Best Practices for Entering Gifts from Fundraising Platforms

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  • Gracie Schild
    Gracie Schild ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 2 Photogenic
    I'm with all the MG/not SC folks, and with Sunshine on recording the name of the conduit in an unused field. We count these gifts as "pass-through" gifts on the original donor's record with a receipt amount of $0, use Gift Code for the name of the most common orgs (DAF conduits, Truist, United Way, etc) or ***EDIT*** (the field is inserted into the acknowledgement letter) for the less common ones. If we need more information, we record it on the Gift Notepad. In this fashion, the real donor gets counting credit (but not tax credit) for the donation they triggered. If we're expecting a Matching Gift, we add it to the MG tab on the gift - and then it appears as an MG "soft credit" for the donor and an MG Pledge for the MG company. Why jump through hoops when RE already has that built in?


    Gracie
  • Patty Neumeier
    Patty Neumeier ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 1 Photogenic

    Renee Prescott:

    Our gift in Raiser's Edge (like many organizations) have been entered many different ways by more than one person at any given time. I am new to my organization and want to set standards for consistency for gift entry. The one area I can not wrap my head around in terms of best practices is entering gifts into the RE that are received BY (meaning the check and/or ACH) a fundraising platform (YourCause, Benevity, United Way, etc.). Some of our gifts are credited to the platform and then soft credited to the donor - Is this standard practice in the fundraising for most of you? Or so most organizations enter the gift under the donor and then soft-credit the platform. Also, some gifts are matched by the employer but sent by the platform which is even more confusing.

    My insticts say this:

    -When the gift is a straight payroll deduction with no match and the check comes from the platform, credit the donor and soft credit the platform

    -If the gift is a payroll deduction that is matched by an employer and payment received FROM the companys charitable fund (Fidelity Charitable Fund), credit the company's fund and soft credit the donor

    -If the gift is payroll deduction and matched by the company BUT sent by a platform, (this one is the hardest to figure out) then credit the company and soft credit the platform AND the donor


    Any thoughts???

                     

    I understand that Truist and YourCause are not the donors, but from what I understand, there are some organizations that are considered to be the donor, like Network for Good.  Our tax preparer researched NWFG and believe them to be a large donor advised fund.  She found that they are a 501(c)(3).  She believes they should be issuing a tax receipt to donor.  Thoughts?

  • Jen Claudy
    Jen Claudy ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    At my last job, we used Network For Good at one point for our online giving.  So it was not a Donor Advised Fund; we received email notifications of donations made and monthly payouts for gifts received the month prior.  It wasn't always easy to get ahold of our account rep there, but you might try contacting them to get more information about all of the different services that they provide and if any of them is a DAF.
  • Melissa S Graves
    Melissa S Graves ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 3 Photogenic
    For all third party gifts you need to determine who the donor to you is. If the money went through another non-profit like United Way, NFG, other DAF type platforms, then the non-profit is your donor (the non-profit considers the individual their donor and already receipted them and you can not receipt them twice for the same gift). In some cases if you contract with a company to process gifts for you and they receipt on your behalf per your contract, then you can enter the gifts to you as having been from the individuals.


    There is no single answer - the test is what is your relationship to the third party and what is the relationship between the original donors and you (and the third party).
  • Leilani McHugh
    Leilani McHugh ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 1 Photogenic

    Melissa Graves:

    For all third party gifts you need to determine who the donor to you is. If the money went through another non-profit like United Way, NFG, other DAF type platforms, then the non-profit is your donor (the non-profit considers the individual their donor and already receipted them and you can not receipt them twice for the same gift). In some cases if you contract with a company to process gifts for you and they receipt on your behalf per your contract, then you can enter the gifts to you as having been from the individuals.


    There is no single answer - the test is what is your relationship to the third party and what is the relationship between the original donors and you (and the third party).

    Hi, Melissa,  I agree with you but have one question.  Benevity charged a fee to our school for sending us a paper check instead of using EFT.   So we received donations from three different donors and Benevity subtracted $100 as a fee from the total.   So we never received the actual amounts that the donors intended to give us.   How would you enter such a check when it needs to be divided between three different donors?   Our biggest conundrum is what to do about the missing $100 which was removed as a fee.   


     
  • Daniel Bayer
    Daniel Bayer ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 2 Name Dropper Photogenic
    You have to record the full amount the donor contributed, and record the fee Benevity took out of the total (a practice that is completely antithetical to their stated mission, but whatever...) as a defecit in your books. This is what Finance has told me in two separate orgs, so I figure it's a good standard operating procedure.

  • John Heizer
    John Heizer ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 3 Photogenic

    Leilani McHugh:

     

    Melissa Graves:

    For all third party gifts you need to determine who the donor to you is. If the money went through another non-profit like United Way, NFG, other DAF type platforms, then the non-profit is your donor (the non-profit considers the individual their donor and already receipted them and you can not receipt them twice for the same gift). In some cases if you contract with a company to process gifts for you and they receipt on your behalf per your contract, then you can enter the gifts to you as having been from the individuals.


    There is no single answer - the test is what is your relationship to the third party and what is the relationship between the original donors and you (and the third party).

    Hi, Melissa,  I agree with you but have one question.  Benevity charged a fee to our school for sending us a paper check instead of using EFT.   So we received donations from three different donors and Benevity subtracted $100 as a fee from the total.   So we never received the actual amounts that the donors intended to give us.   How would you enter such a check when it needs to be divided between three different donors?   Our biggest conundrum is what to do about the missing $100 which was removed as a fee.   


     

     

    Think of it as an accounting issue, not a fundraising issue.  You handle the Benevity fee the same way you handle credit card fees.  It would be chaotic to try to account for every fee charged by your bank for each donation by credit card and attribute it to each donor.  Use the same process here that you do for credit cards and charge the Benevity fee to the same general ledger account number that you charge the credit card fees.

  • Lynne Robie
    Lynne Robie ✭
    Seventh Anniversary Photogenic First Reply

    John Heizer:

    Leilani McHugh:

     

    Melissa Graves:

    For all third party gifts you need to determine who the donor to you is. If the money went through another non-profit like United Way, NFG, other DAF type platforms, then the non-profit is your donor (the non-profit considers the individual their donor and already receipted them and you can not receipt them twice for the same gift). In some cases if you contract with a company to process gifts for you and they receipt on your behalf per your contract, then you can enter the gifts to you as having been from the individuals.


    There is no single answer - the test is what is your relationship to the third party and what is the relationship between the original donors and you (and the third party).

    Hi, Melissa,  I agree with you but have one question.  Benevity charged a fee to our school for sending us a paper check instead of using EFT.   So we received donations from three different donors and Benevity subtracted $100 as a fee from the total.   So we never received the actual amounts that the donors intended to give us.   How would you enter such a check when it needs to be divided between three different donors?   Our biggest conundrum is what to do about the missing $100 which was removed as a fee.   


     

     

    Think of it as an accounting issue, not a fundraising issue.  You handle the Benevity fee the same way you handle credit card fees.  It would be chaotic to try to account for every fee charged by your bank for each donation by credit card and attribute it to each donor.  Use the same process here that you do for credit cards and charge the Benevity fee to the same general ledger account number that you charge the credit card fees.

     

    Regarding third party gifts that are payroll deductions without matching gifts, I enter the gift under the donor, and the third party platform (UWay, Truits, Benevity, etc.) as the gift subtype.  However, I am unsure if I should soft credit the company the donor works for.  Does anyone soft credit the company the donor works for? Thoughts?

     

  • Lynne Robie
    Lynne Robie ✭
    Seventh Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
    Regarding third party gifts that are payroll deductions without matching gifts, I enter the gift under the donor, and the third party platform (UWay, Truits, Benevity, etc.) as the gift subtype.  However, I am unsure if I should soft credit the company the donor works for.  Does anyone soft credit the company the donor works for? Thoughts?
  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Lynne, regarding soft crediting company that employs donor with payroll deductions - no, we do not SC the employer. It does not meet our guidelines for a soft-credit as the employer has no ownership of the funds. They belong to the employee when given.
  • Lynne Robie
    Lynne Robie ✭
    Seventh Anniversary Photogenic First Reply

    JoAnn Strommen:

    Lynne, regarding soft crediting company that employs donor with payroll deductions - no, we do not SC the employer. It does not meet our guidelines for a soft-credit as the employer has no ownership of the funds. They belong to the employee when given.

    Thanks, that makes sense.  

  • Jen Claudy
    Jen Claudy ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    If you want to record the company name, you could add it as a Gift Attribute and/or be sure there's a relationship link between the donor and the company.

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