I am trying to figure out a best practice for recording and reporting on revocable planned gifts in eTapestry. Has anyone has experience with this?

Thanks,
Jeanette Bogren
Riley Children's Foundation

I am trying to figure out a best practice for recording and reporting on revocable planned gifts in eTapestry. Has anyone has experience with this?

Thanks,
Jeanette Bogren
Riley Children's Foundation

Do you have the RE:Search module (Prospect Tab)? I have seen that be effectively used to track planned gifts of that nature. Other than that I have only seen attributes or "other" gift types used. "Other" gifts are very tricky, however because you often need to pair them up with a subtype (assuming you also use "other" gifts for other things) and REALLY train your staff who do any reporting how to exclude them in reports when necessary and keep on them to be sure they are actually doing it. These types of planned gifts can often be large and REALLY throw off reports.

I don't have the prospect tab, so that is not currently an option. Do you find that module to be helpful? We do our prospect management through customization of the journal.

The idea of an "other" gift could work, but you're right that we'd have to be very careful about keeping them out of reporting, which is not easy. Have you seen anyone use the nondeductible field to avoid getting the numbers into reports? That's another thought I had.

OOPS - I did not notice that you were asking about eTap. My response was a Raiser's Edge option.

I would not use the non- deductible field for anything other than intended - the amount of the benefits a donor receives. Even if you do not use it now - someday when you want to you will have a lot of work to do to undo what you did. Not an advocate for "off label" use of fields.

In eTap I would maybe suggest a gift of $0 amount and then a gift defined field in it with the revocable gift amount in it. Would that work?

That's a good option, and a good reminder about keeping to intended purposes on fields. Thanks!