NIH Scenarios of Monetary Donations as Other Support vs. Gifts

An NIH OPERA document providing illustrative scenarios to help investigators and institutions determine when monetary donations must be disclosed as Other Support versus when they qualify as unrestricted gifts. It explains that donations must be reported as Other Support when intended to directly support an investigator's research activities and carrying explicit or implicit expectations, such as use for specific projects, placement into a research account, or requirements to provide updates to donors. The scenarios correspond with those in the Office of the Inspector General's March 2025 review of institutional understanding of monetary donation reporting.