We are begining our first multi-million dollar campaign and I would like some recommendations on setting up the campaign and the funds.  We will be raising funds for some of our existing departments, so for tracking purposes we are wondering if we should set up new funds for the departments so that we can track how much we are raising toward the campaign.  For example, the campaign will raise money for greatest needs, the OB, the Emergency Department, and Surgery.  We already have funds set up for each of those things.  Do we set up new funds for each of those departments, or just use the campaign field?  We are thinking about setting up the campaign to default to each of those funds so that if someone gives a gift to the OB, it will automatically default to the capital campaign so we can count it toward the campaign total.  But if we do that, the new "campaign money" will get pooled into the existing funds.  Will this be too hard to track later?  How are other organizations doing this?

Hi Ann,

We launched a campaign on 10/1/05, also for specific departments within the organization.  We didn't set up a 'capital campaign' campaign since all gifts (Annual Fund, Events, Memorials, etc.,) are being counted toward the campaign.  I set up a gift attribute code to be applied to all gifts to those funds as of 10/1/05.  It took a bit for gift entry staff to get used to, and I periodically run a couple of maintenance queries to make sure the gifts have the attribute code, but it has worked out really well.  I especially like the function in reports that allows me to include only records with the gift attribute code.  Good luck,

What does your finance office need you to do?  That is where you need to start.  Is the money being raised in the campaign for these department for something specific or just general funding.  If it is for something specific the finance office will likely want a separate fund created.  if it is general money then they probably do not care thet you pool it into the existing funds. 

If you think about your funds as the one part fo a gift that should match to where finance needs to put the money so it is spent properly this typically helps answer the question of do I need a separate fund.

I would think you can use one single campaign and multiple funds.  If you use batch gift entry just put the fund column first and once you enter the fund you can set up the campaign to default (instead of the other way around).  A single campaign will be easier to pull and you can always report out on each fund in that campaign.

Ann,

We are just wrapping up a 7 year campaign. All money raised was counted towards the campaign, so we didnt' set up any different funds/campaigns - we just track everything through our annual campaigns. It's a good idea to work with Finance on the details.

We are in the midst of a $55 million Capital Campaign that is for a specific building project.  We set up a new campaign and new funds. Our finance department wanted to keep it all seperate.  It makes reporting easy.  I can easily differentiate between Annual and Capital monies.