I wonder if anyone might share their practices regarding tracking board member gifts.   We have board members who fulfill their board requirements by giving personal gifts or by having their organization contribute.  These are not business owners but leaders of other nonprofits, church denominations, or associations.  The money from their organizations is not their money but it would not come if they were not on our board and asking for it.  Should we soft credit them or make them the solicitor? 

We have currently only given the "Solicitor" status to our development and high level staff. 

I think using solicitor would be a good option.  I'm sure there's a reason you haven't gone that direction.  Making each board member a solicitor, you would be able to give them a goal and track quite easily through the report options their progress. 

If you do not need $ amounts broken down by specific board member, another option might be to use a gift code of "board" on each gift from or brought in by board members. 

I personally would not use soft credit.  For us, the person receiving soft credit has a link to 'ownership' of the money (spouse, business owner...).

Good luck.

This is a good question. I am currently changing our process of entering that information in our database. We currently soft credit for all gifts Board members have gotten for us. However, I think I want to change it so that they are only soft credited for individual gifts given indirectly.

 For example, if we have an event, and a board member forwards the email invite to their coworkers, anyone who registers because of that email will have their gift soft credited to the board member. If the organization sponsors the event because of the board member, then it goes down as a solicitation.

 At least, that's what I'm thinking of doing. Any one have feedback on this?

Here it depends on the connection.  We have board members that pay their gifts with company checks but the company is wholly or mostly owned by the board member or his/her family.  Family Foundations also.  These gifts we soft credit to the BM and help make the Board goal.  However, if the board member works, even CEO, or a large company that they do not own, we mark the BM as solicitor and the gift goes toward the corporate goal not the board goal.

I agree with JoAnn.  This said, soft-credit is a recognition toll for me.  Everytime I use it I have the donor wall report in mind.  Our recognition policy allow individuals to be recognised for their own gifts only.  However, if you make them solicitor, you can use the Solicitor Reports to tell them how much they raised/solicited and make them "compete" against each other.  You might consider other type of recognition for your best solicitor.

IMHO it is a Board Member's job to solicit gifts. All of our Board members are solicitors and that is how we record gifts that come in from their work. In the case of the Board Member being a business owner or decision maker and donating through the business, we allow soft credits of the Board Member for recognition puroposes. Gifts they solicit do not count towards a Board Members giving level.

The example about the emails - I would handle that as an appeal & Package with the Board emmebr entered as a solictor on all gifts received.