IMO/IHO best practice for tracking

Judy Mullane

Hi Everyone,


My name is Judy Mullane and I work for a private school.  Can you please share with me your best practice for IMO and IHO information?  I have been putting in reference field of gift entry only and I need a better way to track for when I have to run a query on this information.


Thanks ,


Judy

Crystal Bruce

Discussion moved to Raiser's Edge forums. Thanks!

Austen Brown

Hi Judy Mullane‍ - We utilize the Tribute Module to track IHO/IMO information that comes in with gifts, in addition to adding the information to the reference field.  

Karen Stuhlfeier

The Tribute module works really well. Take the time to learn how it works. I use the description field of the tribute to put in the text that is the exact way we list it in our annual report. Then I just need to export that out and clean up the document a bit.

Elizabeth Rich

We have the Tribute Module, but it doesn't work for us. We are a small school and while we have a lot of tribute gifts over the course of a year, there aren't a lot for each tribute person. We use gift notes, instead. Gift notes can be pulled in queries and used in exports. Our tribute letters are derived from a Word merge in Export. I'd be happy to share more information if you need.

Holly Finneran

Hi, I work with a healthcare non-profit and we get a lot of tribute gifts. We do utilize the tribute module, but another thing that we have started was making a separate appeal. Most of our tribute gifts come through our Annual Fund, we have 2 appeals under it that we utilize the most. The General Appeal (utilized for unsolicited gifts) and the General Tribute Appeal (which we utilize for unsolicited Tribute Gifts). Another solution would be to add a package called Tribute, then you can add that to any appeal/fund/campaign you would like to utilize. 


Mostly utilizing the tribute module is great because with that you can query on which are tribute gifts if they are linked to the tribute module. We really only utilize the appeal for tracking the unsolicited tribute gifts over direct appeal gifts or all tribute gifts in general.

Dariel Dixon

Allow me to put my vote in for the tribute module, if you have it.  I think the thing most people don't consider is how you plan on using it, meaning what type of reporting will you be doing.  At my organization, we use the tribute reports to send the family information on those donors who gave memorial/honor gifts.  We also use a separate appeal for honor gifts as well as memorial gifts.


It's not perfect by any means, and it does take some configuration, however it does work after being set up.  


It's also worth noting that using the tribute module will make you consider what data you need to create a tribute.  For instance, for memorial gifts, do you have a mandatory contact person?  Is that something that you would need, or do you not correspond with the family?  All things to think about when creating tributes.  Like I stated earlier, we use the tribute module, however I have some issues with when we create tributes.  Getting a check in the mail with a memo line of "IMO Aunt Barbara" is not really super helpful.  Hopefully I know who Aunt Barbara is from another gift somewhere else, and I already have a contact acknowledgee, but otherwise, I don't know if I have enough information to create a tribute record.  Then, that's where the gift reference becomes the backup field.

Judy Mullane

Thank you all for your input.

Christine Cooke

I use fields in Gift Attributes:

IMO Name

IHO Name

IMO/IHO Addressee

IMO/IHO Salutation

IMO/IHO Address

IMO/IHO City

IMO/IHO State

IMO/IHO Zip


It's nice to have the name reference in the Reference field for quick glance on gift tab but for pulling queries and also for merging into letters the gift attributes are the thing.

Madeleine Holdsworth

We also note the IHO/IMO in the gift reference field so that it is easily seen by the relationship manager.  However, we also have a gift attribute where we enter the honoree name as well (two categories, in honor of and in memory of).  Double work but that's how we do it.  We enter gifts using Batch and I have those fields included as batch entry data fields. You can then query on the gift attribute.  

Heather Pauli

I couldn't do my job without using the Tribute module, it makes things easily trackable in RE. If there are multiple donors or multiple family members that donors have asked to be notified, they are all connected through the links to the Tribute record. I can then easily compile a Tribute report for the Honoree or Memorial next-of-kin (or in care of the facility that handled the funeral arrangements if no contact information was provided by the family,) that lists all the donors' names and addresses and the total dollar amount of memorial donations received. 


In the case of the previously-mentioned Aunt Barbara unhelpfully noted on a check memo line, I enter Barbara as a Memorial under the donor record, just like I do for a companion animal that passes away. If I find out Barbara's last name in the future, I can set up a proper freestanding Memorial record for her, or credit the donation to her Memorial record after the fact if it was already established.