Matching Gifts & Recurring Gifts - Everything being recorded as pledge - Why?

Lanetta Gilder

Hello everyone!


I hope all is well! NOTE: This is an extension to my previous question about matching gifts. Thanks to those that responded to my previous post!


When I asked leadership “why they record Matching Gifts as “pledges” and “soft credits the donor” and write notes (who the match came from and who to soft credit) in the “reference field”, the leadership individual said, “that they don’t do it that way due to GAAP or Accounting rules.” For instance, if the matching gift pledge was made in April with the donor’s gift, and the matching gift from their employer comes in July, then that means the gift now is to count in the next fiscal year, and development staff would have to write off the match from the previous year.


The individual said they don’t use “recurring gift” because they want to know/have a count of money coming in for the fiscal year. It’s difficult to know that with a “recurring gift”, said the leadership individual. That's why they record recurring gifts as "pledges" and create future pledges in other fiscal years for each of the "recurring gift terms". (ie donor wishes to have a recurring gift for 36 months, then gift entry staff should create 3 pledges for each of the fiscal year)


The individual also said that if they add “Matching Gift” and “Recurring Gift-Pay” gift types to the reports, it will skew their reporting. I informed the individual that the reports that are being used from Raiser’s Edge includes “matching gift pledge”, “matching gift pay” and “recurring gift-pay” in each of the reports used to create metrics. The individual didn’t believe me until they looked at the report criteria. After that…….crickets! (silence)


I’ve also informed them the importance to make sure that they also consider how things are being entered since Raiser’s Edge is integrated with Financial Edge. Leadership is listening, but they are asking “why the constant discussion of how things are flowing to Financial Edge?”


I’ve only been at this organization a few months and I’m learning “their way” of doing things. With that said….I ask the same question…”why would one do this?” Thanks friends! Take care and have a good day!

Dariel Dixon

Lanetta Gilder:

Hello everyone!


I hope all is well! NOTE: This is an extension to my previous question about matching gifts. Thanks to those that responded to my previous post!


When I asked leadership “why they record Matching Gifts as “pledges” and “soft credits the donor” and write notes (who the match came from and who to soft credit) in the “reference field”, the leadership individual said, “that they don’t do it that way due to GAAP or Accounting rules.” For instance, if the matching gift pledge was made in April with the donor’s gift, and the matching gift from their employer comes in July, then that means the gift now is to count in the next fiscal year, and development staff would have to write off the match from the previous year.


The individual said they don’t use “recurring gift” because they want to know/have a count of money coming in for the fiscal year. It’s difficult to know that with a “recurring gift”, said the leadership individual. That's why they record recurring gifts as "pledges" and create future pledges in other fiscal years for each of the "recurring gift terms". (ie donor wishes to have a recurring gift for 36 months, then gift entry staff should create 3 pledges for each of the fiscal year)


The individual also said that if they add “Matching Gift” and “Recurring Gift-Pay” gift types to the reports, it will skew their reporting. I informed the individual that the reports that are being used from Raiser’s Edge includes “matching gift pledge”, “matching gift pay” and “recurring gift-pay” in each of the reports used to create metrics. The individual didn’t believe me until they looked at the report criteria. After that…….crickets! (silence)


I’ve also informed them the importance to make sure that they also consider how things are being entered since Raiser’s Edge is integrated with Financial Edge. Leadership is listening, but they are asking “why the constant discussion of how things are flowing to Financial Edge?”


I’ve only been at this organization a few months and I’m learning “their way” of doing things. With that said….I ask the same question…”why would one do this?” Thanks friends! Take care and have a good day!

There's nothing inherently wrong with this approach.  I agree it may not be the best way to work the system, and it is not the way RE was designed to run, but I can see how the reporting would be easier since the tools for pledges are more robust than those for recurring gifts.  It sounds like all your reporting is done on a fiscal year basis, so that's all leadership is really worried about.  It's kind of silly to create pledges in future fiscal years, but it sounds like your leadership probably has canned reports they are running on their end that they like and are comfortable with.