How do you use gift subtypes, codes, and references?

Kate Hudson

Could you give me some examples of subtypes, codes, and references you would use for a few different types of gifts? I'm a little overwhelmed with the system we have now and looking for some best practices before I consider options on how to clean it up. Currently, our subtypes are 90% identical to our Funds. Our code table is a bigger problem. We have codes like Parent (we are school), Grandparent, Employee, Membership (we don't have a membership module, but a couple of donor circle-type memberships), a code naming one of those memberships, and then a whole mess of sponsorship names. My predecessor created codes for each name of a sponsorship - for example, Hole Sponsor, Long Drive Sponsor, Putting Sponsor, Closest to the Pin Sponsor and so on, all for our golf tournament, adding new codes if the name of a sponsorship changed from year to year. She did something similar for other events. It's really unwieldy for me to use bc the table it so full - you can type in and search easily if you know what code to use, but to scroll through is awful. Thanks!

Mary McConne

Kate Hudson:
Could you give me some examples of subtypes, codes, and references you would use for a few different types of gifts? I'm a little overwhelmed with the system we have now and looking for some best practices before I consider options on how to clean it up. Currently, our subtypes are 90% identical to our Funds. Our code table is a bigger problem. We have codes like Parent (we are school), Grandparent, Employee, Membership (we don't have a membership module, but a couple of donor circle-type memberships), a code naming one of those memberships, and then a whole mess of sponsorship names. My predecessor created codes for each name of a sponsorship - for example, Hole Sponsor, Long Drive Sponsor, Putting Sponsor, Closest to the Pin Sponsor and so on, all for our golf tournament, adding new codes if the name of a sponsorship changed from year to year. She did something similar for other events. It's really unwieldy for me to use bc the table it so full - you can type in and search easily if you know what code to use, but to scroll through is awful. Thanks!

Subtypes are used in conjunction with funds to determine the debit and credit accounts for posting the gift through to financial edge if you are integrated with it. If you're not integrated, I imagine you could use them in a similar manner to provide info to your finance team. They are set up in a table so can also be queried on. Reference field is freeform text and we use it as a brief description of the gift so users can see at a glance the reason for the gift. We also use them on our annual statements we send to monthly donors. Highly recommend book by Bill Connors to help organize your thoughts about how or if to use all the available fields.

Jacob Williamson

Kate Hudson:
Could you give me some examples of subtypes, codes, and references you would use for a few different types of gifts? I'm a little overwhelmed with the system we have now and looking for some best practices before I consider options on how to clean it up. Currently, our subtypes are 90% identical to our Funds. Our code table is a bigger problem. We have codes like Parent (we are school), Grandparent, Employee, Membership (we don't have a membership module, but a couple of donor circle-type memberships), a code naming one of those memberships, and then a whole mess of sponsorship names. My predecessor created codes for each name of a sponsorship - for example, Hole Sponsor, Long Drive Sponsor, Putting Sponsor, Closest to the Pin Sponsor and so on, all for our golf tournament, adding new codes if the name of a sponsorship changed from year to year. She did something similar for other events. It's really unwieldy for me to use bc the table it so full - you can type in and search easily if you know what code to use, but to scroll through is awful. Thanks!

As far as I can tell, Subtype is an open-ended field that's going to be unique to your organization, there really aren't standards for how best to use it. In our organization--a public television station that uses Memberships pretty heavily--I started using the Subtype to track whether a membership was a Renewal, Additional Gift, Lapsed Gift, or New Member gift, because we had some reporting to our PBS overlords that required that information, and there didn't seem to be a more logical place to store it. I also use it to identify recurring gifts that have broken credit cards and are declining. Not the BEST use of the field but it was a slapdash solution that seems to have worked. An attribute might have made more sense, but those are on a separate screen, and Subtype is right there in the upper left. One thing I recently saw in Raiser's Edge "working with gift records" manual--if a member has a constituent code (such as, for us, Board Member, Sustaining Member...) there's a dropdown on the second gift screen that can associate that dropdown with a constituent type. This might be useful for flagging what gifts are associated with what class of contributor? Just thinking out loud. But that might be more logical than creating a gift subtype for what's functionally a class of member, rather than a class of gift.Best, Jacob Williamson, KLRU TV

JoAnn Strommen

Kate Hudson:
Could you give me some examples of subtypes, codes, and references you would use for a few different types of gifts? I'm a little overwhelmed with the system we have now and looking for some best practices before I consider options on how to clean it up. Currently, our subtypes are 90% identical to our Funds. Our code table is a bigger problem. We have codes like Parent (we are school), Grandparent, Employee, Membership (we don't have a membership module, but a couple of donor circle-type memberships), a code naming one of those memberships, and then a whole mess of sponsorship names. My predecessor created codes for each name of a sponsorship - for example, Hole Sponsor, Long Drive Sponsor, Putting Sponsor, Closest to the Pin Sponsor and so on, all for our golf tournament, adding new codes if the name of a sponsorship changed from year to year. She did something similar for other events. It's really unwieldy for me to use bc the table it so full - you can type in and search easily if you know what code to use, but to scroll through is awful. Thanks!

They all have different uses for us. 

Gift Subtype

As Mary said gift-subtype can, but does not have to be, linked to your GL accounting.  We have some gift-types such as payroll deduction, online cash, online pay-cash etc. that are linked to GL.  Others provide info to accounting dept like direct debit, $ entered into accounting via another means.  And some that are just general info type: increase to original pledge,  funds moved to XX account.  We didn't use the field initially but when a campaign was cancelled and donors had to choose one of three options for their gifts we found that this field worked well to record their preference because it's easily found, could be queried and reported on.  We use a table for entries so no free text entry.

Codes

Our exec wants a monthly report that is similar to donor constituency but yet has several unique factors.  So we use code to identify the category for this report. Again chose because it's easily found on each gift, carries over from pledge to the payments, query-able (new word?) and exportable.

Reference

This field auto fills with EFT and installment info so that's what is found on most records.  I do use it also for notes if needed on a DAF or gift on some's behalf, to flag a gift as memorial/honorarium if needed (we do not have tribute module).  Also use for brief note on GIK donations.

Gift Constituency

This is where we would have the info you have in codes naming the memberships would be entered for us - who they are, what is their relationship, why are they in RE

I would sure look at eliminating anything that's double entry.  Sounds like people have created lots of work for themselves over the years.  It's not uncommon as users want to be sure info is recorded and accessible but it's a lot of unnecessary busy work in my opinion.

 

Kate Hudson

JoAnn Strommen:

They all have different uses for us. 

Gift Subtype

As Mary said gift-subtype can, but does not have to be, linked to your GL accounting.  We have some gift-types such as payroll deduction, online cash, online pay-cash etc. that are linked to GL.  Others provide info to accounting dept like direct debit, $ entered into accounting via another means.  And some that are just general info type: increase to original pledge,  funds moved to XX account.  We didn't use the field initially but when a campaign was cancelled and donors had to choose one of three options for their gifts we found that this field worked well to record their preference because it's easily found, could be queried and reported on.  We use a table for entries so no free text entry.

Codes

Our exec wants a monthly report that is similar to donor constituency but yet has several unique factors.  So we use code to identify the category for this report. Again chose because it's easily found on each gift, carries over from pledge to the payments, query-able (new word?) and exportable.

Reference

This field auto fills with EFT and installment info so that's what is found on most records.  I do use it also for notes if needed on a DAF or gift on some's behalf, to flag a gift as memorial/honorarium if needed (we do not have tribute module).  Also use for brief note on GIK donations.

Gift Constituency

This is where we would have the info you have in codes naming the memberships would be entered for us - who they are, what is their relationship, why are they in RE

I would sure look at eliminating anything that's double entry.  Sounds like people have created lots of work for themselves over the years.  It's not uncommon as users want to be sure info is recorded and accessible but it's a lot of unnecessary busy work in my opinion.

 

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies - I think I have a better idea of how to use the gift code field. We typically want info on constituencies for our annual fund, and current info on our three membership groups. I'll probably have to make most of the current codes inactive, and create a few new ones to reflect other memberships.