I currently work for a healthcare foundation that has two gift processors. Currently, both processors perform all functions - i.e. gift entry, receipting, acknowledging. I noticed in the forum that some of you have two gift processors that have more specific roles for your gift processors, if you have two or more, such as one enters gifts and the other receipts and acknowledges. I wondering if anyone could suggest any ideas for ways to split roles between two processors to make our process more efficient.

I'm also from a healthcare foundation... I'm sorry...we each perform all functions: I handle all projects that have to do with employees and memorials; she takes care of all projects that have to do with a particular campaign...that way each gift is handled by one person: batch, mail to acknowledge, next of kin notice. One other thing I make all the deposits...so when she's got everything done to the point of deposit, she gives the deposit to me. We have another gal who does nothing but scan all the information. It works well for us. Suzo McDearmon Database Coordinator FHN Foundation 421 W. Exchange Street, Suite 4 Freeport, Illinois 61032 815-599-6441 Fax: 815-599-6106 [Email Removed]

I work for a cancer center & we also have two gift processors. One enters only our direct mail gifts & the other does all other gifts less than $5000. I myself process the larger gifts, pledge payments and membership payments. Sabrina Gonzales Accountant, Sr. Direct Mail Coordinator Arizona Cancer Cener [Email Removed] Phone: 520-626-1016 Fax: 520-626-7499

We also have two gift processors. They share the workload, working on individual batches through to acknowledgements. We have another person who posts to Financial Edge and our Finance office review the gifts prior to gift entry. Nora Isaac Manager, Information Technology The ALS Association, Greater Phila. Chapter www.alsphiladelphia.org [Email Removed]

I noticed that y'all scan your information. This interests me because this is a future project for me. What information do you scan and what kind of hardware are you using? Can you tell me more about your scanning process?

We scan all mail and associated documents at this time. We use a big cannon printer/copier and scan to pdf straight to a user's mailbox. Prior to this, our receptionist copied the mail - now she scans it on the same copier/printer. If there is any mail that needs to be seen immediately, she breaks out that piece of mail and sends it to the Exec Director. We all have pdf tools on our workstations. Then the scanned mail goes two places - our finance director and our database coordinator. The finance director reviews the days mail and makes any notations right in the pdf. She may note that a different fund should be used then normal - or something like that. The other copy of the mail is worked on by our db coordinator. She blacks out all private information and posts the mail on our extranet for our directors to review at their leisure. After the finance director reviews the mail, it goes to the data entry group. They annotate the pdf with fund, appeal, etc and enter into batch using the pdf. Then the batch is committed and acknowledgements are done. Right now, we still print a copy of the check and associated documents to attach to the acknowledgement. We hope to not do that in the future - baby steps though. The annotated daily mail pdf is stored in a secure network archive for use at audit. Hope this helps - let me know if you have any other questions. Nora Isaac Manager, Information Technology The ALS Association, Greater Phila. Chapter www.alsphiladelphia.org [Email Removed]

I work at a community organization and we have 10 gift processors. One control person (me) and 9 other (branch specific) gift processors. Each branch enters all their pledges and any cash gifts or payments they receive for their branch's Annual Support Campaign at their branch. Meaning any payments that get mailed specifically to their site or dropped off at their site. Grants, endowment gifts, capital campaign gifts and matching gifts are handled throught the home office (me). As well as any payments that get sent to the home office for any branches ASC or mail sent to the organizations PO Box. Acknoledgment letters and receipts are set up for each user to pull based on branch so it goes out on their letterhead if it is an ASC gift, no matter who processed the actual gift. All other gift acknowledgements are handled through the home office. The home office processes all payments received at the office which could be for any branch or campaign. A daily cash report is circulated on a daily basis of gifts over $100 for the branch executives and users to look at. The Home Office user (basically the administrator) reviews daily cash report and validation sheets for errors and also makes sure that there are no outstanding acknowledgements. Jolene Black Donor Relations Coordinator YMCA of Honolulu

Thanks for your information. One question though, How do you make sure there are not outstanding acknowledgments?

You can create a gift query with the criteria of acknowledged = not acknowledged and see which gifts at any time have not been acknowledged. Some may be recent enough to be ok but if older than 3 days it is a red flag here. Melissa S. Graves Director of Development Services The Village for Families and Children mgraves (at) villageforchildren.org www.villageforchildren.org GET ON THE BUS! Check out what the Blackbaud User Society is talking about today at www.blackbus.org!

We also are a healthcare foundation. We currently have two gift processors and one accounting clerk. One handles the constituent entry and updating of donor information. The other gift processor enters the gift information. Both are cross-trained and back-up each other as needed. Our accounting clerk does research, tribute entry and review. The administrative staff of each senior development officer processes acknowledging and receipting.(Solicitor for gift, i.e. Events, Annual Fund, Planned Giving, Major Gift, etc.). Additonal review is accomplished through the Data Information Manager. We also produce weekly gift reports for development and senior leadership. We are currently implementing scanning and have started with gifts and archived information of key donors and prospects.

Hi Janice,
Can you tell me more about your scanning. Implementing scanning is one of my projects for next quarter's goals and I can use as much input as possible from you since you're already implementing that in your office.
How does that work? Are you using the the Paperless through Raiser's Edge or are you just scanning documents with a scanner and saving them in files? If so, Do you create a folder for each donor within a "Scanned Archives" folder?

Janice--How large is your staff and your hospital? What Hospital do you work for? Just curious because we're a large Medical center with a very tiny staff. Hillary Murphy Financial Administrator Phoebe Foundation

We have two gift processors (about 13,000 total gifts/year.) They alternate days, each one seeing their batch through to completion (cash receipts journal, tribute letters, acknowledgement letters.) One does the payroll reports twice/month and the other dies pledge reminders once/month.

Katie Katie Benston
Hospice & Palliative Care Charlotte Region
Charlotte, NC
[Email Removed]
704-335-4324

We are a hospital foundation processing donations for two sites as well as a cancer centre. We have 10 staff members, 4 of which are part-time including the two Data Management Assistants who process gifts. One works 24 hours a week processing ALL memorial donations and handling next-of-kin letters, the other works 20 hours a week processing direct mail and all other non-memorial donations. They help each other out if one has a lot more processing than the other (i.e. an event) This system has been working well for us. Tamara Wudrick Systems Coordinator Grand River Hospital Foundation (519) 749-4300 ext. 2743 www.grhf.org [i]--- Edited at 9/18/2007 12:08:47 PM by Tamara Wudrick[/i]