What date should be used for the gift date when entering a gift from an employee giving campaign?

Rebecca Lewis

There are typically three dates associated with these contributions. The date we enter the gift, the date on the check, and the date it was deducted. What date would you put where? And when would you issue receipts since most of the time these donations are distributed a few months after it is deducted from the donor's pay check.

JoAnn Strommen

Rebecca Vicknair:
There are typically three dates associated with these contributions. The date we enter the gift, the date on the check, and the date it was deducted. What date would you put where? And when would you issue receipts since most of the time these donations are distributed a few months after it is deducted from the donor's pay check.

For  what it's worth this is what we do.  Our employee gifts are entered as pledges with gift and GL post date of 1/1 (our fiscal year is Jan-Dec so this way even if received in Dec we don't have to mess with accounts receivable - we are integrated with FE) or the date during the year the pledge is received.  If payroll checks are issued 1/24 - date on check, that date is used as gift date for the installment and GL post date.  It's date when money changes funds in accounting. 

We issue receipts for 95% of employees at year end as their deductions go for entire year.  For those who have 1, 3, 10 or some other # of deductions we issue their receipt when pledge is paid in full.  This can be tricky to track - I have a query of the pledges showing # of installments that's helpful.

My 2 cents... 

Jennifer McHale

Rebecca Vicknair:
There are typically three dates associated with these contributions. The date we enter the gift, the date on the check, and the date it was deducted. What date would you put where? And when would you issue receipts since most of the time these donations are distributed a few months after it is deducted from the donor's pay check.

Are the gifts coming through the United Way, or other such organization? If so, they issue the tax receipt.

When I receive the pledge information from the United Way, I do acknowledge the donors' contributions with a simple "thank you" letter. We do not mention the gift amount, simply the fact they chose to support us - and what their donation allows us to do.

I then soft credit the donor as we receive gifts from the United Way. It means I can look up the amounts as needed (the full pledge amount is included as a note, but since you'll never see the full amount because of various administrative deductions, I don't enter it as a true pledge) and ensures that these individuals remain on appropriate mailing lists.