Managing an Event with Funds/Appeals

Miki Martin

Hello, Community! I have been diligently attempting to correct some past oversights in our RE database by increasing appeal usage and starting to really use our event module better. Since I'm new to all this, though, I'm looking for some guidance.

I'd set up a Fund for an annual event we have (gala) and sponsors are all their own appeals. We have gift gathering parties leading up to this gala that I am thinking should be their own events since invitations are sent and people respond and then bring gifts to donate. How can I make all this work together, though? Gifts we receive from these parties are a result of an appeal, right? So those gifts are in kind since they're donated physical items.

I just learned Finance, with whom we are not connected in any way (they're using QuickBooks), has several accounts for different aspects of this gala. If I only have one fund I cannot connect those accounts to one fund when we have broken out those aspects into appeals, right? Am I missing something?

Mark Guncheon

I'd suggest you use packages for the individual parties and other aspects of the event. This is what we do with a strong use of the gift reference to explain things further. Everything goes into one fund. For some events, we have used a new fund each year but for most we use the same fund with the year showing up in the appeal name such as “2021 Gala.” Then in NXT, you can filter by package in a gift list. I would then explain this to finance to help them pull the data they need post event.

JoAnn Strommen

You can have any # of appeals flow into/connected to a fund. The appeal essentially is telling you the ask/event which helped to bring in the gift. The fund is related to the accounting side - where $ lands for accounting purposes.


Now, you said accounting "has several accounts for different aspects of this gala." What are these separations? How this works for you depends on the flow of your info to accounting. If accounting requires cash to be in a separate account from GIK, then you would probably need to use that separate account info for your gifts as well. If you are using one fund and they they can pull out that gift type to put in their separate account, then you should be okay.

JoAnn Strommen

? @Mark Guncheon was answering at the same time. Packages could be a good option.

Elizabeth Perron

Love seeing Ninjas helping Ninjas!!!

Miki Martin

@JoAnn Strommen we have Event Sponsors, Gift Donations (mostly collected from these gift gatherings), Panda Paw (a fundraiser at the gala only for people to donate toward a particular need for the year for the school), raffle (since this money has to go into a separate account for gaming reasons) and the actual Reservations. I think Finance has been putting everything I put in our gala fund into Reservations. Since we are not tied to them in any way our monthly reconciliation is all manual. ? I supply a Gift Detail and Summary report each week with the deposit but I never knew until recently they had so many accounts for the gala. One more thing to show just how much we need to work on things here.

@Mark Guncheon I have never even entered a package yet but I am liking that idea! I really want our Director of Major Gifts to see how impactful various things are for this event since she has it every October. I have to get her away from all her wonderful spreadsheets. As for Finance pulling data, I would LOVE to get them to start running information from our system but they're a little less than impressed with RE and want nothing to do with it.

Thank you both! Gives me some more to consider and try.

Mark Guncheon

Consider that it might be better to keep finance out of the way as you manage RE else you end up coding for their sake and not yours. And I like our finance people so I'm not knocking them. It's Just that I've seen coding in some databases that make no sense from a fundraising perspective but work for finance.

If you have NXT, urge your Director of Major Gifts to use it. More accurate data online than in her spreadsheets. We've used packages to distinguish appeals based on how they are sent (1st mailing, reminder mailing, sponsor mailing, postcard, email #1, email, #2, Gala eve email, Early ticket email, etc.) There really is no limit to how you can define a single appeal. The key is to work with your gift processor(s) to make sure they are entering the package when adding a gift. Always keep them up to date with your packages just as you do with appeals.

Miki Martin

@mark guncheon, thank you for your additional insights! I am really trying to get our Major Gifts onboard with using NXT/RE more and pull her from her spreadsheets. Apparently she was great with eTap when they used it but the transition hasn't gone so smoothly. I will persevere, though!

I think, like many things, it will be a process and will take time. I plan to also share Bill Connors book with her when I'm finished reading through it and making tons of notes. Hopefully we can all continue to find better ways to get things done in our small office!