gift Aid declaration form if they have not already done so, and contact the department that the donor has specified is to be the recipient of their gift. Meanwhile the funds may be put on deposit.
Online donations
Donors also have the facility to make donations online using either a debit or credit card and make these gifts tax efficient. Available from the CUDAR's webpages.
At this point, unless otherwise specified, the donations are for unrestricted use within the department. The on-line giving facility has been designed to allow for the introduction of donations for specific purposes. Any department, faculty or institution wishing to use this facility for a specific purpose should contact CUDAR.
Donations as part of a specific appeal
CUDAR is able to produce customised donation forms to departments who are running specific appeals. Departments can then either hand these forms out at fund raising events or include them on their website for download.
Please see Procedures for Handling Donations (2025) and contact the Gifts and Date team (Giftregistryenquiries@admin.cam.ac.uk) for further information.
Notification to the department
The CUDAR will notify the department for which the donation is intended (via email), passing on the following information:
- name of the donor
- amount of donation (including gift aid where appropriate)
- purpose of the donation
CUDAR will ask the department to provide the account code to which the donation should be credited and a written undertaking that the "donation will be applied in accordance with the terms of the benefactions and that I will account to the donors as may be required";
A specimen of the standard email is included at Appendix D. The email will normally be addressed to the Head of Department or Departmental Administrator.
Donations that form part of an appeal
For donations that form part of an appeal, the department will only need to provide the account code and release undertaking for the first (first batch) of donations received for that appeal. All subsequent donations will be released to the same account code as per the first release, unless the institution requests a change of account code.
Departmental action
Departments should determine the appropriate source of funds code using the guidance in section Types of Donation for Accounting Purposes, complete the undertaking and return to CUDAR.
CUDAR action
Before releasing a donation, CUDAR will check that the source of funds code is appropriate given the nature of the donation. They will then instruct the Finance Division to transfer the funds.
Donation release
When funds are released they will be credited to the specified department / cost centre / source of funds combination with a transaction code:
- LFDO "Donations transferred from Development Office"
It will also include any interest that has been earned where the donation has been put on deposit in the interim. The institution will be copied into the email from Finance Division to CUDAR that confirms the transfer has been processed. Departments must not enter journals to move income from this code.