FundSvcs Community

Good morning colleagues!

UofL is in the pre-planning stages of launching a Women in Philanthropy program.  It is being modeled after some programs around the state, and involves gifts at certain levels which result in certain benefits.  None of our item benefits exceed the token items.  Primarily, the money raised will be put into a fund which will then be awarded around campus via a "grant" which will be open to proposals. The grant awards will be selected by certain membership levels.  There will be three gifts levels: one which does not involve selecting the grants, but does allow attendance at the presentations;  one for recent alumni and students which has a lower dollar threshold but does allow participating in the grant selection; one level for "regular" alumni at a higher amount.

I am trying to figure out how to track this in our CRM (which is Blackbaud CRM for what it's worth).  Because certain gift levels are required for certain benefits, we need to differentiate between one-time donors to the specific designation/fund we have set up, vs. those who will participate in the program.  My original intention was to create this as a giving society/recognition program, since we can have dollar levels and different constituent criteria (like years since graduation to flag 'young' alumni), but our CRM requires either a pledge or gift transaction to be able to count it – and we can then report on them in the aggregate very easily.

Our Annual Giving team insists, however, that this is a "membership" program, which allows donors to join without payment in full, or a pledge on the system.  It concerns me that at any time someone can stop their membership recurring gift, and yet we will have flagged them at being a certain membership level.  This can be deceiving if looking at their record, and I can envision all kinds of cleanup problems later, so a recognition program wouldn't be the right fit.

For those of you with these types of programs, how/where are you tracking these constituents?  What does a recurring payment look like for this membership program?  Do you enter pledges for these? 

Would love to know how you all manage these and stay sane. 😊

Thanks! 

Aimee S. Fitzgerald, MLIS 
Assistant Vice President 
Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement Operations

502-852-7035
aimee.fitzgerald@louisville.edu 

give.louisville.edu 

Good morning.  This sounds like a wonderful opportunity that will be a lot to manage! My first thought was, are you planning to consider this a charitable donation? The grant awards will be selected by certain membership levels.

How will you separate donors from the grant selection process?

Good morning colleagues!

UofL is in the pre-planning stages of launching a Women in Philanthropy program.  It is being modeled after some programs around the state, and involves gifts at certain levels which result in certain benefits.  None of our item benefits exceed the token items.  Primarily, the money raised will be put into a fund which will then be awarded around campus via a "grant" which will be open to proposals. The grant awards will be selected by certain membership levels.  There will be three gifts levels: one which does not involve selecting the grants, but does allow attendance at the presentations;  one for recent alumni and students which has a lower dollar threshold but does allow participating in the grant selection; one level for "regular" alumni at a higher amount.

I am trying to figure out how to track this in our CRM (which is Blackbaud CRM for what it's worth).  Because certain gift levels are required for certain benefits, we need to differentiate between one-time donors to the specific designation/fund we have set up, vs. those who will participate in the program.  My original intention was to create this as a giving society/recognition program, since we can have dollar levels and different constituent criteria (like years since graduation to flag 'young' alumni), but our CRM requires either a pledge or gift transaction to be able to count it – and we can then report on them in the aggregate very easily.

Our Annual Giving team insists, however, that this is a "membership" program, which allows donors to join without payment in full, or a pledge on the system.  It concerns me that at any time someone can stop their membership recurring gift, and yet we will have flagged them at being a certain membership level.  This can be deceiving if looking at their record, and I can envision all kinds of cleanup problems later, so a recognition program wouldn't be the right fit.

For those of you with these types of programs, how/where are you tracking these constituents?  What does a recurring payment look like for this membership program?  Do you enter pledges for these? 

Would love to know how you all manage these and stay sane. 😊

Thanks! 

Aimee S. Fitzgerald, MLIS 
Assistant Vice President 
Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement Operations

502-852-7035
aimee.fitzgerald@louisville.edu 

give.louisville.edu 

Tracy,

It is modeled after the WKU Sisterhood and UK Women & Philanthropy programs.  Both have similar membership and grant award programs.  We just don't have ours fully fleshed out yet with our awarding criteria etc.  For what it's worth, I've also reached out to them directly.  For me it's more the technical question of tracking in our CRM for effective reporting.

Yes, these are all charitable donations, and if you have made a gift at X level, you will be able to participate in deciding how the grants are distributed on campus – at the lowest level, you would only be allowed to attend the presentations for the grant applicants.  The other two levels are considered "voting" members.

If I understand your question, you are asking about self-dealing.  The gift money will be pooled and grant applicants would be only from university related organizations/groups/academic programs etc.    While we would definitely want faculty & staff participation in the program, I'm not sure how we would exclude someone from voting for their own project, except that it would be one vote out of the entire group.  I'd be curious how other programs do it without violating the IRS rules on that.

Good morning.  This sounds like a wonderful opportunity that will be a lot to manage! My first thought was, are you planning to consider this a charitable donation? The grant awards will be selected by certain membership levels.

How will you separate donors from the grant selection process?

Good morning colleagues!

UofL is in the pre-planning stages of launching a Women in Philanthropy program.  It is being modeled after some programs around the state, and involves gifts at certain levels which result in certain benefits.  None of our item benefits exceed the token items.  Primarily, the money raised will be put into a fund which will then be awarded around campus via a "grant" which will be open to proposals. The grant awards will be selected by certain membership levels.  There will be three gifts levels: one which does not involve selecting the grants, but does allow attendance at the presentations;  one for recent alumni and students which has a lower dollar threshold but does allow participating in the grant selection; one level for "regular" alumni at a higher amount.

I am trying to figure out how to track this in our CRM (which is Blackbaud CRM for what it's worth).  Because certain gift levels are required for certain benefits, we need to differentiate between one-time donors to the specific designation/fund we have set up, vs. those who will participate in the program.  My original intention was to create this as a giving society/recognition program, since we can have dollar levels and different constituent criteria (like years since graduation to flag 'young' alumni), but our CRM requires either a pledge or gift transaction to be able to count it – and we can then report on them in the aggregate very easily.

Our Annual Giving team insists, however, that this is a "membership" program, which allows donors to join without payment in full, or a pledge on the system.  It concerns me that at any time someone can stop their membership recurring gift, and yet we will have flagged them at being a certain membership level.  This can be deceiving if looking at their record, and I can envision all kinds of cleanup problems later, so a recognition program wouldn't be the right fit.

For those of you with these types of programs, how/where are you tracking these constituents?  What does a recurring payment look like for this membership program?  Do you enter pledges for these? 

Would love to know how you all manage these and stay sane. 😊

Thanks! 

Aimee S. Fitzgerald, MLIS 
Assistant Vice President 
Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement Operations

502-852-7035
aimee.fitzgerald@louisville.edu 

give.louisville.edu 

Tracy,

It is modeled after the WKU Sisterhood and UK Women & Philanthropy programs.  Both have similar membership and grant award programs.  We just don't have ours fully fleshed out yet with our awarding criteria etc.  For what it's worth, I've also reached out to them directly.  For me it's more the technical question of tracking in our CRM for effective reporting.

Yes, these are all charitable donations, and if you have made a gift at X level, you will be able to participate in deciding how the grants are distributed on campus – at the lowest level, you would only be allowed to attend the presentations for the grant applicants.  The other two levels are considered "voting" members.

If I understand your question, you are asking about self-dealing.  The gift money will be pooled and grant applicants would be only from university related organizations/groups/academic programs etc.    While we would definitely want faculty & staff participation in the program, I'm not sure how we would exclude someone from voting for their own project, except that it would be one vote out of the entire group.  I'd be curious how other programs do it without violating the IRS rules on that.

Good morning.  This sounds like a wonderful opportunity that will be a lot to manage! My first thought was, are you planning to consider this a charitable donation? The grant awards will be selected by certain membership levels.

How will you separate donors from the grant selection process?

Good morning colleagues!

UofL is in the pre-planning stages of launching a Women in Philanthropy program.  It is being modeled after some programs around the state, and involves gifts at certain levels which result in certain benefits.  None of our item benefits exceed the token items.  Primarily, the money raised will be put into a fund which will then be awarded around campus via a "grant" which will be open to proposals. The grant awards will be selected by certain membership levels.  There will be three gifts levels: one which does not involve selecting the grants, but does allow attendance at the presentations;  one for recent alumni and students which has a lower dollar threshold but does allow participating in the grant selection; one level for "regular" alumni at a higher amount.

I am trying to figure out how to track this in our CRM (which is Blackbaud CRM for what it's worth).  Because certain gift levels are required for certain benefits, we need to differentiate between one-time donors to the specific designation/fund we have set up, vs. those who will participate in the program.  My original intention was to create this as a giving society/recognition program, since we can have dollar levels and different constituent criteria (like years since graduation to flag 'young' alumni), but our CRM requires either a pledge or gift transaction to be able to count it – and we can then report on them in the aggregate very easily.

Our Annual Giving team insists, however, that this is a "membership" program, which allows donors to join without payment in full, or a pledge on the system.  It concerns me that at any time someone can stop their membership recurring gift, and yet we will have flagged them at being a certain membership level.  This can be deceiving if looking at their record, and I can envision all kinds of cleanup problems later, so a recognition program wouldn't be the right fit.

For those of you with these types of programs, how/where are you tracking these constituents?  What does a recurring payment look like for this membership program?  Do you enter pledges for these? 

Would love to know how you all manage these and stay sane. 😊

Thanks! 

Aimee S. Fitzgerald, MLIS 
Assistant Vice President 
Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement Operations

502-852-7035
aimee.fitzgerald@louisville.edu 

give.louisville.edu