Constituent Codes documentation

Carla WeilandZaleznak 3

Hello. I'm looking to define each constituent code in our database. Within our organization we seem to have different opinions when it comes to defining foundations. We keep our codes to a minimum.

Current List:

• Board Emeritus
• Board Member
• Corporation
• Donor Advised Fund
• Former Board Chair
• Former Board Member
• Former Staff Member
• Foundation
• Friend
• Prospect
• Staff Member

I'm looking for written definitions that define specifically Foundation and Corporation. If anyone is willing to share my email is cweiland@edfoundationsrq.org or you can respond here.

It would be my preference to follow best practices. Thank you in advance!

JoAnn Strommen

@Carla WeilandZaleznak This is my take on the difference:

Corporation is a for-profit company.

Foundation is more along the lines of a non-profit:

Per Google:

A foundation is an organization that did not qualify as a public charity. They are very similar to nonprofits, except money for a foundation usually comes from a family or a corporate entity, whereas nonprofit money often comes from their revenues and other donors.

A foundation is a nonprofit corporation or a charitable trust that makes grants to organizations, institutions, or individuals for charitable purposes such as science, education, culture, and religion. There are two foundation types: private foundations and grantmaking public charities.

Many corporations/companies do have a 'foundation' entity as well, example 3M is corporation/company but also has 3M Foundation.

Dariel Dixon 2

I'm agreeing with @JoAnn Strommen but feel the need to add this caveat. You'll see times when a gift is expected to come from a company (Corporation) but the gift is routed through the non-profit arm (Foundation). Knowing that these things do happen and having a plan in place for them when they occur is a good idea. There are several ways of handling this, but the best one will depend on the structure of your database.