Crediting Solicitors with Matching Gifts

Anonymous Blackbaud User

 As a prospect manager, it is my responsibility to monitor proposals for major gift asks and once the gift officer has changed the status of the proposal to "Completed and Funded" I know the gift has been posted. I then go into the proposal and link it to the gift, and make sure the correct solicitor's name and amount are entered on the gift and then mark the proposal as Inactive.

My question to all of you is what do you do in the case of matching gifts associated with that particular proposal and resulting gift?

In the past I had been linking the Matching Gift Pledge so the solicitor could be credited immediately with the full amount he or she raised through that particular proposal and solicitation. This, instead of linking the matching gift payment(s), I thought was a cleaner way of crediting the solicitor within the Fiscal Year. Some companies only match whatever pledge payments are made by the individual donor, so there could be multiple Matching Gift Payments over a long period of time.

The prevailing resistance to credit the MG pledge is that it is a Pledge from a company, who may not pay, but we credit pledges from individuals immediately with no problem. We are more likely to get the company's pledge payment than a pledge fulfillment from an individual in my opinion.

Do you think it is even necessary to credit the solicitor for the matching gift, either pledge or payment? They did not actually solicit the company.

Do you have gift officers enter separate proposals for matching gifts? This has been suggested by management and I disagree. It is an improper use of the proposal and throws off my counts when tallying those proposals that are In Process or Upcoming. That means the gift officers would have to enter twice the number of proposal for each separate payment and then who monitors and lets them know when these payments come in?

 

JoAnn Strommen

Anonymous Blackbaud User:

 As a prospect manager, it is my responsibility to monitor proposals for major gift asks and once the gift officer has changed the status of the proposal to "Completed and Funded" I know the gift has been posted. I then go into the proposal and link it to the gift, and make sure the correct solicitor's name and amount are entered on the gift and then mark the proposal as Inactive.

My question to all of you is what do you do in the case of matching gifts associated with that particular proposal and resulting gift?

In the past I had been linking the Matching Gift Pledge so the solicitor could be credited immediately with the full amount he or she raised through that particular proposal and solicitation. This, instead of linking the matching gift payment(s), I thought was a cleaner way of crediting the solicitor within the Fiscal Year. Some companies only match whatever pledge payments are made by the individual donor, so there could be multiple Matching Gift Payments over a long period of time.

The prevailing resistance to credit the MG pledge is that it is a Pledge from a company, who may not pay, but we credit pledges from individuals immediately with no problem. We are more likely to get the company's pledge payment than a pledge fulfillment from an individual in my opinion.

Do you think it is even necessary to credit the solicitor for the matching gift, either pledge or payment? They did not actually solicit the company.

Do you have gift officers enter separate proposals for matching gifts? This has been suggested by management and I disagree. It is an improper use of the proposal and throws off my counts when tallying those proposals that are In Process or Upcoming. That means the gift officers would have to enter twice the number of proposal for each separate payment and then who monitors and lets them know when these payments come in?

 

 We do credit MG to the solicitor who asked the prospect/donor who is receiving the match.  It works for us.

We do not have the prospect module, but as you said I would be hesitant to enter separate proposals for matching gifts.