If there are any non-profits who have both systems integrated could you please tell me how you handle gift entry. Currently, our organization has its own gift entry department.

We also have a gift entry department. Gifts are entered in Batch using templates set up for specific gift types ie: Gift in Kind, Cash, Stock/Property,and some unique types we have. They are then committed and proofed. They are then receipted and ackowledged. At the end of the day we then post these batches to the General Ledger.(in Raiser's Edge-Admin-Post to General Ledger).(this does not actually "Post" these gifts to Finacial Edge, only creates a file for Finacial Edge to use) The Accounting department takes over and imports the gift records to Financeal Edge. [Email Removed]

We follow basically the same procedure with a few additions. We are integrated and find that it works very well. We have an appeal assigned to every gift. The fund in RE relates to the project code in FE. Our appeals are set up with defaults for the fund and campaign. Gifts are entered in batch. Our batches are separated by event, tribute, under $50 (we use postcards for most of these gifts as acknowledgements), general. This lets us set up batches that prompt us for information such as event registrations or tributes. After the batches are entered and committed, two reports are printed - the batch commit report and the gift entry validation report. These reports are reviewed and any changes are made directly to the gifts. (No adjustments necessary until you post to FE.) The batch backup and reports are in folders and are circulated to signers and other reviewers. This usually takes a day. When they come back, another person in our admin department reviews the reports and posts the batch to FE. Reports are printed and the batch goes to our Finance person. This person reviews the RE journal batch that is created in FE for accuracy and posts the journal to FE. Reports are printed and the whole package is added to the bank deposit that was made earlier. We make adjustments to gifts that are posted to FE for any changes to gifts that affect the fund/project ID. We try to balance FE to RE monthly, but sometimes we are behind on balancing; however, any discrepancies usually show up when the treasurer and our finance person balance the bank account. Let me know if I can answer any other questions. As you can see, procedures are really important for us to assure that we post correctly. Nora Isaac Manager, Information Technology The ALS Association, Greater Phila. Chapter [Email Removed]

Now, my question to you is who handles the data entry function. Is it handled by your Development Department? Or do you have your own department?

We are integrated as well and all gifts are entered into Raiser's Edge (which is typically thought of as a Development side App). Gifts are posted to FE through RE admin. I personally feel that gifts should always be posted on the Development/Fundraising side because they have detailed gift knowledge and most accountant/finance side folks only care about fund, post date, etc. I think you lose valuable gift info if not posted by area who has intimate knowledge of campaign and appeal process. Again, this is only my personal opinion and that's how we handle here. I know that wasn't exactly your question......and to answer that our Development folks enter all gifts. Hillary Murphy Financial Administrator Phoebe Foundation

We are trying to integrate and have come across a glitch we hope someone can answer. How are the acknowledgement letters created when the gift information is entered in a batch? Our Development person showed me that when she enters a gift in an individual constituent's record, there is a place right there that takes her to the Word document so she can do her letter as she goes. When she tried to set up a batch, there does not seem to be any way to do this. Her complaint is that she then has to go into the constituent individually to create the letters. Double the work.

Acknowledgement letters can be done through either Export or Mail. The way we do it is to go through Export. We have a conditional word merge that takes all of the unacknowledged gifts and creates acknowledgement letters for them. Since it is a conditional merge, we can use different acknowledgement letters for different campaigns. The acknowledgement letters are stored as a word file, so you can look at them and change them before printing them out. After doing the export, we do a global change to mark all of those gifts as being acknowledged.

I think our office is just somewhat different than most. Our admin department and IT department are under the Director of Administration. Our admin group fully understands the development process and works closely with our event planners. The event planners in our development department are very busy with events. The admin group codes all gifts, does gift entry, posts, and handles acknowledgements. They also handle data entry in the event module. They are the experts on anything that has to do with gift entry. I work with both Financial Edge and Raiser's Edge and report from both. I also work closely with all departments. As for acknowledgements, we have a simple process. It does take time to set it up, mostly because Config/Letters and Mail/Acknowledgements don't work together. We have a conditional merge file set up in Mail/Acknowledgements. We start by creating a letter in Config/Letter. This letter is linked to an export. This is the letter that can be generated from a constituent record if you wanted to. Once that letter is set up in Config/Letters, you can then choose it in batch. In the conditional merge, the condition is based on the letter. Unfortunately, you must set up each letter once again in this merge file. (Yes, a pain, but it is what it is.) Just go through the Merge to Word wizard and set up all your letters. When you add a letter in batch, it will appear in the constituent record when the batch is committed. We then run our Daily Acknowledgement Merge file choosing only the batch we want to pull letters for. Once we are happy with the merge, we choose Yes to mark the letters acknowledged. This works very well for us. Each letter is placed in a file with the batch backup and circulated so that the signers can see the documentation that came with the gift. If a letter needs to be reprinted or changed, the signer can run the letter again right from the constituent record. Nora Isaac Manager, Information Technology The ALS Association, Greater Phila. Chapter [Email Removed]

Sorry duplicate message. [i]--- Edited at 9/2/2006 8:15:02 PM by Nora Isaac[/i]

Hi Jose. We have both RE and FE. As gifts come to the Foundation they are opened and processed by our receptionist who codes the batches and passes on one copy with the checks to the finance department for deposit. The other batch copy comes to development. The development database assistant creates the batch in RE and processes the checks through. We create a batch report when we commit our batches and take a copy to finance so they can bring the gifts through the GL. Acknowledgements are done via export in RE. There is the option to create a gift query of your batch and we use this query to do the export for acknowledgments. At MCF we create different letters for different appeals and campaigns. Once the letters are completed we go back and run a final gift export and mark all the gifts acknowledged. This is an extra step, you can mark the gifts acknowledged at the time of the first export if you choose. Batch entry and gift export acknowledgment information is available on BB's website under the Knowledge Base, but I would be happy to walk you and anyone's development personal through the process. Karen Hartt Database Manager [Email Removed] Karen H. Hartt Philanthropic Services & Research Coordinator Maine Community Foundation 245 Main Street Ellsworth, ME 04605 [Email Removed]

Can you/someone tell me how you handle gift adjustments.

 Also, when you say the gifts are opened and "processed" by your receptionist, what does that ("processed") mean because later you say the development database assistant creates the batch in RE and "processes" the checks through.  I assume "codes" means she determines what account the gift goes in?  So you use the "export" and "letters" functions to do your acknowledgements rather than the "mail" and "merge" functions.  Is there a way to send different letters for different gifts (like you can do with the "conditional merge" in "mail" without having to do separate batches?

Diana Neanover:

Is there a way to send different letters for different gifts (like you can do with the "conditional merge" in "mail" without having to do separate batches?

Yes, you can do a conditional merge in mail and have all gifts in one batch.  It works fine - one drawback I've learned is you can only have one conditional field.  I use Mail. Some prefer export and merging in word so they can set up several conditions for their merges - fund and giving level. 

Karen,

When you say "processed by our receptionist,"   Also later when you say "The development database assistant creates the batch in RE and processes the checks through."  what does that involve? Do you do electronic filing linked to the donor records by any chance? I believe this is the practice we would like to initiate in our agency, but need to know more about your process.  Could I call you?  I'm rather new to the forum here so I'm not quite sure how everything works. 

 I am also interested in anyone who does electronic filing and linking in RE.  I should probably post that as a separate topic somewhere, not sure which forum???