Thank you, Amy and John. I appreciate your feedback.
To clarify, the donor has pledged $1M. She is giving $500k outright to support aviation scholarships. She has pledge to match up to an additional $500k on a 1:1 basis for any new donations that come in over a four-year period to support the aviation program. Her match would be made immediately and not all at the end of the four years, i.e. $100k donation received in year one would be matched by the original donor with an outright gift of $100k.
For CASE counting purposes, we can count the $500k pledged match as a revocable gift since we have an agreement signed by the donor stating the conditions of the match.
I can see the value of soft-crediting the original donor for any gifts that come in and qualify to be matched. However, I'm not sure those would be used to "pay-down" the original donor's conditional pledge since her matching gifts would ultimately be what pays that conditional pledge down, hopefully to zero. Perhaps I am missing something on this part.
Thanks all for guidance. Shelby
------------------------------
Shelby Gould
Texas Woman's University
sgould1@twu.edu------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 08-07-2024 12:26 PM
From: John Taylor
Subject: Counting a match challenge pledge
I would NEVER record the full match amount without the condition you already suggested, putting the donor on the hook for any amounts not paid/matched.
But as I said, even as a conditional pledge you can only record the amount the donor plans to pay. That a mount cannot include anticipated matches unless the donor makes up the difference.
John H. Taylor
919.816.5903 (Cell/Text)
Big Ideas; Small Keyboard
Original Message:
Sent: 8/7/2024 12:40:00 PM
From: Amy Phillips
Subject: RE: Counting a match challenge pledge
Hey there, John - I wondered if you might flag my idea of putting the conditional pledge amount of $500K on the donor record. I confess, though I didn't articulate then, I already was plotting and planning in my own head how I might try to process that in a database if I were to be faced with this scenario.
My idea was to go ahead and post the entire $500K as the conditional pledge which would (should!) not be posted to Finance. Having that singular pledge transaction - in my head - enables the most efficient tracking of donor gifts made to meet the challenge by having those other donor gifts pay toward the challenge pledge. My thought was to have them pay down the pledge rather than trying to do variations of tribute gifts or other types of coding/tracking devices...
My presumption is that the intent would be to recognize and steward the original donor somehow for the ultimate total amount raised. Having the match gifts pay toward the $500K challenge pledge would not only facilitate the paydown but could also provide a very convenient mechanism for tracking those payments to "bill" the original donor for the matching funds.
In the end, I figured this might be an easy way to track both the original donor's $500K challenge and then the gifts which need to initiate the fulfillment of matching funds. The challenge donor would only ever be receipted for their match payments much as the individuals whose gifts were being made toward the match would also be appropriately receipted (or not, of course, if they pay via DAF, etc.)
Is that completely off the rails? I would be curious to hear any comments or challenges around this idea.
Best to all - Amy ��
Original Message:
Sent: 8/6/2024 9:35:00 PM
From: John Taylor
Subject: RE: Counting a match challenge pledge
I agree completely with Amy's comments. I assume that the "match" is of the variety that this donor will match ANOTHER $500,000 if the institution raises another $500,000. However, if the match was for a total of $500,000 with this donor only paying half ($250,000), then the conditional pledge can only be for that amount.
John
John H. Taylor, PrincipalJohn H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
2604 Sevier Street
Durham, NC 27705
919.816.5903 (cell/text)
Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987
Original Message:
Sent: 8/6/2024 12:35:00 PM
From: Amy Phillips
Subject: RE: Counting a match challenge pledge
Shelby,
As long as your GC and Finance folks are okay with it, I would suggest it is reasonable to split this into a standard pledge for $500K and a conditional pledge for the other $500K.
I believe you could only record the full $1M if the donor has allowed language that s/he would be willing to pay any balance toward the "matching" portion of the commitment.
Good luck and best regards - Amy