Donation Form Settings for Donor Cover
Now that Donor Cover is enabled, we need more settings available in order to accurately record gifts when processing them through Gift Management.
Please add a way to default more fields and customize how Donor Cover fees are presented in RE NXT.
Firstly, let's get out of the way that all gifts are "split gifts" as per the article below. Taking aside the fact that this doesn't make any sense in the English language, any Donor Cover gift is automatically added a split for the portion that is the fee and is able to be assigned a Fund in Control Panel -> Settings -> Gift Management. That is the only field that can be a default and it will automatically assume the same Appeal as is listed on the Donation Form.
https://kb.blackbaud.com/knowledgebase/Article/41779
When in practice, this causes an issue when processing the gift. Gifts will look like the Donor Cover Splits image without any manual adjustment when they are in a batch in Gift Management. This should not be able to be saved as they are using the same information in the Campaign, Fund, Package and Appeal (CFPA). Split gifts are not allowed to have that information all be the same. When you attempt to adjust the Donor Cover gift, it opens up like the Donor Cover Split - No Change image. This removes the Fund that was a default and will make you change ALL the information except for the Appeal and Amount in order to save the gift or to Delete, using the Trash button, the split amount and then readjust the Split Amount to equal the Total Gift Amount while also adjusting the CFPA if needed.
With just a regular gift in Gift Management, we will need to add a Campaign, check to make sure all other information is correct and then Save. This amounts to 2 clicks. With Donor Cover gifts, this will increase that amount to 8 clicks depending on the amount of information needed to enter, quadrupling the amount of work necessary. Multiply that by the amount of gifts in a typical batch and that can take a half day's worth of work for one person depending on the batch size.
If the CFPA fields could be preloaded on forms for both regular gifts and those under Donor Cover, this could be a simple double check process and then the batch could be approved without even having to open individual gifts!! This would drastically reduce the amount of time spent processing gifts, freeing up staff to do more work that is more productive for the organizations that you support with this product.
Finally, the fact that this is only in place for Donor Cover and NOT COMPLETE COVER, is distressing and disheartening. Complete Cover gifts appear just like all other credit card gifts in Gift Management without the fees coming out in the BBMS side. While this is a benefit, it does not outweigh the additional ask on our donors that is randomized and not at all controlled when enabling the feature. Time will tell if Donor Cover is even worth the effort of the additional time spent to correct the gifts to cover the fees each day.
I applaud the fact that Blackbaud is taking the steps to give non-profits options to reduce their fees and help more of a donor's gift go towards the organizations they love. We have had at least 80% of our donors use Donor Cover since we added it this week. I just wish it would not end up making the process MORE difficult and time consuming on those organizations.
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Lee Grisham
- Sep 23 2022
- Shipped
Related ideas
Today we released a change to donor cover that removes the requirement to have a separate fund for the donor cover portion. The donor cover amount will be added to the first fund the donor gives to from the donation form. In order to take advantage of this you'll want to go into your donor cover setting (Control Panel-→Settings-→Gift management and remove the fund for donor cover.
Check out the What's New later today for more details!
I am marking this idea as shipped. If you have further suggestions for donor cover please make sure you submit new ideas for them!
I am concerned that the organization chooses the "fee" fund for the donor. We are not charging the donor a fee, we are telling them that what we are charged as a fee for their donation, and if they would like to cover it. The donor thinks that amount is going towards their chosen fund. I think it is dishonest to put it somewhere else, without a disclaimer that we are putting it toward a predesignated fund.
It is my opinion the donor is giving to the same campaign, fund, and appeal, unless we tell them otherwise, and we are not being transparent when we ask them for an additional donation and put it somewhere they don't expect.
Agree with Lee - my gift processor does a lot of work managing the split portions, especially as we don't consider these split at all, she manually moves them into the same gift. (She cannot save because they are identical.)
I believe these forms were created as "How does Finance see fees" instead of "How does Fundraising see fees," and if some organizations would like to track the donors via a separate appeal, or they do have a stated gift processing fee, I think there should be more options when creating the forms to ensure that the gifts are able to be appropriately and swiftly recorded by organizations who track it either way.