Just curious about "best practices" (if there are any) when it comes to setting reporting paramters for crediting matching gifts. In my experience, who gets the credit for the MG payment is often up to the whim of the person asking for the report, and it varies from person to person.

In the past I've had bosses who wanted gift reports to show MG payments credited to the MG Company (after all, it's their money). Now, I'm being questioned as to why I don't run the reports to show the MG payment as the donor's gift (as part of their cumulative gifts).

I've tried to explain that I can set RE to credit MG to the donor, the MG Company or both. What I'm being told to do is to find out what everyone else is doing...what the industry's 'best practices' are for this issue.

Care to throw in your policy and/or reasoning behind it??

For us, matching gifts/volunteer recognition gifts are credited to the original individual donor and soft credited to the company. Our rationale is that it was the donor’s initiative that earned the gift, therefore, they deserve the credit for it. Also, we always want to give the donor the maximum credit when listing them for the donor roster.

Rebecca L. Schafer
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana
[Email Removed]

A gift is always entered on the record of the donor. If it is a matching gift, it is entered on the record of the matching gift company. Then it can be soft credited as needed. I think most folks would want to include the soft-credited matching gift in the donors totals as well. Beth Palmer Director of Development Gaston Day School Gastonia, NC 704 864 7744 X224

We book the pledge and payment to the MG company and soft credit the donor it matches. When we pull recognition lists the donor gets the credit and the company is listed in a group of "Matching Gift Organizations" Nina Williams The Cleveland Institute of Art http://www.cia.edu  Making Art Work

It really depends on what function the report is serving. This is why different people want different settings. Financial reports require Hard Credits only; donor recognition reports usually use credits to both. There isn't a blanket policy that will cover all reports, because different reports require different approaches. Drew J. Drew Allen Children's Hospital of Philadelphia [Email Removed] Check out the user run RE Forum at http://www.blackbus.org/ . Check out the Crystal Reports blog "Crystal Clear" at http://www.blackbus.org/blogs/viewblog.php?userid=63