Management of Matching Gifts

Overview

As part of the Development module, Veracross offers a matching gifts feature that facilitates the process of relating the individual donor’s gift and the organization’s matching gift.

Creating a Matching Gift

There are two ways to create a matching gift between a donor and an organization: automated matching gifts and manually matching gifts. Automated matching gifts use a pre-configured relationship between the individual donor and the matching organization to create corresponding gift records. This configuration can be set up to easily manage the process of entering matching gifts and greatly reduce the amount of data entry required for each gift record. Because a relationship has been established between a donor and a matching organization the system will automatically create the related pledge and donation records between the individual donor and the matching organization. Manually matching gifts performs this exact same process, but all donation, pledge, and soft-credit records must be entered by the user.

If an organization’s matching gifts policy is known, it is in the school’s best interest to configure the organization to automatically match gifts to make the data entry process easier for the Development office.

In both these approaches, matching gift information is entered in the Matching section on the General tab on a donation or pledge detail screen. By selecting the appropriate drop-down menu option in the ‘Matching Status’ field, the system either automatically creates the corresponding pledge/donation record or indicates that one must be created by the user.

Automated Matching Gifts

In Veracross, organizations can be configured to be “matching organizations” to facilitate the process of matching gifts. This configuration process involves two steps:

Establishing Donor and Organization Relationships

• In order for a matching gift record to be created automatically the relationship between the individual donor and the organization must be “employer” or “matching organization.” Configure this relationship on the Organization tab of the organization member’s person detail screen or on the Members tab of the organization’s detail screen.

Organization Configuration

• Add the organization’s matching gifts policy on the Development tab of the Organization detail screen. Enter the information in the two fields:
  • Matching percent: the percentage of the donor’s gift that the organization will match.
  • Max annual amount: the maximum amount an organization will match for an individual donor per year. For example, a donor could give $1,000 over the course of a year, but an organization has a maximum annual amount of $500 per individual and will only match up to that amount.

The Process

When a gift, either a donation or pledge, is made by an individual donor:

1. Add the donation or pledge record.
2. Relate the matching organization using the drop-down menu option ‘To Be Matched’ in the ‘Matching Status’ field.
3. When this gift is added a summary message for the organization’s matching pledge record will appear. Review the message and select “OK.” The ‘Related Pledge’ field will populate automatically with the matching organization’s pledge record.
4. A pledge soft-credit record for the donor responsible for the original gift will also be created when the organization’s pledge record is created automatically.

When an organization pays off an existing matching pledge record, a donation record must be added for that organization:

1. Add a donation record for the matching organization.
2. Select the ‘Apply to Pledge’ checkbox to automatically associate the matching pledge record that was created when the donor’s gift record was added. If there are more than one pledge open for this organization, a message will appear indicating that the pledge will need to be chosen manually using the ‘Associated Pledge’ field.
3. In the ‘Matching Status’ field of the organization donation record select ‘Is a Matching Gift’ to establish the connection between the original gift and the matching organization’s donation.
4. Depending on what gift was made by the donor, either a donation or pledge, the ‘Related Pledge’ or ‘Related Donation’ fields will populate automatically.

Manually Matching Gifts

The process for manually entering matching gifts involves multiple steps to ensure the relationship between the individual donor’s gift and the organization’s matching gift is created and maintained.

Note:The following explains the process for manually entering matching gifts if a donor makes a donation. However, the same process is followed if a donor makes a pledge first, followed by a donation. Instead of entering the organization’s matching gift for a donation, a pledge record would be entered for the organization to match the donor’s pledge information. The only additional step will be to add the donor’s donation when it is made and associate the donor’s pledge record accordingly.

The Process

1. Original Donation
   Enter the donation and fill out the necessary information on the General tab.
   • Establish the matching gifts relationship through the ‘Matching Status’ field by selecting the drop-down menu option: ‘To Be Matched.’ This indicates that the donation that is about to be entered will have a corresponding pledge record from the matching organization.
   • Once the donation is added the following alert message will appear: “No matching organization was found. A matching pledge or donation will have to be entered manually.”
2. Organization Pledge
   Once the original donation is added, the corresponding pledge record must be created for the matching organization. Add the pledge record and fill out the necessary information on the General tab.
   • Establish the matching gifts relationship through the ‘Matching Status’ field by selecting the drop-down menu option: ‘Is a Matching Gift.’
   • Add the pledge.
   • Relate the original donation that this organization is matching using the ‘Related Donation’ field.
   • Update the pledge record. The ‘Match Reference’ field will populate automatically with: “FOR: [original donation amount on date from original donor/pledger]” (e.g. FOR: $500 donation on 3/27/2013 from John Smith).
3. Update the Original Donation Record
   The original donation record needs to be updated with the matching organization pledge record to maintain the matching gift relationship between the two.
   • Add the matching organization’s pledge record to the original donation record. Enter the related pledge information in the ‘Related Pledge’ field.
   • Update the donation record. The ‘Match Reference’ field will populate automatically with “FROM: [matching organization donor/pledger]” (e.g. FROM: ABC Company).

Note: when a donation is initially added, Veracross does not overwrite the donation’s fund based on the pledge. First add the donation record then update the Apply to Pledge toggle and at that point, Veracross will update the fund to match the pledge’s.

1. Pledge Soft-Credit Record
   Because the organization is making a pledge on behalf of the original donor, a soft-credit record must be created to link the matching organization’s pledge record to the donor. This record can be added through the Soft-Credits tab on the Organization’s pledge detail screen.
   • Add the donor responsible for the original donation and select ‘Matching’ as the ‘Soft Credit Type.’
2. Organization Donation
   When a matching organization pays off all or part of their matching pledge, a donation record must be added. Fill out the necessary information on the General tab and enter the matching pledge information.
   • Select the ‘Apply to Pledge’ checkbox to automatically associate the organization’s pledge with the donation record. If there are more than one pledge open for this organization, a message will appear indicating that the pledge will need to be chosen manually using the ‘Associated Pledge’ field.
   • Establish the matching gifts relationship through the ‘Matching Status’ field by selecting the drop-down menu option: ‘Is a Matching Gift.’ Once the donation record is added the ‘Related Donation’ field will populate automatically with: “[date: donation amount]” (e.g. 3/27/2013: 500.00) for the original donation. The ‘Match Reference’ field will also populate automatically with: “FOR: [original donation amount on date from original donor/pledger]” (e.g. FOR: $500 donation on 3/27/2013 from John Smith).
3. Donation Soft-Credit Record
   Because the organization is making a donation on behalf of the original donor, a soft-credit record must be created to link the donor to the organization’s donation record. This record is created automatically if a pledge soft-credit record has already been created between the matching organization and the donor. By adding the ‘Associated Pledge’ information, the Soft-Credits tab populates automatically with the donor’s information.

Veracross and Split Gifts

Veracross does not support split gifts. If multiple people from the same matching organization make a gift, individual pledge records, pledge and donation soft-credit records, and corresponding donation records must be created for each donation made. If an organization pays off multiple pledges with one check, individual donation records must be created to pay off each pledge the check corresponds to.

For example: If four members made a donation, four pledge records are created for the matching organization and four pledge soft-credit records are created for each member. When the organization pays off the pledges, a donation record must be created to pay off each pledge regardless of whether the organization makes one total payment for all the donations the each member made.