Best practices for gifts received intended for next fiscal year

Valdez Roman · June 5

A major donor has already paid their sponsorship for our Gala, which is budgeted for FY2025-2026. What are some organizational best practices you recommend for handling this type of early payment?

Dariel Dixon · June 5

@Valdez Roman Welcome to the community? Are you speaking from a recognition standpoint, or from a financial standpoint? I think if you received it this year, it needs to be counted this year.

Joe Moretti · June 5

@Valdez Roman It depends on how your finance department codes this. From a Fundraising point, the money is counted in the FY that it comes in, but you should have an appeal already for that Event and code it as such. But it will depend on how your organization/finance department deals with it.

Veronica Renzo · June 5

@Valdez Roman are you asking about coding gifts that are TRNA?

Valdez Roman · June 5

@Dariel Dixon thank you! - I am speaking from a reconciliation standpoint. Our CFO is differing the funds to the proper fiscal year. I want to make sure our numbers (finance vs. development) lineup.

Valdez Roman · June 5

@Joe Moretti thank you! - From a fundraising prospective, do you normally use “Year” in your appeal or fund naming convention. (FY25-26- GALA Sponsorship)

Dariel Dixon · June 5

@Valdez Roman Ahhh, I see. This feels like more of a CAF issue than an accounting issue. Depending on your structure, you might want to code the gift differently. If your campaign structure is based on fiscal year, this gift might cause a mismatch. I don't know if I would worry about things lining up perfectly, because they shouldn't in this situation. You just need to be able to explain why you're counting a gift in the way that you are. There are many times things don't always match up.

Kelly CampionSocol · June 6

@Valdez Roman We have this happen often as our FY runs April to March. Our auditors allow us to defer gifts for events that are scheduled for an upcoming fiscal year. We utilize Campaign to determine fiscal year, e.g. EVT25, EVT26, ANN25, ANN26, etc… This allows us to run reports and reconcile based on both gift date, as well as fiscal year.
Our CFA structure would look like this for a gift received in FY25 but deferred to FY26 = EVT26/Gala/Sponsor

Joe Moretti · June 6

@Valdez Roman Depending what the appeal is we will use the FY, especially for event appeals. Definitely not the Fund, which I think is a bad idea, because you end up with tons of funds and if you are like my organization will already have tons of funds, so we do not need that magnified. The appeal I feel is the best approach.

Sunshine Reinken Watson · June 9

@Valdez Roman

Gift date = Whatever your standard practice is.

Coding = Next year's Appeal, Package, and Fund Codes.

If this doesn't work, do what is best for all of your reporting needs including fundraising reports, annual statements, and financial reconciliation.

Best practices for gifts received intended for next fiscal year

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