The database is an absolutely essential investment for any development office because it:

• Is the source of information and historical record for prospects and donors, as well as for fundraising and other development activities,
• Enables development offices to handle huge volumes of information efficiently,
• Helps offices tailor their approaches to individuals,
•  Assists with gift processing and stewardship,
• Maintains focus and momentum in the fundraising cycle – identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship,
• Supports event management,
• Makes monitoring and reporting easier and
• Assists annual fundraising planning.

If You Need to Buy a Database

Things to do before you make the purchase

Buying a database system is probably the biggest investment (after salaries) that an institution makes in development activities, so it is important to get it right. You need to have a good understanding of what you already have and what else you require, including:

• Interface with other databases. Can any of the current databases that your institution runs be adapted to your purposes? Is this an opportunity to merge several databases into one integrated system? What technical specifications will your new database need to be able to interface with existing databases?
• Input. What information do you need the database to hold and will this change overtime? Consider the number of individual records needed, whether fields follow set patterns or need to be free text, differences in addresses formats from country to country, the level of connectivity between records, etc.
• Output. What information do you want to be able to retrieve from the database and in what formats? What kind of reports do you want? Do you want to be able to print mailing lists and generate briefings directly from the database?
• Stakeholders. Talk to the potential users of the database and get a good idea of their needs. What the gift processor needs will be different from what the fundraiser needs. How will these stakeholders be accessing the database – from the office or different locations?
• Populating the database. How will you import information and/or merge with existing databases? Will there be user-generated content (e.g., should alumni be able to update their own records)?
• Your budget. Separate your budget so that it covers initial purchase, training, data import (often from numerous sources), ongoing support, software updates and any annual fee.
• Supporting a database. What is your in-house capacity for technical support, data management and data entry? Will you have to hire external support? Is your current hardware/server capacity sufficient?
• Planning for the future. Do you need a state-of-the-art database from the beginning or will a less complex version be sufficient for your needs at first and will it be able to evolve at the same pace as your activities evolve?

By thinking through your requirements and recording your answers to the above questions, you will end up developing a proposal-like document, which you can share with potential suppliers. Through this process, you are likely to also have identified a small group of people with the insight and technical expertise needed to help you make the right decision about your database (e.g., colleagues in IT support and Purchasing). Keep them engaged throughout the process.

A good exercise is to develop your ideal dummy record so you can build up a picture of the level of detail and functionality that would be ideal for your purposes. This will help you when you write the suppliers’ brief.

Do your research

Ask institutions similar to yours about their database solutions. Visit technical forums, fundraising forums and other online review sites for firsthand information about database software. Look at the top suppliers and compare and contrast the characteristics of their products and pricing structures.

Making the purchase

Once you have determined a short list of possible suppliers, talk with them. Share the proposal you have put together and get their responses. The more detailed you can be with the information that you provide and your anticipated needs, the easier the process.

Ask suppliers to be very clear about what they include with their product – software, installation, training, updates, helpline, transfer of existing data, data cleaning, etc. Be wary of hidden costs.

This dialogue with suppliers, combined with your own research and budget constraints, will enable you to choose the right database for your needs. It may be that you do not need a ‘top of the range’ model at first but that you can invest in a basic model that can be expanded in the future.

Maintaining the Database

Data housekeeping

Keeping your data clean and up-to-date is a never-ending task.

You may have a new database to populate with data from all a variety of sources (e.g., student records, alumni clubs, the vice-chancellor’s Christmas card list, etc.) or an old system that needs improvement.

You now need to take a systematic approach to standardising this data and making sure it is accurate (so you that do not waste money sending mail to addresses that are out of date, researching a prospect that may be deceased, etc.).

You can pay a third party or do it ‘in-house’. Do not underestimate the amount of work involved in ‘data entry’, however. This is a mundane but essential aspect to maintaining a successful database.

You need to devise a data management strategy, taking a long-term realistic view of what might be achievable with the resources you have available. Also, you might want to segment your database so you can prioritise work on areas that will be most useful to your overall development strategy (e.g., improve the data for alumni aged over 55 if you want to run a legacies campaign, or obtain accurate telephone numbers if you are planning a telephone campaign).

You only get out what you put in

Databases are only as good as the data they contain.

Everyone in the development team needs to understand how to input data and to develop the discipline of updating records every time they have contact with a prospect or donor. You also need to devise a process for getting data from others in the institution (e.g., through contact reports, integrating other systems) and from prospects/donors (e.g., capturing telephone numbers as more people are going mobile and numbers are not traceable).

Unless this is done, the personal records will be inaccurate and the institution will appear unprofessional and make mistakes in prospect management. Up-to-date records also help when there is staff transition.

The more detailed the information is that is entered, the more useful it will be. Generating guest lists will be easy, as you can ask the database to provide you with a relevant list (e.g., all alumni aged between 30 and 35 who live within an hour of London and are interested in classical music). Information like this can only be pulled together if it is entered in the first place and maintained throughout the year.

Action Items

• Take your time to find the right database for your institution.
• Plan for the significant time investment of cleaning your data and keeping it up-to-date.
• Make sure everyone in the development department is trained and using the database regularly (even if you have a database manager) and that you are gathering information from others in the institution.

You Might Also Want to Read:

The cultivation process
Annual fund/giving campaigns
Events
Development operations
Partnering with other advancement-related departments
Contact reports
Prospect management
What to measure and what to report

Clean Your Data!

University databases have a wealth of information and should be treated as one of your top resources. You should also check if there is a legal requirement in your country to clean data on a regular (annual or otherwise) basis.

A contact report is a written record of a significant interaction between a fundraiser and a donor or prospect.

Contact reports are an essential tool for effective prospect management. They are important because they:

• Chart the evolution of the prospect/donor relationship, informing the solicitation and stewardship,
• Contribute to a collective library of information about the institution’s prospect pool,
• Ensure a continuous information source that can be invaluable if fundraisers move on and new staff join the fundraising team,
• Help fundraisers spot useful connections between prospects,
• Are an invaluable resource for prospect researchers,
• Assist in compiling appropriate guest lists for events (e.g., who plays golf or who enjoys modern art) and
• Collect and coordinate information when prospects and donors have contact with more than one person at an institution (e.g., high-level prospect who has a relationship with the institution’s leader and the director of development).

What Should They Contain?

Contact reports should contain an accurate account of each ‘significant’ encounter a fundraiser has with a prospect, whether face-to-face or via some other form of communication.

Significant encounters are those that provide new biographical or financial information about a prospect or donor, or information about a prospect’s inclination to give. Typically, it will contain these elements:

• Prospect’s name,
• Fundraiser’s name,
• Details of any other people involved (colleagues or prospects),
• Date of contact,
• Method of contact (meeting, telephone call, etc.),
• Significant information resulting from the contact,
• Significant information conveyed to the prospect and
• Notes concerning any follow-up actions.

It can also be useful to note ‘failed contacts’ in contact reports. If a fundraiser has repeatedly attempted to contact a prospect but has been ignored, then this in itself is an indication of the prospect’s inclination to give or a clue that he or she is not being approached in the right way.

A report should be detailed enough to be useful, but it need not be a verbatim account of a conversation. Reports should be treated as confidential and shared with colleagues as required. Reports often contain sensitive information, and fundraisers should maintain a neutral tone when writing them, avoiding conjecture and emotive language.

In the UK, the Freedom of Information Act gives everybody the right to ask any public body for all the information they have on any subject. Individuals can request details of all the personal information an organisation might hold about them. Unless there is a good reason, the organisation must provide the information within 20 working days. Your country may have a similar policy. In either case, fundraisers should bear in mind that others may read their reports and should always write in a professional manner.

The Discipline of Writing

Busy fundraisers maintain relationships with many prospects at any one time. It can be time-consuming to complete contact reports, and too often fundraisers are tempted not to fill them in. The following tips might help you to develop the discipline of completing contact reports:

• Develop a simple template that mirrors the relevant data entry screen in your database. This approach will help you organise your information efficiently.
• When possible, enter contact reports directly into your database.
• Use previous contact reports when preparing for your interactions. The more you use them and find them useful, the more inclined you will be to generate them.
• Always complete contact reports as soon as possible after an interaction with a prospect to ensure that you remember significant details.
• Make it a part of your follow-up process (with thank you notes) or put aside a little time every day to bring your contacts reports up-to-date.

Action Items

• Develop a contact report template.
• Make sure that development staff (and other institutional staff) are trained on the appropriate use of contact reports and that everyone has a process for regularly getting reports into the database.

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The cultivation process
The database
Prospect management

Contact Report Do's and Don'ts

There are right and wrong ways to convey information in a contact report.

Wrong: Mr Smith was rude and mean-spirited. He did not even offer me a drink. I doubt he will support us and is probably not worth bothering with in the future.

Right: Mr Smith strongly expressed his disinterest and requested no further contact.

Wrong: Miss Jones was expensively dressed and wore diamond earrings, so she must be very rich. She also has a pet dog so is obviously an animal lover. Perhaps she might like animal charities.

Right: Miss Jones's lifestyle is indicative of a high level of disposable income. She frequently referred to her dog with affection, which may be an indication of a deeper interest in animal welfare that merits further research.

Prospects are either contacts you want to turn into donors or existing donors who you want to give again.

Effective prospect management is the backbone of successful fundraising. It is the creation and management of an information tracking system (sometimes called a ‘moves management’ or ‘donor tracking’ system) to chart the progress of prospects through the continuous fundraising cycle of identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship.

A well-organised prospect management system benefits everyone – fundraisers, donors, prospects and beneficiaries – as it provides a framework of operation that ensures the fundraising effort is efficient, as dictable as possible and accountable.

Whilst prospect management applies to any fundraising situation, it is generally used for the management of major gifts/priority prospects (where an individualized strategy is appropriate) or for a specific campaign.

Many prospect managements systems are fully integrated into the contact database, especially where a sophisticated, multifunctional, multi-user database is in place – an ideal situation, as information is all in one place.

However, prospect management systems are ‘living’ documents. Therefore, even prospect management systems that operate apart from the database (e.g., on spreadsheets) must eventually have a way of feeding critical content back into the central contact database in order to create a permanent, comprehensive institutional record for each prospect.

How to Do Prospect Management

The basic data about prospects and their pre-existing (if any) relationship to the institution is split into groups according to an agreed set of criteria (sector, age, nature of relationship to institution, area of interests, etc.) and assigned to a fundraiser.

The fundraiser manages these prospects through the database or exports the information held about them into a standalone system (e.g., spreadsheet). The fundraiser then has responsibility for moving the prospect through the fundraising cycle. This might involve:

• Research: Key information about each prospect such as giving history and priority giving areas.
• Analysis: Assigning ‘ratings’ to a prospect in accordance to key criteria, such as capacity to give, inclination to give, strength of affinity to the institution, readiness to give and predicted level of giving (target ask).
• Solicitation strategy: Devising and assigning a solicitation strategy to each prospect, this might involve contact methods, identifying suitable events to which they might be invited, deciding which academic colleagues to introduce them to, identifying an appropriate project that might interest them, etc.
• Developing a schedule that will lead to an ask: When to make first contact, when to review, when to ask, etc., and tracking progress against this schedule.

Where the facility is available, fundraisers should use the prospect management functions of the central database to assist their prospect management – recording interactions and analysis.

Fundraisers using standalone systems may chart the progress of the prospect in greater levels of detail than need to be recorded centrally; they are the ‘working’ records of individual fundraisers. The important thing is that any information gathered on these individual prospect management records must be accurately recorded and that eventually the pertinent points are entered into the main contacts database. Otherwise, information held by individual fundraisers can be lost.

The table below shows an example of an extremely simplified standalone prospect management system (* = information generated from a database report; ** = information to feed back into the central database as major ‘moves’ occur):

Prospect Management Systems Are Only as Good as the People Who Use Them

Fundraisers are busy people, and entering information into prospect management systems can be a laborious and time-consuming chore. However, well-populated prospect management systems are essential to the smooth operation of successful fundraising team.

Everyone who is involved in the fundraising effort is responsible for the maintenance of the prospect management system and how it relates to the centrally held database. A well-run fundraising team should agree to a set of policies and procedures to govern how information is managed within a prospect management system and how this information is regularly reviewed and merged with the centrally held database. These policies and procedures must be enforced.

It is common for fundraisers to hold regular team meetings to review the progress of prospects using the prospect management system and agree upon next steps.

CASE provides more information on prospect management methods and resources.

Action Items

• Review the capabilities of your database. Determine if it can be used to fully manage prospects, if it can generate reports to provide the majority of basic information needed, or if it may need to be upgraded.
• Determine a set of policies and procedures (and a common template if a standalone system is used) to govern how information is managed within a prospect management system and how this information is regularly reviewed and merged with the centrally held database.

You Might Also Want to Read:

Prospect research
Cultivation of major gifts
The database
Contact reports

For the Record

A typical prospect management record might include biographical details, information about any pre-existing relationship to your institution, areas of interest, existing affiliations or associates and wealth analysis.

A gift agreement is a formal document between a donor and a gift recipient. The agreement sets out what the gift is, how it will be given, used and acknowledged and how it might be amended in the future.

Why Do You Need a Gift Agreement?

Gift agreements ensure that both a donor and a recipient understand the nature and purpose of a specific gift. The agreement acts as a reference point for the administration of a gift, especially in the event of any dispute. It ensures that the expectations of both the donor and recipient can be met over time and can continue to be met should the original context of the gift change.

When Should You Use a Gift Agreement?

Gift agreements are not commonly used for the majority of gifts. They are typically for large gifts that are given for specific purposes and for gifts of any size that are accompanied by very specific or complex requests from the donor as to how they should be used. The definition of what constitutes a large gift will depend on the scale of fundraising at your institution.

What Is the Legal Status of a Gift Agreement?

Any gift agreement should be written with the understanding that the donation is a philanthropic gift, given over to the control of the recipient institution, although the donor can expect the institution to honour his or her wishes. It should not be confused with the legal contracts that accompany sponsorship agreements.

The legal status of a gift agreement may vary from country to country. You should consult a legal professional when drafting a gift agreement template.

What Should a Gift Agreement Contain?

• Names of the parties to the agreement (the donor and the recipient)
• Start date
• End date (where applicable)
• Gift amount (or description when a gift is a tangible asset, such as artwork or equipment)
• Gift schedule and mode of giving (e.g., in three instalments over three years by bank transfer)
• The intended purpose of the gift as specified by the donor
• How the recipient intends to fulfill this purpose
• How the recipient will acknowledge the gift
• Any monitoring, reporting and stewardship activities the recipient intends to undertake
• Any specific undertaking the recipient has agreed to (e.g., insuring the gift, investing the gift, etc.)
• An ‘amendment clause’ stating how the purpose of the gift might be changed, should unforeseen future circumstances arise
• A reciprocal clause detailing what action might be taken to protect the reputation of either party, should the reputation of the donor or recipient be questioned at a future date
• A place for both parties to sign and date the agreement

Approach with Sensitivity

When presenting a gift agreement, approach the subject with sensitivity. Donors may be offended if they receive a document without context and misinterpret it as a contract to ensure that they will actually make their donation. Highlight to donors that a gift agreement is simply to ensure that the donor’s wishes are properly recorded so that they may be fulfilled to the satisfaction of both parties.

Action Items

• Create a template gift agreement, consulting with a legal professional.
• Create a policy that specifies when a gift agreement will be used by the development team.

You Might Also Want to Read:

Cultivation of major gifts
Stewardship activities
Gift acceptance policies
Gift recognition policies

Gift Agreements: For Future Reference

Without a gift agreement, how would you know what to do with Mr and Mrs Pilkington’s longstanding History Scholarship Fund if your institution were to decide to close the history department and the original fundraiser who solicited the Pilkingtons’ gift had moved away?

In the spirit of transparency, consistency and accountability, it is in the best interest of the institution and its donors, leaders, volunteers, students, community and other constituents to publicly define what it is counting as ‘gifts’ and to tell how it is reporting gifts.

This transparency is also important if fundraising in the educational context is to be perceived and respected as a professional and worthy activity.

First and foremost, a start-up development office needs to consider several things:

• What constitutes a gift?
• Who is responsible for receiving, recording and processing gifts?
• How is the relationship between the development office and the finance office defined?
• Who is responsible for developing accurate accounts?
• How will issues such as matched funding, foreign currency gifts, gift aid and other variations in giving be handled?
• What is the policy on unfulfilled gift pledges? Do you treat them as ‘debts’?
• What kind of reports do you need for your various audiences – donors, governing bodies, authorities, annual reports, CASE annual surveys, etc.?
• Does your institution have the necessary expertise or is additional recruitment/training required?
• Are new bank account(s) needed?
• How can income be ring-fenced for specific projects?
• How can you integrate the different forms of giving and still keep track of everything – online giving, cheques, bank transfers, direct debits and cash?
• How can you reassure donors that their financial information will be kept safe?

These issues should be addressed at the earliest stage of operation, before significant levels of fundraising have commenced. Donors need to be confident that the institution can handle their donations efficiently and safely.

Mistakes in gift accounting can lead to serious reputational damage the scrutiny of the authorities. Work closely with the finance office to ensure detailed tracking of gifts.

Records Retention

When determining the policies and procedures for gift accounting and reporting, make sure to include a policy on the retention of records. (CASE provides numerous samples of records retention policies.) Your institution will likely have a general policy, which can be adapted to ensure that the development office is in compliance with all legal requirements for retaining information (and to ensure clarity about timing, roles and responsibilities among staff members). Again, partnership with the finance office is critical.

Action Items

• Work with the finance office to establish policies for gift accounting and reporting, records retention and gift fees (if applicable) as soon as possible.
• Make sure staff members fully understand these policies and their role.

You Might Also Want to Read:

Policies and procedures
Working with the finance office
Gift agreements
Gift acceptance policies
Gift recognition policies
What to measure and what to report

Gift Fees

As administrative ‘gift fee’ has become common at institutions in the United States. If your leadership has determined that a gift fee is appropriate for your institution, ensure that you have a gift fee policy.

When offered a donation, the immediate reaction of most organisations is to gratefully accept.

This might not always be the best decision.

What if the gift comes from a dubious source? What if the donor wants to use the gift to further his or her own agenda? The institution runs the risk of damaging its reputation,  or it might be accepting a gift that  costs much time and money to administer.

It is sensible to have a policy in place that defines what gifts are acceptable and what the institution’s obligations (if any) might be should it accept a gift. Gift acceptance policies make it easier for an institution to accept a gift with a clear conscience and just as easily reject an unsuitable gift. They reduce risk and should be one of the first things an institution develops as it sets the boundaries for the fundraising activity.

The Process of Developing a Gift Acceptance Policy

Developing a gift acceptance policy is a chance for an organisation to discuss how  to handle the practical issues that can be triggered by certain fundraising scenarios.

Working through various scenarios is a useful exercise for both fundraising and other senior staff and helps develop a fundraising culture that adopts a sensible, professional approach to gift acceptance.

The process is closely related to ethics, and it is often useful to have input from independent advisers who can bring an objective perspective.

Developing a gift acceptance policy can strengthen an institution’s internal gift administration procedures, but both policy and procedures benefit from regular reviews to ensure that they are compatible.

What Should a Gift Acceptance Policy Contain?

First,  a gift acceptance policy should specify who is responsible for the policy’s implementation and administration. This is normally handled by a committee of senior staff (both fundraisers and non-fundraisers) and independent representatives. It is also advisable for the committee to include representatives from the financial and legal sector.

A policy might also contain:

• A reminder of the institution’s purpose in raising funds – the mission statement,
• A statement of the purpose of the policy,
• The remit of the gift acceptance policy committee,
• A designation regarding at what point professional advice from lawyers or finance specialists should be sought (e.g.,  if a gift exceeds £1million or a donor wishes to donate a substantial asset),
• A definition of what constitutes a conflict of interest,
• A definition of  the institution’s response to proposed gift restrictions (e.g., how to respond if a donor says his gift can only benefit a certain type of student),
• An outline of the obligations of the institution in relation to the administration and stewardship of gifts,
• Specifics about  forms gifts are acceptable (e.g., Can you accept gifts from overseas? Can you accept tangible assets?),
• Information about who is responsible for the completion of a gift (e.g., who pays any legal or banking fees?),
• A reference to a donor recognition policy,
• Something on the transfer of liabilities (e.g., if a donor gives your institution a building with sitting tenants, who takes responsibility for the welfare of the tenants? If you are given a share in a racehorse, who is responsible for the horse’s welfare?),
• An outline of how and when the policy will be reviewed and amended and
• Information about  any right of appeal.

Without a gift acceptance policy in place, your institution may be forced to react quickly and without time to consider all the possible ramifications when it is offered a major gift. In such circumstances, errors in judgment can be made. It is far better to adopt a pre-emptive approach and establish a strong gift acceptance policy from the start. Your institution will appear more professional, both donor and recipient will have a better fundraising experience, and the risks to both parties will be considerably reduced.

Action Item

• Determine with the institution’s leader who is responsible for the policy’s implementation and administration of the gift acceptance policy, and create the policy with this committee early on.

You Might Also Want to Read:

Key questions you must be ready to answer
Policies and procedures
Cultivation of major gifts
Cultivation of corporations
Cultivation of government and lottery funding
Legacies/Planned Gifts/Bequests
Stewardship Activities
Gift accounting and reporting
Gift recognition policies

What Would You Do ... ?

A donor wishes to donate a valuable art collection to your institution.

• Have you considered the practical issues of accepting this gift?
• Where will you put the art?
• What about insurance, security and curatorship?

A former student wishes to leave a large bequest to your institution to support a scholarship programme for underprivileged children, but much of his wealth comes from investments in clothing factories that may have exploited child labour.

• Do you accept?

How you thank a donor is very important, as it influences his whole giving experience. Your thanks need to be expressed in a way that is appropriate to the scale, frequency and impact of the gift(s) you receive.

Having a gift recognition policy in place will help you:

• Manage the expectations of your donors (e.g., someone who donates £1,000 cannot expect the same level of public recognition as someone who donates £100,000,000),
• Ensure that everyone is thanked and no one is forgotten,
• Embed gift recognition into stewardship and other aspects of the fundraising cycle to encourage further giving,
• Ensure that the cost of recognising a donation is not disproportionate to the value of the donation,
• Ensure that the recognition of a gift is prompt and delivered by the most appropriate method (e.g., a widow giving a gift in memory of her husband should not be thanked in the same way as a young alumnus donating to the annual fund),
• Ensure that recognising a gift(s) does not become an overwhelmingly time-consuming activity and
• Ensure that the right people are offering their thanks and recognition of a donation (e.g., a £100,000,000 donor should expect to be personally thanked by the institution’s leader).

What Should a Policy Look Like?

Gift recognition policies need to be developed to suit the culture and circumstances of your organisation.

They should start with the definition of a ‘gift’. Other questions  that need to be addressed before a policy can be written include these:

• Are all gifts assessed on their cash or cash equivalent values? That is, does a gift of a rare stamp collection merit the same recognition as a cash gift of £1,000?
• At what stage do you count a ‘gift’ for recognition purposes – when it is pledged or when it is money in the bank?

A policy should include an explanation of a basic level of recognition that all donors might expect. For example, your policy might state that a donor will be sent a formal receipt and acknowledgement of her  donation within seven working days.

Often, policies will differentiate between the recognition given to gifts of different values. The form of recognition is likely to vary in accordance to the appeal to which the donor is responding. Donors to the football stadium appeal will expect their donation to be related to football in some way; donors to the library appeal in a different way.

For the purposes of a generic policy, you might wish to set the gift levels and then state that each appeal will assign an appropriate recognition to that level of donation. For example, here is a comparison of how two very different appeals might approach donor recognition.

Exceptional Gifts

Your institution will probably want to negotiate appropriate levels of recognition with exceptional donors on an individual basis. Even so, it is helpful to have some policy guidelines to steer these negotiations.

The policy should define what is meant by an exceptional gift. This might be a gift over a certain value or a gift with the capacity to be transformational for the institution.

It is common in the circumstance of exceptional gifts for the issue of naming rights to arise. Any gift recognition policy should have a clause relating to naming rights. Many institutions will have a separate naming policy. This clause or policy should be developed in consultation with relevant stakeholders on campus, such as the marketing and estate development teams. Consideration should be given to issues such as:

• Duration of gift. Will it be in perpetuity or limited to a number of years?
• How the name will be displayed. This will preferably be in line with the corporate branding guidelines.
• Whether the name will be included in marketing materials or on stationery.
• Under what circumstances the institution reserves the right to remove the name, should it become a reputational risk for the institution at some point in the future.
• Whether the name can be transferred or discarded, should the entity or building it is attached to cease to exist.

Anonymity

Some donors prefer to remain anonymous, and your policy should set out how this can be achieved whilst still complying with financial and legal obligations surrounding gift reporting.

Avoidance of the Issues Relating to Sponsorship

When crafting a recognition policy it is important to ensure that donors receive no commercial benefit from the recognition you are promising, as this runs the risk of their donation being classed as sponsorship – a situation that can have implications for both the donor and the recipient.

Action Items

• Create gift recognition policies early on to determine basic levels of recognition, and then expand and revise these policies as you implement fundraising strategies and activities (campaigns, appeals, etc.).
• Engage the marketing and estate development teams in appropriate policies.

You Might Also Want to Read:

Cultivation of major gifts
Legacies/Planned Gifts/Bequests
Stewardship activities
Gift accounting and reporting
Gift acceptance policies