Hello Everyone!
I'm hoping to get some guidance and/or best practices on processing, reporting on, and recognizing deferred gifts/sponsorships.
For example, we receive the money for some of our next fiscal year sponsorships in the current fiscal year. Historically we have reported on the revenue as it comes in, but new leadership would like for us to report on that revenue in the fiscal year the sponsorship is intended for. Our finance team used to make that adjustment on their end and we would still report it on the fundraising side.
How do you normally handle this? Do you just go ahead and put it towards the next FY campaign? I'm worried about how this will affect reporting as right now all gifts are confined within the dates of the fiscal year I'm reporting on. Do you create a separate fund/campaign for deferred gifts only? This was a solution that my finance team suggested that I'm struggling to work out.
I looked in the Development and Finance Forums and only saw posts from 7+ years ago so I wasn't sure if there were any new solutions.
It's looking like this will be a big change in processing and reporting on my end and I would really love any and all guidance.
-Kelsey
Hi Kelsey,
We already have the campaigns setup for next fiscal for those we receive commitments for in this fiscal year. This means we can properly allocate sponsorship as an example, to the correct fiscal year it is intended for. This also means you don't need to make any adjustments instead of using a deferred gift fund which you would want to reallocate to your correct campaign/fund within your new fiscal year.
Hope this helps!Kyle