Best Practice Naming Protocols

Alena Kaufman

Does anyone have a document or insights on creating Naming Protocols for Campaign/Fund/Appeals? Insights on using calendar vs. FY? What to start with and how important is consistency?

JoAnn Strommen

@Alena Kaufman Re CY vs FY - you will IMO definitely want RE set to match your fiscal year. This will allow you to use time frames of ‘last fiscal year’ etc. for criteria in reports.

If you search community posts you should be able to find previous posts on C/F/A structure which ties into naming. Naming funds, be as clear and specific as possible for where $ are going. Will make it much easier for users to follow. If you're pulling fund name in your receipts, you want fund name to be understandable and clear to donor that their donation went where they wanted it to go. “Chem256” doesn't mean much while “Chemistry Department Scholarship” does.

I'm not sure was CCS is but you indicated Higher Ed - if so and you are dealing with a variety of types of funds like endowments, scholarships, student orgs etc. I suggest a RE fund # system for fund ID: 3000 student orgs / 7000 non-endowed scholarships / 8000 endowed schol… As donor often has input on fund name/description, the fund ID can be quite useful.

Some orgs use a the same fund name with different appeals for each year. Some use a different fund for each year. It really depends on how you will need to report on the data and if you can pull what you need using option A or if you need option B.

Consistency is key to having accurate data that meets donors intent and provides a way for you to pull accurate reports. Statement, garbage in - garbage out, is probably no where more true that with a database. Your users must be consistent.

I suggest searching and reading past posts and then, if possible, be a bit more specific with what you want input on. Visit with your staff on what their expectations are for reports, data pulls. And it is possible to change a fund name in the future if you decide on a better naming format.