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Gift Fee

  • 1.  Gift Fee

    Posted 08-24-2023 03:15 PM

    We are currently discussing a gift assessment fee at my university and are trying to gather information about how to account for it in our database.  We are currently using Banner Advancement and are assessing whether it makes sense to set up an automatic feed to the GL or if we should process a JV on a monthly basis.  Looking for feedback from an institution that has had success with this.



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    Stephanie Pollock
    Oakland University
    spollock@oakland.edu
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  • 2.  RE: Gift Fee

    Posted 08-24-2023 03:31 PM

    We have our fee assessment embedded in our GL feed each night. $100 goes into the designated allocation/project, and then $7 is pulled out and put in an assessment revenue project.  



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    Jeff Baynham
    NC State University
    jtbaynha@ncsu.edu
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Gift Fee

    Posted 08-24-2023 03:36 PM

    One benefit to having it in your feed is your agility to make gift fee assessment adjustments when there are modifications and reversals. 



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    Jeff Baynham
    NC State University
    jtbaynha@ncsu.edu
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Gift Fee

    Posted 08-24-2023 03:40 PM
    Edited by Stephanie Pollock 08-24-2023 03:41 PM

    Does Banner Advancement have the capability to be set up easily for the GL process?

    What Database do you use, Jeff?



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    Stephanie Pollock
    Oakland University
    spollock@oakland.edu
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Gift Fee

    Posted 08-24-2023 03:59 PM
    This is not something any CRM is specifically designed to do. At least not the gift fee portion.

    Unless you are on a single platform (Banner Advancement & Banner Finance), you've probably had to build your GL feed from scratch. 

    At NC State, when we created this process in 2010, we were on Advance for our CRM and Peoplesoft (I believe) for the GL. It's likely still the same two systems today but Jeff can confirm!

    John

    John H. Taylor
    Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier St.
    Durham, NC   27705
    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987





    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Gift Fee

    Posted 08-24-2023 04:31 PM
    Hi . . . 

    Depending on how your processing the gift fee, it can be set up easily in Banner Advancement.

    You would use a designation that would capture the fee component of the gift.  That fee designation would be mapped to the appropriate GL and be part of the feed.

    Any questions, let me know

    Thanks

    Tom

    --
    Thomas Chaves
    Associate VP for Advancement Operations
    Office of Advancement
    Saint Joseph's University
    5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19131
    O: 610-660-1255 | M: 610-316-6541 | tchaves@sju.edu
    SJU.edu



    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Gift Fee

    Posted 08-24-2023 03:55 PM
    As Jeff already explained, embedding the fee in the GL feed is the cleanest - and most transparent - way to go.

    One thing you must consider is that not all gifts will be assessed. Not only will you have case-by-case exceptions, but exceptions based on donor requirements and gift types. Trying to do the monthly JV will require a lot of reports and calculations. Further, as Jeff mentioned, when you embed the fee you automate the reversal and adjustment process.

    Embedding the fee eliminates a mountain of extra work!

    John

    John H. Taylor
    Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier St.
    Durham, NC   27705
    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987




    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Gift Fee

    Posted 08-25-2023 08:49 AM

    Thank you for the recommendations!  We currently use Banner Advancement and Banner Finance so the gift and pledge feeds were already in place.  We would love to set up the gift fee using the automated feed option, however, there are certain gift types that don't automatically feed to Finance (i.e. EFTs, online gifts, and previous deposits).  We have to process JVs for these so they appear on the Finance side which means we would also have to process a JV for the associated gift fee if one was to be assessed.

    Tom - Do you have to manually calculate the gift fee for every gift and then enter the amount for the gift fee designation or is the system set up to automatically calculate the fee?

    Steph



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    Stephanie Pollock
    Oakland University
    spollock@oakland.edu
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Gift Fee

    Posted 08-25-2023 10:01 AM
    When I was at Lehigh using Banner, we created a separate process to calculate the fee (different rules fo different types of gifts) and send over the transactions needed in finance for the appropriate entry.

    Here at Saint Joseph's University (where we also use Banner), we don't have a gift fee.  We talked about implementing one two years ago and explored how we'd do it on the feed.  The model was more straightforward from Lehigh so on gift entry, a gift was going to be split to two separate designations (one with the fee amount) and so it would automatically feed.

    Happy to chat more if you'd like to brainstorm on different approaches based on how you've set up Banner

    Thanks

    Tom




    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Gift Fee

    Posted 08-25-2023 03:09 PM
    FWIW, our assessment fee applies only to restricted gifts greater than $25K and we do not process transactions where the fee is applicable as split transactions. Those gifts and payments have an attribute applied which carries through our daily post file to Finance and they take care of calculating the fee then processing an internal transfer to the fund where the assessments are deposited; there is also an attribute if the fee has been "waived" by our VP so Finance knows not to ding those ones. The donor contribution is reflected at full face value to the intended designation in our RE database as a means of keeping our giving history reports reflecting totals to where the donor directs their contribution(s).

    Best to all - Amy


    Amy J. Phillips
    Director of Advancement Services, Gift Acceptance
    Division of University Advancement
    The Catholic University of America
    620 Michigan Avenue, USCCB 166
    Washington, DC 20064
    Phone: 202-319-6919





    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Gift Fee

    Posted 08-25-2023 09:18 AM
    Edited by Sean Shappell 08-25-2023 09:21 AM
    Stephanie,
     
    Lehigh is currently using both Banner Advancement and Banner Finance, and we have a (mostly) automated gift admin fee. I wasn't around when it was set up. So, I can't speak to why it's done the way we do it, but I can give you an overview of how we do it.
     
    In short, all of the fees are handled on the Finance side. They do a monthly assessment of the fees (I'm assuming with a JV). We don't assess gift admin fees on all gifts (our policy is here), so I know they're using a combination of TREV and (I think) rule codes to determine which funds to assess the fee on. For the rare instances where we need to waive the fee on a particular gift, we use gift class codes to mark those gifts as "fee waived" at the time of processing. A monthly report, using the "fee waived" gift class code, produces a GURFEED file we send to Finance which is processed to reverse the assessments made by Finance's process.
     
    It's certainly not perfect, but I really can't complain as I rarely have to troubleshoot it.
     
    Hope that helps.
     
    Sean



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    Sean Shappell
    Lehigh University
    ses211@lehigh.edu
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    Original Message


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