Conditional Donations

What type of conditions? Depending on the conditions, that may rule out any tax deduction from the donation.

Personally, I don't like entering non-gifts into the database. However, if you must, I would make sure to change the receipt amount to 0. I'd also use a gift attribute as well.

Rebecca Campbell:
I agree with not entering grant gifts, until monies are received, especially because of the contingencies, i.e. reimbursable grants, where they only give you specific amounts based on what expenses have been paid in a specific quarter, so the initial gift amount is not the same as the end amount actually given. However, the gift in question is that of our anonymous donor, who sometimes gives before we have met the match goal. Is the only way to recognize that it's a conditional gift (if we raise the monies to meet her match), through gift attributes/subtypes? And, continue to enter it as an unrestricted gift?

So, the condition is that you have to have a match? And what would happen if the goal is not met? I think that the goal matching gifts are better off not being counted until the match is completed. Otherwise, could you just enter it in as a pledge?

If entered as a pledge, I would also advise marking it Do Not Post if you are connected with Financial Edge. Making it DNP makes it a lot easier to delete or adjust the gift without messing up records in the Finance Office. If this is a cash gift you may need to refund – well, just make sure your accounting office reserves it in a hold account rather than putting it into the main coffers. A gift attribute is useful if you expect a number of such gifts. A gift Note is sufficient if you anticipate few or only one conditional gift. I would veer away from gift subtypes as you will benefit from reserving this field for like-kind categorizing (grants, DAF gifts, IRA gifts, etc.).

One thought I would suggest is that the idea of a conditional match gift is a bigger relational question. If you are raising numerous large gifts for a challenge match, your organizational credibility is on the line. You have done your homework with either a 1) donor prospect pyramid based on previous success percentages, or 2) performed a feasibility study – and so ideally you are fairly confident of your success in raising a match before you solicit any gifts. You have then communicated to donors that your campaign is just and necessary for your constituents and organizational growth. To go back to those donors and say, “Sorry, we failed, here's your money back,” – while ethically necessary on rare occasions – is rarely the best route.

It would be better in most cases to pivot and explain to your donors, “We didn't meet our match, but we still believe strongly that this campaign is vital. So we are committed to continuing, but it may take us longer than anticipated to reach our fundraising goal. Can we keep your gift to help us make this campaign a reality?” In almost every case, the donor cares more about your mission than they do about a match, and they will agree to let you keep the gift as long as they believe in your continued ability to meet your eventual goal.

I mention this because we've had numerous campaign matches and never once entered gifts in as “conditional”. When we communicate to individual donors, we're careful to word our asks so the donor knows we'd like to keep their gift either way, but use it as an “inspiration” to “challenge” other donors to give. For foundation matches, we don't accept the money until we are confident we will reach our match, if it is truly conditional.