Multi-Year Pledges - Entry and Reporting

Ashleigh Mills:

 We've started asking our constituents to make 5 year pledges to our annual fund and I'm wondering how other people record these in the gifts tab and how you report on them.

 If someone makes a $25,000 pledge and plans on paying it at $5,000 per year for 5 years I want my gift report to show only $5,000 due in the current fiscal year. I find it difficult to pull based on installment dates because a lot of fields I need aren't available in the export area. Does someone know a way to do this without having to enter 5 different pledges for each year?

I have no problem at all reporting on multi year pledges. The cash flow report in pledge and recurring gift reports tells me everything I need to know about when each and every one of my pledges is due to pay. The pledge reminders in mail always only pull the amount due this year. I am not sure how you are trying to do your reporting that is causing you problems.

PS if you are creating separate pledges and using appeals to distinguish each one you are not using appeals as designed and there are many things I think are ok to go "off label" for in RE but appeals is not one of them. I am hopefully presenting this year at BBCON on specifically using appeals - hopefully you can attend!

Mary McConnel:
what are you using the "gift report" for? I am an accountant by trade and have been working in RE for the last 1.5 years We do a good amount of multi-year pledges and I've been able fix our integration to Financial Edge so they can be set up as one pledge with annual installment dates. I use a special gift subtype for them and then have that gift subtype/fund combination go to unrestricted revenue for current year pledges and restricted revenue for future pledges. We are fully integrated with the Financial Edge....but I'm presuming that this same practice might work for reporting out the correct accounting into another accounting package.

All of our capital campaigns run with multi-year pledges.  We've never had a problem.  Fund is set up with GL# links. For us it goes to FE, but don't know why reports wouldn't work for other accounting also.  We only use gift-subtypes for a few exceptions - more to tell us where the $ came in (online, etc.).  I definitely would not want to have to input 5 separate pledges.  I see more reporting problems with that in the long-term.

I think you'd be better using a query or export from Mail > Reminders than Gift report for installments due.  Ditto the comment that entering each year a separate appeal is not what 'appeal' is designed for. 

Melissa Graves:

I have no problem at all reporting on multi year pledges. The cash flow report in pledge and recurring gift reports tells me everything I need to know about when each and every one of my pledges is due to pay. The pledge reminders in mail always only pull the amount due this year. I am not sure how you are trying to do your reporting that is causing you problems.

PS if you are creating separate pledges and using appeals to distinguish each one you are not using appeals as designed and there are many things I think are ok to go "off label" for in RE but appeals is not one of them. I am hopefully presenting this year at BBCON on specifically using appeals - hopefully you can attend!

I have a follow up question. If one pledge is entered on their record, how do you ensure that the donor is not included in solicitations 2,3, 4 or 5 years down the road? Thanks!

Kacie Cloutier:

I have a follow up question. If one pledge is entered on their record, how do you ensure that the donor is not included in solicitations 2,3, 4 or 5 years down the road? Thanks!

For our capital campaigns with multi-year pledges the solicitation is all done year 0 and year 1.  Once when we had a special appeal/push/match etc we included them again but those who have given already are a separate group acknowledging their commitment and asking to consider this special appeal/push/match.

Each prospect once identified as a prospect for campaign ABC is on a list and assigned a solicitor. 

What do you do with donors who give a one time gift in year 1?  Do you ask them again in years 2-5?  What about a donor who turns you down in year 1?  If you are continually regenerating your prospect list you'll need to take these situations into account and exclude/include them in queries/reports/list as you determine. 

Michaela Humpal:
Does anyone have a problem with the cash flow report when you have multi-year pledges that are split into different funds by fiscal year? For example: I enter a $2,000 pledge with the correct installment schedule of $1,000 for two years and split it into two operating funds - one for each fiscal year. I apply the first $1,000 payment just to the operating fund for this fiscal year. When I try to pull the cash flow report to see what is in the works for the next fiscal year, the report splits the next payment, so that I have $500 due for this year's operating fund and $500 for next year's operating fund. Any idea of what I am doing incorrectly? Thank you! Michaela Humpal Development Systems Manager Urban Ecology Center 1500 E. Park Place Milwaukee, WI 53211 (414) 964-8505 www.urbanecologycenter.org

Yep!! [:@] Don't think you're doing anything incorrectly.

We quit using split fund pledges/gifts primarily because of reporting problems like this.  Per BB, this is how RE is designed.  Payments are split between funds, not applied as desired and cash flow report ends up showing wrong amounts too. 

Don't remember if this one has been addressed in discovery topic suggestions to be fixed but probably has if you want to vote to support changing it or add it as a suggestion.