Best Practices - fulfillment

Amy Hough

I am working on what our goals should be regarding fulfillment.



How much time should there be between receiving a tribute and when the card is sent to the tributee?  Currently, it takes us about a week.  We have a volunteer come in once a week to print up, have signed, then mail out cards.  



Also, we send out premiums/products for certain gifts.  How long should it be from when a gift is received and when we get the premium/product out the door?



Do you know of any resources that cover these types of industry standards?  Thanks a lot for your help!

JoAnn Strommen

Generally what I have always heard is 48 hours for acknowledging/receipting a gift.  I will admit when dealing with a large number of memorial gifts a couple of times with our org, the donor was sent their receipt but I waited to combine listing of gifts to send to the family.  If you can shorten them time, do it.  If you need to have the volunteer come in twice a week, try it.  If it's not an option, just do the bestyou can.

 

We do a small plaque for donors at certain levels.  They are not always out so fast as desired because we have to have them made and exec delivers in person.  Otherwise I'd say the same for the premium/gift.  I'm a bit hesitant to ask but will ask.  Are you/your org aware of the tax regs regarding tax deductions and donor receiving gifts?  I'm not in my office right now with the doc for what the IRS publication numbers are but can look it up tomorrow if you don't already have that info. 



You can probably find other posts on this topic in the forums and at www.fundsvcs.org - search the archives.  Hope that helps a bit.

Amy Hough

JoAnn Strommen:

Generally what I have always heard is 48 hours for acknowledging/receipting a gift.  I will admit when dealing with a large number of memorial gifts a couple of times with our org, the donor was sent their receipt but I waited to combine listing of gifts to send to the family.  If you can shorten them time, do it.  If you need to have the volunteer come in twice a week, try it.  If it's not an option, just do the bestyou can.

 

We do a small plaque for donors at certain levels.  They are not always out so fast as desired because we have to have them made and exec delivers in person.  Otherwise I'd say the same for the premium/gift.  I'm a bit hesitant to ask but will ask.  Are you/your org aware of the tax regs regarding tax deductions and donor receiving gifts?  I'm not in my office right now with the doc for what the IRS publication numbers are but can look it up tomorrow if you don't already have that info. 



You can probably find other posts on this topic in the forums and at www.fundsvcs.org - search the archives.  Hope that helps a bit.

Thanks for your response.  Thanks for checking, and yes, we do have wording on our receipts per IRS rules.