Tracking Solicitors

Aldera Chisholm

Hey folks, could use some advice on how we work with Solicitors.



Currently, a Solicitor is assigned by constituent. A constituent could in theory have more than one solicitor. When we enter the gift, we tag the gift with which solicitor is responsible for this gift.



Here is the question: often we have situations such as families where Mr. X is the head and has a solicitor. Mrs. X and their children all make gifts toward a pledge from Mr. X. Only Mr. X has a solicitor, because we don't want to falsely inflate a solicitors porfolio (because we track things like the actions to porfolio ratio.)  



I am having trouble figuring out how to ensure everyone gets proper credit. Do you think this is a case for soft-credits?



My staff are asking me to pull a report of all their gifts so they can see how close they are to financial goals - and I'm realizing not everyone is showing up, for the above reasons. 



Advice?



 

Marie Stark

Yes, we would give soft credits to Mr. X in this case.

Nicole S

I generally tend to SC the original pledger when the spouse makes payments. 



Here is a thought -- can you include the orginal pledge on the report?  Or for some reason are you only able to count the cash? 



YOu could also add the solicitor to the individual gifts and not on the constituents.  That could be pretty manual and easy to forget though.

Aldera Chisholm

Unfortunately, it won't allow me to add a solicitor to a gift, unless that solicitor is already listed on the constituent. That was my hope as well. I like the idea of counting the pledge rather than the payments, that might help.

Nicole S

I could be wrong, but you should be able to add them just to the gift.  All you have to do is select "no" when to window prompting you to add the solicitor to the constituent as well. Unless there is something in your configuration or user rights preventing this option.

William Henderson

RE does allow you to add a solictor to an individual gift. In that case when you try, a box will pop up letting you know that solictor is not one of that gift and ask you do you want to add them clicking yes if you do and no if you don't. That way the solictor will still get credit for solicting the gift if they were the one who really solicted it.

Christine Cooke 2

I would really be pulling the pledge into the report not the payments.  it reflects the totals, whereas the payments show only what the donor followed through on regarding their commitment year-to-date.

And, as mentioned, you can add solicitor(s) to gifts without adding them as a solicitor relationship, just say no on the pop-up.

 

JoAnn Strommen

Just FYI, if you enter solicitor on a pledge gift and click 'no' option, as stated the solicitor is only recorded on the gift.  It is not recorded as a solicitor relationship for the solicitor or the constituent.  When you go to make payments to the pledge, the solicitor entered on the pledge is auto filled as the solicitor for the payment.  So if you needed, you could pull payments and solicitor would be there also. 



Most often we're pulling pledge and cash gifts for solicitor analysis reports as others suggested.

Aldera Chisholm

Ok, I'll get IT to check out settings, we may have something set up in config wrong, as if I select "no" the solicitor isn't on the gift when I go back into it later.



We are moving to pulling numbers based on pledges, not on payments, but in years past they always counted the payment not the pledge. So, starting next fiscal year, I've talked to the big boss about converting to all the numbers based on pledge, but for the remainder of the fiscal, I have to continue the way the gal previously in charge did it - which was counting payments, not pledges. So, when counting I have to pull Pledges made this year, but not their payments, but also payments on Pledges made in previous years. The payments on previous years part will go away as we transition over, but that will take some time.



Definately a case of how important it is to set things up accurately in the beginning so that future staff can carry it forward!