Campaign/Fund/Appeal

Evgeniya Kirpicheva 2 · March 2020

Hello, I work at a private school in NY and was wondering if anyone has any advice regarding Campaign, Fund, Appeal structure. Do you create a new fund or new appeal for your annual campaign each year?

Please see below our current structure. Any feedback would be highly appreciated.

Campaign: 2019-2020 CGPF (create new each year)

Fund: 2019-2020 CGPF, 2020 Benefit, and etc (create new each year)

Appeal: Mail, Email, Magazine, and etc (reusing the same every year - no start or end date).

The tricky part is that we reuse the same appeal for our annual fund, but create a new new once every year for our benefit. I want to learn more about what other organization are doing and see what might work best for us. Thank you!

Best,

Evgeniya

Mark Guncheon 2 · March 2020

We use a couple of appeals each year but most are specifically for that appeal so it needs to be coded that way. We also use packages. A appeal we're doing to raise money for our Care-A-Van may be accomplished through three different letters mailed out, and three different email blasts. There would be the one appeal "Care-A-Van 2020 ask" and then attached to this appeal would be the following packages:

1. President's letter

2. Solicitor's letter

3. Reminder letter

4. First email

5. second email

6. Final email.

This gives us a better idea of how these donations came in.

Our campaigns change on January 1.

Our funds tend not to change though Event funds often do.

Hope this helps.

Stay healthy!

Mark

Veronica Renzo · March 2020

Hi,

Our campaigns rarely change. Our appeals change every year to reflect the year and what type of solicitation it is/was. Our funds are pretty specific and I add new ones as needed. It looks like what you have is ok if it works for your reporting. Do you track based on gift date? For me I need to report on gift date AND appeal so I need my appeals to be dated.

Steven Cianciarulo · March 2020

Personally I think you have your funds and appeals reversed.

The fund should represent the project or program being fundraised for and should approximately mirror your accounting codes. You can always get to which year the gift was for using the campaign or gift date, no need to put a year in the name. Making funds for each year also makes reporting complex - your fund list will get very long and it can be easy to accidentally miss one in a query or export.

An appeal on the other hand is a specific ask or vehicle. If it was mail, which mailing? With the structure as you describe it, there's no way to know.

Christine Cooke 2 · March 2020

Campaign doesn't really change: Annual Giving (umbrella for everything that is unrestricted giving funds)

Funds rarely added and when they are it is coordinated with Business Office so that there is a corresponding Account Number. Funds are all the buckets that $$ are designated Annual Fund, Drama Program, Tuition Assistance, Whatever Your Annual Fundraising Event is Called, Smith Endowment, Doe Endowment, Pass Through ($$ you want to keep track of but are not counted toward your department goal. example: swag).

Appeals describe the source/how the $$ got to you/the ask. Examples: fall appeal, spring appeal, event invite, personal/one on one ask, event attendance, annual report, annual/quartlerly newsletter.

I have never used dates/years on Campaign, Fund or Appeal because you can pull reports/queries based on dates so have never found it necessary. It also keeps the Campaign and Appeals list from getting ridiculously long, like miles. And if you inactivate any of them so they won't be in the dropdowns, it makes pulling reports a bigger pain so rather not add those steps.

Campaign/Fund/Appeal

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