Campaigns, Funds, Appeals

Shiri Pressman 2

Hi,



We've converted to RE, FE & EE last year before I came on board. Campaigns and Appeals were never used (Finance has already setup general ledger, GL codes, etc) and now our Development dept would like to go ahead and track solicitations. However, we have about 230 funds that include what appears to be a combination of campaigns and appeals--giving that our Finance dept has already setup FE how difficult of a transition would this be for them to re-code/re-work? I'd like to make sure we're utilizing the database we just aquired but also be realistic and cognizant of other departments involved. Your input would be greatly appreciated.



Thank you.

JoAnn Strommen

Not sure what you mean by FE appearing to contain campaigns.  Campaigns in RE are not linked to GL.  It could just be a matter of use of the word.  Just because something is titled "ABC campaign" does not mean it is a campaign in RE.  So if it's $ to be recorded in FE (project) it has to be a fund or appeal in RE.   For us campaign is an umbrella category over related funds.



For what's involved in changes in FE, you may want to post in FE forums. Some RE users deal with FE but a lot of us do not. 



What do you mean by 'development would like to track solicitations?  If these funds go back many years what do you plan to track?   How old are some of these funds?  Is it data you will be using going forward?  Is there a reason you're not able just to track going forward?



When we converted our data info RE and FE the old existing gift records were not linked between the two programs.  Gifts were marked as do not post.  Accounting for them was actually in software other than FE and I don't believe they even imported gift records other than existing pledges with balance into FE or if they did it was just for current fiscal year.   



Do you have an overall plan for structure of campaigns/funds/appeals and how you wll use each category?  If not, I'd start there. (Bill Connor's book on RE is a good read for ways to use RE or at least things to consider when deciding on your own structure.)  My experience with changing funds / appeals is that it's a lot of work - more than I expected and it doesn't mean all the 'old' fund / appeal names can be deleted because they may be listed as previous fund on records.  



When I saw your post I thought "Whew" that's a lot of work in RE.  If you're linking all 230 funds to FE you'll need to spend a good amount of time entering the GL data on the fund and/or appeal records in RE.  Changing funds to appeals for large # of records, I'd consider using  import.  



Have rambled enought - just one users thoughts...

Shiri Pressman 2

HI JoAnne! Thank you for the info.



We dont use campaign and appeals only FUND ID's (230 of them) so lets say we sent a high holiday appeal then its just recorded as a FUND ID. However we'd like to start taking our FUND ID's we have and streamlining them in to appeals (because some of them really are) and start using it just as Bill Connor's suggested in his book. However, the FUND ID is tied to the General Ledger/GLDistribution and my question was how difficult would that task be. I will give more concrete examples of how we'd like to structure this: 



Campaigns (coordinated activity with  specific objective)

 

Annual Giving                        Planned Giving          Capital Campaign

 

 

Appeals (what prompted the gift)

 

High Holiday              Passover                    

 

CBI Talks                    Membership              Hanukkah

 

Adult Learning          Nagle Film Festival    Spirituality

 

Jewish Legacy            Tributes         Social Action

 

 

 

Funds (where the money is going)

 

Restricted       Unrestricted  Scholarship   Building Fund  

 





 

Katherine Popowich

Hi Shiri,



As Joanne said it will be time consuming work but as for the difficuly not really. You just need a good handle on how you want to see the data. I cant say what would be the best for your organization however I can tell you that what we do in mine is if we have a donation for an event sponsorship in our health department. We would structure it.....

Campaign     Fund                 Appeal                              Gift Subtype

Health         Sleep Forum      Corporate Sponsorship         Restricted-Sponorship

I also have Gift Subytpes in the database so that I can enter a different type of GL to it so in this case in my organization we would enter this as resricted revenue. Under Fund in records you can add additional GL Distributions that you would have created in your tables in Configuration.



Katherine

Christine Cooke 2

Campaigns and Appeals are fields that Development is interested in and tracks.  FE and business office is only interested in Funds and the account numbers linked to the G/L.  So you can do whatever you want to reset the Campaigns and Appeals for each Fund.