Donors and funding

A donor record identifies a person or group that gives funds, with a segment, contact email, organization and current relationship status. Funding Officer uses that record when opening a funding case for a project. The case holds a title, requested amount, restriction and status. It is the link between the donor relationship and a specific project need.

The restriction can be unrestricted, restricted by program or time. Agree its meaning with the team before submitting cases, especially when a donor has more than one request. A case’s requested amount is a request, while fund events record actual pledges, receipts, disbursements and adjustments. They belong to different points in the funding history.

• Donor context. Funding Officer maintains the donor’s relationship status, segment and organization reference.
• Funding request. The case connects one donor and project with the requested amount and restriction.
• Movement history. Fund events hold type, amount, date and a reference against the case.

A donor may be a prospect while a request is still being prepared. When the relationship becomes active, Funding Officer can update the donor record. That change does not itself approve a funding case or record money received. The case review and fund events each retain their own evidence.

Decide who may create a donor and what should be entered in its contact and organization fields. Agree how the team interprets lapsed donors and when a case should be closed. Set a naming rule for case titles so reviewers can recognize the project and purpose from the review queue.

Define when staff record a pledge, receipt, disbursement or adjustment. Each fund event needs the right case, amount, date and reference for later reconciliation. An adjustment should have an understandable reference and should not quietly replace an earlier event. Finance Lead should review how the organization currency is applied to requested and event amounts when comparing funding across projects.

Take an active donor and a planned project. Create a draft case with a requested amount and a program restriction. Funding Officer checks that the case points to the intended donor and project before submission. Open Funding Cases should show the request, while Funding Review Queue should only show it once it is submitted.

After review, enter a pledge event and later a receipt event with their actual dates. Fund Movement History should show both against the same case. Finance Lead can compare their amounts during project reconciliation; a pledge and a receipt are distinct events even when the amounts happen to match.

• Open Funding Cases — Draft, submitted and approved requests with their donor, project and restriction.
• Active Donors — Donor relationships ready for current funding work.
• Fund Movement History — Dated pledges, receipts, disbursements and adjustments tied to cases.

Follow funding case preparation, then funding review. The reconciliation process checks the recorded movements.