My organization just implemented Raiser's Edge in March 2009.  We want to be able to store our gift forecast information in Raiser's Edge so we can create reports each month that show our actual progress vs. forecast.  For major givers we estimate how much we think they will give and which month they will give.  For minor donors we use an average gift amount and average renewal rate to estimate.  We also estimate gifts from benefit events and non-donor solicitations.  My questions is where is the best place to put this information so we could look at forecasts for a particular month versus actuals.  We currently don't have the Prospect Module, though I have seen a brief demonstration.  It looks like it would be helpful for Major donors, but I'm not sure how to incorporate other components of our giving.  I especially don't know how to indicate when we expect the money so we can track our progress through the fiscal year.  I'm wondering how other organizations do this work and whether there is another RE module that I should be looking at.  Thanks for any help!

We don't track our forcast but we do track our actuals verus the previous year - there are a few canned reports that handle that comparison. We don't forcast by month or date because our solicitation drops and process may differ from one year to the next.

I have a couple of suggestions though, (suggestions based on the assumption of Per Constituent forcast/comaprisons - Fund and campaign goals can be setup and reported easily at that level)

1) Use the target amount on BIO 2 tab - you could set amounts and month up with this if you wanted and redo it at a scheduled point each year

2) You could use constituent attributes

3) Appeals track return rates and there are canned reports that manage this

4) You can use export to create your forcast dollar amounts (Gift format increase by amount or percent) and then repopulate the Target field using the new dollar amount.

Other folks may have other suggestions.

I personally export some canned reports to excel and then have a Master Excel sheet that pulls in the exported values on a weekly basis to update our progress. I only do it this way because the breakdown of funds that my boss wants to see is different than the computer setup required for Finance (he likes to group & roll up certain funds together and then change those groupings occassionally based on campaign)

What would you use for organizations/foundations to compare forcasted vs. actual if you don't have the prospect module?  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Specifically, we would want to know amount applied for and the date, and amount received and the date.  We are currently using spreadsheets to track this.  I know the prospect module is perfect for this, but it's not in the budget right now.  Any help would be appreciated.

In your situation I would use Constituent Appeal which has a date field  and comments field for amount for the solicited portion and then the Gift Appeal and Gift Date (same appeal code) for the received portion. This could be a solution without having the prospect module and keeping all of the dtat together. (The Target field on the BIO 2 tab isn't linked to an appeal or gift which is why I'm suggesting amopunt solicited be put in comments)