A restricted gift is a gift given for a stated purpose, and the restriction is binding on the organization that accepts it. That is the part people are surprised by.
It is not a preference. Once accepted, a restriction is an obligation, and money that cannot be used as restricted cannot simply be used for something else.
The three ways this goes wrong
- The restriction is narrower than the work. A gift restricted to one activity inside a program that does six is a gift the program has to account for separately and may not be able to spend at the rate it arrives.
- The restriction names something that does not exist. A donor restricts to a program element they read about somewhere, or to a version of the work that has moved on. Now there is money that must be held.
- The restriction is to the wrong organization. This one is specific here: people conflate Valor Medica with Valor Villages Inc.. They are separate corporations with separate EINs, and a gift to one is not a gift to the other. The distinction.
The ask-first rule
So the rule is simple: tell us what you want the money to do before you send it, and we will tell you honestly whether it can do that. If it cannot, you find out while it is still your decision rather than after it has become our problem.
This is not a way of discouraging restrictions. Restrictions are often exactly right — a donor who cares about one specific thing and says so is easier to serve well than a donor who gives generally and is quietly disappointed. The problem is never the restriction; it is the restriction nobody discussed.
This is easier here than at most nonprofits
As of August 2026, the foundation is funded entirely by its founder. There is no giving form, no processing pipeline and no volume. Every conversation about a gift is a conversation with a person, which is the condition under which the ask-first rule actually works. Support this work.
What a restriction never buys
No restriction, at any level, obtains access to protected information or influences a CareGuard finding. Those are not negotiable and not the foundation’s to negotiate — the protections are federal. Independence and boundaries.