Angry donors reply
Cynthia,
What has helped me in the past is to establish a detailed process where no one person has the ability to say yes or no. Temporarily accept the item, have a trained committee of staff and/or volunteers review all items and make decisions based upon your written and board approved collections policies. If your policies require board approval of items, then the final decision is theirs.
Keep your decisions/recommendations consistent and then notify the potential donor of the decision. When you explain that a committee reviews all donations it shows that the organization takes the process seriously and avoids the potential of someone having to face the potential donor at the initial contact moment with a negative reply.
If the item is potentially needed by another museum and you have the ability, offer to help them find a different location. This worked for us when the item was not relevant to our county, but we knew which county it should go to. That does not help if the item is basically trash. You would never want to accept something that could harm your collection even on a temporary basis, but that hopefully is not your issue.
Good Luck!
James
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