Matching Gift Pledge - Adjust or Write-off?

Kim Berry

I'm new to my organization and have discovered that we have several large (six and seven figures) matching gift pledges in the system. Record was set up to automatically create a matching gift pledge, which normally is great, but no employer is going to match a $2,500,000 revocable bequest expectancy ....


... So, what's your collective best advice, should I adjust the matching gift expectancy or just write it off? The biggest error was this past fiscal year (June 1 - May 31 FY here) but I'm sure if I look I'll find some others. We do feed to finance but not via FE; finance is still in Banner.


Thanks in advance,

Kim

Elizabeth Johnson

I hashed this out with our business office in my early years and fortunately, there hasn't been any turnover so this has been working for over a decade.


If something hasn't been audited yet or is a partial write-off I use adjustment. If it has been shared with the business office pre-audit I use adjustment. 


We have very few write-offs as we require all pledges to be in writing before they are entered into the system. I tend to only do write-offs at fiscal year-end when someone passes away that might be the only exception that comes to mind.


If something was never really a gift at all I would be more likely to adjust and in some cases, like yours, I would delete the matching gift if it was accidentally created. I would add a note to the gift that initiated the matching gift so I don't scratch my head should it comes to question in a report that was run before the deletion. It was never a gift it was always a data entry error. This - with communication to the business office has worked for over a decade. The business office signed off on the plan before I initiated it. I find write-off's in the system difficult to bend to my will and so I use them sparingly. I feel like there is a certain amount of judgment associated with them as well. Someone that pays a pledge with stock and it comes within a few dollars of the pledge has satisfied their commitment and should have that negative label. I'm also not going to request anyone to go back to a donor and say thanks for that gift. Your pledge was $50,000 and you are $3 dollars short. Will you make that up?


Curious as to what others would do and Kim Berry‍ what you end up doing.

JoAnn Strommen

As Elizabeth Johnsen‍ said, communication key. I would adjust to have a trail if entered in financial reports.  


Our MG pledges also auto create so are entered as do not post. In all my db clean up I'm going through, I queried all the MGs out there created several years prior and with finances blessing deleted them.


Same thoughts also on using 'write off' - definitely skews some reporting. 

Patti Hommes

I agree with Elizabeth Johnsen‍ and JoAnn Strommen‍ - communication, communication, communication in every aspect. 


I have developed the habit of running a gift report after posting a batch and deleting any "accidental" MG pledges right off the bat so the aren't reported on. But if they are historical gifts that have already been reported I will do an adjustment.