Gift Recognition proceedures - best practice?

Aldera Chisholm:

Hi,

I wanted to check in to see if anyone has any suggestions or ideas on my method of gift recognition data entry.

When I came in to this org, they used an Addressee/Salutation field for Recogniton Name. This works, except for those cases when the recognition varies by gift (say, a donor makes a gift but wants this one gift anonymous, but her other gifts named a certain way.)

In my past org., what we did was use a "Recognition Name" as a gift attribute, that way we could track it gift by gift. The advantage to that for me was that if they gave two gifts in a year, each with a different recognition, both would then get picked up for our Annual Report listings. Ideally, I would like to do this again, and also keep the Addressee/Salutation field for their "most commonly used" recognition name so I have something to default to.

The nice thing about starting new jobs is the chance to clean up your own personal habits, so my question is... does anyone have any suggestions on why this is or isn't a good idea?

Thanks!

Ali

Mmmmm.  Other than memorials/honorariums,  our donors have one listing.  Interesting that a donor would want different listings.  How's the public going to know anyway, espeically if they opt for anonymous?  But that's heading a different direction.

I can see where gift attribute would provide a better way to track this for you.  However, I still really like Addressee/Salutation option as it auto populates and so much less chance of typos.  We do a different recognition listing using add/sal for each fund.  Maybe you could have multiple add/sal listings for "gift 1"/"gift 2"/"gift..."?  Just use when needed and pull all for your listing.

I think trying to track their "most commonly used" recogition would be extra work especially if you're not pulling it for reports.  Why bother? 

My 2 cents...

Aldera Chisholm:

Hi,

I wanted to check in to see if anyone has any suggestions or ideas on my method of gift recognition data entry.

When I came in to this org, they used an Addressee/Salutation field for Recogniton Name. This works, except for those cases when the recognition varies by gift (say, a donor makes a gift but wants this one gift anonymous, but her other gifts named a certain way.)

In my past org., what we did was use a "Recognition Name" as a gift attribute, that way we could track it gift by gift. The advantage to that for me was that if they gave two gifts in a year, each with a different recognition, both would then get picked up for our Annual Report listings. Ideally, I would like to do this again, and also keep the Addressee/Salutation field for their "most commonly used" recognition name so I have something to default to.

The nice thing about starting new jobs is the chance to clean up your own personal habits, so my question is... does anyone have any suggestions on why this is or isn't a good idea?

Thanks!

Ali

I'd like to see some client docs on this. We recently had this conversation at my org. We're moving away from add/sal to gift attributes as well, but I worry that this is going to complicate reporting. For example, today I ran a quick constituent query of all in-kind donors and realized, I woudn't be able to get the publication listing from that query... I'd have to drill down into gift criteria to get the publication listing out!

Christine Cooke:

 I saw a post recently where someone said they had a Addressee/Salutation that said "see notes" and the alternate/irregular Recognition Name(s) was noted there.  So that they could be caught every time.

 I see a couple things I agree with from others that have posted to you. 

1. Drilling down too many layers for something that should be easy to pull.

2. The Gift Attribute is not a field that is easily populated in any reports and I have found that I use the Recognition Name in reports, even internally so that department peeps know who the couple or family is that gave the gift, as opposed to just the individual person/HoH that the gift is recorded on.

3. Addressee/Salutation Configs are pre-populated and therefore less chance of typos and misspellings.  You cannot do that if you drill down into another obscure area like Attributes.

Multiple Recognition Names listed on the Addr/Sal tab as someone suggested or the "see notes" Rec Name seem the safest.  If you are not the only one adding this info, controlling the input/output could get sticky with what you are suggesting -- that there be a different name on every gift entry.  As it is, you must clearly document and educate those that do data entry in order to keep your Addr/Sals and Rec Names clean and consistent.

Christine - Not sure if it was my post you saw previously (it was in a different thread). We use a notepad called Recognition Name but ONLY for organization records, because org records don't have an addressee/salutation tab. It would be much better if there was an addressee/salutation tab for org records, so we could enter the recognition name as an addressee/salutation for BOTH individual and organization records. So the notepad is second choice....

Gina Gerhard:
Christine - Not sure if it was my post you saw previously (it was in a different thread). We use a notepad called Recognition Name but ONLY for organization records, because org records don't have an addressee/salutation tab. It would be much better if there was an addressee/salutation tab for org records, so we could enter the recognition name as an addressee/salutation for BOTH individual and organization records. So the notepad is second choice....

 yes! Gina, it was a different thread.  I think I missed the detail that you were only doing that with Org records.  Maybe someone else was also doing it with individuals?  <shrug>  I agree -- there should be the option of Addressee/Salutation for Org records and the Rec Name can be different from the Org Name.

I have used an Additional Addr/Sal, but now use a Constituent Attribute of "Donor Listing" and like it much better.


Our default is the same as Home Addressee (i.e. Dr. & Mrs. Robert C. Hernandez), so I use a Default Set to load the Addr/Sal format that fits the Record (i.e. is the husband or wife the HOH, do they have the same last name, are there nicknames, etc.) then check the [Editable] box next to the Home Addressee, copy the text, uncheck the box (doesn't take nearly as long as it seems) and paste it into the Donor Listing Attribute (which is also added to the Record by the Default Set).


This means that Ind & Org Records have the donor listing/recognition name in the same place.  The Attribute Date indicates when that text was last edited, and the Attribute Comments provide other information.  So when a donor makes a specific request, we can note that in the Comment, or put "see ConstNote" and add a longer explanation or cut-and-paste of an email thread in a Note for future reference.  In your case (we don't have any of these, thank goodness!), you could put a Comment in to manually review the Note when pulling a list...and then edit your list to include multiple listings per Constituent Record.


Attribute works great for me, and I like not having to drill down into Gift Attributes, or remember to add that Gift Attribute every time.  We also list by donor, not by gift, so if that Gift Attribute text wasn't exactly the same, that would cause problems when pulling our list.


Also worth a mention...when I first set the Attribute system up (here and at my previous org), I used a series of Export/Imports to populate that field on every record.  Still do that when we have a significant number of new records added at one time.  Otherwise, I just do it as I enter new Constituents.