Best way to track contributions that come in by us writing a grant

Alicia Van Straten

We are doing a much better job of tracking our "contributions buckets" by using campaigns, appeals and fund categories are are now at new level of needing to report/track information. So, I have done A LOT of reading on the forums and digging around on this site to find some watch outs and best practices. I have most of it nailed down based on what we need but one is stumping me. We write smaller grants for all kinds of different funding needs - scholarships, student emergency fund... I was going to use appeal but the example that is stumping me is this: We write a grant for a specific need here on campus call "financial coach": campaign - Annual, Appeal - Financial Coach and the $ get put in a specific fund as monies are specifically designated for this purpose. I can't use Fund Category as many different gifts come in from various sources and reasons (personal ask/unsolicited/grant...) for supporting this specific program? So how/where do I track that this specific gift came in because of a grant written? Gift sub-type, package...?

JoAnn Strommen

Alicia VanStraten:
We are doing a much better job of tracking our "contributions buckets" by using campaigns, appeals and fund categories are are now at new level of needing to report/track information. So, I have done A LOT of reading on the forums and digging around on this site to find some watch outs and best practices. I have most of it nailed down based on what we need but one is stumping me. We write smaller grants for all kinds of different funding needs - scholarships, student emergency fund... I was going to use appeal but the example that is stumping me is this: We write a grant for a specific need here on campus call "financial coach": campaign - Annual, Appeal - Financial Coach and the $ get put in a specific fund as monies are specifically designated for this purpose. I can't use Fund Category as many different gifts come in from various sources and reasons (personal ask/unsolicited/grant...) for supporting this specific program? So how/where do I track that this specific gift came in because of a grant written? Gift sub-type, package...?

It may depend on how you need to pull the date/report on it.  You can use Gift Code, a gift attribute, gift sub-type (because of the abilitiy of gift sub-type to be linked to GL/accounting you may want to save that should you need it for those purposes in the future - can be use for non-accounting functions also but I already hope by gift sub-type list does not get any larger ).  You could even use solicitor function maybe. I don't think it fits very well with purpose of package field and if I remember from other posts the reporting from package field is very limited.

Alicia Van Straten

JoAnn Strommen:

It may depend on how you need to pull the date/report on it.  You can use Gift Code, a gift attribute, gift sub-type (because of the abilitiy of gift sub-type to be linked to GL/accounting you may want to save that should you need it for those purposes in the future - can be use for non-accounting functions also but I already hope by gift sub-type list does not get any larger ).  You could even use solicitor function maybe. I don't think it fits very well with purpose of package field and if I remember from other posts the reporting from package field is very limited.

Thank you JoAnn! I've never heard of Gift Code before and good point on the sub-type as we do have FE and it all ties in. I came up with a tracking method that will allow me to pull for various requests that I have a feeling I am going to get. I ended up going with campaign of Annual and Appeal that would truly match the respective ask like Grant/Direct Mail/Personal Solicitation and so on. As these "special projects" that we raise money for on campus get their own fund as those $ have restrictions, I will keep the fund category as "Project". This will allow me to pull by the fund and filter gifts based on their appeal and also still allow me to track ANY/ALL gifts that come in to through any campaigns to any funds by writing a grant as we can then pull and filter on appeal. So, this will work! I have another scenario that I think I have mapped out but would like to just run it by you/others to get any watch outs/thoughts. We do multiple smaller direct mailings - to our college retirees, to Alumni, to lapsed donors... So, I want to book those gifts to their respective campaigns (Retiree/Alumni/Annual...), keep the Appeal as Direct Mail and then use Gift Attribute with Category of Direct Mail Code and Description would be a preloaded table of current direct mails going on. This would decrease gift entry guessing/error and give me multiple ways to report out various buckets. I did a couple of test queries and it looks like I can pull on Gift Attributes pretty well. Thoughts and feedback though are always appreciated! Thank you, Alicia Van Straten

JoAnn Strommen

Alicia VanStraten:
Thank you JoAnn! I've never heard of Gift Code before and good point on the sub-type as we do have FE and it all ties in. I came up with a tracking method that will allow me to pull for various requests that I have a feeling I am going to get. I ended up going with campaign of Annual and Appeal that would truly match the respective ask like Grant/Direct Mail/Personal Solicitation and so on. As these "special projects" that we raise money for on campus get their own fund as those $ have restrictions, I will keep the fund category as "Project". This will allow me to pull by the fund and filter gifts based on their appeal and also still allow me to track ANY/ALL gifts that come in to through any campaigns to any funds by writing a grant as we can then pull and filter on appeal. So, this will work! I have another scenario that I think I have mapped out but would like to just run it by you/others to get any watch outs/thoughts. We do multiple smaller direct mailings - to our college retirees, to Alumni, to lapsed donors... So, I want to book those gifts to their respective campaigns (Retiree/Alumni/Annual...), keep the Appeal as Direct Mail and then use Gift Attribute with Category of Direct Mail Code and Description would be a preloaded table of current direct mails going on. This would decrease gift entry guessing/error and give me multiple ways to report out various buckets. I did a couple of test queries and it looks like I can pull on Gift Attributes pretty well. Thoughts and feedback though are always appreciated! Thank you, Alicia Van Straten

My motto for RE is adapt it to what works for you.  Sounds like you've given it thought and tried it.  How I might use Appeal field would be different but that doesn't mean it's 'right' or 'better'.  I'm not trying to track and segment things like you are.