FundSvcs Community

Hi, everyone--I posted this in the Higher Ed Community but posting here also in case it's a better fit (I'm new to the site so I'll blame it on that)....

A few colleagues of mine were recently going through a report that listed all of the $1M+ commitments we received this year, and we noticed that one gift that was a commitment of $1M was showing up in the band of $500K-$999K because the donor who made the commitment used a DAF to pay down on the pledge.  Our gift processing team wrote off roughly $200K from the original pledge to accommodate for two DAF payments, causing the overall commitment to lower.  Additionally, the two DAF payments showed up as two different gifts within the $100K-$249K band of the gift pyramid report.  

What is the best practice here? Should we use the original pledge amount as the amount we pull in and count it as a $1M gift?  If yes, I'm assuming that the DAF gifts used to reduce the pledge need to be coded in a way so that they don't get double counted? Or is it best practice to count the gift at whatever level it ends up at when you subtract pledge write-offs from the original pledge amount? 

------------------------------
Michael Adzovic
Northern Illinois University Foundation
madzovic@niu.edu
------------------------------

Thanks, John--this is helpful.  We do soft credit the donor when a DAF payment is made, although that credit transaction is  not linked to the original pledge transaction for the donor.  However, we may be able to create a special write-off transaction type (that is linked to the original pledge transaction) and create logic that doesn't reduce the original pledge amount for write-off transactions that are associated with DAF payments.  Correspondingly, for DAF gifts that are meant to serve as pledge payments, we could code those in a special way so that they don't aggregate in our overall fundraising totals.  

Does that approach make sense?  Thank you.  

------------------------------
Michael Adzovic
Northern Illinois University Foundation
madzovic@niu.edu
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2025 10:53 AM
From: John Taylor
Subject: How Should DAF Payments Influence a Pledge's Placement on Gift Table?

I would use soft credits to add to the reduced pledge amount. 

When I work with clients we create a unique soft credit type to reflect that it is related to a pledge reduction.

Of course, not all CRMs allow you to create different soft credit types. A unique solicitation/mail/appeal code will accomplish the same thing.

John

John H. Taylor

919.816.5903 (Cell/Text)

Big Ideas - Small Keyboard

Original Message:
Sent: 3/19/2025 3:12:00 PM
From: Michael Adzovic
Subject: RE: How Should DAF Payments Influence a Pledge's Placement on Gift Table?

Thanks, John--this is helpful.  We do soft credit the donor when a DAF payment is made, although that credit transaction is  not linked to the original pledge transaction for the donor.  However, we may be able to create a special write-off transaction type (that is linked to the original pledge transaction) and create logic that doesn't reduce the original pledge amount for write-off transactions that are associated with DAF payments.  Correspondingly, for DAF gifts that are meant to serve as pledge payments, we could code those in a special way so that they don't aggregate in our overall fundraising totals.  

Does that approach make sense?  Thank you.  

------------------------------
Michael Adzovic
Northern Illinois University Foundation
madzovic@niu.edu
------------------------------

Hi Michael,

We record commitments we anticipate to be paid via DAFs as statements of intent and then apply payments via soft credit as you and John have described.

Cheers,

Emily

------------------------------
Emily Konisky
Emory University
Emily.Konisky@emory.edu
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2025 03:04 PM
From: John Taylor
Subject: How Should DAF Payments Influence a Pledge's Placement on Gift Table?

That is exactly the right approach!

John H. Taylor

919.816.5903 (Cell/Text)

Big Ideas - Small Keyboard

Original Message:
Sent: 3/19/2025 3:12:00 PM
From: Michael Adzovic
Subject: RE: How Should DAF Payments Influence a Pledge's Placement on Gift Table?

Thanks, John--this is helpful.  We do soft credit the donor when a DAF payment is made, although that credit transaction is  not linked to the original pledge transaction for the donor.  However, we may be able to create a special write-off transaction type (that is linked to the original pledge transaction) and create logic that doesn't reduce the original pledge amount for write-off transactions that are associated with DAF payments.  Correspondingly, for DAF gifts that are meant to serve as pledge payments, we could code those in a special way so that they don't aggregate in our overall fundraising totals.  

Does that approach make sense?  Thank you.  

------------------------------
Michael Adzovic
Northern Illinois University Foundation
madzovic@niu.edu
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2025 10:53 AM
From: John Taylor
Subject: How Should DAF Payments Influence a Pledge's Placement on Gift Table?

I would use soft credits to add to the reduced pledge amount. 

When I work with clients we create a unique soft credit type to reflect that it is related to a pledge reduction.

Of course, not all CRMs allow you to create different soft credit types. A unique solicitation/mail/appeal code will accomplish the same thing.

John

John H. Taylor

919.816.5903 (Cell/Text)

Big Ideas - Small Keyboard