Gift Entry and Security Privileges

Howard Marmorstein

 Just asking ...

Whom do you let do gift entry?  Staff only?  Interns?

Pressure is on to amend our policy and let our interns enter gifts which we (data services) don't wish to do.

Looking for consensus amongst other RE people on this.

Related - do you insist on training gift entry staff or does anyone have a train-the-trainer scheme?

Thanks.

JoAnn Strommen

Howard Marmorstein:

 Just asking ...

Whom do you let do gift entry?  Staff only?  Interns?

Pressure is on to amend our policy and let our interns enter gifts which we (data services) don't wish to do.

Looking for consensus amongst other RE people on this.

Related - do you insist on training gift entry staff or does anyone have a train-the-trainer scheme?

Thanks.

Our gift entry is by staff.  But we are a very small org  

As to letting interns do data entry, I'd look at how long the person is interning at my org.  If it's 6-12 months, I'd consider it.  If it was 1-6 months I'd be against it.  By the time had been trained and  they truely knew how to efficiently use RE they'd be about done.  The donor confidentiality issues would be a question in my mind too.  What type of internship are they doing - is data entry a valuable part of their experience or is it just giving them 'grunt' work?  How does it fit with the goals for the internship.  Again, if it is just part of their responsibilities/experience, is it worth the time for training and possibly clean up in RE.   I know I'd say yes to traiing someone to data/gift entry on a part-time basis much more readily if I knew they were a meticulous, detail person.  Don't want to see a mess re-created in our database. 

As to training, it would be my responsibility to train (so time away from my RE duties).

Nicole S

JoAnn Strommen:

Our gift entry is by staff.  But we are a very small org  

As to letting interns do data entry, I'd look at how long the person is interning at my org.  If it's 6-12 months, I'd consider it.  If it was 1-6 months I'd be against it.  By the time had been trained and  they truely knew how to efficiently use RE they'd be about done.  The donor confidentiality issues would be a question in my mind too.  What type of internship are they doing - is data entry a valuable part of their experience or is it just giving them 'grunt' work?  How does it fit with the goals for the internship.  Again, if it is just part of their responsibilities/experience, is it worth the time for training and possibly clean up in RE.   I know I'd say yes to traiing someone to data/gift entry on a part-time basis much more readily if I knew they were a meticulous, detail person.  Don't want to see a mess re-created in our database. 

As to training, it would be my responsibility to train (so time away from my RE duties).

 I agree with JoAnn.  It depends on what is being entered and how long they will be entering it and the individual who will be entering.  Nothing but trouble will come from a cycle of different un-trained people entering your data, I assure you.

The road to hell is paved with turnover...

Nicole S

Hahahaha



I was just searching the forum to see what others have had to say about using interns... I feel like I'm constantly hearing that this or that is a project for interns and after having a constant string of untrained interns in my database, I kind of don't want them working on it uless they will be around for a while.



I was reading my own post above for a mement not realizing I said it.  I was thinking... "EXACTLY what I think!"  Good to see I still agree with myself.



Does anyone else have anything to say about interns?  Any good experiences or other thoughts to share?  I'd like to keep them out, but I'm willing to listen if anyone has had a positive experience.

Christine Cooke 2

I agree with what everyone else has said about interns, the training and the time thing.    Same with volunteers!  if they are only for a short time.  I also believe in giving interns a test just like you would give to someone interviewing for a position.

When I have used interns or volunteers, I have been very careful to have very specific jobs that do not have a lot of steps and they do not have access to other parts of RE.  I do not give them projects that include financial info because of the confidentiality, so I would never have anyone but staff do gift entry.  If gift entry gets messed up the snowball effect is just too much to think about.



If the intern/volunteer LIKES working on data and proves to be able to handle a task, then I will give them more if they are willing to continue to focus and get it right.  I give the whole garbage in/garbage out speech.  I have had some good experiences -- and this includes working with high school students as interns!  But training is a must for any "helper" and and also give them a cheat sheet with each project that includes screen shots.  It's hard enough to get your staff/team to follow along on protocols, much less someone with less invested in the data.