Gift documentation

Michelle Harper · October 2020

Good morning.

I am curious how everyone handles their gift documentation. I have worked at two different organizations that use Raiser's Edge and they handle their gift documentation a little bit differently.

The first one scans all of their checks and supporting documentation and uploads it into Raiser's Edge onto the gift record (before NXT they uploaded it onto the media tab). They do not block out the routing and account number on the checks.
The second one makes copies of all of their checks and documentation and files in paper files. They block out all of the routing and account numbers on the checks.

How do you handle your gift documentation? Do yours policies state that you must redact the account information?

Thank you in advance!

Ryan Hyde · October 2020

We don't scan anything like this. We retain the originals for 7 years (you're required to hold on to this stuff for 7 years, though keeping originals isn't the only way to accomplish this). Our finance department retains scans, but not for the full 7 years, but those aren't housed in RE at all. I would be pretty reluctant to keep that kind of sensitive data in any internet-accessible database.

But yeah, we basically have a big room where we file all of this stuff for 7 years. Once a year our maintenance team actually goes through and pulls boxes that fall out of the data range and those get shipped off to a shredding company.

JoAnn Strommen · October 2020

I would be quite leery of scanning and uploading this to RE. With recent data breach any attachments/docs were part of compromised data.

I suggest talking to your finance office/auditors about what is required by them vs. RE records and let them maintain hard or scanned copies.

Makes your job easier
Data is more secure

At previous org I did have paper copies (how I got data to input in RE) which I stored by batch # under lock and key - once audit was complete they went to the shredder. Yes, finance also had these records but they came to me more than once with questions as I could quickly find needed documentation.

shani traum · October 2020

One thing that came out during the various posts about the Breach, was that Media attachments are NOT encrypted. So, if you scan and attach checks without the banking info blocked out, that information is accessible during a breach and so now you have donor banking information breached...not a good thing.

Diana Hunt · November 2020

Hello, we scan everything that comes in through the door prior to the deposit of checks and the scans are saved in an archive file within our shared drives on our network. Rarely do these gifts get attached to gift records in RE but pledges do. If any gifts contain credit card information, the credit card is run and the number redacted before being placed in our archive. The scans get numbered by batch so a couple of us who have access to the archive can go back to a gift's backup if necessary.

Gift documentation

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