Does anyone have guidelines for establishing donor types (individual, family foundation, corporate foundation, etc.)?

We use Individual, Corporation, Foundation and Other and I am determined not to let it grow any larger than this. These codes can be difficult to apply. For example, sometimes gifts from a foundation could be called individual gifts and other times foundation gifts. Because of this, we assign the code to the gift, not the constituent. Rant: I've always been a bit mystified about the utility of breaking your donors out into groups like this. It seems only to reassure stakeholders who otherwise have little grasp of the key indicators of fundraising success. I guess its handy to be able to say X percent of our funds come from individual donors, but I'm only ever asked this once a year. I'd much rather report that X percent of our funds came through an annual appeal letter campiagn and Y percent through an individual major gifts program. Gavin Gourley Global Partnerships 206-652-8748 [Email Removed]