RE: Gifts-in-Kind

Lou Adams
Lou Adams
Name Dropper Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions

Hi All,

I’m interested to hear how others are managing gifts-in-kind. Do you tend to use attributes or custom fields to capture more detail, or do you just rely on the standard gift reference to note the nature of the gift (e.g., kitchen set, computers, volunteer time)?

I’m looking for a straightforward way to record and report on these without overcomplicating the data entry or reporting process, so any tips or examples of what’s worked well for your organisation would be really appreciated!

Thanks so much! Have a great weekend.

Lou

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Answers

  • Karen Diener
    Karen Diener Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply Name Dropper

    There is a gift type of Gift in Kind, which I would recommend using. The reference field is perfect for capturing the donation (such as kitchen set or computers).

    You might want to consider a gift subtype to delineate between goods vs. services. I have never heard of organizations adding volunteer time as a GIK but that could work. Others may have experience with that and could offer some advice on whether or not that is a good idea.

    Gift coding always comes up when it relates to entering a GIK, so I want to make a suggestion there too. A fund (or appeal) of "gift in kind" is not necessary. It is hard to be specific since I don't know what your organization does, but I would imagine that "kitchen set" might be at a building where you offer programming. If that is the case, the campaign, fund, and appeal coding would be the same as any financial gift that you received for that program.

  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 Raiser's Edge NXT Fall 2025 Product Update Briefing Badge First Reply

    Agree with @Karen Diener - also have not heard of volunteer time as a GIK. My initial question is how do you decide who gets a GIK for their volunteer time? Committee mbr/event volunteer/board mbr/etc.?

    When reference field has not been enough - gift note is my suggested place for info over an attribute. Or we have used said in reference that an attachment on the record details the 10,001 items they gave. :)

  • Allison Kelba
    Allison Kelba
    Third Anniversary Kudos 1 Participant Facilitator 1

    i put the description of the gift in the comment section. Then I have to custom fields: purchaser name, sale amount. But you can have whatever fields meet your needs…those are just the two that i need.

    Volunteer hours i track in action tasks (we dont have the vol module, so it’s a free work around).

  • Jennifer Kluh
    Jennifer Kluh Community All-Star
    Kudos 5 Fifth Anniversary All-Star Challenge: End of Year Fundraising Toolkit Name Dropper

    We keep track of our Volunteer hours in VOME our volunteer management software. Our Gifts In kind we put the description of the gift or group of gifts in the comments section. We also will add any itemized listing or any information that we may receive from the donor as an attachment for support documentation

  • Mai McClure
    Mai McClure
    Kudos 1 Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    When recording an in-kind gift as the gift type, do you assign the monetary value to the gift and record the gift as cash (Payment type)? I am wondering if we should record it as "Other" in the payment type since it is not truly cash, even though there is a fair market value price assigned to it.

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