Matching Gift Pledge - Adjust or Write-off?

Kim Berry 2

I'm new to my organization and have discovered that we have several large (six and seven figures) matching gift pledges in the system. Record was set up to automatically create a matching gift pledge, which normally is great, but no employer is going to match a $2,500,000 revocable bequest expectancy ....


... So, what's your collective best advice, should I adjust the matching gift expectancy or just write it off? The biggest error was this past fiscal year (June 1 - May 31 FY here) but I'm sure if I look I'll find some others. We do feed to finance but not via FE; finance is still in Banner.


Thanks in advance,

Kim

Elizabeth Johnson

I hashed this out with our business office in my early years and fortunately, there hasn't been any turnover so this has been working for over a decade.


If something hasn't been audited yet or is a partial write-off I use adjustment. If it has been shared with the business office pre-audit I use adjustment. 


We have very few write-offs as we require all pledges to be in writing before they are entered into the system. I tend to only do write-offs at fiscal year-end when someone passes away that might be the only exception that comes to mind.


If something was never really a gift at all I would be more likely to adjust and in some cases, like yours, I would delete the matching gift if it was accidentally created. I would add a note to the gift that initiated the matching gift so I don't scratch my head should it comes to question in a report that was run before the deletion. It was never a gift it was always a data entry error. This - with communication to the business office has worked for over a decade. The business office signed off on the plan before I initiated it. I find write-off's in the system difficult to bend to my will and so I use them sparingly. I feel like there is a certain amount of judgment associated with them as well. Someone that pays a pledge with stock and it comes within a few dollars of the pledge has satisfied their commitment and should have that negative label. I'm also not going to request anyone to go back to a donor and say thanks for that gift. Your pledge was $50,000 and you are $3 dollars short. Will you make that up?


Curious as to what others would do and Kim Berry‍ what you end up doing.

JoAnn Strommen

As Elizabeth Johnsen‍ said, communication key. I would adjust to have a trail if entered in financial reports.  


Our MG pledges also auto create so are entered as do not post. In all my db clean up I'm going through, I queried all the MGs out there created several years prior and with finances blessing deleted them.


Same thoughts also on using 'write off' - definitely skews some reporting. 

Patti Hommes

I agree with Elizabeth Johnsen‍ and JoAnn Strommen‍ - communication, communication, communication in every aspect. 


I have developed the habit of running a gift report after posting a batch and deleting any "accidental" MG pledges right off the bat so the aren't reported on. But if they are historical gifts that have already been reported I will do an adjustment.