Fund Type Management

Leon Manning · October 2016

Our organization (a children’s residential group home) has been in existence for 121 years and has been a user of Raiser’s Edge and Financial Edge for 26 years. Our ministry is made up of:

2 Programs
- Residential Care
  - 3 campuses
  - 12 cottages
  - 8 Children per cottage
- Foster Care
  - Tennessee
  - Mississippi
Auxiliary Services
- 2 Thrift Stores
- Plant Nursery

To be accountable and adhere to the request of our donors in relation to gifts (designated/non-designated) our accounting group has been using true “cost accounting” for years – which has resulted in a complex and sophisticated system resulting in over 600 fund types.

EXAMPLE: Constituent Code = Individual – we have over 20 funds associated with this code:

Undesignated Gifts
- Individual – General Fund
Designated Gifts
- Individual – Education
- Individual - Horse Program
- Individual – Campus A
- Individual – Campus B
- Individual – Cottage X
- Individual – Cottage Y
- Individual – Child 1
- Individual – Child 2
- Individual - etc. etc. etc.

With the recent transition to NXT we are having some growing pains as it relates to the Analysis function of the system; whereby, the Overview and Fund tabs (graphs) are not easily read and not useful as we would prefer.

Our ultimate goal would be for the data and graphs in NXT would only display Public Support – Individuals, Business, Foundations, Estate/Trust and Community Organization.

We realize that Raiser’s Edge looks at “fund type” where Financial Edge looks at the general ledger number.

Our questions to the Blackbaud Community members are as follows:

If your organization does "cost accounting" is your RE/FE systems this complex and how do you manage your funds in Raiser’s Edge vs. Financial Edge?
What recommendations would you have in simplifying this process but still perform true “cost accounting”?
Is there a way for Raiser’s Edge to recognize the 4-digit code in Fund ID that is being utilized in Financial Edge?
Is there a way to somehow use the Constituent Codes (i.e. Description or Code) in Raiser’s Edge to build a level with in the system and let the hierarchy of funds (Program, Campus, Cottage, Child) roll in to the “master fund” (Individual)?
Can the NXT tools be used by pulling constituent codes (INDIV, BUSIN, FOUND, ESTAT, etc.) from the Miscellanious Gift tab?

Christine Robertson · October 2016

Leon Manning:

Our organization (a children’s residential group home) has been in existence for 121 years and has been a user of Raiser’s Edge and Financial Edge for 26 years. Our ministry is made up of:

2 Programs
Residential Care
3 campuses

12 cottages

8 Children per cottage

Foster Care
Tennessee

Mississippi

Auxiliary Services
2 Thrift Stores

Plant Nursery

To be accountable and adhere to the request of our donors in relation to gifts (designated/non-designated) our accounting group has been using true “cost accounting” for years – which has resulted in a complex and sophisticated system resulting in over 600 fund types.

EXAMPLE: Constituent Code = Individual – we have over 20 funds associated with this code:
Undesignated Gifts
Individual – General Fund

Designated Gifts
Individual – Education

Individual - Horse Program

Individual – Campus A

Individual – Campus B

Individual – Cottage X

Individual – Cottage Y

Individual – Child 1

Individual – Child 2

Individual - etc. etc. etc.

With the recent transition to NXT we are having some growing pains as it relates to the Analysis function of the system; whereby, the Overview and Fund tabs (graphs) are not easily read and not useful as we would prefer.

Our ultimate goal would be for the data and graphs in NXT would only display Public Support – Individuals, Business, Foundations, Estate/Trust and Community Organization.

We realize that Raiser’s Edge looks at “fund type” where Financial Edge looks at the general ledger number.

Our questions to the Blackbaud Community members are as follows:
If your organization does "cost accounting" is your RE/FE systems this complex and how do you manage your funds in Raiser’s Edge vs. Financial Edge?

What recommendations would you have in simplifying this process but still perform true “cost accounting”?

Is there a way for Raiser’s Edge to recognize the 4-digit code in Fund ID that is being utilized in Financial Edge?

Is there a way to somehow use the Constituent Codes (i.e. Description or Code) in Raiser’s Edge to build a level with in the system and let the hierarchy of funds (Program, Campus, Cottage, Child) roll in to the “master fund” (Individual)?

Can the NXT tools be used by pulling constituent codes (INDIV, BUSIN, FOUND, ESTAT, etc.) from the Miscellanious Gift tab?

I'm not sure what you're having trouble balancing, but I think that the constituent code may be complicating your funds. Is there a reason for your finance department to need to know that the money came from an individual versus a church or a business? So, if I gave you an unrestricted gift and my church gave one also, would the money need to be tracked separately by Finance or would it ultimately go into the same line on the budget? If you don't have to separate the constituent codes on the Finance side, you could streamline your funds to overall areas of giving and use Constituent codes for Development reports only. I think that would help you all on the NXT side as well, though I haven't been in NXT to double check my suspicion on that front.

Do you have your funds linked between RE and FE (particularly, do you have the two integrated)? If not, I would start with that and link the GL codes for each gift type for every fund. Even if you don't want to integrate the two, setting up the GL codes is super helpful and gives you access to some really great balancing reports.

Fund Type Management

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