Current loctn: salesforce > data structure > npsp pledges > NPSP Recurring Donations

NPSP Recurring Donations Package

Overview

As of February 2017, this page is still under construction and has not been completed..

The NPSP Recurring Donations package was the first NPSP package to provide a mechanism for storing pledge-type donations (first release in June 2009). The enhancements provided with later (late 2011) release of the NPSP Payment package are therefore not used by the Recurring Donations package. And some aspects of the February 2017 version of the Recurring Donations package still reflect that release-time situation.

Accordingly:

1. If used without configuration changes, Opportunities created to represent pledge installments with the suplied automation are set with the Opportunity.Stage value of pledged.

   The Opportunity.Stage Pledged picklist value is typically installed by NPSP as a Type Open stage. NPSP Opportunity rollup fields located on the Account and Contact objects do not include the Amount values from Opportunities until the stage value is changed to a Closed/Won stage value.

   The Opportunity.Stage value is therefore used to track both:

   • progress and results of efforts expended to obtain the donation agreement
   • results of collection activites that take place after the pledge agreement is finalized with the donor
2. The Recurring Donation object does not provide the same abilities to track the progress of fundraising efforts that is provided by an Opportunity record. As a result the approach to storing pledges using the Recurring Donations object will provide less information about development activities than the approach recommended with the later-released NPSP Payments package.
3. Recurring Donation records provide the ability to indicate the donor using look-up fields to an Account or Contact record. Automation that creates linked Opportunities will also create Opportunity Contact Role records indicating the linked Contact as a Donor with IsPrimary = True

   However, if there is a need to set other Opportunity Contact Roles on linked Opportunities (for instance, soft credit or solicitor, those Opportunity Contact Roles will need to be created by other means on each Opportunity representing a pledge installment, etc.

The NPSP Recurring Donations object provides:

1. records that document finalized recurring donation arrangements or close-eded multiple payment arrangements (pledges)
2. automation to easily create linked Opportunity records representing the set of installments associated with the donation arrangement.
3. rollup fields that summarize values from linked Opportunities

Key Fields:

• Account
• Campaign
• Contact
• Date Established
• Installment Period
• Installments
• Open Ended Status
• Paid Amount

Recommendations   Concerns   Discussion   References

Recommendations

If detailed tracking of donation development activites is not needed, or if NPSP Payment records are not being used, the Recurring Donations approach to storing pledges might be a good match to your needs. (Use of NPSP Payment records is sometimes avoided in order to reduce data volumen and resulting storage-related charges from SF.)

1. One-time donations representing only a single payment should be represented by a SF Opportunity record. No Recurring Donation record is established.
2. Close-ended and open-ended recurring donation agreements should be represented using a Recurring Donation record with linked Opportunities representing anticipated installments.
3. Pay attention to the Type setting of the Opportunity.Stage Pledge picklist value. This value is typically defined with Type Open by an NPSP installation. The open status setting will cause Opportunities with the Pledged stage value to be ommitted from inclusion in NPSP-provided Opportunity roll-ups located on the Account and Contact objects.

   If your organization interprets a word like pledged as committed, you might decide that changing the Type setting to Closed/Won is more suitable. And you may want to introduce additional Opportunity.Stage picklist values like pledge pursuit to represent other stages of donation development activies.

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Concerns With Storing Pledges as Recurring Donations With Linked Opportunities

(I haven't closely checked functions of the current Recurring Donations package to verify. Some of the points raised here are derived mainly from my earlier experiences with that package.)

The biggest concern is perhaps the absence of features that allow a Recurring Donation to track progress of an effort to secure a pledge donation. Abilities readily provided by the SF Opportunity object are not available on the Recurring Donation object. The approach to storing pledges using the approach recommended with the NPSP Payments package uses an Opportunity to represent the overarching pledge promise, and therefore provides superior capacities for tracking pledge development progress and outcomes.

Difficulties may be encountered in the following situations:

1. The Recurring Donation automation to create linked Opportunities will create IsPrimary Donor records linked to the Opportunities. And if NPSP Settings are correct, Opportunity Contact Roles linking Household Members will also be created.

   But if Opportunity Contact Roles for other purposes need to be applied to the pledge, these mayneed to be created manually. Because multiple Opportunities might be linked to a Recurring Donation record, this might require repetitive manual edits for multiple Opportunities.

   If automation is desired, custom configurations might be needed for the Recurring Donation object to store these data, and custom automation to ensure that all linked Opportunities provide the desired Opportunity Contact Role records.

2. If GAU Allocations are applied to the pledge, these might need to be represented by GAU Allocation records on all Opportunities linked to the Recurring Donation record.

   Custom configurations might be needed for the Recurring Donation object to store these data, and custom automation to ensure that all linked Opportunities that are created with links to a Recurring Donation records provide appropriate GAU Allocation records.

3. If tribute data is applied to the pledge, these will need to be represented by appropriate field settings on all Opportunities linked to the Recurring Donation record used to represent the pledge.

   Custom configurations might be needed for the Recurring Donation object to store these data, and custom automation to ensure that all linked Opportunities represent the tribute links as desired.

4. Representation of Pledges will differ fundamentally from other situations that are commonly and beneficially represented by use of Opportunities with linked Payments (for instance: grants or major gifts) that might include multiple payments, etc.

   This means that database users will need to be trained to use different data entry approaches for different situations, to use different approaches for construction SF reports for different types of donations, etc.

5. For new SF users coming from Raisers Edge, the approach using Opportunities with linked Payments is a closer parallel to RE data structures storing records of pledges, linked installments and write-offs.

   These users are more likely to find this SF data structure familiar. And this seems likely to make adoption of SF easier. By contrast, the approach using Recurring Donations with linked Opportunities might then make user transition to SF a bit more difficult.

6. The approach using Recurring Donations with linked Opportunities will likely use practices that alter the Opportunity Stage value of these Opportunities from Open to Closed/Won states as payments are received. This essentially breaks the separation between revenue and cash that was the original goal of the NPSP Payments package.

   And, as outlined above, this also breaks the ability to use Opportunities as a permanent record of the outcomes that were attained by development staff at the end of their work to attain a donation commitment. Desirable abilities (outlined above) to compare original donor promises to actual donor fulfillment performance will then also be broken.

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Discussion

To track details about the pursuit of donations, or the progress of development staff efforts, the approach using the NPSP Payments package may be preferred. That approach allows the Opportunity record representing the pledge agreement to be tracked with the full power provided with an Opportunity record. Progress can be documented by changed settings of the Opportunity.Stage value. And if all collection activities are tracked using fields on linked Payment records, the Opportunity can be used to permanently represent results obtained by efforts of fundraising staff. This separation of fundraising data from collection data can provide very useful abilities for fundraising analysis and targeting of outreach efforts.

The later-released NPSP Payments package was specifically designed to provide for needs of organizations using accrual-based accounting systems. Storage of pledges using Recurring donations is perhaps a better match to organizations using cash-basis accounting.

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References

Links are numbered to allow easier reference during discussions, etc.

Accounting Practices

1. Accounting Considerations for Non-Profits

   You may need to use the website search function to find this specific page.

2. Accounting For Pledges Receivable - Capital Campaign

   Question/answer dialgue providing some information about handling of Pledge donations.

3. Cash vs. Accrual

   Simple discussion of difference between accrual and cash-basis accounting systems.

4. Cash vs. Accrual Accounting For Non-Profits: Which is Right for Your Organization?

   Simple discussion of difference between accrual and cash-basis accounting systems.

5. FAS 116

   Brief explanzation of Financial Accounting Standards Board rules that nonprofits are often required to meet..

6. Pledges Receivable: Explaining the Basics to Your Development Department

   Explains the typical differences betwen accural and cash-basis accounting, with specific mention of how pledges are typically handled under the two systems.

7. Pledges vs. recurring donations

   Explaingation of typicaly distinctions between pldeges and reucrring donations. From Idealist Consulting

NPSP Usage

1. Create Payments and Recurring Donations

   Salesforce trailhead page. Please note, this explanation suggested using the Opportunity.Stage value pledge, which differs from the recommednations on the current page.

2. Nonprofit Starter Pack and Money

   This article provides some basoc explanations of nonprofit accounting principles and of the needs the NPSP Payments package was intended to meet. Especially focuses on frequenty nonprofit needs to record revenue on a date that differs from the actual collection date of the funds promised. Written at a time after the Recurring Donations package had been released, but shortly preceeding release of the newer NPSP Payments package.

3. NPSP Recurring Donations - Overview and Setup

   Main NPSP document explaining typical entry of recurring donation or pledge donations when using the NPSP Payment object

4. NPSP: Manage Multiple-Payment Donations

   (From the Power of Us Hub) Recommendations for basic used of NPSP Payments for entering multiple payment donations.

   (I believe an earlier, but relatively recent version of this article specifically linked the Kell Partners page described just below.)

5. NPSP Opportunities and Payments 101

   (From Kell Partners) Recommendations for more advanced uses of NPSP Payments. Includes more detailed recommendations specific to the needs of organizations using cash-basis and accrual accounting approaches. (Accrual accounting seems to be more common among nonprofits, especially among larger or international nonprofits.) The only changes suggested are a different assignment of Opportuniity.Stage values for Opportunities representing pledges. The details may be important for your organization. Page dated 2017.

   Note especially the sections on

   • What if you want to record both the pledge and the collection story?
   • And then there's rollups
6. NPSP: Recurring Donations versus Opportunity (Donation) Payments

   Very basic, but does mention (briefly) the main differences in recommended data entry approach for accrual and cash-basis accounting systems.

Last modified: 14:07:39 08-Dec-2017