Share experiences for financial reporting please

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Faith Murray
Faith Murray ✭
Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
At work, we pull our Annual Report (for our Board of Directors) based on "new money" received this year -- new cash, stocks, pledges, and recurring gift payments. However, I have heard of other fundraisers who have included pledge payment gift types in their annual reporting, claiming that it is an industry standard in fundraising because it more accurately reflects totoal transactions processed that year.



As you can imagine, adding pledge payments to pledges in a report can almost double the total "Revenue" number and affect "cost-to-raise-a-dollar" ratios. Has anyone else ever heard of including pledge payments in annual reporting to a Board? Is this truly an industry standard? What number do you use to calculate "cost-to-raise-a-dollar"?
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  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    We use both types of reports but not pledges and payments in the same one.  Our reports to national org include cash gifts and pledges.  The reports our CEO uses for annual fund with board use cash gifts and payments.  There are times when our board looks at pledges and gifts. (Ex capital campaign - where are we at with pledges and/or gifts.) 



    I can't think of any instance where we include pledge amount and payments in the same report.  Yes, it would really skew it all.
  • John Heizer
    John Heizer ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 3 Photogenic
    For FINANCIAL reporting we only include Cash, Stock, Pledges, MG Pledges, etc.  That's the "revenue" we report.  Any kind of Pledge payment is only used to reduce the amount of outstanding accounts receivable (pledge balances).  Adding Pledge payments would grossly inflate your numbers and be deceptive.



    For RECOGNITION reporting (our annual report and donor wall) we count the $ deposited for the year (Cash, Stock, Pledge payments, etc.).  We also run a report of new Pledges during that year as a safety to be sure that no one falls through the cracks because they made a big pledge but haven't yet paid.
  • Milly Whittington 2
    Milly Whittington 2 ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Photogenic
    For us, Financial reports means 'what's in the bank', so we run those on Cash, Pledge Payments, Stock(SOLD) and recurring gift payments.



    For Fundraising reports (what's been raised this year), we report on Cash, Pledge, Stock (all) and Recurring gift payments.



    If we need a combination and also want the total to be correct, we will include Cash, Stock, Pledge Payments, Pledge Balance and Recurring gift payments. Pledge balance will reflect write offs and give a better picture of the cash flow for the future.   
  • Faith Murray
    Faith Murray ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Thank you all for sharing your experiences. I'm glad to know I wasn't alone in thinking it unwise to combine pledges and payments on a report. I find it interesting how you each approach it slightly differently and will weigh that in when pulling our reports. Thank you!

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