Is the donation pledge to a college considered legal obligation?

Question

I'm a foreigner living in an Asian country. I got a call from an US college requesting $1000 donation. I graduated from the college 5 years ago and accepted the request orally. But due to a sudden problem I suffered, I now cannot afford it . I'm receiving the payment request letter repeatedly. Is this kind of oral pledge considered legal obligation in the US?

Answer 1

In fact, in some cases, charities have filed suit and gone to court over broken pledges from prospective donors. Many of these cases involve donors who died before they finished making their gifts. Whether or not a charity can collect on a broken pledge is actually a complicated legal question. Although a pledge closely resembles a standard contract that could generally be enforced, most contracts involve an exchange of promises between parties. With pledges, although the donor promises to give money, the charity often doesn't make a promise in return. This sometimes makes the pledge unenforceable. On the other hand, some states have laws that explicitly allow charities to collect on charitable pledges regardless of whether the charity made a promise in return.

Regardless of the legal issues, though, you shouldn't make a pledge that you don't intend to keep. Apart from the detrimental effects your broken promise can have on the charity, it nullifies the whole purpose of making the pledge in the first place. By taking a charitable pledge seriously, you'll make things easier for everyone involved.

The leading case is Allegheny College v. The National Chautauqua County Bank of Jamestown, 246 N.Y. 369 (N.Y. Ct. of Appeals 1927). In the case, Mrs. Mary Yates Johnston made a $5,000 pledge to the college’s fund drive, to be paid from her estate. She subsequently revoked the gift. After she died, the college sued to collect. Held: The college won. Ordinarily, uncompleted gifts can be revoked by the giver, and Mrs. Johnston had plainly revoked. The promise could be enforced only if Judge Cardozo could find a contract. He did:

The promisor wished to have a memorial to perpetuate her name. She imposed a condition that the "gift" should "be known as the Mary Yates Johnston Memorial Fund." The moment that the college accepted $1,000 as a payment on account, there was an assumption of a duty to do whatever acts were customary or reasonably necessary to maintain the memorial fairly and justly in the spirit of its creation. The college could not accept the money, and hold itself free thereafter from personal responsibility to give effect to the condition. More is involved in the receipt of such a fund than a mere acceptance of money to be held to a corporate use. The purpose of the founder would be unfairly thwarted or at least inadequately served if the college failed to communicate to the world, or in any event to applicants for the scholarship, the title of the memorial. By implication it undertook, when it accepted a portion of the "gift," that in its circulars of information and in other customary ways, when making announcement of this scholarship, it would couple with the announcement the name of the donor.

MY RECOMMENDATION: Contact the college and let them know that you have changed circumstances.

Answer 2

No, it is NOT a binding contract. A contract is essentially two parties (in this case, you and your school) promising to do something for each other.

When you pledge a donation to your school, the only one making a promise to do anything is you. The school is not giving you anything of value in return (the education you already received doesn't count, because it is a past benefit), therefore, the school cannot force you to carry out your promise.

Don't worry about their letters. Eventually, they'll stop mailing them to you. If the letters really bother you, you could call them up, explain your situation, and ask them to stop sending the letters.

When you're at a point in your life when you can comfortably make a donation, I'm sure your school will be more than happy to take it.