This document summarizes a presentation about integrating development and finance offices. The presenter describes the key needs and concerns of each office, such as acknowledging donors and reporting gifts for development versus accurately recording revenue and expenses for finance. Common challenges that can arise with separate databases and a lack of communication are outlined. Best practices for integration emphasize having each system perform its core functions, establishing clear gift recording policies, reconciling accounts regularly, and ensuring open communication between the two offices.

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Integrating Development and Finance
PRESENTED BY JONATHAN HOWELL

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• Describe the Needs of the Development and Finance Offices
• Speak the Same Language
• Avoid Common Problems
• Describe Best Practices for Integration
AFTER THIS SESSION, YOU’LL BE ABLE TO:

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Development
• Acknowledging and receipting
donors quickly and accurately
• Accurate reporting on gift source
and gift designation
• Answering donors’ questions
• Securing the next gift!
• Acquiring new donors
Finance
• Recording cash, revenue, and
receivables quickly and accurately
• Ensuring that designated revenues
are tracked and expensed/released
correctly
• Reconciling data entry, reports,
and bank accounts
• Presenting accurate and usable
financial statements
• Maintaining control of cash
WHAT DOES EACH OFFICE CARE ABOUT?

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Development keeps us in business…Finance keeps us out of jail!
THE SHORT VERSION

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• Integration: How we tell Finance about the gifts Development has received
• Gift: Cash, pledge, stock/property, in-kind, or planned
• Pledge: A legally enforceable promise to give
• Stock/Property: Must be sold to obtain value for your organization
• Gift-in-kind: Valuable to your organization as-is
• Restriction/Designation: A donor’s direction on how or when a gift must be spent
• Journal Entries: Debits and credits entered in the General Ledger to account for gifts
SPEAKING THE SAME LANGUAGE

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HOW SHOULD THE DATABASE
INTEGRATION LOOK?
Too many orgs attempt this: When it should be this:
CRM Accounting CRM Accounting

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• Only the reporting from Finance is “trustworthy”
• We attempt to report development info out of our accounting system
• Reports don’t match
• Donor designations are more specific in one database than the other
• Pledges are either not recorded, or are constantly written off
• Timing of cash entries makes bank reconciliation difficult
• Records are adjusted constantly
• People don’t talk to each other
COMMON ISSUES

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• Let each system do its job
• Determine how much latitude to grant donors when designating gifts
• Record pledges as receivables when they’re made
• Don’t call something a pledge unless it’s truly a pledge
• Post to one or two bank accounts…
• …or post to a single clearing account
• Post daily
• Reconcile weekly
• Don’t enter a gift until you know everything you need to know
• Adjustments should be the exception, not the rule
• Talk to each other!!!
BEST PRACTICES

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“If you’re going to integrate, you’ve got to communicate!”
KEY QUOTE

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TWEET ABOUT YOUR SESSION
#SESSION #TRACK
#PRESENTER