____________________________________________________________ Michael Mariano | Database ManagerNew York City Center | 130 W. 56th Street | New York, NY 10019Phone: 212.763.1255 | Fax: 212.247.4439 | Web: www.NYCityCenter.org
Hello Michael,
At the Orange County Performing Arts Center, we create separate records and typically soft credit the money to the individual’s record. We started doing this about two years ago and it has been working really well for us. We recently have had a few family foundations contact us requesting a report of their contributions to the Center and this made it very easy for us to pull the money. It has also helped us identify which donors give out of their own pockets, which give from their own pockets and their foundations, and which donors only give from their foundations. We are also able to manage our memberships better as many of our family foundations do not allow receipt of membership benefits for their contributions. Our finance dept. does not take issue with the two-record method.
Hope this helps … good luck!
Amber
_______________________________________________________
Amber Albert
Manager, Special Campaigns
Orange County Performing Arts Center
600 Town Center Drive Costa Mesa, CA 92626
T 714.556.2122 x4259 F 714.755.2712 E AAlbert@OCPAC.org
From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Michael Mariano Sent: Monday, August 23, 2010 8:47 AM To: Albert, Amber Subject: [Tessitura Development Forum] Family Foundation records
(Sorry; this is the second of two separate questions I have.)
Hi all:
I am curious how other organizations keep track of family foundations for their individual donors. Do you keep track of them with separate address information, or do you use another record entirely?
We discussed this in the past and a significant number of you use a two record method.
http://www.tessituranetwork.com/COMMUNITY/forums/t/159.aspx
At City Center, we use two different records for an individual versus their foundation. Money on a foundation check is entered on the family foundation record. Donor advised funds get their own records as well, associated to the donors as well as the adminstering fund. This method lets us know where money actually came from at all times.
But we have to be very careful when sending out any correspondence based on a contribution. Many donors have little or no money in their records, so they don't pick up on all list criteria. We must then depend on Memberships, manual constituencies, and associations. It's tricky!
Our Finance office recently told us they dislike the two record method; they would rather we enter all gifts to be considered from the donor on the donor record.
Is this advisable? If we go back to a one-record format, money stays where we want it to, soft-credits are always genuine gets, matching gifts, gift memberships---anything in green really is from another constituent.
Any advice would be appreciated, especially if any of you have a good case for using two records. Thanks again!
-- Mike
____________________________________________________________ Michael Mariano | Database Manager New York City Center | 130 W. 56th Street | New York, NY 10019 Phone: 212.763.1255 | Fax: 212.247.4439 | Web: www.NYCityCenter.org
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We at Goodman Theatre are wrestling with these entities as well. Currently, a lot of our problem has to do with the classification of "family foundation."
If all of the decision-making power rests in one individual, they're treated as individual donors, have one record and simply have an alias and program listing of "The Smith Family Foundation," even though the record is labeled "John Smith." On the other hand, if there's more than one decision-maker, we tend (but its not a hard-and-fast rule) to create two records and have the CFG team manage them. Increasingly, we're thinking all foundations under a certain TBD size should be managed as individuals.
What have others done? Do you have a hard-and-fast rule for what constitutes a "family foundation" vs. something larger? Who in your department cultivates these constituents?
As stated above, in the linked discussion, there is more information on what others are doing. I posted there that "I have found that keeping separate records only makes sense if the donations are voted by a foundation board and don't represent the donation of the donor him/herself"
I hope this helps other people.
Cheers!
Gabe.