Best Of
Re: Feedback needed on donation workflow
Hi Michele. Our process flips a couple pieces compared to yours:
- Mail Opening
- Administrative Officer opens mail, notes in our group Slack channel any gifts of $1,000+ and their designation, and distributes donation checks to the Finance team. If the designation is unclear, the team chimes into the chat to share what they know (e.g., where the donor usually gives, a recent solicitation, a conversation that's not documented in CSuite yet).
- Controller receives communications for all direct desosits, wire and stock transfers: notes gifts in our group Slack channel to confirm designation.
- Finance Review
- Controller scans a copy of the check and envelope as well as any other materials included from donor or documentation for all electronic donations to a secure, shared folder.
- Controller completes an electronic bank deposit.
- Controller files hard copies of donation documentation per our retention policies.
- Gift Entry & Acknowledgments
- Development Officer enters and posts donations in CSuite.
- (Controller runs TIL in CSuite.)
- Development Officer prepares acknowledgment letters.
- Letters go to Vice President of Philanthropy for review and signature.
- Signed letters are mailed. If any donor has asked for tax acknowledgement by email, signed letter goes to Development Officer to scan and email.
For separation of duties /internal controls, every staff member has an assigned secondary person who can take over during time off, and some have limitations:
- The Administrative Officer's second can be any member of our Donor Services Team who is not the Development Officer. If the Controller is out, the Administrative Officer can assist with creating the scan of gifts.
- The Controller's second is our Data Management and Technology Officer. The Controller (or their second when acting as the Controller) cannot open mail.
- The Development Officer's secod is also our Data Management and Technology Officer; he cannot serve in both roles at once, so we are careful with scheduling time off across the team. (This has not been an issue in the 2 years I've been on staff.) The Development Officer cannot open mail.
Most of our team works hybrid and are typically in the office 3-4 days/week, with the exception of the Administrative Officer who is in every day. This process works well to keep things flowing regardless of each person's work location for the day.
Happy to answer any questions you might have, or refer you to a team member who can answer them!
Re: Custom reports - DAF holder insights
That's helpful! I appreciate the feedback. I did pull a custom report with the user loginlog field and filtered it to our DAF holders only. Then I exported a CSV and used Google's Notebook LM to give me insights on DAF holders engagement in the system. It was very helpful. For now, I'll pull other individual reports into Google's Notebook LM to gather the research I was hoping for. A good workaround for now, but it would be awesome to pull all of that from Foundant. 😃
Custom reports - DAF holder insights
We're looking to pull some custom reports to take a look at how our DAF holders use Foundant. Everything from how often they log in, grants requested, grants sent, donations, etc. Does anyone have a custom report they like that they could recommend to pull in several object fields from the system?
Consulting
If you are a smaller Foundation and need help with accounting. I can help. If you need help setting up your accounting software or scholarship software. I can help.
A little about me. I am in my 28th year at a Community Foundation. I have implemented CSuite for accounting and scholarship. I have been performing accounting duties for 28 years so I am well versed in Community Foundation.
If you need help with this, I would be willing to assist your foundation.
Re: AI for Community Foundations
I have used ChatGPT to create rubrics for grant scoring based on the criteria. I have also used it to help me design google forms for follow up grant reporting from nonprofits.
We still have community members make all scoring decisions but the framework for doing so and design of rubrics has been improved through working with AI.
