Fund Setup

Patricia Shields

I don't think we have been using funds correctly and would like to get an idea of what other administrators are using funds for.  So, specifically how many funds do you have and what are they for?

 We are an education foundation that manages all kinds of giving, events and scholarships. 

Melissa Graves 2

Patricia Shields:

I don't think we have been using funds correctly and would like to get an idea of what other administrators are using funds for.  So, specifically how many funds do you have and what are they for?

 We are an education foundation that manages all kinds of giving, events and scholarships. 

The best primer on campaign fund and appeals setup is in Bill Connors' book "Fundraising with the Raiser's Edge...". Basically funds should be what tells your finance office the details on how the money can be spent according to the DONOR. If the donor restricted it to be used only for X then X is your fund.

I am a proponent of having detailed funds - even if they all go into one account in finance. So if one donor says to use their money for pens and another donor says to use their money for pencils - but your finance office has only one account for office supplies, you use two funds in RE and they both link to the same GL account (yes- use the GL tab on your funds!). This way, for donor relations purposes you have exactly the specific restriction - you may need to communicate with the recipient department how much they must spend on pens vs. pencils and confirm it is done, but that is ok and doable.

If your finance office insists that every restriction gets its own account, then you can do that and always have a 1:1 relationship between funds and your finance account codes. It gets tricky with some smaller gifts and specific restrictions - in my experience they may eventually cave and make a minimum to establish an account.