Matching Gift Pledge and Matching Gift are not the same

Mary Jane Spillers

I have two scenarios to discuss and see what your best practices are to handle the situations.


1.  Donor makes a gift.  I post the gift on his record and create the Matching Gift pledge for the dollar amount of the original gift.  When the Matching Gift is made, a small percentage amount is withheld for "administrative fees".  How do I handle the difference between the Matching Gift and the Matching Gift Pledge?


2.  Donor makes a gift.  I post the gift on the donor record and create a Matching Gift pledge for the dollar amount of the original gift.  When the Matching Gift comes in, it was a 2:1 match.  How do I take care of the increase in the pledge and posting the matching gift?


Thank you

Mercedes McCayRead

Here is what I would do for each:

1) Apply the pledge to the matching gift and write off the difference.

2) Apply the pledge to the matching gift and when you do that RE usually will ask what you want to do with the additional money - I always select "create a cash gift for the remainder" or something like that.  That way the pledge is paid off and there is just another gift with the same date on the record that shows "cash for remainder" in the reference field. 


Hope that helps.

Candace Chesler

We mark all of our Matching Gift Pledges as Do Not Post. Our accounting department doesn't want to deal with writing off pledges - or holding them as possible receivables when the disbursement period will happen in a future fiscal year. Since the Pledges are not posted - when the two scenarios you are describing occur - we adjust the original pledge. Once the payment is received - we post the MG Pay-Cash gift to the GL. 

 

Don Irwin

Hello,


First, I don't send MG Pledges to our accounting department, so that solves a lot of problems.


Second, I like to keep my data clean, and unfulfilled matching gift pledges are annoying. You really have no way of knowing if the donor or their employer is going to follow through. There are too many variables. So I say, "sure, I'll believe it when I see it!"


What I do is record the matching gift pledge AND the matching gift when I receive them. So if Jane Doe donates $1,000 and then says it will be matched, I make a note. If and when I receive the check from her employer, I do this:


1) Enter the matching gift (just a cash gift for us).

2) Find the original gift, open it, and add the matching gift pledge (for the amount you know you are receiving, whether it be 1x, 2x, 1x minus fees, etc.).

3) Open the matching cash gift and apply it to the matching gift pledge.


This works for us. We get about 30 to 50 MGs per month, so not too much to keep track of. But then there is no writing off of pledges, splitting gifts, etc.


Hope that helps!


Don

Mary Jane Spillers

Don,

Thank you for the reply.

 

When you state that you make a note regarding
the matching gift, where do you make the note?  In RE? 
Or do you have a different method?

 

Do you have a system to “track” matching gift
pledges?  It seems that you only recognize them when they are
received.

 

I appreciate your time.

Mary Jane

 

Mary Jane Spillers Advancement Services Manager

479.979.1222 mspillers@ozarks.edu University of the Ozarks 415 North College Avenue Clarksville, AR  72830

 

 

Matthew Nareff

I would agree with Don, I don't put any matching gift pledges in unless I know that there's actually going to be a matching gift.  But for us it's not just when a matching gift arrives, we sometimes get a form that we need to fill out to confirm that the individual has made a gift.  If we've got that form we put the matching gift pledge in then.  In many respects it's like any other pledge, you shouldn't put them in unless you have some documentation, the only difference is that sometimes the documentation comes in the form of a check. Unfortunately you have to do pledge and payment at the same time, which doesn't always make sense, because the matching gift type isn't available unless there is a pledge.