Hello!
How do you manage access to ticketing with your Development departments?
We just implemented Development. In our organization, it's a small three person team. They do not sell tickets to donors. We do not have a Major Gifts Officer or VIP Services managing donor purchases.
When a donor feels they're not getting what they want or have been "mistreated" by the box office, they call development.
I want our donors to be VERY happy, but also need to mitigate the issues that occur with too many hands in the ticket jar.
Would love to "hear" how other organizations manage.
Many, many thanks!
Hi Michelle,
I've trained all our development staff on how to enter ticket orders. However, they are not able to process payment transactions. When a donor calls them they can pick seats, give a discount, override fees, save an unpaid order and save a credit card to the donor's account. That way the donor feels special and the development department can manage that relationship well. Once the order is saved, the development officer lets someone in our box office know the order number and the box office charges the card. Then, our box office has all ticketing transactions in their batches and they are posted together and sent on to finance. Finance likes having all the ticket sales in one place, development likes managing the patron relationship, and the box office likes seeing every order at least briefly before they are fully processed. And our donors feel special. It's a little extra work, but everyone wins.
Hope that helps,
Dorothy
Hi Dorothy:
Thank you! That's an intersting solution as that's part of what our finance department is very concerned about.
Thank you!
Michelle