Hi Rita,
I've been working through a planned giving standard operating procedure for NYLS much of this year and this question came up for us as well. As we developed a procedure, we had to take a step back and think about reporting. If you're tracking estate giving, then it might be better to create an estate record and connect it via relationship to your deceased donor and put the gift on the estate record. At NYLS we always hard credit who ever writes the check and then apply appropriate soft credits. So that informed our reporting.
I would look at how you currently track these types of gifts and if your reporting is meeting your needs, then make your decision from there. I'm happy to talk more one-on-one about how we tackled this if its helpful.
------------------------------
Molly Kaszuba
Executive Director of Advancement Operations
New York Law School
molly.kaszuba@nyls.edu------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 06-04-2026 08:52 PM
From: John Taylor
Subject: Estates - how do you record these in your CRM?
There's really not a right or wrong answer here - other than looking at what creates more work for your staff.
The fact that a check was referenced as coming from an "estate" essentially means that it came from the remaining assets of a deceased individual.
There's no need to create a new record for gifts from a deceased individual. They made their commitment to you while they were alive. In fact, in many cases, you may have recorded a bequest expectancy on that individual's record while they were living.
Unless the death of a donor establishes a trust in which other individuals decide which charities to fund, I see no need to create a new record. I enter the donation on the deceased's record and add an alias name of "Estate of [first and last name]" for receipt purposes.
However, if truly a new charitable trust, I would create a new record.
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: 6/4/2026 7:40:00 PM
From: Rita Williams
Subject: RE: Estates - how do you record these in your CRM?
P.S. In the first example where we credited the trust/estate, the check literally came from the trust. The sending organization's name in the top left of the check was the trust. It wasn't just casually mentioned in documentation attached with the check. It came FROM the trust itself. That's why the Gift Processor felt the need to create a record and hard credit it as donor. Did we over-complicate it? Should/could we have just hard credited the donor, whether we leave the record in her name or make an alias "Estate of" name?
------------------------------
Rita S. Williams
Director of Advancement Services
High Point University, High Point NC
rwillia0@highpoint.edu
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 06-04-2026 06:33 PM
From: Rita Williams
Subject: Estates - how do you record these in your CRM?
We recently had this issue/question. Just received a gift/check from an estate, with the estate name on the check. Gift Processor made a new estate record and hard credited it as donor, soft credited donor record. Not long ago we received a check from Wells Fargo noting it was from a deceased donor. Gift Processor hard credited donor's record. Planned Giving Officer wanted to know why it was recorded 2 different ways. Gift Processor said they always created a record when the check literally specified it was from the estate with the estate's name on it. That feels right. They both feel like we did it correctly. Does it matter when acknowledging? This seems sticky.....
------------------------------
Rita S. Williams
Director of Advancement Services
High Point University, High Point NC
rwillia0@highpoint.edu
------------------------------