Outsourcing gift entry

Leslie Parker

Do any of you use an outside company to do your gift entry? If so, who do you use, what are approxiate costs and how happy with the process are you?

Debra Holcomb

We use DMP as our caging company. We certainly couldn't handle the volume of gifts we receive given the small size of our staff.  The price depends on the volume they process each month.  It would cost us much more if we had to bring the processing in house and comply with PCI requirements.  



As with any outsourcing there are trade offs, so you'll want to build a relationship with any vendor you choose so that you understand what they can provide and when they can provide it, and that they understand your business needs. 

Joost Groen

Debra Holcomb:

We use DMP as our caging company. We certainly couldn't handle the volume of gifts we receive given the small size of our staff.  The price depends on the volume they process each month.  It would cost us much more if we had to bring the processing in house and comply with PCI requirements.  



As with any outsourcing there are trade offs, so you'll want to build a relationship with any vendor you choose so that you understand what they can provide and when they can provide it, and that they understand your business needs. 

Good you tell me/us how much the volume of gifts is you guys have to process (for instance, each month)? And are that new gifts or monthly/annually gifts?



 

Rachel Slager 2

I worked at a hospital with a large direct mail income.  The Direct Mail company did the mailings and processed the gifts according to our codes, and it worked well enough.  Though cost to expense we operated around 85% of dollars raised went to our mission.  With Direct mail costs, it was more like 20%.



We also did two big Phonathon fundraisers and an attempt at hiring temp staff to process gifts was disasterous.  My experience overall is that companies will work with you to get it right, but their costs are much higher than if you did it yourself, so it's only worth it if you really have a ton of gifts to process.  Individuals hired are not accountable, and companies who arent used to doing this kind of processing for a non profit can consume time with all the reconciliation issues.