One place to write, review, and sign gift agreements
Intake, drafting, compliance screening, approvals, donor review, signature, and the record that follows the fund.
Go on, swipe a card. Each one is something GATO catches before a draft ever reaches your donor.
Awarded to juniors from Lake County majoring in ocean engineering with a GPA of 3.9 or higher with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, with a preference for students from Lake County.
What GATO flags in a draft gift agreement
- Feasibility: Widen an overly restricted fund. Only 2 enrolled students meet every criterion today.
- Legality: Remove a protected-class restriction. Gender-restricted criterion, flagged under the rules you set with general counsel.
- Documentation: Make a vague restriction administrable. “Deserving” can’t be administered. Replaced with your style guide’s standard language.
- Locked clause: Keep protected language protected. Donor’s counsel asked to strike this. It stays: only the Director of Donor Relations can unlock it, and the reason is shown to everyone reading.
- Version check: Catch a signed copy that drifted. The signed PDF doesn’t match the approved draft. Flagged before anything is filed.
- Reminder: Nudge whoever is holding the draft. Reminders do the chasing, so following up stops being someone’s part-time job.
What is GATO?
GA·TO nounGATO is gift agreement software for university advancement and donor relations teams. It drafts gift agreements from an intake form, screens restrictions for legal, feasibility, and documentation risk, routes internal approvals, and collects donor review and signature, keeping the full record with the fund.
- most agreements are customized
- you run cross-team review workflows
- legal reviews are time-consuming
- you write a handful a year
- everything comes from one template
- one person owns it end to end
Built for fundraising teams aiming for better
One platform for the full agreement process
- 1Step 1: You fill an intake form
Conditional questions, not a blank page or a hunt for the current template.
- 2Step 2: It gets drafted for you
An on-template draft, screened against your rules as it’s written.
- 3Step 3: Internal review
Saved routes, in parallel or in sequence. Reminders go to whoever holds the draft.
- 4Step 4: Donor reviews before signing
The donor approves the language first, so nobody is asked to sign a surprise.
- 5Step 5: Signed and on record
Signed copy checked against the approved draft, then filed with the fund.
GATO automatically reviews every agreement and flags concerns
Hover or tap the highlighted language to see what GATO flagged.
The Fund shall provide an annual award to an undergraduate student who is African American11 · Legality · RedRace-restricted award criterion. Approval is blocked until it’s revised or counsel overrides it with a logged reason.Legal contextTitle VI, Civil Rights Act of 1964: bars race discrimination in federally funded programs, including financial aid.SFFA v. Harvard (2023): struck down race-conscious admissions; counsel widely apply its reasoning to scholarships.Suggested: “…with demonstrated financial need.” majoring in classical archaeology who has completed fieldwork in Crete22 · Feasibility · YellowVery restrictive. An estimated 1 current student qualifies, so the fund risks going unawarded.Estimated qualifying studentsClassical archaeology majors14+ completed fieldwork in Crete~1Restriction level: Very highSample data, and who, in the judgment of the Department, is a well-rounded and deserving individual33 · Documentation · YellowVague and hard to administer. Suggested language from your style guide..
Your rules and thresholds, set with your general counsel. When policy changes, re-screen the whole portfolio instead of rereading hundreds of agreements by hand.
Make signing feel like a milestone.
- Agreement_v6_FINAL_rev2.docx
- A thread with four staff members copied
- Redlines they are not sure are allowed
- Weeks of quiet, then a chase
- A signature request that could be from any vendor
“Thank you for believing in our students.” — a word from your president
Donors read and respond by email. Replies land on the agreement as comments.
When donor’s counsel can see what’s fixed and why, they redline only what’s open.
Language approved before a signature is ever requested.
Your brand, a word from leadership, and what happens next for the gift.
4.5 to 6.5 staff hours back on every agreement.
Calculate your return →4.5 to 6.5 hours back on every agreement, about 5.5 on average, before counting the attorney and OGC time that standard gifts no longer consume.
Awarded estimate, as of October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Who is GATO for?
Donor relations, gift administration, and advancement services teams who own gift agreements, and the gift officers, approvers, and counsel who work on them. It fits universities, colleges, community and technical colleges, and institutionally related foundations, whether gift agreements are centralized or decentralized across units. Nonprofits and community foundations use the same workflow.
How is GATO different from DocuSign or Adobe Sign?
DocuSign and Adobe Sign collect signatures. GATO covers everything before the signature too: intake, drafting from your templates, compliance screening, internal approvals, and donor review. At the end, donors can sign on GATO’s branded signing page, or you can route the agreement through your existing DocuSign or Adobe Sign account.
Do donors need to create an account or log in?
No. Donors get a link (or an attachment) to review the agreement, and they can simply reply to the email. Their reply is added to the agreement as a comment for your team. The document they see is locked, so they comment rather than redline. Optional extra verification includes expiring links and a texted code.
How is GATO priced?
GATO is licensed per organization, based on the number of funds you manage. There are no per-seat fees, so every gift officer, approver, and reviewer can have access, and donors are never charged to sign. Book a demo for a proposal.