Gifts included in giving circles/annual report

We include anyone at the $250 (cash) level or more on the annual report regardless of whether it is an event ticket, donation or something else. We do not deduct the benefits from that amount on the annual report. Our current philosphy is that we are want to show gratitude and recognize each donor or event attendee regardless of whether they are receiving benefits from their payments.

I agree with the others - we look at what "support" they gave us, whether it was a donation (no benefit) or a sponsorship, ticket, or auction art purchase. We count everything except gifts-in-kind, since that has its own can of worms. Since our "President's Circle" starts at $1000 annually and is tracked with an attribute with an "expiration" date, we can promote anyone to the circle we like. One "exception" to the annual giving rule is someone who gave a huge gift for a multi-year scholarship.  We want to keep cultivating him through President's Circle activities and mailings, even though he hasn't given a dime for the last year or so.  We simply made his "expiration" date 2020. I run a query monthly to check for new potential members (Total Amount of Gifts in this FY = $1000 or more) and we send them a "drop down" letter (don't know what they're really called - the list of letters you can access from the Constituent record) welcoming them to the Circle and including a card.Save as an action and voila - new member!

We do  not include event tickets or auction purchases, inkind, any "purchase" for that matter in the Giving by Level list.  They are included under Event Supporters, which is just an alpha list with no $$ levels.


And there is always a discussion for each org as to whether to count the full pledge amount OR the pledge payments every year.  And you have to decide and stick to it or figure out what has been used historically and stick to it.  Any big shift will confuse and irritate the donors.