Best practice - should a donor be their own assigned solicitor?

Corey O'Connell

 

If a donor is a solicitor, should they be their own assigned solicitor for any donations they personally give? For example, John Smith is an assigned solicitor for other constituents. If he gives a gift, is it best practice to mark that he is the solicitor for his own gift or no? I'm at a new organization that wants assigned solicitors credited for their own gifts; I always thought this wasn't advisable, but I'm not finding any best practices indicating one way or another, and I'm trying to think why it would be a problem to do it this way. Thanks!

JoAnn Strommen

There's not any problem that I'm aware of assigning a solicitor their own name. We have done it both ways depending on how that particular ask campaign is structured. Sometimes the 'team captain" is assigned all the solicitors below them on the org chart. Other times the solicitor has their own name so funds they donate are included in sums towards their goal.


The only time I can see an issue is when people are handling cash.

Crystal Chouinard

 

 

I personally would rather not in the databases that I have worked in for a couple of reasons. The first one being that their giving and their getting "soliciting" are two different metrics. It would be different if it was a board member and your organization had a policy of give or get to meet their board dues. The second issue I see with this is that this solicitor should be assigned to another solicitor to make sure that they are being stewarded as a donor. You want to make sure that they are feeling the donor love and that work should be credited to the person doing that work. 


At the end of the day I don't think it would really hurt anything either way. I guess they might think that the donor/solicitor might give more if they are getting credit for the donation not only as a donor but also as a solicitor it might be worth it. 

Corey O'Connell

JoAnn Strommen:

There's not any problem that I'm aware of assigning a solicitor their own name. We have done it both ways depending on how that particular ask campaign is structured. Sometimes the 'team captain" is assigned all the solicitors below them on the org chart. Other times the solicitor has their own name so funds they donate are included in sums towards their goal.


The only time I can see an issue is when people are handling cash.

Yes, I think this organization wants to count donated funds towards solicitors' goals. I'd rather not, but it may make sense for what they want to do with the reporting. Thank you both for your responses!

Michael Langley 2

Corey O'Connell:

 

If a donor is a solicitor, should they be their own assigned solicitor for any donations they personally give? For example, John Smith is an assigned solicitor for other constituents. If he gives a gift, is it best practice to mark that he is the solicitor for his own gift or no? I'm at a new organization that wants assigned solicitors credited for their own gifts; I always thought this wasn't advisable, but I'm not finding any best practices indicating one way or another, and I'm trying to think why it would be a problem to do it this way. Thanks!

I would say absolutely not. That would open up the possibility of double counting. I have a custom report for our Board members giving and solicited giving and adding them as solicitor definitely would not work.