Use MG pledge and MG pay or just soft credit the donor instead?

Leslie Arrington

How do you handle matching gifts? We have in the past recorded matching gift pledges then matching gift payments when the money is received from the matching company. A supervisor is considering having us eliminate the use of matching gift pledge/matching gift payment, but to just record the payment as cash in the matching gift company record and soft credit the donor. And also use the matching gift payment to pay on the pledge which is another confusing proposal for another discussion possibly. Any feedback about your processes would be helpful. Thanks.

JoAnn Strommen

just responded to you post about applying MG to pledge.

At both orgs I've been at, MG pledges and payments are entered on MG company record.

We would not put them as pledges on company record as they are not truly a pledge from the company. Corporate giving is what is recorded as pledges and/or gifts on the company records. Perhaps you don't receive gifts from those companies but we received thousands of dollars from the some companies and thousands in matching, too. In many cases the matching is from a separate company foundation entity. We want to be clear in defining the difference of gifts company made vs. what they made at request of a match.

We also would not soft-credit the individual as our definition when issuing soft-credit is when the recipient has some ownership/control of the funds being given (ex: spouse, company owner). SC'ing individuals could really mess when running donor reports if you are including SCs.

Not sure why a change is being considered. Are there other issues with gift entry?

Spring Velazquez

Joann - I'm curious - with your process as you stated - how do you link the matching gift to the donor and their gift?

JoAnn Strommen

When the donor makes their gift, we go to the MG icon in batch or the MG tab on gift record and enter the anticipated MG for company ABC. For us, it's entered with gift code of revocable pledge.

Gift now appears on company ABC record as MG pledge and the donor's record. (Can't recall if that's automatic or a system setting.)

Not sure how as it didn't do this at my previous org but here the donor's name auto populates in the reference field as well for the MG. I'm guessing someone did some back end programming. ???? I haven't taken time to research why.

Leslie Arrington

I am not sure why a change is being considered. I think they want to recognize the donor for more than just their gift, also for the matching gift. I'm not in agreement but then again I am just the gift processor. Thanks for sharing your processes.

JoAnn Strommen

Maybe it would be beneficial to show them a report that includes MG credits. Just like SC you can choose to include on most reports and in any exports.

Larry Wheeler

Edit/delete reason - I typed all of it opposite of what I was actually thinking (must have been brain damaged by all of the ice and cold ). I didn't want to leave it and confuse anyone new to RE.

Elizabeth Johnson

@Leslie Arrington I would like to reflect on your “I am just the gift processor” comment. You are a critical part of your team. Without a gift processor, it is darn difficult to do any of the other functions in the office. You are using the systems first hand and while you may not make the final decisions of how things are entered your input on matters of gift entry is (and should be) valued.

We enter the matching gifts pledges only when we have document to prove they will be coming in on the constituent's gift. We seldom want to include this money in a giving summary for the donor so this function and not the soft credit function works well for us. We do soft credit donors when the original gift and the matching gift come in through another company like Benevity, so that is not as clean as I would like - but we do it consistently which for us is a good practice.

Best of luck!

Christine Cooke 2

I've always entered matches at cash gifts at time of receiving and SC the individual that facilitated the match. You can choose to include SC on reports or not. Our leadership likes to give the individual donor credit for facilitating those matching funds when it comes to recognition.

I used to record the MG Pledge and MG Pay but got sick of the year end clean up required on all of the MG Pledges that are never realized that need to be written off. It's just cleaner to not go through the steps of recording and then clean up and fulfills the same info.

As gift processor your opinion does count BTW – you are a data gatekeeper and responsible for the integrity of the information – if you allow garbage in… you know what happens. Just saying you have a voice, just as much as the rest of the team.

Brenda Ryther

I have my system setup to automatically trigger a matching gift pledge when the donor gift is entered. When the matching gift comes in, I count it as pay-cash gift from the matching company. We acknowledge our corporate gifts in our publications and put an emphasis on how companies can help double the donor's gift. The payment from the company is credited on their record, but also listed on donor's record. If payments that don't come in from the company for the match, I write the pledges off at the end of the fiscal year.
It's pretty seamless as most donors initiate the match through their company and I typically just get an email from the company to verify the donor gift.

Catherine Avena 2

Matching gifts are processed and categorized differently. You cannot process a gift as a matching gift and then soft credit that same person. In order for the donor to be recognized for Matching gifts, you need to include matching gift payment in NXT settings.