RSMUS.comWhen implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM for non-profits, one of the biggest pain points I hear from clients about other systems is the limitation of tracking gifts for Donor Advised Funds (DAFs). In these scenarios, the gift was given by an individual but through a Donor Advised Fund. Because you can only have one donor on a gift, some people choose the individual as the Donor, which means they lose the technical source of the gift and their gift data isn’t accurate from a tax standpoint. Most people choose instead to list the Donor Advised Fund as the Donor but then they lose the data that tells them the Household that the gift actually came from. This can pose problems with acknowledgment letters and it also means that they don’t have an accurate and complete picture of a donor’s giving history.
We’ve resolved this dilemma very simply by adding another relationship to the Gift Form specifically for Legal Donors/Donor Advised Funds. It sound easy enough but there are a few things worth mentioning with this solution. First, we have a business rule implemented that sets the Legal Donor to the same value as the Account by default. This happens when the Account is set or modified. Then users can choose a DAF if it is, in fact, a DAF gift. This is key for reporting purposes because it means that the field always contains useful information. When marketing (or whomever) wants to pull a report of gifts using the Individual/Household names, they can use the Account field. When they want to pull a list of gift records using either the DAF (in cases where there was a DAF) or the Individual/Household (in cases where there was no DAF), they can use the Legal Donor field. We use mail merge to generate acknowledgement and tax letters and workflow to email acknowledgment and tax letters, dependent upon the client’s needs. The tax letters pull from the Legal Donor/DAF field and the thank you only letters pull from the Account field. Finally, with this solution, we are able to see the full picture of all of the gifts a particular Household has given regardless of the mechanism it was given through.
Figure 1. A scree shot of Donor information on a Gift Record.
From association management and fundraising through encumbrance, grant and fund management, our nonprofit specialists tailor a solution for your organization built on Microsoft Dynamics business solutions. Our solutions incorporating industry best practices and address needs beyond technology. With our full suite of services, we offer a deep understanding of nonprofits, promote retention and recruitment, assist in navigating IRS regulations, manage relationships and obtain optimal value from systems while addressing risk and board issues. Contact our professionals to learn more – crm@rsmus.com or by phone at 855.437.7202.
By: Ashley Berube – Minnesota Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner
