Gift Subtype

Kendall Uckele

Hey everybody!


I wanted to ask how everyone is using gift subtype for their data entry process.


I am trying to refine how it is used in my org, the process is way to complicated now. Currently, we use it for two things. First tracking how people want their gifts designated, for example is they want the gifts to be unrestricted or go to equipment. Secondly to track the amount of funds raised for our events on the FE side. This is leading to numerous issues with gifts not posting to FE because the correct gift subtype was not entered for a campaign for example. 


Currently we have just over 30 active gift subtypes which does not feel right!


Any advice on how this field can better serve my org would be greatly appreciated!

Linda Burns 2

Gift subtype links directly to the revenue line in Financial Edge and is only used for that purpose.


The Fund is used to track the designation of the gift.


Once you have the two tables cleaned up and the subtypes linked to the VCO correctly in Financial Edge it will be much more organized.


All the best!

JoAnn Strommen

Just a note, while gift sub-type can be linked directly to revenue accounts, it's not required. A gift sub-type can be just text for informational purposes. Used both a previous org for years.

JoAnn Strommen

Hmm, just saw whole thread and reply I made yesterday not posted. Yes, I think 30 is a bit much as well.


For your first situation, is it possible that the unrestricted and equipment can be separated into two funds. Seems odd to have restricted and unrestricted monies in the same fund and could be messy to track.


For tracking events, I'm thinking you had a dinner or golf tourney, to raise money for your campaign. Or is the money for the event? I'm a little unclear. Assuming it's events held to raise for a larger campaign, have you considered recording the different events as appeals? 


Other thoughts are sitting down with your team and looking at the list of gift sub-types. Are they all needed? Can renaming help clarify for more accurate data entry?  And then there's always more training of staff. ?


Best wishes.  Change can be a challenge.

Kendall Uckele

Is gift subtype required in a gift? Right now our finance team says a gift will not post unless it has a "correct" for a campaign and fund. 


Should I be able to create gifts without a gift subtype?

JoAnn Strommen

No, it is not required by BB.  An org can make it a required field for their database. (Check Configuration > Fields > Gift. Generally required fields have color coding.


Yes, you should be able to create gifts without a sub-type.  Posting will only work correctly if fund is linked to GL.  Sub-type fund links are added as separate lines on the GL tab to send those gifts possibly to a different account.

Brian Davies

We track restricted vs unrestricted donations through fund designation. this works best for our business office.

Tracking funds connected to an event can be done many ways, you can link a gift to an event which then will show up on the event record in the event tab if you are using it. Sometimes this is overly cumbersome. I have also tracked event gifts with Appeal with the event name.

Currently we use gift subtype to track what fiscal year a gift was credited to. This is something my predecessor setup, but I don't really use it anymore. I am looking at using gift subtype to track the vehicle donations are received. (NXT Giving Form, BoostMySchool, Greater Giving, Stock, Check, Cash, etc) This is helpful for our monthly reconciliation and needs to be more granular than the standard gift type and payment type fields. Currently we do this using gift code, but gift code is not an available field in the NXT batch entry which is now the norm for online gifts received through the NXT giving forms.

Lara Couture

We are currently using gift-subtype to identify our payroll deduction, online giving, & IRA gifts. It's not required and we don't need the subtype to post to our GL. We use Fund to identify the designation for the gift.

Jana Fross

Lara, have you had issues posting to the GL with your gift sub-types? Although we have them mapped correctly, they do not post correctly if the pledges crosses over 2 fiscal periods. 

Steven Cianciarulo

For this you'll want to look at the Pledge Current and Pledge Future lines on the GL setup tab of a fund. Money for installments set to come in the current FY will go to Pledge Current and money for installments expected in future FY's will go to Pledge Future

Jana Fross

Thanks, Steven Cianciarulo! We found that we did not have the gift sub-type identified under both Pledge Current and again under Pledge Future. Thus, it only followed the one path correctly. I appreciate this site for questions like these!

Susan Anthony

Hi All!


We are new to Blackbaud. We currently process some cash transactions and some credit card transactions. We are currently using the Gift subtype to track the type of constituent (i.e. individual, organization etc). This determines the revenue account that the donation will be posted to. We would like to use the same gift subtypes to record the recurring credit card payments, rather than set up a whole new set of gift subtypes. Is there a way to do this? We are getting an error message that the "Subtypes must be unique for each distribution gift type" Is anyone else processing both cash donations and recurring credit donations? Does anyone have any advice on ho to make this work?



Thanks in advance for any help! It is much appreciated!


Susan

Kimberly Bonasorte

I’ve been using
the Pay Method to track payment types: Cash, Credit Card, Check –
personal or business, etc.

Kimberly M.
Bonasorte

Administrative
Assistant

Diocese of
Pittsburgh

Stewardship/”OnMissionFor The Church Alive”

2900 Noblestown
Road

Pittsburgh,
PA 15205

kbonasorte@diopitt.org

412.456.3085

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JoAnn Strommen

I put your error message in BB knowledgebase. This is why it says you are getting the error - duplicate subtypes in the GL distribution.
https://kb.blackbaud.com/articles/Article/71053?_ga=2.128524620.1901808884.1611584644-597430115.1593094066

Maybe that will help.


We've used same sub-types for very different purpose and seeming worked fine regardless of pay method.

Sunshine Reinken Watson

We don't use FE and currently use the subtype to record the type of EFT/ACH transfer for those gifts (i.e. Facebook, United Way, and other sources and an "other/misc" category) and to denote the recurring gifts processed automatically through NXT web view. We needed to record those things somewhere for Finance reconciliation reports, so the unused gift subtype worked. Other organizations I worked for did not use that field at all as it was unneeded.

Susan Anthony

Thank everyone! Apparently we inadvertently had a duplicate subtype in the same distribution. We have it resolved now. Thanks so much-- Greatly appreciate your responses!