Major Gifts and Grants Entries

Joe Rankin

Hi All!


When entering Major Gifts and Grants into LCRM, do you use Batch, or do you enter them manually one at a time?


Thanks!!

-Joe

Ebenezer Dadzie

WFP USA enters it manually, one at a time. I haven't tried out the batch entry yet but you can setup a templete and test drive it.

 

Kate Kappel Haba

We do both at
Food and Water Watch.  We batch “small” major gifts (below a
certain threshold) and then manually enter the rest. We also
manually enter grants. 

Joe Rankin

Ebenezer Dadzie:

WFP USA enters it manually, one at a time. I haven't tried out the batch entry yet but you can setup a templete and test drive it.

 

Thanks Ebenezer!  For your manual entry process, do you have written procedures that you might be able to share?  (Hope I'm not asking for too much!)

Joe Rankin

Kate Kappel Haba:

We do both at Food and Water Watch.  We batch “small” major gifts (below a certain threshold) and then manually enter the rest. We also manually enter grants. 

 

Thanks Kate!!  Are any of your Major Gift batch entries satisfying pre-existing open opportunities?  If so, do you ever encounter gifts received from a giving vehicle, when the open opportunity was on the individual's record?  Is there a way to handle in batch?

Thanks again!!

-Joe

Timothy Grailer

Joe,

I am assuming when you state 'giving vehicle' that you are meaning another tax entity (like a DAF or Private or Family Foundation).  We do not allow one entity to pay the pledge from another entity so as to prevent self-dealing that could be potentially damaging to the tax bill of the donor.  The best practice here is to write off or remove the pledge from the individual and open a new pledge on the entity that is paying the pledge (Fidelity, the Family Foundation).  You can still soft credit the donation to the individual, but now you have the documentation that the donor did not engage in self-dealing, which can include substantial tax implications as well as fines for each instance.


We know that some software products allow this functionality.  We specifically have chosen to enforce not only a best practice, but an opportunity to appropriately steward your donors by having this conversation about the implications of paying personal pledges with money that is no longer the donors.


I've included some resources below.


Related to Private Foundations:
http://www.bakertilly.com/insights/private-foundation-common-self-dealing-issues/
Related to DAF:
http://www.ecfa.org/Content/TopicDAFUsedToPayPledge