Managing Tribute Donations

This article outlines the different ways to review tribute donations and manage gift notifications. The article includes the following sections:

• Tribute Gift Data
• Retrieving Tribute Gift Information
• Process Recommendations
• Using Gnosis Communications for Gift Notifications

Tribute Gift Data

Gnosis donation entry (via online donation page or Contribution Entry in the application) includes functionality to include tribute information. Tribute details include the following fields:

Purpose* -  ex. In Memory of, In Honor of, etc.

Person Name - Who the gift is in honor or memory of

Purpose Description* - ex. on their birthday, on their anniversary, etc.

Advise Person - The person to send a gift notification to

Advise Person Address - The person’s address to send a gift notification. 

Advise Note - Note entered by the donor to include in gift notification

*These list items are editable in Reference Data Management under Contribution, Occasion, and Purpose.

Online Donation Process

When the Tribute dropdown is activated, additional fields appear for the donor to provide their tribute details.

• The Person(s) To Acknowledge is a text field saved as part of the tribute details.
• Completing the Send Tribute Card On Your Behalf section will create a new record in the database, including household information, which will be linked to the tribute donation.

If your donation page does not have a Tribute dropdown, contact  [e-mail] to request the feature.

If your donation page does not appear as it does in the image here, contact [e-mail] for a web page update.

Contribution Entry Process

The Contribution Entry screen provides the same tribute fields to capture tribute details.

1. Click the Tribute field dropdown to activate the pop-up.
2. Select the Purpose from the drop-down.*
3. The name of the person to be acknowledged can be typed in by selecting Enter Name or choose a record in the database by selecting Search Name. If you have multiple gifts for the same person, it is recommended to link all gifts to the same record in the database using the Search Name option. If that person does not yet have their own record, create their new record before going into Contribution Entry.
4. Select the Purpose Occasion from the drop-down.*
5. If text is entered in the Description Override field, it will override the standard text: ie: “In Recognition of Person Name on the occasion of their birthday” with the text entered in the Description Override field. This field is not commonly used as it is more common to use the Purpose and or Purpose Occasion fields in a gift notification.
6. Unlike online gifts, persons to be advised must have their own record before being able to use the Search Name option and assign a gift to their record. Create their new record with contact information before choosing the name in Contribution Entry.
7. If a note was included with the gift it can be added to this field in order to be included in a gift notification.
8. Enter any administrative notes here, if necessary.

*The same list items, as identified previously, are editable in Reference Data Management.

PLEASE NOTE:  If the currently loaded batch contains previously entered tribute entries, you can auto-fill the tribute information from previous entries:

1. Open the Tribute Info options in the required gift
2. Click on the Auto-fill tribute info link that will be present at the top of the window

The previously entered tribute information will be used to auto-fill the current tribute information for the current gift.

Retrieving Tribute Gift Information

There are three ways to retrieve tribute gift data:

Contribution Entry Screen

At any time, the tribute details popup can be accessed for any gifts within an open batch. Select the gift to view the details at the bottom of the screen, then click the Tribute field dropdown to activate the popup.

Tribute details for online gifts are also accessible in this area.

Reporting

A standard Gnosis report will provide all tribute details based on the criteria entered. To locate this report in the Reporting Module, search for Memorial; to retrieve the report "Memorial/Honorarium Contributions With Advise Person and or Note". This report will provide an exportable datasheet. The contribution date range is required; all other criteria fields are optional (batch number, tribute's last name, or advise PID).  If you are not using the date range, just input a broad range to capture your desired data.

If this report is not available in your database, contact [e-mail] to request it.

Contribution Details in Person Form

Some tribute detail fields are available as columns on the Contributions tab in a person’s record. Right-click one of the current column headers and select the Column Chooser, or just click on the configure icon. Click the desired field in the popup, drag to the location in the header row, and drop the field to add it to the view. This is a one-time setting per user. Available fields include Purpose Person Name, Purpose Description, and Tribute (a checkbox to identify the gift as a tribute gift).

Remove a column but right-clicking on the header and selecting Hide this Column.

Note: The contribution tab has three column layouts for small, medium and large Gnosis screen sizes. Any changes that you make to columns in the grid apply only to the screen size you have currently selected, indicated by the S, M or L icon displayed near the configure icon.

 

Process Recommendations

Batch Review

It is recommended to include the report mentioned above in your batch review process. After running your batch report, simply run the standard report to determine if there are any gift notifications to be sent in addition to a donor acknowledgment.

Managing Duplicate Records

Due to the nature of text entries made during online tribute donations, it is inevitable that duplicate records will be created for the Purpose Person and the Advise Person. Using the data provided in the standard report, records to be merged will be easily identifiable. It is a best practice to merge these records as you identify them in order to keep the database clean, keep reporting more consistent and gift notifications more accurate.

Managing Multiple Gifts in Honor/Memory of One Person

It is not uncommon that multiple gifts may be received for one individual. Below are the recommended steps to manage this scenario.

1. Use the standard report to identify records to be merged. Be sure to review the Purpose Person and the Advise Person record for merging.
2. Identify a length of time to wait to allow most of the gifts for the one person to come in.
3. Use the standard report to pull all gifts for that person only, using the one PID criteria filter, to which all records have been merged.
4. Export report results and use only the Contributor Names and notes to create a list to provide to the Advise Person in a letter or card.

Example:

A total of $675.00 has been donated in memory of Jane Smith. The donor names and notes have been listed below. We are honored to have received these gifts in Jane’s name.

Dave Jones -  Jane will be greatly missed. Peace to you all.

Jessica Smith - Thinking of you all at this difficult time.

Joe Thomas

Sarah Davidson

The Krause Foundation

Davidson Jones & Clack

Using Gnosis Communications for Gift Notifications

When tribute details are entered as described above, the information can then be used to produce a single gift notification letter, card or email* using Gnosis Communications. It is also common to use a separate donor acknowledgment letter item in order to include the appropriate tribute details in a donor acknowledgment letter.

*Reminder that an advise record must include an email address in order to send a Gnosis Communications email.

When creating a Communications item, in addition to common gift detail fields, use the following tribute fields to create various text combinations:

    

Note: Using Gnosis Communications for tribute gift notifications is entirely optional. Some organizations may prefer to send a handwritten note instead of a system communication.

Example text combinations

1. Gift notification sentence structure:

[Contributed By] has made a gift [Purpose Name] [Purpose Person Name]. The following note was included in with the gift:

[Advise Note]

2. Gift notification card structures:

A gift from [Contributed By] Has been made [Purpose Name] [Purpose Person Name] [Advise Note]

A gift from [Contributed By] Has been made [Purpose Description]* [Advise Note]

3. Tribute Donor Acknowledgement sentence structure: 

Thank you for your gift [Purpose Name] [Purpose Person Name] OR [Purpose Description]. We have sent a gift notification to [Advise Person].

*Purpose Description automatically combines Purpose Name and Purpose Person Name or uses the Purpose Description Override if one was entered.