Purpose Restricted Release

We use the restricted schedule so we can keep the gift together as much as possible, and properly report on how much is being released each year.  We’ve been able to build reports for our finance department once we started using these (taking our contributed revenue report and breaking out what is restricted and not restricted).

I did a presentation at last year’s conference on restricted schedules (and why we started using them) if it’s not something you’re familiar with (I think my portion is it’s near the middle/end; I’m also happy to fill in the gaps it may leave without narrative). http://www.tessituranetwork.com/tlcc/2013/Presentations/04-B_Development_Gift_Operations.pptx

Yes – we release the amount a given fiscal year from the pledge.   And yes as capital can be released – we unrestrict the gift/pledge by amount now in operation.

Hello,

There seems to be very little on the forum and from previous conferences on Purpose Restrictions and I am wondering how other organizations handle this area.

Tessitura suggests that you use Fund to restrict a donation for Purpose. But how do various companies deal with the partial release of restrictions of these funds?

Here's an example: A donor gives 50k of purpose restricted funds, but only 10k of it is released in this fiscal (aka used). Do you adjust the gift so 40k is now in the purpose restricted fund and 10k is in an unrestricted fund?

It also seems that the same question applies to Capital restricted funds, so information on how people handle that area would also be helpful in this situation.

Thanks!

Amy Beth

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We keep funds as restricted without releasing a good amount of the time - scholarships are completely 1:1, we can’t use our scholarship money until the recipient is identified – so we have no way of knowing when the funds will actually be used, depending on enrollment, need, and donor restrictions when it comes to recipients (7 year old taking ballet, or 5 year old learning piano, whatever it is).  Similarly, sometimes the use is very closely monitored (expenses need to be tracked specifically) but will be used to this year – and any extra money will be used next year.  For these scenarios, we’ll actually restrict those gifts just to the date we enter it – just so it is restricted, and appears as restricted on reports.  It is our equivalent for restricted for current year use – but theoretically could be restricted for a future time as well.  If you use the functionality to “release” funds in Tess, they aren’t actually released until you go in and “release” them, so they’ll stay restricted until you say otherwise.

Thanks everyone for the information.

Carla - It seems that you use time restrictions for purpose restrictions? What if you don't know the schedule the funds will be released in, and they may be released over a decade?