Part II - Campaign Management
In the Gilda's Club case study talked about in my last blog entry, Debra mentions using the “code set up feature” for events. She is referring to the capability in the Campaign Management section to have Gift codes directly associated with events, so that the codes can be automatically applied to gifts. In the Coding & Spare Fields training, we learn that there are 3 primary Gift Codes: Motivation, Fund, and Purpose.
These codes generally refer to the reason a person gave the gift (motivation), the account into which we have deposited the money (fund), and the way our organization intends to use the money (purpose). With any event (or campaign, for that matter), you have the ability to set default gift codes when entering a gift that came in as a result of that event. In order for FundRaiser to fill out the gift, based on the event you choose, you just need to make those defaults a part of the event when you set it up. The Event setup page allows you to enter a name for the event, and some other information, but there is another tab, labeled “Codes/Setup”, that allows you to set default codes.
To Code or not to Code
I recommend that when you setting up your events within your campaign that you NOT use any defaults for an event that is made up of sub-events, but DO set defaults for standalone events and for those sub-events that are a part of an event. Usually the Motivation code will be enough (to indicate that a gift was given as a direct result of the event), but sometimes you might have events where the monies raised are to be used specifically for one thing or another, in which case you’ll probably want to set up a default Purpose code to define that use, or, likewise, monies that need to be deposited to an other-than-usual account can be given different Fund codes.
Automated Code Assignment
Part of the Campaign Management section helps automate gift entry, too. For each event, you can specify not only when the event is going to be held, but also how long after the event you expect to receive gifts as a direct result of that event. This is considered the Gift Life Span of the event. If you have established gift life spans for events, then, under the Options | Modules | Campaigns section, you can have FundRaiser automatically fill in the appropriate Event information on a gift, based on the events’ life cycle and the events’ gift life span. This, too, will help you to be more consistent with data entry.
More Information
Gilda’s Club is a wonderful example of how FundRaiser can help with keeping all the various facts and figures sorted out, so that people in the organization can view them in ways that benefit future planning and current accountability. If you want more information on the Campaign Management section, consider attending a live webinar .