FundSvcs Community

Exciting times at our university - new president, new advancement vp, new CIO, new finance vp (was already here as controller for 20+ yrs) and a new ERP to come. With new administration, also comes new policies, procedures and campaign, which all will go in front of the board for approval this fall. Our last campaign ended May 2020 and our new campaign started June 2023.

There has been mention of a few things I'd like advice on if and before they happen, so I know how to handle them. I have thoughts, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

1. Discussing the new campaign with donors that have an outstanding pledge and inviting them to cancel their outstanding pledge and create a new pledge so they may be part of the exciting new campaign.  If they sign a document indicating their wish to cancel their pledge, the outstanding pledge will be written off and a new pledge will be entered. 
   1. Whether the pledge was created during the last campaign or between campaigns, will the numbers reported during those times need to be modified?
   2. Since a new pledge would replace the old pledge and there could be a net zero change, or there could even be more money. It has been communicated the auditors are ok with it. (Third party information, I haven't spoken to the auditors myself.)
   3. Can a pledge be documented as incorporating payments from their previous pledge into their new pledge? Say they had a pledge of $10,000 and they paid $4,000 of it and the remaining will be written off.  Their new pledge will be for $15,000, indicating $4,000 has already been paid and the remainder of $11,000 will be entered?
2. Gift Officers will be focusing on major gifts.  Only documented multi-year commitments are considered pledges and will be entered into the system moving forward.  All other annual gifts will be entered as they come in.  An annual commitment of $1,000 is not a pledge and will not be entered into the system. 
   1. For anyone that has followed this type of procedure, how do you track those annual commitments if they are not entered into the system? 
   2. Did you send reminders and if so, how did you know when and how much (maybe they want to pay $250 per quarter.)  The purpose for this procedure was communicated as cleaner reporting and not having to back out any annual pledges not fulfilled, i.e. Telethon.
3. Planned gifts with an unknown value, will be entered at $37,000 "which represent the national average estate gift received by charitable organizations."
   1. Does anyone else use this national average?

If there is more needed than a simple reply, I would be happy to have a phone conversation with anyone, however I will be out the remainder of the day.

Thank you in advance for your time, knowledge and input.

Exciting times at our university - new president, new advancement vp, new CIO, new finance vp (was already here as controller for 20+ yrs) and a new ERP to come. With new administration, also comes new policies, procedures and campaign, which all will go in front of the board for approval this fall. Our last campaign ended May 2020 and our new campaign started June 2023.

There has been mention of a few things I'd like advice on if and before they happen, so I know how to handle them. I have thoughts, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

1. Discussing the new campaign with donors that have an outstanding pledge and inviting them to cancel their outstanding pledge and create a new pledge so they may be part of the exciting new campaign.  If they sign a document indicating their wish to cancel their pledge, the outstanding pledge will be written off and a new pledge will be entered. 
   1. Whether the pledge was created during the last campaign or between campaigns, will the numbers reported during those times need to be modified?
   2. Since a new pledge would replace the old pledge and there could be a net zero change, or there could even be more money. It has been communicated the auditors are ok with it. (Third party information, I haven't spoken to the auditors myself.)
   3. Can a pledge be documented as incorporating payments from their previous pledge into their new pledge? Say they had a pledge of $10,000 and they paid $4,000 of it and the remaining will be written off.  Their new pledge will be for $15,000, indicating $4,000 has already been paid and the remainder of $11,000 will be entered?
2. Gift Officers will be focusing on major gifts.  Only documented multi-year commitments are considered pledges and will be entered into the system moving forward.  All other annual gifts will be entered as they come in.  An annual commitment of $1,000 is not a pledge and will not be entered into the system. 
   1. For anyone that has followed this type of procedure, how do you track those annual commitments if they are not entered into the system? 
   2. Did you send reminders and if so, how did you know when and how much (maybe they want to pay $250 per quarter.)  The purpose for this procedure was communicated as cleaner reporting and not having to back out any annual pledges not fulfilled, i.e. Telethon.
3. Planned gifts with an unknown value, will be entered at $37,000 "which represent the national average estate gift received by charitable organizations."
   1. Does anyone else use this national average?

If there is more needed than a simple reply, I would be happy to have a phone conversation with anyone, however I will be out the remainder of the day.

Thank you in advance for your time, knowledge and input.