Payment Type for Gifts Through 3rd Party Platforms - Benevity/ Your Cause etc.

Angela Holt

Hello All,


Our organization is in the process of switching the process for entering gifts from 3rd party platforms, previously the gift would be entered under the platform name, e.g. Benevity, and soft credited to the donor. However, now the gift is to be entered under the donor name with a reference to the platform. My question is, how are others entering the payment information for the gift. I am not sure whether this effects eTapestry only, which is why I have posted this question here, but eTapestry requires a payment method to be entered when recording a gift. It is not possible to edit the attributes for the gift field and we are limited to EFT, Credit Card, Check, Insurance, In-Kind, Cash, Stock, Bond, Real Estate, it would be really nice to have an editable field for our own reporting. Does anybody have a recommendation? What do you do in other CRMs?


Many thanks

- Angela

Angela Tuttle

For Benevity we give hard credit to MG Company and soft credit Benevity and the donor. We reference that the gift came from Benevity.

Aldera Chisholm

HI, We get a lot of Benevity giving since we are located in the same city at their headquarters, so many companies here use them. We use a SubType of Benevity to track the third party for easy reporting. I'm not sure if ETap has a Gift Subtype or Payment Subtype.


We hard credit the donor - say if Bob gave $20 and Company x matched $10, Bob would get a hard credit for $20, Company X would get a Hard Credit for $10, and Bob would be soft credited on the Company gift since he "inspired" it. We do not credit Benevity at all, we only track them via the SubType. That way, we can pull a report to know exactly how much came in via Benevity, and we have the donors info tracked easily for stewardship and reporting.

Angela Holt

Hi Aldera,


Thanks for sharing your process. Sadly, eTapestry doesn't enable a sub-type but I have found a work around to record the payment platform. I am still a little confused by the Payment Type but as most are EFTs this is how we'll record them. Things do become very tricky though when there is another pass through agent involved that is neither the employee or company issuing checks!


Out of curiosity, do you handle Donor Advised Funds in the same way?


Best

- Angela

AnnMarie Schell

Hi Angela,


Just for your info, I posted something on DAF's earlier that I will copy and paste for you below. Take note, there's a really good article by BWF with the link you can refer to. I've also highlighted an applicable point for you that is applicable to both DAF's and 3rd Party Administrators.

This article, Best Practices for Processing Donor-Advised Funds - BWF , from Bentz Whaley Flessner recommends what I've always heard. It gives specific terminology for "both the legal donor (the donor-advised fund) and the person who established the donor-advised fund." If the person who established the fund wants to remain anonymous, it's not an issue (no need to soft credit Anonymous). For purposes of publishing in the Annual Fund report, soft crediting is only an issue for those donors who want that recognition--hard credit would go to the DAF. In fact, I had a donor once who wanted to be sure that the DAF was recognized in our Annual Report, and they encouraged others to give to us through that same DAF. The organization who issued the check would only be recorded in the reference line for research purposes. I know they're not the same, but I look at the organization similar to any other bank or 3rd party distribution like Benevity--they don't even receive a soft credit.


BWF is global fundraising consultancy that has published free articles like this one I cited. They appear to be very reputable and on target!

Aldera Chisholm

Hi Angela,

The work-around that has been the best for for us is that each DAF ends up with it's own constituent like "The John and Jane Smith Fund at the Calgary Foundation". Perhaps not idea, but then we can use relationships to make sure everyone is connected nicely, and it seems to work out really well for us. I like being able to see at a glance when we do our monthly reconciliation exactly who and what the gift was.


I think as long as you are consistent in whatever methodology you choose, then you are good. Loads of folks will have a way they insist is the only right way, but I very much believe the right way is the way that works for you, in that you can report on it, you can steward your donors, and your auditors are happy. (Or at least, only mildly irritated!)


Cheers

JoAnn Strommen

There is another active related post on recording DAF where Bill Connors posted the link to his BBcon presention: "How Would You Enter THIS Gift?"

Link to discussion:https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewtopic/420/53967?post_id=210271#p210271

Link to his presentation: https://billconnors.com/wp-content/uploads/2018-Bill-Connors-How-Would-You-Enter-THIS-Gift.pdf


As Aldera Chisholm‍ posted, you have to find what works for you and be consistent.

AnnMarie Schell

So it's really whatever your organization decides. I guess my experiences have all just coincidentally been to hard credit the DAF and soft credit the individual advising the fund's donation to us. There are also legal differences between Foundations and DAFs, but my experiences again have treated them similarly, so I found it interesting under his take that he treated them differently. "If it’s the Gates Foundation, enter the gift into a record of that name and consider soft or Other credit based on your other uses of soft credit." Again, what's important is consistency and clear communication of the process for those trained in gift entry.

Angela Holt

Thank you everyone for your input, it has been extremely helpful as we make the transition to a hard credit donor approach. I have spent a few days setting up sub categories for reporting purposes but I am now little confused on which date to use for the gift through these third party platforms. Benevity takes some time to process payments and there is quite a dating difference between the donation date, the payment date and the payment received or deposited date. Do any of you have further suggestions on recording dates in the CRM?


Thanks again!

- Angela

Prakash Thapaliya

Thank you for raising this question! We have been trying to identify an appropriate solution as well . We currently have both Received and Deposit Dates in our system to record the exact date donation was received and the date it was deposited into the bank but recently trying to move towards having single date because the Deposit Date field could not be auto-filled through the DIY form in the back end so has to be manually updated for all donations. In Benevity's case we record the date donation was disbursed as the Received and Deposit dates.


Thank you,

Prakash

Peggy Skillicorn

Hi Angela, I am curious as to why you will be recording the gift under the donor and not as a soft-credit when funds come through a third party. We record UnitedWay, YourCause, etc, under those from whom we receive the payment and soft credit the individuals- provided they are not anonymous. I know I don't send a tax letter to soft credited individuals, but I do send a Thank You note or letter, while I do send a tax letter to hard credits (where applicable) Again, just curious .


thanks

Peggy