How to Accept a Museum Donation Properly
Updated October 26, 2026
A museum accepts a donation properly by doing three things in order: write a temporary custody receipt the moment items arrive, formally accession them once someone decides to accept, and get a deed of gift signed to transfer legal ownership. This sequence protects the museum and the donor — nothing is "owned" until it's accepted, and nothing is accepted without a paper trail. Skipping steps, or doing them out of order, is how museums end up with unexplained objects and donors who dispute what they gave years later.
Step 1: Write a temporary custody receipt the moment items arrive
Before a museum accepts anything, it should simply hold it. A temporary custody receipt records that items are physically in the building without making any claim of ownership yet. This matters because many donations need a second look — curatorial fit, condition, space — before anyone commits. The receipt protects both sides: the donor has proof of what they dropped off, and the museum has a record of what it's responsible for while it decides.
The receipt should capture who brought the items in, a line for each item, and — this is the part people forget — the story that came with them. Ask while the donor is standing there: who used it, when, why it matters to the family. That story is often the only chance you get; it rarely gets written down later.
In MuseumBuild, this step lives in Temporary Custody. You create a receipt with the donor, the item lines, and the story captured at the door. Each item on the receipt is later accepted, returned, or declined individually — it's completely normal to accept some lines and hand the rest back.
Step 2: Formally accession what you decide to keep
Accessioning is the moment a museum formally takes ownership. It is a deliberate decision, usually made by whoever runs the collection, not an automatic result of an item sitting on a shelf. An accession record should note the source, the method (gift, purchase, bequest, or transfer), the date, and any restrictions the donor has attached — restrictions follow the object forever, so write them down now, not from memory later.
Accessions are traditionally numbered by year, which is why the numbering convention matters: it tells anyone looking at the record which batch of items came in together and when, independent of what the objects themselves are.
In MuseumBuild, accepting items from a custody receipt creates the accession and the numbered catalog records automatically. Accessions are numbered by year — 2026-3 means the third accession of 2026 — and the accession record carries the method, any donor restrictions (which flag every object linked to it), and a task checklist to keep the paperwork moving.
Step 3: Get the deed of gift signed
A deed of gift is the legal document where a donor states, in writing, that they're transferring ownership to the museum and relinquishing their claim. Without one, the museum's title to an object can be challenged — by the donor, their estate, or their heirs — no matter how long it's been on display. Every accepted gift needs one.
Traditionally this meant a paper form, a signature, and a filing cabinet. In MuseumBuild, you open the accession, go to Deed of Gift, and create a signing link — then hand or text it to the donor so they sign on their own device by typing their legal name. The exact signed text is kept forever, so there's no later argument about what was agreed.
Why objects get a permanent three-part number
Once an item is accessioned and cataloged, it gets a number that never changes and is never reused — even if the object is later deaccessioned. This is standard registrar practice: a stable number is what lets every condition check, loan, location move, and photograph stay attached to the right object for decades.
MuseumBuild follows the industry three-part format year.accession.item — for example 2026.3.1 is the first item cataloged from the third accession of 2026. Objects added directly, without going through an accession (common for legacy or imported collections), can instead carry a prefix-year-sequence number or keep whatever number they were imported with. Either way, the number is permanent, and every object's page shows where it currently stands in the pipeline.
Common mistakes to avoid
Most donation problems trace back to skipping or reordering these three steps.
- Cataloging an item before anyone has decided to accept it — leaves no record of the decision
- Accepting items verbally with no accession record — restrictions and source get forgotten
- Never asking for the donor's story at drop-off — it's usually never recovered later
- Treating a deed of gift as optional for small or low-value items — ownership disputes don't care about value
- Reusing a number after an item is deaccessioned — breaks the link to its entire history
Common questions
What's the difference between temporary custody and an accession?
Temporary custody means the museum is physically holding items without owning them — the normal state while a decision is pending. An accession is the formal, deliberate act of accepting ownership. Items can sit in custody and later be returned, declined, or accessioned; only accessioning changes ownership.
Do we need a deed of gift for every donation, no matter how small?
Yes. A deed of gift is what gives the museum clear legal title and prevents disputes later from the donor, their estate, or their heirs. Size or value doesn't change the need for it — only a signed deed resolves ownership permanently.
Can we accept part of a donation and return the rest?
Yes, and it's the normal path. A custody receipt lists each item separately, and each one is later accepted, returned, or declined on its own — you don't have to make one decision for the whole lot.
What if we don't know the donor restrictions yet when we accession?
Record whatever restrictions the donor states at the time of accession, since they flag every object linked to that accession going forward. If a donor adds conditions later, update the record promptly rather than relying on memory.
Does MuseumBuild require accreditation to use this workflow?
No. The registrar workflow — custody receipt, accession, deed of gift, permanent numbering — is built for family collections, historical societies, and small museums, not just accredited institutions.
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