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  • 1.  Question about gift entry and engagement scores

    Posted 04-24-2024 12:41 PM

    This will be an odd question.  We are working on building out data for engagement scores.  This is what we have been asked to do for a piece of data: Example- If alum John doesn't give us a gift but he plays a role in obtaining a $500,000 gift from Tom they want to count him in the engagement score by giving John soft credit for this gift.  I don't believe this is a good idea for financial report reasons.  Does anyone have other suggestions for this or is this what people are doing?  This is the first I've seen anything like this.  



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    Ann Carman
    Hartwick College
    gifts@hartwick.edu
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  • 2.  RE: Question about gift entry and engagement scores

    Posted 04-24-2024 12:47 PM
    We just to have a field that we would give him what we called "Solicitor Credit"

    BLANCA E. MESTA-MARTINEZ

    Sr. Specialist, Donor Systems

    MLK Community Health Foundation
    1680 E. 120th Street 
    Los Angeles, CA 90059
    C (562) 445-7953
    blanca@mlk-chf.org
    mlk-chf.org | @yourmlkch





    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Question about gift entry and engagement scores

    Posted 04-24-2024 12:47 PM
    Many organizations use soft credits in their engagement scores. However, they tend to have extremely tight rules regarding when soft credits are awarded. The most common "rule" is when the legal gift would not have been possible without the involvement of the soft-credit donor.

    This covers DAFs, matching gifts, private foundations, and similar. Legal partners also count.

    What's important is that you have a formal donor recognition/soft-credit policy that governs when soft-credits are granted.

    John
    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987




    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Question about gift entry and engagement scores

    Posted 04-24-2024 01:30 PM

    I would think that if your alum is actively engaged in the process of getting a gift, you would want to capture that fact in your system (whether or not the effort is successful, actually), so it seems to me that there would likely be a different data point that you could include without changing the rules for the awarding of gift soft credit and affecting all the other processes that are probably keyed into soft credit and the rules for awarding it.

    That sort of support in helping to obtain a significant gift does seem a great indicator of engagement.  At the same time, it is probably worth distinguishing from gift credit.

    My US$0.02 worth; the usual disclaimers apply.

     

    Good luck!

    Alan

     

    Alan S. Hejnal (he/him)

    Data Quality Manager

     

    SNAGHTML5cbfa34

     




    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Question about gift entry and engagement scores

    Posted 04-25-2024 06:39 AM

    We run engagement scores through Anthology  and use RENXT for our CRM.  In this instance, we would not soft credit what would be a solicitor credit.  We track our "offline" data (data not tracked internally by Anthology, like email click throughs, online donations) through Actions with an Action Type of Engagement Activity.  I'd tag John here with an Action for the date of the gift as a volunteer/fundraiser.  There is then a volunteer ranking file that is used to give each type of volunteer a weight that is compared to other volunteer types.  For instance, a Trustee and a Fundraiser you would rank higher than an alum who was a guest lecturer or volunteered at an event. 



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    Michael Manning
    University of New England
    Mmanning6@une.edu
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Question about gift entry and engagement scores

    Posted 04-25-2024 09:28 AM

    I agree, I would not suggest entering this as soft credit.  Your system may allow for a different type of credit, such as "facilitator credit".  If all else fails, "solicitor credit" is the next best thing.  

    There is a wealth of information in your gift table for engagement scoring - not just if they made a gift, but also the velocity of giving, for example - how their giving increases over time.   And then, of course, consecutive years of giving divided by number of years since graduation, etc.  

    Terry Callaghan

    Zuri Group



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    Terry Callaghan
    Zuri Group
    terry@zurigroup.com
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    Original Message


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