Best Practice: The Many Uses of the Journal Page

While you can still track information on the Persona page and Defined Fields page, the Journal is there to house a timeline of information for a Constituent. From the day you first interact with that Constituent, to their first donation up until their last, these time specific markers make the Journal page extremely important. 

Let’s stop and talk about the Journal entry basics and then we can see how to apply that knowledge with some best practices.

Reviewing the basics

Gift/Pledge
It is arguably one of the most common Journal entries that you’ll use. The Gift/Pledge entry can be used for tracking one-off donations. It can also be used for setting up a Pledge Schedule so a donors can give a larger amount and pay it off in smaller installments over time. 

When you want to enter a Gift, you will use the Received Amount field to enter the amount of the one-time donation. 

When entering a Pledge, you will use the Pledged Amount field to enter the total donation amount the constituent plans to pay off.

You can fill in both the Pledged and Received amount fields on the same entry. This is only done when the donor is actually giving a Pledge, but wants to make the first payment at the same time. We find it can be easier to manage the pledge donation by creating the Pledge first, and then add a separate payment. 

Recurring Gifts
A Recurring Gift is similar to a Pledge.  A constituents commits to make a particular donation amount on a recurring basis. Where a Pledge and Recurring Gift differ is a Recurring Gift does not have a specific total amount trying to be reached.  Nor does it have a specific end date. It just runs until the constituent contacts your organization and tells it to stop.
 
In the same instance as you cannot add a Payment unless you have an open Pledge, you cannot add a Recurring Gift unless you have an active Recurring Gift Schedule. With both a Pledge and a Recurring Gift, you have to set up the Pledge or a Recurring Gift Schedule first. The Recurring Gift Schedule controls when a recurring gift is to be made, where you decide if you want to manually add entries, or if the donor prefers to have their gift automatically processed. This is also where the credit card information is updated if it were to expire. 

Contacts
Anytime someone within your organization calls, emails, or reaches out to a Constituent, this should be tracked with the Journal as a Contact. Contacts are specifically designed to track when you have interaction with a specific Constituent. 


Applying What You Know
Understanding the basics of the different Journal entries can open the doors for more advanced tracking such as:

Foundations and Grant Tracking
When you are applying for a grant through a foundation, in a way you are actually attempting to solicit a donation. In eTapestry, constituents are defined as donors/potential donors.  Since we are asking a foundation for money, the foundation should have its own constituent account.

Now before you are awarded money for a grant, you’ll have to reach out to the Foundation.  This is typically done with an application, or perhaps you send a letter, call them on the phone, etc.  This is where you would want to use a journal Contact entry to track your interactions with the Foundation.

The Journal is also where to track when the grant has been awarded to you. If your organization is awarded the grant in a lump sum, that transaction can be entered as a Gift. Other situations where the Grant will be paid out in installments can be tracked as a Pledge with each Payment representing the installment. Funds, Campaigns, Approaches, and User Defined Fields are there to help distinguish grant transactions from regular donations. 

You can review the Foundations and Grant Tracking documentation to help you with this best practice.

Event Tracking
Events are a major part of fundraising and can also be tracked within the Journal. Interactions with your Constituents will include invitations, acceptances, and attendances to your event which can all be entered as a Journal Contact. 

Events may at times require a ticket purchase which can also be tracked in the Journal.  If the donor is just purchasing the ticket outright, you would want to use a Gift.  Depending on the event, you may allow the constituent to obtain a ticket early, but pay it off at a later time.  For that you would want to use a Pledge.  

It can be very helpful to use Funds, Campaigns, Approaches, or User Defined Fields to help you track what event the donations/tickets were purchased for. 

Be sure to look at our Event Tracking Best Practices to help you with setting things up:

• Event Tracking Part 1 - Setting Up
• Event Tracking Part 2 - Event DIY Form
• Event Tracking Part 3 - Querying and Reporting on Events

Grant and Event tracking are only two examples of how to apply your knowledge of journal entries to bigger picture items. There is a lot more out there that can be done within the journal, and we have the resources to get you started!

• Major Gifts
• Matching Gifts
• Payroll Deductions
• In Kind Gifts
• Receiving United Way Transactions
• Creating a Single Donation Thank You Letter
• Volunteer Tracking 

You may also be interested in how other organizations that use eTapestry track their information, or want to share some of your practices that you have discovered. You are always welcome to share any tips or help out a fellow eTapestry user by answering their questions about your experience, share that on Community!