How is your organization recording matching gift claim/pledges?

Rodrigo Guardado

Hi all,



I came from an organization that process matching gift claims/pledges into their Blackbaud CRM database prior to receiving the matching gift payment from the donor's employer. However, at my current organization, it appears that the finance department is having issues with recording the matching gift "pledge" because Financial Edge appears to be recording it as a standard "pledge." (has anyone ever heard about this?) I'm still not sure about the specifics as to why, but I've been told that we should not be recording matching gift pledges until the matching gift payment is received. Of course, this sounds a bit odd because I would think we would want to record matching gift pledges for tracking purposes. Moreover, we could run reports for the purpose of following up with the donor or the donor's employer. Granted, it should not be assumed that all matching gift pledges/claims will be paid, however, I still think we should be recorded them as soon as we receive the matching gift pledge forms.



How is your organization handling matching gift pledge forms/pledges?

Does anyone have an idea why finance would have a problem with matching gift pledges? (Should we not post to GL?)



**FYI came from an organization that used Blackbaud CRM and that system would record it as a "matching gift claim" not a "matching gift pledge" so I think this didn't cause finance the confusion with a "standard pledge." Let me know.



Thanks,



Rodrigo

JoAnn Strommen

We record ours as MG and we're integrated with FE.  I just looked at the GL disribution for a fund and the GL accounts used for MG are the same as for regular pledges, pledges and payments.  So it appears to be processed just like any other pledge. 



Don't know what your finance office's issue would be.  Percentage of no-pay MG isn't really any different than amount of straight pledges when it comes to writing them off. 



If you didn't post the MG pledge I think you'd have more issues as RE would be recognizing payment of MG as a MG pay - cash and FE wouldn't have a pledge.  I suppose your GLs could be set up to route MG pay-cash into a cash GL account # but makes for messy accounting to me.

Rodrigo Guardado

JoAnn Strommen:

We record ours as MG and we're integrated with FE.  I just looked at the GL disribution for a fund and the GL accounts used for MG are the same as for regular pledges, pledges and payments.  So it appears to be processed just like any other pledge. 



Don't know what your finance office's issue would be.  Percentage of no-pay MG isn't really any different than amount of straight pledges when it comes to writing them off. 



If you didn't post the MG pledge I think you'd have more issues as RE would be recognizing payment of MG as a MG pay - cash and FE wouldn't have a pledge.  I suppose your GLs could be set up to route MG pay-cash into a cash GL account # but makes for messy accounting to me.

I'm not sure either. I'm new to Raiser's Edge but have a background in Blackbaud CRM and this was never an issue with finance. if anything, we want to record all MG pledges in order to maintain a complete record in our database. More importantly, it's easier to pay off the matching gift payments once the check is issued and we have a huge list of donor names to payoff. 



Now that you mentioned it, does your organization have periodic matching gift pledge data clean up dates for writting off pledges that are not fullfilled? I would think done after a full year has elapsed, right? 

JoAnn Strommen

Rodrigo Guardado:

JoAnn Strommen:

We record ours as MG and we're integrated with FE.  I just looked at the GL disribution for a fund and the GL accounts used for MG are the same as for regular pledges, pledges and payments.  So it appears to be processed just like any other pledge. 



Don't know what your finance office's issue would be.  Percentage of no-pay MG isn't really any different than amount of straight pledges when it comes to writing them off. 



If you didn't post the MG pledge I think you'd have more issues as RE would be recognizing payment of MG as a MG pay - cash and FE wouldn't have a pledge.  I suppose your GLs could be set up to route MG pay-cash into a cash GL account # but makes for messy accounting to me.

I'm not sure either. I'm new to Raiser's Edge but have a background in Blackbaud CRM and this was never an issue with finance. if anything, we want to record all MG pledges in order to maintain a complete record in our database. More importantly, it's easier to pay off the matching gift payments once the check is issued and we have a huge list of donor names to payoff. 



Now that you mentioned it, does your organization have periodic matching gift pledge data clean up dates for writting off pledges that are not fullfilled? I would think done after a full year has elapsed, right? 

 

Our procedure has been to write off any unpaid MG at the same time we do other unpaid pledges for the year.  Our fiscal year is same as calendar year so unpaids are typically written off at year end/January.  I know we have a couple to write off this year as the employee did not submit for the stated match - never appeared online to confirm their gift. 

John Heizer

JoAnn Strommen:

We record ours as MG and we're integrated with FE.  I just looked at the GL disribution for a fund and the GL accounts used for MG are the same as for regular pledges, pledges and payments.  So it appears to be processed just like any other pledge. 



Don't know what your finance office's issue would be.  Percentage of no-pay MG isn't really any different than amount of straight pledges when it comes to writing them off. 



If you didn't post the MG pledge I think you'd have more issues as RE would be recognizing payment of MG as a MG pay - cash and FE wouldn't have a pledge.  I suppose your GLs could be set up to route MG pay-cash into a cash GL account # but makes for messy accounting to me.

One quick note:  You can't have an MG Pay-Cash without an MG Pledge to apply it to. Otherwise it's just a Cash gift.

Rodrigo Guardado

@John....the rule is to process the matching gift claim on the day the matching gift is received. Yes, I know, it's NOT the best practice but I wanted to verify this before returning back to finance to have this rule amended. I came from an organization that used CRM and I wanted to double check BEFORE making a recommendation.

Daniel Bayer

I don't know if this will help, but... Our finance office is BIG on documentation, so I have instituted a policy of not booking an MG Pledge until we get the check from the company UNLESS we have a copy of the form. There are all kinds of different ways companies will match gifts from different cohorts as well, so I have been extra careful about entering them. Basically, if it isn't written down, it's not real, at least not to finance. So I err on the side of excluding them, just to make everything copasetic. It has also been suggested to me that you can mark MG Pledges as "Do Not Post" in the GL Post Status if they cause too much trouble, but I haven't done it as I am not sure what sort of ramifications it might have (we do not use Financial Edge, but the finance office does use RE's GL).

Rodrigo Guardado

Daniel Bayer:

I don't know if this will help, but... Our finance office is BIG on documentation, so I have instituted a policy of not booking an MG Pledge until we get the check from the company UNLESS we have a copy of the form. There are all kinds of different ways companies will match gifts from different cohorts as well, so I have been extra careful about entering them. Basically, if it isn't written down, it's not real, at least not to finance. So I err on the side of excluding them, just to make everything copasetic. It has also been suggested to me that you can mark MG Pledges as "Do Not Post" in the GL Post Status if they cause too much trouble, but I haven't done it as I am not sure what sort of ramifications it might have (we do not use Financial Edge, but the finance office does use RE's GL).

@Daniel, I was actually thinking the same thing with regards to the "Do Not Post." However, at the end of the fiscal year, doesn't this impact your reconciliation reports with finance when they don't have these MG pledges in their Financial Edge but THEY ARE IN Raiser's Edge? Indeed, there was someone who checked the GL distribution in Financial Edge and found that MG pledges are treated as regular pledges and I'm wondering if instituting this "Do Not Post" will cause recon issues down the road. Any thoughts?

JoAnn Strommen

Note re marking MG as do not post.  When you receive payment, in RE you will be entering the MG as pay-cash (payments on a pledges vs. cash gift).  If your organization uses different GL#s to record cash gifts from pledge payments, they will be getting a pledge payment (MG) for which they don't have a pledge.  Could cause a problem if you leave MG pledges as do not post.  Suppose you could change MG pledge GL to not posted when you receive MG payment.  A bit messy to me to remember to do it. 



If there were a battle between Development/CEO and Finance Dept I guess our Development/CEO would be declared the winner as they want the MG pledges to pull into fundraising reports.  Especially the solicitors want it reporting when it comes to crediting the solicitors who obtained gift and it's match.



Just have to do what works at your org to keep the most people happy.

Nicole S

I have worked at 2 organizations where I book the MG pledges, but the BO prefers that we not include them in reports.  They prefered not to book them in finance because they were typically small and we did not know when/if they would come due to variables like donors completing/submitting forms, companies approving, employees leaving, etc.  At another the MG pledges were typically much larger and fewer so the BO booked them like any other pledge.  It can depend on what makes it simpler/better for all interested paries and your donor base and what type of organization you are (for instance some companies won't match schools, so a school will get a lot of rejections that have to be written off).

Christine Cooke 2

out of the four orgs I have worked at that have had RE, and therefore the MG tool, only one of them wanted to utilize it, but that one was changing their mind.  It's sort of clunky.  And because, like other have mentioned, there is that conundrum of whether the donor will follow through on the paperwork or if it will be approved (though the donor should have looked to see what sorts of orgs their employer matches).  Because I do not use the MG tool, the alternate for me is to mark the Appeal as a Match Gift when it comes in. and SC the donor.

Erin Donnelly

We also use RE/FE and we do not use the matching gift function in RE. Instead, we have set up separate Matching Gift Funds (Matching Gift Annual Fund, Matching Gift Membership, etc.) to which we apply the match and we soft credit the individual donor who initiated it.