We've been doing a LOT of fund clean-up for the past year+. We are finding that it is very complicated and has opened up as many questions as answers. My question is to those of you who work in healthcare foundations - how many active (as in open) funds do you currently have and how do you reconcile with your Finance Department (they plan on getting rid of Financial Edge and having all the financials held/tracked in Lawson)? If more information is needed, let me know. Margaret Whitaker
Presbyterian Hospital Foundation

Margaret - We have over 700 active funds in RE. Our accounting dept also uses Lawson, although I do not know alot of those details. We send monthly excel spreadsheets to them with the info they need & they upload it to Lawson. They reconcile the grand totals with bank statements, etc. Tracie Cassidy Database Coordinator Seattle Children's Hospital Foundation (206) 987-6833 [Email Removed]

We have 162 active funds. I produce an excel spreadsheet and send it to our accounting dept. They upload the information into Oracle. They reconcile with our bank statements.

Our Foundation just under-went an accounting overhaul, as our accounting dept (uses AccPac) completely changed their GL chart of accounts. Since we use the GL's behind each of our funds in Raiser's Edge, we also updated each fund, to coincide with the GL numbers. After all was done and many funds were marked inactive, we now have 308 active funds. At the end of each month, we run a fund/GL report and finance uses that to reconcile GL to GL. St. Joseph's Healthcare Foundation Hamilton, Ontario

Thank you all for responding to my fund query! It's more heartening to know that other foundatins have undergone a winnowing of their funds. Much of it is desperately needed I must say. However, due to the number of what has been categorised as sub-funds has made it doubly difficult to address some of the requirements from Finance. Margaret Whitaker Presbyterian Hospital Foundation

I too work for a healthcare foundation and was curious as to how other hospital foundations appeal code structure is set up. I am trying to streamiline ours and just wanted to see some basics.

Before me, appeal codes here were used to determine two things, wether the gifts is restricted/unrestricted and what specifically is it for. Appeal codes weren't being used in the more traditional sense of a reporting tool for mailings.

I see the need for us to have certain appeal codes that don't relate to mailings but do want to pare down what currently exists.

Would love to see what others do. I can be emailed at
[Email Removed] if anyone is willing to share a document showing your appeal codes.

Maryann Snyder
Parkland Foundation

Lara, I've been looking for another foundation that links RE to Simply Accounting for ages. Do you think your accounting department would be willing to talk to me about how they've set things up? I can be reached at: [Email Removed] Bryna Idler, Administrator Kootenay Lake Hospital Foundation Nelson, BC

From what I've learned, appeal codes are used to document "why" a gift was received. The Fund code documents "where" the gift goes. Our appeals (and packages) tell us: direct mail, memorial, tribute, brochure, annual report, special event, etc.- what marketing piece or solicitation prompted the donation. Then a fund is assigned: general fund, hospital department, etc. So each gift has both - where it came from, where it's going. St. Joseph's Healthcare Foundation Hamilton, Ontario

Margaret, I work for a multi-hospital healthcare system. We have six foundation offices and each reconciles their monthly income with their Finance office (on Lawson.) We set up specific reports in RE and have allowed the Finance departments access to run their month end financial reports and balance out...before any revenue gets reported up the chain of command. As for funds and appeals, each foundation has their own funds, each with a coded prefix. General rule - they all have an Unrestricted Fund. Then, for those donations that are specific but not warranting their own fund account, we have a Temporarily Restricted Fund. Then, for those funds that are going to be ongoing, or major gifts, we set up restricted funds named for the specific purpose. Appeals are pretty specific for us. This is indeed used for WHY did we get the donation: Employee Annual Appeal 2007, Year End Appeal 2007, Donor Report 2007, etc. We do a LOT of statistical reporting and this has helped us out tremendously. We've tried the appeals with and without the years attached, but greatly prefer adding new codes every year. When you're done with the appeal, simply make it inactive. Hope this helps. If you want more information, feel free to email me offline: [Email Removed] Claudia Losek ProMedica Health System Toledo, Ohio [Email Removed]

Claudia, your system sounds fairly similar to ours, with the exception that all the individual foundations within our system reconcile month-end reports to the corporate Finance office. Our funds and appeals are set up the same way by the sounds of it. Except for the one TR fund, which sounds like a pretty good idea for those "unique" designations that do not merit it's own fund or does not fit the criteria for a pre-existing fund. I'm going to run a test using the GL as Drew uses. I'll be so glad when this huge project is completed, it's been a bear reseraching old funds and whittling them down or combining them with other funds. I wouldn't wish this on anyone!!!!! Margaret Whitaker Presbyterian Hospital Foundation