How to Code Estate Distribution

Pat Goodnature

How does everyone code Estate Distributions gifts in RE? We are a college and sometimes receive these types of gifts.

Ryan Hyde

Pat Goodnature:

How does everyone code Estate Distributions gifts in RE? We are a college and sometimes receive these types of gifts.

Do you have the planned giving module? We create planned gifts on the appropriate estate record (not the individual - the estate represents the individual but is not the same as the individual), and then link all incoming cash to that planned gift. 

Debra Holcomb

We keep the estate distribution on the individual's constituent record.  However, we change the Con Code to Estate.  On the gift record, the gift is then marked with a Gift Con Code of Estate, the campaign, fund, appeal, package and letter code all align for an estate gift, and we use a Gift Code of Estate Gift.   I have this gift recording method  to be very easy to query and report upon and it allows me to tell the stories of our donors who make estate gifts from the very beginning of our relationship with them.


I oversee the Planned Giving program and use the Prospect tab Proposal section to track a pipeline of expected estate distributions, but that can be done in different ways if you don't have the proposal tab. 

Christine Cooke 2

Debra Holcomb:

We keep the estate distribution on the individual's constituent record.  However, we change the Con Code to Estate.  On the gift record, the gift is then marked with a Gift Con Code of Estate, the campaign, fund, appeal, package and letter code all align for an estate gift, and we use a Gift Code of Estate Gift.   I have this gift recording method  to be very easy to query and report upon and it allows me to tell the stories of our donors who make estate gifts from the very beginning of our relationship with them.


I oversee the Planned Giving program and use the Prospect tab Proposal section to track a pipeline of expected estate distributions, but that can be done in different ways if you don't have the proposal tab. 

Debra I guess you are not at a school setting?  If you changed the constit code to Estate then the gift would not count in the Class Giving....


I have seen folks change the Individual Record to say "Estate of Bobby Jones" but keep it with original Constit Code

Martha Spiegel

Pat Goodnature:

How does everyone code Estate Distributions gifts in RE? We are a college and sometimes receive these types of gifts.

We use "Estate/Bequest" as the Appeal when we receive such a gift. 

Pat Goodnature

Pat Goodnature:

How does everyone code Estate Distributions gifts in RE? We are a college and sometimes receive these types of gifts.

Thank you, everyone! All of these answers are very helpful!

Susan Chomsky

Pat Goodnature:

How does everyone code Estate Distributions gifts in RE? We are a college and sometimes receive these types of gifts.

Hi Pat, We create a new constituent record "Estate of . . . " and link it to the Individual record. When an estate gift is booked we use the Appeal=Bequest and soft credit the Individual.

Jane Kenny

Pat Goodnature:

How does everyone code Estate Distributions gifts in RE? We are a college and sometimes receive these types of gifts.

We use Planned gift type and subtype of bequest, charitable gift annuity, Estate gift, Charitable Remainder Trust etc. to track the communication/documentation of the planned gift.  We even track the discussions of the planned gift in actions and tie it to a planned gift proposal.  The planned gift proposal tracks the status of the documentation (committed-verbal, committed documented, awaiting documents, realized).  When a gift payment arrives we enter it as cash and subtype bequest, charitable gift annuity, Estate gift, Charitable Remainder Trust etc.and 'link' it to the planned gift.  One thing to keep in mind is Raisers Edge will double count the planned gift and the realized gift in campaign reporting if you include planned gift types in your giving totals.  Planned gifts don't work the same as pledges in RE.  They are not pay-cash.

If you don't track the original planned gift then I would suggest using gift subtypes to track the estate gifts you recieve.


We leave it on the individuals giving as it is a reflection of their total giving and the subtype tracks the type of estate gift. 


Jane