UK Regular Supporters Implementation Guide

Regular Supporters Implementation Guide

100908

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RE7Enterprise-RegularSupportersUK-100908

Regular Supporters Implementation GuideREGULAR SUPPORTERS IMPLEMENTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Electronic Funds Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Electronic Funds Transfer Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Gift Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Recurring Gifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

What Is In This Guide?In the Regular Supporters Implementation Guide, you learn how to use The Raiser’s Edge Enterprise to help manage your regular supporters programme. This guide provides an overview of the areas of the program to which you should pay special attention. You can learn about the following:• “Electronic Funds Transfer” on page 3• “Electronic Funds Transfer Setup” on page 7• “Gift Aid” on page 25• “Recurring Gifts” on page 95

How Do I Use These Guides?

The Raiser’s Edge Enterprise user guides contain examples, scenarios, procedures, graphics, and conceptual information. To find help quickly and easily, you can access the Raiser’s Edge documentation from several places. User Guides. You can access PDF versions of the guides by selecting Help,

User Guides from the shell menu bar or by clicking Help on the Raiser’s Edge bar in the program. You can also access the guides on our Web site at www.blackbaud.co.uk. From the menu bar, select Support, Documentation, User Guides. In a PDF, page numbers in the Table of Contents, Index, and all cross-references are hyperlinks. For example, click the page number by any heading or procedure on a Table of Contents page to go directly to that page.

Help File. In addition to user guides, you can learn about The Raiser’s Edge by accessing the help file in the program. Select Help, The Raiser’s Edge Help Topics from the shell menu bar or press F1 on your keyboard from anywhere in the program. Narrow your search in the help file by enclosing your search in quotation marks on the Search tab. For example, instead of entering Load Defaults, enter “Load Defaults”. The help file searches for the complete phrase in quotes instead of individual words.

WE L C O M EIV

IconsThe following icons are used in the side margins to denote additional information such as notes, warnings, time-savers, or definitions. You can also use these margins to write your own notes.

The notepad symbol designates a note or tip related to the information in the main text column.

The traffic light indicates a cautionary note. Generally, we use this icon to point out a step that may have unwanted results.

The clock symbol designates a shortcut or timesaving action.

The dictionary symbol designates the definition of a frequently used term.

Regular Supporters Implementation

Contents

Electronic Funds Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Quick Look into EFT Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Prepare for Direct Debits, Standing Orders, and Credit Cards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Prepare for Direct Debits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Prepare for Standing Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Prepare for Credit Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Electronic Funds Transfer Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Configuration - General Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Configuration - Financial Institutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Import - Import Bank/Financial Institution Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Configuration - Business Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Generate IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Batch Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Administration - Batch Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14User Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Records Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Batch Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Constituent Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18EFT Gift Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Direct Debit EFT Gift Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Standing Order EFT Gift Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Credit Card EFT Gift Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Gift Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Configuration - General Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Configuration - Business Rules Page - Grace Period for Oral Declarations . . . 29Configuration - Business Rules Page - Gift Aid Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Configuration - Taxes Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Constituent Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Bio 1 Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Gifts Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Gift Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Tax Tab - Tax Claim Eligible (Cash Gifts, Recurring Gifts, Pledges, and Cash

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Payments for Recurring Gifts and Pledges) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Gift Menu - Adjust Tax Claim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Gift Tab - Net and Gross Amounts (Cash Gifts, Recurring Gifts, and Cash

Payments for Recurring Gifts and Pledges) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Gift Tab - Net and Gross Amounts (Pledges) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Transactions Tab (Recurring Gifts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Instalments/Payments Tab (Pledges) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Administration - Update Gift Aid Status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Gift Aid Data Extraction and Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Query and Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Gift Aid Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Gift Tax Detail and Summary Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Cash Flow Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Recurring Gifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95Configuration - Business Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96Generate IDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97Gift Options - Activity Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Administration - Batch Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97Recurring Gift Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Gift Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100Miscellaneous Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Soft Credit Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Matching Gifts Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Tribute Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Attributes Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Tax Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108Transactions Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109Amendments Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109Split Gift Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Add Recurring Gifts to the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110Convert Pledges to Recurring Gifts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Recurring Gift Amendments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Add Recurring Gift Amendments to Recurring Gifts in the Database . . . . . . . 121Process Recurring Gift Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123Recurring Gift Data Extraction and Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Query and Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

RE G U L A R SU P P O R T E R S IM P L E M E N T A T I O N 3

Perhaps the most valuable donors to your organisation are not the ones who give a sizeable amount once, but those who are committed givers — your regular supporters who give on a recurring basis, often monthly, by direct debit, standing order, or credit card. Many donors feel they can make a more substantial gift if they budget their payments to your organisation, and you need to accommodate their needs. These committed donors are the ones who help you maintain your giving levels, make it possible for you to continue to invest in long-term projects, and make new meaningful plans.

You may call the donors who give

regularly to your organisation by different names. In this guide, we call them “regular supporters.” You may call them, for example, “regular givers,” “regular donors,” “committed givers,” or “committed donors.” No matter what you call them, these faithful supporters can bring in a lot of income for your organisation. For more information about this cost-effective fundraising strategy, visit www.blackbaud.com. Under Nonprofit Resources, select White Papers and click Implementing a Recurring Gift Program.

When you have a regular supporters programme, many challenges exist. You must manage recurring gifts and accept donations electronically. You constantly strive to keep these donors committed, attract new donors, increase your numbers and amounts of donations, and communicate effectively to the donors about where their money goes. You also need to report internally on how your programmes do, how many donors you lose, and how many upgrade their donations. It can also be helpful to analyse demographical statistics, so you know who to target and why. To help you manage your regular supporters programme, The Raiser’s Edge Enterprise provides the tools needed to help recruit, maintain, process, and analyse your regular supporters.This guide, while not a complete start-to-finish guide on regular giving, provides an idea of how to use The Raiser’s Edge to help manage your regular supporters programme. This guide provides an overview of those areas of the program to which you should pay special attention.

Electronic Funds TransferElectronic Funds Transfer (EFT) makes giving a gift a simple choice for your regular supporters. With Electronic Funds Transfer, your donors can contribute electronically to your organisation by direct debit from their bank accounts, by standing order, or by credit card. With Electronic Funds Transfer, you benefit from reduced paperwork and postage costs, plus regular electronic giving means no forgetful donors! To learn about Electronic Funds Transfer in its entirety, we recommend you read the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Guide.In this Electronic Funds Transfer section of the guide, we mention both recurring gifts and pledges. Some of you may still use pledges for your regular supporters’ EFT gifts. However, we recommend you use recurring gifts, as they are better suited for regular giving. A recurring gift can be open-ended. When you set up a schedule, you do not have to specify an end date or a set number of transactions, even though you can. When a donor decides not to specify an end date for a donation, he can still feel very much in control of his donation because he can upgrade or downgrade the donated amount and skip payments when necessary. On a recurring gift template, you can easily amend the gift and keep track of the upgrade or downgrade, the amendment amount, amendment date, and variance between the original recurring gift amount and the newly amended gift amount. You can easily skip transactions when a donor asks you to do so. With recurring gifts, you may be able to attract more regular supporters because a recurring gift provides more flexibility in giving. For more information about recurring gifts, see “Recurring Gifts” on page 95.

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Quick Look into EFT ProcessingWhen you receive gifts donated by direct debit, standing order, or credit card, you can use an electronic funds transfer to process the transactions. Electronic funds transfer is a general banking system by which transactions, such as deposits or bill payments, are made electronically from a donor’s bank account to your organisation’s bank account. When you use Electronic Funds Transfer, additional features are available in Batch and Administration so you can easily process your gifts with The Raiser’s Edge.

In Batch, use the Automatically Generate Transactions/Payments menu option to automatically generate payments (gift records) for selected recurring gifts or pledges that require electronic processing through direct debit or credit card. You automatically generate these electronic payments through a gift batch. The program creates a payment entry for each eligible recurring gift transaction or pledge instalment due within the gift batch you use. You can also automatically generate instruction records. For detailed information and procedures about how to automatically generate transactions/payments, see the Electronic Gifts (EFT) Guide.In Batch, use the Create EFT Transmission Files menu option to create direct debit transmission files to send to Banks Automated Clearing System (BACS). You send the transmission file to a third party approval company, or to your sponsoring bank or bureau, who then transfers the transmission file to BACS on your behalf. BACS accepts only transmission files via the Internet using BACS-compatible transmission software. For a list of BACS-compatible software, contact Blackbaud Sales on 0141 575 0100 or send an email to [email protected]. You can also contact your sponsoring bank or the BACS help desk (www.bacs.co.uk). Transmission files can include instruction records or requests for recurring gift or pledge payments. For detailed information and procedures about how to create and send transmission files, see the Electronic Gifts (EFT) Guide.

To set up an account, you must contact

IATS/Ticketmaster. You can contact them by telephone on 001 604 682 8455 x3138 or fax on 001 604 684 0905. IATS will supply you with its own merchant numbers.

In Batch, use the Create EFT Transmission Files menu option to create credit card transmission files to process through International Automated Ticket Systems (IATS). IATS/Ticketmaster provides the programme that authorises the credit card transactions your organisation receives and directs those transactions to the appropriate financial institution for processing. For detailed information and procedures about how to create and send transmission files, see the Electronic Gifts (EFT) Guide. In Batch, use the Import Standing Orders menu option to import standing order payments for recurring gifts and pledges. In Administration, click Import Standing Orders to import standing order payments directly into The Raiser’s Edge. For detailed information and procedures about importing standing orders, see the Electronic Gifts (EFT) Guide.In Batch, track the acceptance or rejection code for transactions in a gift batch. For more information, see the Electronic Gifts (EFT) Guide.In Batch, commit the gift batch. For more information about how to commit a gift batch to the database, see the Batch Guide.

Because Electronic Funds Transfer adds so many additional features to Batch, we recommend you read the Batch Guide before you read the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Guide.


Prepare for Direct Debits, Standing Orders, and Credit CardsBefore you begin to process transactions with Electronic Funds Transfer, you must first obtain a few pieces of information to get started. These sections outline the information needed to prepare your organisation for electronic processing.

Prepare for Direct DebitsDirect debit is the simplest way for an organisation to collect payments from regular supporters. It saves time, reduces the cost of collections, and puts cleared funds directly into your bank account. You have more control over the payments coming into your organisation. A direct debit is an instruction from a constituent to his bank authorising your organisation to collect varying amounts from his account, as long as the constituent has been given advance notice of the collection amounts and dates.Before you begin to process direct debit and instruction records for a gift batch, follow these tips to help you get started:

Apply for a BACS Originator’s Number. This process can take up to 8-10 weeks, so be prepared for this when you plan for your electronic processing.Purchase BACS-compatible transmission software. For a list of BACS-compatible software, contact Blackbaud Sales on 0141 575 0100 or send an email to [email protected]. You can also contact your sponsoring bank or the BACS help desk (www.bacs.co.uk). The Raiser’s Edge supports BACS direct debit file formats.If you plan to use Paperless Direct Debit Instruction records, apply for Automated Direct Debit Instruction Service (AUDDIS) status. AUDDIS is a branch of BACS that helps to set up the donor’s payment process with your sponsoring bank. For more information about the role AUDDIS plays to process files, contact your sponsoring bank or the BACS help desk.Encourage your donors to sign up for direct debit giving.Create new recurring gifts and pledges and check EFT? on the gift record.

Prepare for Standing OrdersStanding order is another way for regular donors to give to your organisation. A standing order is an instruction a donor gives his bank to instigate payments of a set amount from his current account, on a regular schedule, to your organisation’s bank account. With a standing order, the donor always controls the payment amount.Before you begin to import standing orders into a gift batch or directly into The Raiser’s Edge, follow these tips to help you get started:

Make sure your sponsoring bank is included in The Raiser’s Edge. If your sponsoring bank is not included, contact Customer Support on 0845 658 8500 (locally) or 44 0141 575 0801 (outside of UK), or send an email to Customer Support at [email protected]. Customer Support then requests you provide a test file and specification of your sponsoring bank’s file layout.Ask your bank for the statement in electronic format; the electronic account reconciliation file.

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Make sure the constituent who wants to donate a gift to your organisation contacts his bank or you to initiate a payment transaction schedule. This way, you can begin to receive data files from your sponsoring bank with the correct banking information.Create new recurring gifts and pledges and check the EFT? checkbox on the gift record.Ensure that the EFT gift contains a reference number, correct bank sort code, and account number. The Raiser’s Edge uses these to match transactions.

Prepare for Credit CardsWhen donors use a credit card, they often give a one-off gift. Donors use credit cards as a convenience and often to give a donation on impulse. But, given the choice, a donor may want to regularly donate by credit card. To process credit card transactions on a regular basis, you can use Blackbaud’s Electronic Funds Transfer. The Raiser’s Edge can use the Blackbaud Payment Service to process credit card donations through its interface with a program provided by IATS/Ticketmaster. IATS authorisation program is all you need to process credit card gifts in The Raiser’s Edge.Before you begin to process credit cards for a gift batch, follow these tips to help you get started:

Ensure you have Internet access. The IATS/Ticketmaster website works best with Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 5.0 or higher. We recommend a modem or Internet access speed of 28.8 baud or better.Contact IATS/Ticketmaster to set up an account. Contact them by telephone on 001 604 682 8455 ext. 3138 or fax on 001 604 684 0905. IATS supplies you with its own merchant numbers.Sign and return the IATS Merchant Program Agreement by fax to 001 604 684 0905 along with a copy of a voided cheque for deposit information. IATS sends a confirmation by fax, which includes the necessary user code (login ID) and password to process transactions. IATS can provide full merchant capability for all major debit and credit cards within two weeks of when they receive your signed agreement.

IATS/Ticketmaster supplies you with a

login ID applicable to the specific country for which you set up an account. For example, a typical login ID for the United Kingdom may be UA35546. The first character in the login ID, U, designates you can use the account to process credit cards issued by financial institutions in the United Kingdom.

Once you set up your account with IATS/Ticketmaster, on the Business Rules page of Configuration, set up your credit card authorisation program information. From the tree view, select Batch options. Select “IATS/Other” in the Process credit cards and ACH gifts through field and click Click here to set up merchant accounts. The Business Rules page for merchant accounts appears. From the Merchant Accounts for authorising credit cards and ACH gifts grid, you can add the merchant account. With the merchant account, The Raiser’s Edge automatically interfaces with the IATS authorisation service to process the direct debit gifts you include in your transmission files or uses the Blackbaud Payment Service to interface with the IATS authorisation service to process your credit card gifts.


Electronic Funds Transfer SetupBefore you begin to process EFT gifts, you must complete several areas of The Raiser’s Edge to properly set up Electronic Funds Transfer.

Configuration - General PageOn the General page of Configuration, you indicate whether you use paperless mandates. Paperless mandates are instruction records you send electronically to BACS to notify them that a donor wants to donate to your organisation by direct debit and has authorised direct debit collections. When you select to send instruction records electronically, you send them through a direct debit transmission file.

For detailed information about paperless mandates, see the Paperless Direct Debit Guide. The Paperless Direct Debit Guide explains the paperless mandate fields in The Raiser’s Edge, gift entry for instruction records, how to send an Advance Notice Letter in Mail, and how to automatically generate instruction records in Batch. For more information about the General page of Configuration, see the General section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

Configure paperless mandates

1. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Config. The Configuration page appears. 2. Click General. The General page appears.

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3. To send instruction records to BACS electronically through a direct debit transmission file, check Paperless mandates used. When you check this checkbox, you automate the addition of new instruction record information onto recurring gift and pledge gift records that meet the criteria for paperless mandates.

If you leave the No. of advance notice days

field blank, The Raiser’s Edge ignores the Date adv. notice sent field on the Instruction Details screen of the gift record (accessed when you click Details) during EFT transmission file processing.

4. In the No. of advance notice days field, enter the number of days that must elapse before the collection of the direct debit for paperless mandates.An advance notice letter informs the constituent that you will debit a payment from his bank account. According to BACS regulations, this letter must contain the instalment schedule, total gift amount, your organisation’s name, and due date of the first instalment. To confirm the number of days prior to the first collection that you should send the advance notice letter, we recommend you check with your sponsoring bank . A typical number is 14, but not necessarily the number your organisation should use.The Raiser’s Edge sends advance notice letters through the Donor Acknowledgement Letters mail task in Mail. To save processing time and postage, The Raiser’s Edge supports sending a combination of a confirmation, advance notice, and acknowledgement letter. In addition, the donor must complete a Direct Debit Instruction (DDI). The donor can sign a paper DDI and send it back to your organisation, or the donor can complete the DDI over the telephone or Internet. If you choose to send a paper DDI, you can send the paper DDI with your confirmation and advanced notice letters, or separately. For more information about confirmation letters and advanced notice letters and the time lines to adhere, contact your sponsoring bank. For more information about how to use a mail merge to generate these letters, see the Mail Guide and The Raiser’s Edge & Microsoft Office Integration Guide.

Configuration - Financial InstitutionsOn the Financial Institutions page of Configuration, you add bank information for your organisation and designate which banks or branches are “sponsoring banks”. When you check Sponsoring Bank, you indicate that a bank or branch transfers funds electronically through direct debit. On the Financial Institutions page, you can also add constituent banks. You can assign banks defined here to gifts to provide details on where money is coming from or to constituents as relationships. Also, new banks added from constituent records appear on the Financial Institutions page.

Configure financial institutions

1. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Config. The Configuration page appears. 2. Click Financial Institutions. The Financial Institutions page appears.


3. To add a new financial institution, on the action bar, click New Financial Institution. For detailed information about how to add, edit, and delete financial institutions from the Financial Institutions page, see the Financial Institutions section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

The Financial Institution Cleanup

wizard is excellent for combining banks, as well. For example, if Bank of London merges with Capitol Bank to form the new Constitution Bank, you can replace both Bank of London and Capitol Bank with the newly formed Constitution Bank on all your constituent and gift records.

4. If you have duplicate financial institution records in your database, use the Financial Institution Cleanup wizard to correct the problem. On the action bar, click Financial Institution Cleanup. The Financial Institution Cleanup wizard appears.

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Select one or multiple financial institutions and replace them with the correct financial institution. For example, in your database, you notice that First National Bank is also entered as “1st National Bank” and appears on constituent and gift records both ways. Use the Financial Institution Cleanup wizard to remove the incorrect duplicate, 1st National Bank, and replace it with First National Bank. First National Bank then appears correctly on all associated gift and constituent records. You can also update all phone numbers, email addresses, and other links on the corrected financial institution relationship record. The Financial Institution Cleanup wizard does not change account numbers. For detailed information about this wizard, see the Cleaning Up Financial Institutions segment in the Financial Institutions section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

Import - Import Bank/Financial Institution InformationOn the Import page of Administration, you can import bank information into your database.

Import financial institution information

1. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Admin. The Administration page appears. 2. Click Import. The Import page appears and displays all import types in a

tree view on the left side of the screen. The information that appears on the right side of the screen depends on the import type selected in the tree view and whether you have a corresponding import type saved.

3. To create a new import, select the import type to create, and click New on the action bar. To open an existing import, select the import and click Open. The Import screen appears. • To import new bank records or updates to existing bank records in your

database, under Bank/Financial Institution in the tree view, select Bank/Financial Information.


• To update or create bank telephone information, select Bank Phone Number.

• To import new bank records or updates to existing bank records in your database in the same import file used to import new individual constituent records or update existing individual constituent records, under Constituent in the tree view, select Constituent. To import all this information, you can use a single flat file. This feature can be beneficial if you receive import files with this type of information from outside fundraising agencies or organisations.

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• To import new bank records and their addresses or import updates to existing bank records for existing individual constituent records in your database, under Constituent in the tree view, select Constituent Bank.

For detailed information about how to import new records into The Raiser’s Edge, import updates to existing records in The Raiser’s Edge, and create an import file of records in your Raiser’s Edge database to use in another application, see the Import Guide.

Configuration - Business RulesOn the Business Rules page of Configuration, you can select to automatically generate a standing order reference number for each standing order gift, select to display a warning message when you add a gift to a batch if a constituent has an outstanding recurring gift or pledge payment, and set up your credit card authorisation program.

Generate IDsWhen you import standing orders, the standing order reference number is important because The Raiser’s Edge uses it to match transactions. You can select to have The Raiser’s Edge automatically generate a unique standing order reference number for each standing order gift you add to the database.

Automatically generate standing order reference numbers

1. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Config. The Configuration page appears. 2. Click Business Rules. The Business Rules page appears. 3. From the tree view, select Generate IDs.


4. Under When adding records, automatically generate, check Standing order reference numbers.

For more information about the Generate IDs business rules, see the Business Rules section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

Batch OptionsOn the Business Rules page of Configuration, you can select to display a warning message when you add a gift to a batch if a constituent has an outstanding recurring gift or pledge payment, and set up your credit card authorisation program.

Display a warning message when a constituent in a gift batch has an outstanding commitment

You can also select to display a warning

message when a constituent has an outstanding recurring gift or pledge payment when you add a recurring gift or pledge from Records. On the Business Rules page, under Gift options, select Activity options. Under When adding a gift warn if constituent has, check Outstanding pledge balances and Outstanding recurring gifts.

1. On the Business Rules page, select Batch options in the tree view. 2. Under When adding a gift to a batch, warn if constituent has, check

Outstanding pledge balances and Outstanding recurring gifts. When you add recurring gifts and pledges to a batch, a warning appears if one of these gift types are due and asks whether to apply the gift to the recurring gift or pledge.

3. To display a warning message when the constituent has an outstanding registration fee or lapsed membership, check Outstanding registration fees and Lapsed membership. For more information about Batch options business rules, see the Business Rules section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

Configure your credit card authorisation program

You must contact IATS/Ticketmaster to

set up an account. You can contact them by telephone on 001 604 682 8455 x3138 or fax on 001 604 684 0905. IATS supplies you with its own merchant numbers.

1. On the Business Rules page, from the tree view, select Batch options. 2. In the Process credit cards through field, select “IATS/Ticketmaster”.

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3. Under When authorising credit cards, in the grid, enter the account descriptions, login IDs, and passwords for each IATS/Ticketmaster account to which credit card transactions will be directed when you create credit card transmission files. IATS/Ticketmaster uses a standard to assign the login ID that identifies the country for which an account is valid. For example, a typical login ID for an account valid in the United Kingdom begins with U, which designates the account is valid for processing credit cards issued in the United Kingdom.

4. To add a new account:a. On the action bar, click New Account. The Add Account screen

appears.

b. Enter the account description, login ID, and password for the account.

c. Click OK. You return to the Business Rules page. In the grid, the account description and login ID appear. The Raiser’s Edge integrates with IATS when it creates transmission files with Electronic Funds Transfer.

For detailed information and procedures about how to create and send transmission files, see the Creating Transmission Files section of the Electronic Gifts (EFT) Guide. For information about credit cards, see the Credit Card Transmission Files section and the Initialising IATS/Ticketmaster section of the same guide. For more information about Batch options business rules, see the Business Rules section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

Administration - Batch SecurityWhen you assign security for gift batches, you can also assign rights to automatically generate payments, create transmission files, or import standing orders in Electronic Funds Transfer.

Assign security for gift batches

1. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Admin. The Administration page appears.


2. Click Security. The Security page appears. 3. To create a new group or edit an existing group, on the action bar, click

New Group or select an existing group, and click Open. The Group screen appears.

4. In the Group Privileges box, check Batch and click Options. The Security Options screen appears.

5. In the Batch Types box, check Gift. 6. in the Batch Privileges box, check Automatically Generate

Transactions/Payments, Create EFT Transmission Files, or Import Standing Orders.

7. To allow users to import standing orders:

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a. In the Group Privileges box, check Administration and click Options. The Security Options screen appears.

b. In the Administration Security Options box, check Import Standing Orders.

For detailed information about security in The Raiser’s Edge, see the Security chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

User OptionsUser options are preferences you set that affect how The Raiser’s Edge looks and runs on any workstation you use. User options are login-specific, which means that if you log into a workstation with your password, your preferences are active on that workstation. When you log off that workstation, your preferences are not active for any other user. You can establish user options that help with your EFT processing. For information about all user options, see the User Options chapter of the Program Basics Guide.

Records TabOn the Records tab of User Options, you can select to have a red tick appear on the tabs of a gift record that contain data. When you process recurring gift transactions and pledge instalments with Electronic Funds Transfer, we recommend you set this user option so you can readily see if any recurring gift transactions or pledge instalments exist on a recurring gift or pledge.

Display a red tick on gift record tabs that contain data

1. From the menu bar on the shell of The Raiser’s Edge, select Tools, User Options. The Options screen appears.


2. Select the Records tab.

3. From the tree view, select Gifts. The Gift user option selections appear. 4. In the Gifts box, under Check these tabs for data, check Transactions

and Instalments/Payments. A red tick now appears on the Transactions tab of your recurring gift records or the Instalments/Payments tab of your pledge gift records when they contain data.

Batch TabOn the Batch tab of User Options, you can decide whether to generate multiple recurring gift transactions or pledge payments in a batch for a single recurring gift or pledge. For example, you have not generated recurring gift transactions for the past month. When you generate transactions, four transactions for a single weekly recurring gift need processing. When you check Allow multiple EFT transactions per pledge or recurring gift, The Raiser’s Edge can process all four transactions in one batch. If you do not set this user option, only the first transaction due is included for processing in your batch.

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Generate multiple transactions in a batch for a single recurring gift or pledge

This user option does not affect standing

orders. If multiple recurring gift transactions or pledge payments for a single recurring gift or pledge exist in the standing order import file, the payments are committed to the gift records or populate the batch whether you check this user option.

1. From the menu bar on the shell of The Raiser’s Edge, select Tools, User Options. The Options screen appears.

2. Select the Batch tab.

3. From the tree view, under Default batch information, select EFT options. Electronic Funds Transfer user options appear.

4. To generate more than one EFT transaction at one time for a recurring gift or pledge, check Allow multiple EFT transactions per pledge or recurring gift. If you do not check this checkbox, The Raiser’s Edge must authorise and commit a transaction for a recurring gift or pledge before you can generate the next transaction for the same recurring gift or pledge. For more information about how to generate transactions with Electronic Funds Transfer and this particular user option, see the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Guide.

Constituent RecordsBefore you begin to process gifts through Electronic Funds Transfer, a constituent record must exist for each constituent who gives a gift. For constituents who give EFT gifts by direct debit or standing order, you must establish bank information on the constituent record.


To establish bank information for a constituent, on the Bio 1 or Org 1 tab of the constituent record, click Bank. The Bank/Financial Institution screen appears. On this screen, you can track a constituent’s primary bank or financial institution relationship. The primary bank relationship is the bank account from which a constituent usually contributes gifts to your organisation. On the Relationships tab, you can track all other bank and financial institution relationships.

Before you add a bank to a constituent record as a relationship, the bank must appear the Financial Institutions page of Configuration. For information about how to add a bank relationship record to a constituent record, see the Constituent Records and Relationships chapters of the Constituent Data Entry Guide. For information about how to add financial institutions from the Financial Institutions page of Configuration, see the Financial Institutions section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

EFT Gift RecordsOnce you create a recurring gift template or pledge gift record and a constituent is ready to donate gifts regularly by direct debit, standing order, or credit card, you use Electronic Funds Transfer to process the recurring gift transactions and pledge instalments.

Your regular supporters will almost always give recurring gifts. With a recurring gift, you set up a gift record in your database with the Gift type of Recurring Gift. This gift record is a template. The Raiser’s Edge uses this template to generate gift records with a Gift type of Recurring Gift Pay-Cash that follow a schedule you specify on the template.

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A recurring gift can be open-ended. You do not have to specify an end date or a set number of transactions, and a donor can skip payments when necessary. For example, John Smith becomes a regular donor. He informs you that he wants to give £5 a month by direct debit. He does not specify an end date for the gift. After you send John an acknowledgement, a confirmation, and an advance notice letter, and after you send the instruction record electronically to BACS, you start to collect £5 from John’s account each month until he informs you that he wants to stop the donation. On a rare occasion, John informs you that he cannot make a monthly payment. You skip the transaction without changing the schedule for the recurring gift. Next month, John makes his regular payment. For information about recurring gifts, see “Recurring Gifts” on page 95. For detailed information about recurring gifts, see the Recurring Gifts chapter of the Gift Records Guide.A regular supporter can also make a pledge to your organisation; a promise to make a gift in the future. With a pledge gift, you set up a gift record in your database with the Gift type of Pledge. The Raiser’s Edge generates gift records with a Gift type of Pay-Cash that follow a schedule you specify on the pledge gift record. A donor can pay a pledge in single or multiple instalments. Every gift type except Pledge, Recurring Gift, and Legacy Gift can apply toward a pledge. When a constituent does not pay the amount owed for a pledge, you must write it off so it does not appear as expected income. For detailed information about pledges, see the Pledges chapter of the Gift Records Guide.With Electronic Funds Transfer, you use the Automatically Generate Transactions/Payments menu option in Batch to automatically generate direct debit and credit card gift records for recurring gift transactions and pledge payments. The generated transactions and payments automatically apply to the corresponding recurring gift or pledge.Using Electronic Funds Transfer, you can select Import Standing Orders in Batch to import standing order gift payments into a batch for recurring gift transactions and pledge payments. In Administration, you can click Import Standing Orders on the Administration page to import standing order payments directly into The Raiser’s Edge. For detailed information and procedures about how to import standing orders, see the Importing Standing Orders section of the Electronic Gifts (EFT) Guide.


Direct Debit EFT Gift RecordTo generate a recurring gift transaction or pledge payment, or to generate an instruction record, you should set up several options and checkboxes correctly on the gift record. For complete details about how to add gift records to your database, see the Gift Records Guide.

In the Gift type field, select “Recurring Gift” or “Pledge”. If you select “Pledge” and check Continuous, The Raiser’s Edge cannot send an instruction record. For more information about continuous pledges, see the Pledges chapter of the Gift Records Guide.To set up a schedule for the recurring gift or pledge, click Schedule. The scheduled transaction or instalment date must occur on or before the date you enter in the Transaction due on or before field on the General tab of the Automatically Generate Transactions/Payments screen.In the Fund field, select the fund for the recurring gift transaction or pledge payment.In the Status field, select “Active”.In the Pay method field, select “Direct Debit”.To ensure the recurring gift or pledge is processed electronically when you use the Automatically Generate Transactions/Payments menu option, check EFT?.In the Bank field, select the bank from which you receive the direct debit. The list contains all banks or financial institutions, branches, and account numbers entered on the donor’s constituent record.To record the instruction details for paperless mandates:

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a. Click Details. The Instruction Details screen appears.

b. To record that The Raiser’s Edge should send an instruction record for the gift, check Send Instruction.

c. In the Type field, select “New”, “Cancel”, or “Set-up”, or leave it blank. Typically, you select “New” for a new gift record and “Cancel” to stop any transactions/payments from being sent. Select “Set-up” in only rare occurrences, such as while you await approval from BACS to handle paperless mandates. For further information about when to use this type of instruction, contact BACS.

d. In the Instruction Dates frame, enter the date for a new instruction record, the date you send a cancel instruction, or the date you send a set-up instruction record. When you commit a batch that contains instruction records, these dates automatically appear in these fields. If you enter a date in the New instruction sent field, The Raiser’s Edge does not generate a new instruction. To generate a new instruction, such as if you make a mistake, remove the date in this field.

e. In the Date adv. notice sent field, enter the date you send the Advance Notice letter. When you process your Advance Notice Letters in Mail, this date automatically appears in this field. If a date appears in this field, The Raiser’s Edge does not send the advance notice letter again when you use Mail. To send the letter again with Mail, remove the date from this field.

f. In the DDI source field, select the type of source, such as “Letter” or “Internet” for the Direct Debit Instruction (DDI). You can add, edit, or delete the entries in this field.

g. In the DDI source date field, enter the date you receive the confirmed DDI from the donor. The Raiser’s Edge does not generate any new instruction records or first payments until you enter a date in this field.


h. To save and close the instruction record information, click OK. For detailed information about paperless mandates, see the Paperless Direct Debits Guide.

After you receive the direct debit payment from the bank, check Received on the gift record.

Standing Order EFT Gift RecordTo import standing order gift payments for recurring gift transactions and pledge payments, you must have several options and checkboxes correctly set up on the gift record. For complete details about how to add gift records to your database, see the Gift Records Guide.

In the Gift type field, select “Recurring Gift” or “Pledge”.To set up a schedule for the recurring gift or pledge, click Schedule.In the Fund field, select the fund for the gift transaction or pledge payment.In the Status field, select “Active”.

In the Pay method field, select “Standing Order”.To include the recurring gift or pledge in the standing order file that you send to the bank with the Standing Orders mail task in Mail, and to include the recurring gift or pledge when matching gifts in the database with the transaction in the standing order file during the import process, check EFT?. For information about the Standing Orders mail task, see the Mail Guide.In the Bank field, select the bank from which you receive the standing order. The list contains all banks or financial institutions, branches, and account numbers entered on a donor’s constituent record.

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Enter a reference number and a date. When you import standing orders, the standing order reference number is important because The Raiser’s Edge uses it to match transactions. In Configuration, you can select to have The Raiser’s Edge automatically generate a unique standing order reference number for each standing order gift you add to the database. For more information, see “Generate IDs” on page 12.Once you send the standing order file to the constituent’s bank to implement the standing order, check Standing order sent on and enter a date in the corresponding field. To export constituent information to a file that you send to the bank to implement a standing order, use the Standing Orders mail task. Once you run the mail task, you can have the program automatically check Standing order sent on and enter a date. For information about Mail, see the Mail Guide.

Credit Card EFT Gift RecordTo generate a recurring gift transaction or pledge payment, you should set up several options and checkboxes correctly on the gift record. For complete details about how to add gift records to your database, see the Gift Records Guide.

In the Gift type field, select “Recurring Gift” or “Pledge”.To set up a schedule for the recurring gift or pledge, click Schedule. The scheduled transaction or instalment date must occur on or before the date you enter in the Transaction due on or before field on the General tab of the Automatically Generate Transactions/Payments screen.In the Fund field, select the fund for the gift transaction or pledge payment.In the Status field, select “Active”.


In the Pay method field, select “Credit Card”.To ensure the recurring gift or pledge is processed electronically when you use the Automatically Generate Transactions/Payments menu option, check EFT?.In the Card type field, select the kind of credit card you use for the gift transaction or pledge payment.In the Cardholder field, enter the name that appears on the credit card.

The Raiser’s Edge requires Internet access to connect to the Blackbaud Payment Service. If The Raiser’s Edge cannot connect to the Blackbaud Payment Service, a message appears. Click OK and check your Internet connection. If you cannot restore your Internet connection, you can click the “X” in the upper right corner to close the record without saving.

In the Card no./exp. field, enter the number that appears on the credit card and the expiry date.

To help you comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), the program immediately sends new or edited credit card information to the Blackbaud Payment Service when you click Save and Close. Depending on your Internet connection, you may experience a slight delay. In your database, The Raiser’s Edge stores the reference token used to identify the credit card number in the Blackbaud Payment Service. On the record, the Credit Card No. field displays a masked credit card number, with only the last four digits visible.

Gift AidThe tax reclaim amount is calculated

using this formula: Total Gift Amount / (100 - Tax Rate) x Tax Rate. For example, a donation of £50 has a tax claim amount of £12.50 using the 20% tax rate: 50 / (100 - 20) x 20 = 12.50.

To increase the giving levels of your regular supporters, you should convert your donors to the Gift Aid scheme. Under the Gift Aid scheme, implemented on 06 April 2000, you can reclaim the tax a donor has already paid on a gift from HM Revenue & Customs, at the current basic tax rate of 20%. In effect, the total value of a gift to your organisation increases by 25%, at no additional cost to the donor. For every £1 given to your organisation, you can claim an additional 25 pence from HM Revenue & Customs. If you have a lot of regular supporters who give recurring gifts, this can quickly add up to a lot of additional revenue for your organisation.

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For more information about Gift Aid

declarations and what to include on your Gift Aid declaration forms, go to www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities.

To start to turn donations into Gift Aid, a donor must give you a Gift Aid declaration, which can be used for any one-off cash gift, recurring gift, pledge, or cash payment for recurring gifts and pledges of any amount the donor decides to give, now or in the future, as long as the donor remains a UK tax payer. The donor can give you the declaration orally, in writing, or electronically. When the donor gives the declaration orally, if you do not have a sufficient auditable record, you must then write to the donor to confirm the details of the declaration and give the donor 30 days to withdraw it.To reclaim payment of tax under the Gift Aid scheme, your organisation must be a charity. In England and Wales, you must be registered as a charity with the Charity Commission, unless you are excepted from registration. For information about how to register as a charity, visit the Charity Commission website at www.charity-commission.gov.uk. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, HM Revenue & Customs must accept you as a charity. For information about how to become a charity in Scotland, visit the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations website at www.scvo.org.uk/scvo/Home/Home.aspx. For information about how charities get started with Gift Aid, visit the HM Revenue & Customs website at www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/giftaid-charities/how.htm.To set up tax information in The Raiser’s Edge and use this information when you enter constituent records, enter and process gift records, and generate Gift Aid reports requires some thought. You define tax information in several areas of the program. This section outlines the areas of The Raiser’s Edge that use tax information and helps you start to turn your regular donations into Gift Aid.

Configuration - General PageOn the General page of Configuration, you store your charity claims reference number. When your organisation is registered or accepted as a charity, HM Revenue & Customs issues you this unique number. The charity claims reference number is included on Gift Aid reports submitted to HM Revenue & Customs. HM Revenue & Customs returns tax back on gifts submitted only by registered charities.


On the General page, you must also specify whether your organisation is considered a Trust or Company. Once you specify this information, the program prevents you from claiming tax back on gifts that remain unclaimed after the regulatory time period to submit claims has lapsed.

Configure the charity claims reference number and registration status

1. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Config. The Configuration page appears. 2. Click General. The General page appears.

3. In the Charity claims reference no. field, enter your unique number. For more information about the General page of Configuration, see the General section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

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4. Under For tax purposes, our organisation is registered as a, select whether your organisation is a trust or a company.

• When you select Trust, the limitation rules for trusts are based on the tax year as defined by HM Revenue & Customs. The tax year for all trusts begins on 6 April and runs through 5 April of the following calendar year. The tax year applicable for each gift is the tax year that includes the gift date for that gift. Each unclaimed gift with a gift date that falls within the tax year ending in the year xxxx becomes disqualified for Gift Aid after 31 January of the year xxxx + 6 years. For example, an unclaimed gift from 15 May 2006 remains qualified (barring other disqualification factors) through 31 January 2013.

We recommend you run the Update Gift

Aid Status feature in Administration on 1 February for trusts and on the first day of the new financial year for companies. To ensure the information on the Tax tab of every gift is up-to-date and correct, particularly for gifts whose eligibility has just expired, select Update both Gift Aid Qualification status and Tax Claim Eligibility of all unclaimed gifts. For information about the Update Gift Aid Status feature, see “Administration - Update Gift Aid Status” on page 71.

• When you select Company, the limitation rules for companies are based on the tax year as defined by HM Revenue & Customs. The tax year for all companies is based on the accounting period for that company. The not-for-profit accounting period is defined by the month in which its financial year ends (as entered on the General page of Configuration). For example, if the financial year ends in April, the accounting period runs from 1 May to 30 April of the following year. The accounting period applicable for each gift is the accounting period that includes the gift date for that gift. Each unclaimed gift with a gift date falling within the accounting period ending in the year xxxx, will become disqualified for Gift Aid after the last day of the accounting period that ends in the year xxxx + 6 years. For example, an unclaimed gift from 15 May 2006 would remain qualified (barring other disqualification factors) through April 2013.

Regardless of which status applies to your organisation, on the same day each year, all qualified unclaimed gifts that fall within a specific, one year period are added to a set of gifts that no longer qualify for Gift Aid. When the system date reaches the applicable date beyond which taxes cannot be claimed, the qualification status of these gifts are not automatically changed to Not Qualified. Although subsequently-generated R68 (New Gift Aid) and other applicable reports no longer show any tax claim or


potential tax claim amounts for these gifts, the Gift Aid qualification status of each gift is updated only when the gift record is saved, the Gift Aid qualification status is updated following a change to the Gift Aid Disqualification Rules, or the Gift Aid qualification status is updated by means of the Update Gift Aid Status feature in Administration.

Configuration - Business Rules Page - Grace Period for Oral DeclarationsOn the Business Rules page of Configuration, you can define a grace period to allow donors a specific amount of time to rescind an oral Gift Aid declaration before you submit their gifts to HM Revenue & Customs for tax claim. On the Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report, the gifts are excluded until the grace period ends.

Configure the grace period for oral declarations

1. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Config. The Configuration page appears. 2. Click Business Rules. The Business Rules page appears. 3. From the tree view on the left, under Gift options, select Activity

options. The gift activity rule options appear on the right. For more information about the Business Rules page of Configuration, see the Business Rules section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

4. Under When the applicable tax declaration is Oral, select whether to provide donors a grace period to rescind an oral Gift Aid declaration before you submit their gifts to HM Revenue & Customs for tax claim. • To immediate submit a gift for tax claim when you send a confirmation

to the constituent, select Allow tax claim immediately upon sending the confirmation to the constituent.

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• To set up a grace period to allow donors a specific amount of time to rescind an oral Gift Aid declaration before you submit their gifts for tax claim, select Do not allow tax claim until [ ] days after confirmation is sent. In the box, enter the number of days for the grace period. In accordance to HM Revenue & Custom requirements, the default grace period is 30 days. For more information, see www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/guidance-notes/chapter3/sectionb.htm#m.

Configuration - Business Rules Page - Gift Aid RulesFrom the Business Rules page of Configuration, you can access the Gift Aid Disqualification Rules screen. On this screen, you can set up rules to determine the conditions that automatically disqualify gifts for Gift Aid. The qualification of gifts entered into The Raiser’s Edge is based on the conditions (criteria and attributes) you set up. The characteristics of a gift determine its Gift Aid qualification status. For example, if you decide all gifts with a Voucher pay method are disqualified for Gift Aid, you can set up a rule to disqualify these gifts. When needed, you can manually override the rules you set up.

For more information about how your

disqualification rules work with the options on the Tax tab, see “Tax Tab - Tax Claim Eligible (Cash Gifts, Recurring Gifts, Pledges, and Cash Payments for Recurring Gifts and Pledges)” on page 42.

The Gift Aid disqualification rules work in conjunction with the Tax tab of the gift record. On the Tax tab of your one-off cash gifts, recurring gifts, pledges, and cash payments for recurring gifts and pledges, you must select the method by which to assign the Gift Aid qualification status to the gift. Depending on your selection, the program uses your Gift Aid disqualification rules to automatically determine and display the Gift Aid Qualification Status for your gifts. A gift can either be Qualified for Gift Aid or Not Qualified for Gift Aid. If a gift is a split gift, and only a portion is qualified for Gift Aid, it can have a Partly Qualified for Gift Aid status.On the Tax tab, you have three options: Apply Gift Aid Rules, Set as Qualified, and Set as Not Qualified. Only the first two options use your Gift Aid disqualification rules. When you select Apply Gift Aid Rules, all Gift Aid disqualification rules run to determine whether the gift qualifies for Gift Aid. When you select Set as Qualified, only the Gift Aid disqualification rules that do not allow exceptions run. When you select Set as Not Qualified, no disqualification rules run.

You can reclaim tax only on gifts that are

tax claim eligible. For a gift to be classified as tax claim eligible in The Raiser’s Edge, a gift must qualify for Gift Aid and a Gift Aid declaration must be recorded on the Bio 1 tab of the donor’s constituent record, applicable for the date of the gift. Also, this Gift Aid declaration must have a pays tax status of Yes. When the declaration has an indicator of Oral, the confirmation sent date must be less than or equal to the system date.

In Configuration, on the Gift Aid Disqualification Rules screen, after you set up rules and click OK, you must decide whether to update the Gift Aid qualification status of unclaimed gifts now or save your rules and update later. When you decide to update, the Update Gift Aid Status screen appears. If you update immediately after you set up or change rules in Configuration, you must update both the Gift Aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility of all unclaimed gifts, using gift dates you define. This is always a good idea because the new rules are immediately applied to existing unclaimed gifts.If you decide to update later, you can click Update Gift Aid Status in Administration to either update both the Gift Aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility of all unclaimed gifts or only the tax claim eligibility, using gift dates you define. To ensure the rules apply to existing unclaimed gifts, select the option to update both the Gift Aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility of all unclaimed gifts. When you add new rules or change existing rules, we recommend you run this update before you run the next Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report.

Configure the Gift Aid disqualification rules

1. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Config. The Configuration page appears.


2. Click Business Rules. The Business Rules page appears. For information about the Business Rules page, see the Configuration & Security Guide.

3. From the tree view on the left, under Gift options, select Activity options. The gift activity rule options appear on the right.

4. Click Gift Aid Rules. The Gift Aid Disqualification Rules screen appears.

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5. Define the conditions (criteria and attributes) that disqualify gifts for Gift Aid. If one or multiple conditions you define apply to a gift added to your database, the program automatically disqualifies the gift, even if a valid Gift Aid declaration exists on the Bio 1 tab of the donor’s constituent record.

In the Criteria Options column, leave

“All are qualified” beside those fields (rows) that should not disqualify a gift for Gift Aid.

In the top grid of the Gift Aid Disqualification Rules screen, fields appear on which you base your rules: Appeals, Campaigns, Credit Card Types, Funds, Gift Codes, Gift Subtypes, Gift Types, Packages, Pay Methods, and Voucher Agencies.

a. In the Criteria Options column, beside the field (row) on which to base disqualifications, select “Disqualify selected”. The selection screen appears.

After you select “Disqualify selected”

in the Criteria Options column, you can click in the Selected Criteria column of the same row at any time to click the binoculars to access the selection screen and make changes.

b. Choose the entries for that particular field which disqualify the gift for Gift Aid and move them from the left box to the right box.

c. Click OK. You return to the Gift Aid Disqualification Rules screen. In the Selected Criteria column of the row, your selections appear.

d. In the Allow Exceptions column, decide whether to allow exceptions for the disqualification rule you set up. To allow exceptions, check the checkbox.

For example, a gift given with a voucher from Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) is ineligible for Gift Aid. The tax has already been taken into account by CAF. In the Voucher Agencies row, in the Criteria Options column, select “Disqualify selected”. The Selected Voucher Agencies selection screen appears. Move “CAF” from the left box to the Include these Voucher Agencies box, and click OK. On the Gift Aid Disqualification Rules screen., your selection appears in the Selected


Criteria column of the same row. In the Allow Exceptions column of the same row, you must determine whether to allow exceptions to the rule you set for gifts given with CAF vouchers. You know your organisation can never reclaim tax for CAF gifts; there are no exceptions to the rule. In the Allow Exceptions column, uncheck the checkbox.

As with all attributes in The Raiser’s Edge,

you can customise these attributes to work best for your organisation. For information about adding gift attributes to your database, see the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

6. On the bottom of the Gift Aid Disqualification Rules screen, in the Disqualify Gifts with these Attributes grid, set up rules so particular attributes disqualify gifts for Gift Aid.

a. Check Disqualify Gifts with these Attributes.b. In the grid, select your categories, descriptions, short descriptions (if

applicable) for each gift attribute.c. In the Allow Exceptions column, decide whether to allow

exceptions for each attribute you add. To allow exceptions, check the checkbox.

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When you leave Allow Exceptions checked

beside a criteria row in the top grid or beside an attribute in the bottom grid of the Gift Aid Disqualification Rules screen, you can override the Gift Aid disqualification rule. To do this, select Set as Qualified in the Method of Assigning Gift Aid Qualification Status box on the Tax tab of the gift record. While the rule normally disqualifies the gift, when you select Set as Qualified, the program ignores the disqualification rule and the Gift Aid Qualification Status appears as Qualified for Gift Aid. If a valid tax declaration exists on the Bio 1 tab of the donor's constituent record, applicable for the date of the gift, you can reclaim tax on the gift. When you uncheck Allow Exceptions, once you save a gift, the Gift Aid Qualification Status appears as Not Qualified for Gift Aid regardless of the option selected in the Method of Assigning Gift Aid Qualification Status box.

For example, the sale of raffle tickets is not eligible for Gift Aid. On each gift record for a gift given to purchase a raffle ticket, you add a gift attribute with the Category of Raffle and a Description of Sales. On the Gift Aid Disqualification Rules page, add this same gift attribute to always disqualify these gifts for Gift Aid and uncheck Allow Exceptions beside the attribute. The program disqualifies gifts given for the purchase of raffle tickets and does not include them in gifts sent to HM Revenue & Customs to reclaim tax.

7. Once you set up your Gift Aid disqualification rules, click OK to save your rules. A message appears to warn you that disqualification rules changed and to ask whether to update the Gift Aid qualification status of unclaimed gifts that use these rules.

If you click No, you can click Update Gift

Aid Status in Administration to update the Gift Aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility of unclaimed gifts at any time. This helps you identify and correct the tax claim eligibility for the qualified gifts for which donors give a Gift Aid declaration at a later date than they give a gift. This feature also uses the disqualification rules set up in Configuration. For more information, see “Administration - Update Gift Aid Status” on page 71.

8. We recommend you update immediately so the new rules apply to existing unclaimed gifts. To update immediately, click Yes. The Update Gift Aid Status screen appears.

9. Use the gift dates you define to update both the Gift Aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility of all unclaimed gifts.


• On the General tab, select the gift records to include (all, selected, or one) and define the dates the program must consider. To include unclaimed gifts that have already been posted to Nominal Ledger, as well as those that have not yet been posted, check Include gifts already posted to the Nominal Ledger. When you leave the checkbox unchecked, the program updates only the unclaimed gifts that have not posted. Select whether to create a control report or a query of gifts for which tax claim eligibility was updated.

• On the Filters tab, select the fields by which to filter the set of gifts to update.

• On the Attributes tab, select the gift attributes to use to include or exclude gifts.

The first time you define Gift Aid

disqualification rules, you must run the update. Otherwise, your existing gifts do not receive a Gift Aid qualification status, and The Raiser’s Edge cannot accurately determine the tax claim eligibility for your gifts.

10. Once you define your parameters, click Update Now. The program updates the Gift Aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility of all unclaimed gifts that meet your criteria. If you select to view a control report, it appears and displays the constituent name, gift date, fund, and amount of each gift updated, as well as any exceptions generated. It also shows the total gifts updated and the total number of exceptions.For information about the functionality of the Update Gift Aid Status screen and each of its tabs, see “Administration - Update Gift Aid Status” on page 71. When you click the Update Gift Aid Status link in Administration, the Update Gift Aid Status screen that appears. The only difference is the information you can update from each screen.From Configuration, before you update, you can set up or change the disqualification rules that apply to all new and previously unclaimed gifts. When you update, you must use the gift dates you define to update both the Gift Aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility of all unclaimed gifts.

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In Administration, you can access the Update Gift Aid Status screen to quickly update when you do not need to add new rules or change existing rules. On the Update Gift Aid Status screen in Administration, you can either update both the Gift Aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility of all unclaimed gifts or only the tax claim eligibility, using gift dates you define.

Configuration - Taxes PageOn the Taxes page of Configuration, you specify the tax rates The Raiser’s Edge uses to calculate tax for gifts given during specific date ranges. When your organisation claims taxes back from HM Revenue & Customs, you can use this page to determine which rate applies to each date range. The program uses these rates to track gifts on constituent records, process new gifts, and generate Gift Aid reports. For more information about the Taxes page of Configuration, see the Taxes section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.On the Taxes page of Configuration, in the Tax Rates grid, enter the tax rates by percentage and the corresponding dates the rates went into effect. When you enter a date in the Date Effective column, a percentage is required in the Tax Rate column. You must enter dates chronologically.

Constituent RecordsThe Declaration Information button

appears only on individual constituent records. For information about who can use Gift Aid, go to www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities.

On individual constituent records, you can track important Gift Aid information. To help turn donations into valuable Gift Aid, a donor must give you a Gift Aid declaration, which can be used for any one-off cash gift, recurring gift, pledge, or cash payment for recurring gifts and pledges. You record this declaration information from the Declaration Information button on the Bio 1 tab of the constituent record.


On the Gifts tab of a constituent record, you can easily view columns, such as Gross amount, Tax claim amount, Gross balance, and Tax claim eligible. These columns display the total gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim from HM Revenue & Customs (gross amount), the tax amount you can reclaim (tax claim amount), and for a pledge, the balance plus the tax claim amount for that balance (gross balance). The Tax claim eligible column displays whether the gift is tax claim eligible.

Bio 1 TabFor a gift to be classified as tax claim

eligible in The Raiser’s Edge, a gift must qualify for Gift Aid and a Gift Aid declaration must be recorded on the Bio 1 tab of the donor’s constituent record, applicable for the date of the gift. Also, this Gift Aid declaration must have a pays tax status of Yes. When the declaration has an indicator of Oral, the confirmation sent date must be less than or equal to the system date. For more information, see “Configuration - Business Rules Page - Gift Aid Rules” on page 30 and “Tax Tab - Tax Claim Eligible (Cash Gifts, Recurring Gifts, Pledges, and Cash Payments for Recurring Gifts and Pledges)” on page 42.

On the Bio 1 tab of an individual constituent record, you can indicate that a constituent is a UK tax payer and record details about the individual’s Gift Aid declarations. A declaration is applicable for any one-off cash gift, recurring gift, pledge, or cash payment for recurring gifts and pledges of any amount the donor decides to give, now or in the future, as long as the donor remains a UK tax payer.A constituent can have multiple declarations, and the effective period (start date to end date) of one declaration for the constituent can overlap the effective period of another declaration given by the same constituent. When you add a new declaration or edit an existing declaration that overlaps with other declarations and this declaration causes a conflicting tax claim eligible status, you cannot save the declaration. This ensures the program can always determine a single tax claim eligible status for each gift, preventing conflicts that can cause errors on the Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report and other relevant reports.For information about how charities get started with Gift Aid, see the HM Revenue & Customs Web site at www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/giftaid-charities/how.htm.

Add a Gift Aid declaration for an individual constituent

1. From the Bio 1 tab of an individual constituent record, click Declaration Information. The Declarations Information screen appears.

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To edit a tax declaration, select the

declaration in the grid on the Declarations Information screen and click Open on the action bar. To delete a declaration, select it, and click Delete.

2. On the action bar, click New Declaration. The Tax Declaration Information screen appears.

When a constituent has multiple tax

declarations, click the left or right arrow buttons on the action bar on the Tax Declaration Information screen to scroll through the list.

3. Under Declaration, in the Made field, enter the date the donor makes the Gift Aid declaration.

4. In the Indicator field, specify how the donor makes the declaration, such as “Oral”, “Written”, or “Internet”.

5. In the Starts and Ends fields, enter when the declaration is active. You may not always want to specify an end date. For example, with a recurring gift, a donor may not have an end date in mind.

6. In the Source field, select the method that successfully persuaded the constituent to make the declaration, such as “Telethon Appeal”, “Charity Race Sponsorship Form”, “Face to Face”, or “DialogueDirect”. When you record this information for each declaration, you can help determine which methods most effectively solicit declarations.

7. If digital images of the documents associated with the declaration exist, check Scanned Documents Exist. For example, if you use Blackbaud Gift Aid to manage and store your Gift Aid declarations and scanned images exist for this declaration, check this checkbox.For information about how to use the Scanned Documents Exist checkbox to help exclude tax claim amounts on your Gift Aid reports for any gift for which this checkbox is not checked, see “Gift Aid Reports” on page 84 and “Gift Tax Detail and Summary Report” on page 86.

8. In the Confirmation frame, in the Sent field, enter the date you send a confirmation letter to the constituent.

9. In the Returned field, enter the date you receive the letter back, with all declaration details confirmed, such as when you select “Oral” in the Indicator field.


10. In the Status frame, in the Pays Tax field, indicate whether the donor is a UK tax payer.

11. In the Status field, select the status of the donor, such as “Employed”.12. In the Comments box, enter any important notes to track about the Gift

Aid declaration or tax details.13. On the toolbar, click Save and Close. You return to the Declarations

Information screen. The declaration appears as its own row in the grid.

14. Click Close. You return to the Bio 1 tab. On the Declaration Information button, a red tick appears so you can quickly see that tax declaration information exists.

Gifts TabOn the Gifts tab of a constituent record, you can select to view the Gross amount, Gross balance, Tax claim amount, Tax claim eligible, and Claim number columns. You can also view tax claim refunds sent to HM Revenue & Customs and archived gifts from tax claim adjustments.When you have archived gifts in your database, you can select whether to display archived gifts on the tab. For more information about archived gift records, see “Gift Menu - Adjust Tax Claim” on page 49.

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Display Gift Aid columns on the Gifts tab of an individual constituent record

You can maximise a constituent record to

view more columns in the grid on the Gifts tab.

1. From the Gifts tab of an individual constituent record, right-click in the grid and select Columns.

The Columns screen appears.


2. Select the columns to display on the Gifts tab. We recommend you display Gross amount, Gross balance, Tax claim amount, Tax claim eligible, Claim number, Refund tax, Archived gift, Reverse posting and any other columns to help you manage your Gift Aid programme. To select a column, select the column in the Columns box and click the right arrow. The columns moves to the Display these columns box.

3. Click OK. You return to the Gifts tab. In the grid, the selected columns now appear.

4. If you have archived gifts in your database, select whether to display archived gifts on the Gifts tab.

a. On the action bar, click Archived Gifts. The Archived Gifts screen appears.

b. Select how to display archived gifts.To hide all archived gifts on the tab, select Hide archived gifts. This is the default.To display archived gifts along with other gift types, select Include archived gifts in display.To display only archived gifts, select Display only archived gifts.

c. Click OK. You return to the Gifts tab. In the grid, your selected gifts appear.

Gift RecordsOn gift records from individual constituents, you can include information about whether your organisation can claim tax relief on the gift. On your one-off cash gifts, recurring gifts, pledges, and cash payments for recurring gifts and pledges, you can quickly view the net and gross amount of these gifts. You can also adjust tax claim information on gifts that were previously posted to the nominal ledger, reported on the R68 report, or both.

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Tax Tab - Tax Claim Eligible (Cash Gifts, Recurring Gifts, Pledges, and Cash Payments for Recurring Gifts and Pledges)

For information about how to add Gift Aid

declarations to an individual constituent record, see “Constituent Records” on page 36.

On the Tax tab of your one-off cash gifts, recurring gifts, pledges, and cash payments for recurring gifts and pledges, you must specify the method by which to assign the Gift Aid Qualification Status to the gift. From your setting, the program determines and displays the Gift Aid qualification status for the gift; determines the tax claim eligibility status for the gift; and depending on whether the gift is tax claim eligible, displays a tax claim amount or potential tax claim amount. This helps you determine which gifts to submit to HM Revenue & Customs to reclaim tax under the Gift Aid scheme, implemented on 06 April 2000. To classify a gift as tax claim eligible in The Raiser’s Edge, the gift must qualify for Gift Aid, and you must record a Gift Aid declaration on the Bio 1 tab of the donor’s constituent record, applicable for the date of the gift. Also, this Gift Aid declaration must have a pays tax status of “Yes”. When the declaration has an indicator of “Oral”, the confirmation sent date must be less than or equal to the system date.In The Raiser’s Edge, a Gift Aid qualification status appears as Qualified for Gift Aid or Not Qualified for Gift Aid. A split gift can appear as Partly Qualified for Gift Aid when only one portion qualifies. Gift Aid qualification is based on the characteristics of a gift. On the Business Rules page of Configuration, on the Gift Aid Disqualification Rules screen, you should set up rules to determine the conditions that automatically disqualify gifts for Gift Aid. For example, if you decide to disqualify all gifts with a Voucher pay method for Gift Aid, you can set up a rule to ensure these gifts are automatically disqualified.

For information about how to set up Gift Aid

disqualification rules to automatically determine a Gift Aid Qualification status for your gifts from individual constituent donors, see “Configuration - Business Rules Page - Gift Aid Rules” on page 30.

Your disqualification rules work in conjunction with the Tax tab. On the Tax tab, you must select one method by which to assign the Gift Aid qualification status to the gift: Apply Gift Aid Rules, Set as Qualified, or Set as Not Qualified. The first two options work in conjunction with your Gift Aid disqualification rules. When you select Apply Gift Aid Rules, all Gift Aid disqualification rules run to determine whether the gift is qualified for Gift Aid. When you select Set as Qualified, only the Gift Aid disqualification rules you set up that do not allow exceptions run. When you select Set as Not Qualified, none of your disqualification rules run.Although you must specify the method by which to assign the Gift Aid qualification status to the gift, you never have to set tax claim eligibility. For gifts that are tax claim eligible, the program calculates and displays the tax claim amount automatically on the Tax tab. Because the program knows both the Gift Aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility status for the gift, when a gift qualifies for Gift Aid but is not tax claim eligible, the program calculates and displays the potential tax claim amount for the gift. This way, you quickly see the additional revenue you can earn when the donor gives you a Gift Aid declaration.


Select the Gift Aid qualification method and view tax claim information

For a gift to be classified as tax claim

eligible in The Raiser’s Edge, a gift must be qualified for Gift Aid and a Gift Aid declaration must be recorded on the Bio 1 tab of the donor’s constituent record, applicable for the date of the gift. Also, this Gift Aid declaration must have a pays tax status of Yes. When the declaration has an indicator of Oral, the confirmation sent date must be less than or equal to the system date. For information about adding Gift Aid declarations to an individual constituent record, see “Bio 1 Tab” on page 37.

On the Tax tab, by your selection in the Method of Assigning Gift Aid Qualification Status box, the program determines and displays the Gift Aid Qualification Status for the gift. The program also determines the tax claim eligibility status and tax claim amount or potential tax claim amount for the gift. In the Method of Assigning Gift Aid Qualification Status box, you can select the Gift Aid qualification method.

Each time you select one of these options,

you must click Show Detail or save the gift to have the Gift Aid Qualification Status appear.

If a gift is a split gift, you select the method to assign Gift Aid qualification status on the Split Gift tab instead of the Tax tab. On the Tax tab, the selections in the Method of Assigning Gift Aid Qualification Status box are disabled and a message appears to instruct you to specify the Gift Aid qualification method on the Split Gift tab. On the Split Gift tab, in each row for a portion of the split gift, select a qualification method in the Gift Aid

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qualification method column. The selections in this column are the same as in the Method of Assigning Gift Aid Qualification Status box on the Tax tab. These rules also apply to each portion of the split gift. For more information about split gifts, see the Split Gifts tab section of the Gift Records Basic chapter in the Gift Records Guide.

1. On the Tax tab or, for a split gift, on the Split Gift tab, select the Gift Aid qualification method.• To run all Gift Aid disqualification rules you set up in Business Rules

to determine whether the gift qualifies for Gift Aid, select Apply Gift Aid Rules. When you make this selection, the Gift Aid Qualification Status field displays “Qualified for Gift Aid” or “Not Qualified for Gift Aid”. For a split gift, “Partly Qualified for Gift Aid” appears when only a portion qualifies.For information about how to set up disqualification rules, see “Configuration - Business Rules Page - Gift Aid Rules” on page 30.

You can manually set the Gift Aid

qualification status, but you cannot manually set the tax claim eligibility of the gift.

• To run only the Gift Aid disqualification rules that do not allow exceptions (those with Allow Exceptions unchecked) to determine whether the gift qualifies for Gift Aid, select Set as Qualified. When you make this selection, if a rule disqualifies the gift, the Gift Aid Qualification Status field displays “Not Qualified for Gift Aid”. If no Gift Aid disqualification rules disqualify the gift ,or if all the applicable rules allow exceptions (those with Allow Exceptions checked), the Gift Aid Qualification Status field displays “Qualified for Gift Aid”. For a split gift, “Partly Qualified for Gift Aid” appears when only a portion qualifies.


When you set up Gift Aid disqualification rules to allow exceptions (those with Allow Exceptions checked), you can select Set as Qualified to override the disqualification rules. While the rules would normally disqualify the gift for Gift Aid, when you make this selection, the program ignores Gift Aid disqualification rules that allow exceptions and the Gift Aid Qualification Status field displays “Qualified for Gift Aid”.

• To have the Gift Aid Qualification Status field display “Not Qualified for Gift Aid” and apply none of the Gift Aid disqualification rules you set up in Business Rules to the gift, select Set as Not Qualified. When you make this selection, The Raiser’s Edge overrides the rules altogether. Gifts other than Cash, Pledge, Recurring Gift, and Pay-Cash for recurring gifts and pledges are automatically assigned Set as Not Qualified.

You can change your selected Gift Aid qualification method at any time, as long as you have not submitted the gift to HM Revenue & Customs to reclaim the tax. Once you run the Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report (which automatically enters a number into the Claim number field) to claim the gift, the options are disabled.

2. On the Tax tab of a gift record, view the tax claim eligibility status.When you run a Generate R68 (New

Gift Aid) Report to claim taxes on gifts that have been received, it will not pick up any gifts for which “Oral” is selected in the Indicator field on the constituent’s Tax Declaration Information screen, accessed from the Declaration Information button on the Bio 1 tab, unless a date less than or equal to the system date appears in the Confirmation Sent field. Be careful when you enter a date in the Confirmation Sent field because the program allows you to enter any date.

• When a gift is tax claim eligible, no status appears. To classify a gift as tax claim eligible in The Raiser’s Edge, it must qualify for Gift Aid and you must record a Gift Aid declaration on the Bio 1 tab of the donor’s constituent record, applicable for the date of the gift.

Also, this Gift Aid declaration must have a pays tax status of “Yes”. When the declaration has an indicator of “Oral”, the confirmation sent date must be less than or equal to the system date.

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When a gift is tax claim eligible, no status

appears, but a tax claim amount appears.

• When a gift is not qualified for Gift Aid, the status of “Gift is not eligible for tax claim” appears.

Cash gifts linked to a legacy gift are never

qualified for Gift Aid.

• If the gift qualifies for Gift Aid but none of the constituent’s Gift Aid declarations include this gift’s date, “No” or “Unknown” appears in the Pays Tax field in the Status frame of the Tax Declaration Information screen of the declaration, or “Oral” appears in the Indicator field in the Declaration frame of the Tax Declaration Information screen of the declaration and the Sent field in the Confirmation frame does not contain a date before or equal to the current system date, the status of “Gift is not eligible for tax claim. No valid declaration on file.” appears.

Each time you click Show Detail, the Gift

Aid disqualification rules you set up in Configuration run. For information about how to set up disqualification rules, see “Configuration - Business Rules Page - Gift Aid Rules” on page 30.

3. To view the tax claim amounts calculated for the gift, click Show Detail under the Gift Aid Qualification Status field.


On the Gift Aid Detail screen, view the tax claim amounts calculated for the gift by campaign, fund, appeal, and package (for split gifts) and the rules (criteria and attributes) that disqualify the gift. Each time you click Show Details, The Raiser’s Edge updates the Gift Aid qualification status.

4. On the Tax tab, view the amount you can collect from HM Revenue & Customs and the tax claim number of the gift.• The Tax claim amount field displays the amount you can collect from

HM Revenue & Customs for the gift. For a split gift, a single amount appears that is the total tax claim amount for the eligible portions of the gift.When a defined grace period applies to an eligible gift for which an Oral tax declaration applies, and the current system date is not greater than the business rule’s specified number of days past the Confirmation Sent Date on the applicable tax declaration, the Tax tab displays an amount in the Tax claim amount field. During the grace period, text appears to the right of this field to inform you that you cannot claim the tax c on the gift until after the grace period passes. During the grace period, you cannot enter a value in the Claim number field.

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• For a gift that qualifies for Gift Aid but is not tax claim eligible, an amount appears in the Potential tax claim amount field (except when you select “No” in the Pays Tax field in the Status frame of the Tax Declaration Information screen, accessed from the Declaration Information button on the Bio 1 tab). For a split gift, a single amount appears that is the total potential tax claim amount for the eligible portions of the gift.

The Potential tax claim amount field displays the tax amount that you could reclaim from HM Revenue & Customs if you had a valid declaration recorded on the Bio 1 tab of the donor’s constituent record, applicable for the date of the gift.

If you manually enter a claim number on the

Tax tab, you must manually claim the gift with HM Revenue & Customs.The program excludes gifts with a claim number from the Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report that you return to HM Revenue & Customs.

• For Cash gifts and Pay-Cash gifts for recurring gifts and pledges that are tax claim eligible, the Claim number field appears. When you process the Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report, the program updates this field automatically. You can manually enter a tax claim number in this field, but to include a gift in the R68 report, the field must be blank. When you process the Rerun Tax Claims Report and the Tax Claim Breakdown Report, you can use this number to include payments.

Recurring gift templates and pledge records do not have the Claim number field because these gift types cannot be claimed. You can claim only the cash payments generated from the recurring gift template and pledge record.


Gift Menu - Adjust Tax ClaimWith the Gift, Adjust Tax Claim menu option, you can correct tax claim information on gifts you previously posted to Nominal Ledger, reported on the R68 report, or both. You can use tax claim adjustments to refund taxes to HM Revenue & Customs that you claimed in error or to amend the amount of taxes claimed. To send a list of previously submitted taxes to refund to HM Revenue & Customs, you can run a Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report. You can create a replacement gift for the adjusted gift and retain information about this gift as an audit trail. The program processes tax claim adjustments in various ways, depending on whether a gift has been posted, claimed, or both.The basic methods to process an adjustment for tax claim are as follows:• To reverse a previously posted gift record, run the Post to Nominal Ledger

feature for the gift. • To refund taxes previously claimed from HM Revenue & Customs, run the next

Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report for the applicable gifts. • When you adjust the tax claim for a pledge or recurring gift for which

instalments have already been saved and either posted or claimed, these processes occur for each instalment, as applicable. The program archives the original gift record being reversed or refunded in your database as a view-only record. The archived gift is basically a deleted gift record that you can still view. The program saves the tax claim number of the R68 report on which the tax refund for the gift is recorded. The archived gift record contains all data that was previously saved to the gift before the adjustment and is retained as an auditable record of the gift prior to the adjustment. You cannot change an archived gift. When you create a replacement gift for a recurring gift instalment, you can select to apply the replacement gift to the original instalment.

If you have the proper rights set up in Security to permanently remove an archived gift record from your database, you can delete it when necessary. However, when a circumstance requires you delete an archived gift, we recommend you weigh the benefits of the deletion of the archived record against the downside of the loss of a record that you may need later, such as for an HM Revenue & Customs audit. You may lose a record of a gift for which you have refunded taxes to HM Revenue & Customs.

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Adjust a Cash or Pay-Cash gift that has been posted, but not claimed

If you do not need a replacement gift, you

can delete the gift from your database. To keep a gift that has not been claimed, select Gift, Adjust Gift from the menu bar.

When you adjust a single Cash or Pay-Cash gift that you posted to Nominal Ledger but have not yet claimed on the R68 report, the program only reverses the posting for the gift. The program creates a new active replacement gift for the adjusted gift and deletes the old gift. As an audit trail of the adjustment, an archived view-only gift remains in the database.1. From the menu bar of a Cash or Pay-Cash gift that has been posted but not

claimed, select Gift, Adjust Tax Claim.

The Adjust Tax Claim screen appears.

2. In the Reversal NL post date field, enter the date you reverse the post. By default, the current date appears.

3. In the Reason field, enter why you reverse the post.


If you do not need a replacement gift, you

can delete the gift from your database.

4. Click OK. The program creates and displays a new active duplicate gift of the adjusted gift.

5. Select the Attributes tab. In the grid, new attribute appears with a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment”, a description of “Replaces Gift”, and the date of the adjustment. In the Comments column, the system record ID of the archived gift appears.

6. Edit information on the gift as necessary.

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7. On the toolbar, click Save and Close. The archived original gift appears. Although this gift is virtually deleted on the database, it appears as a view-only gift record. You cannot edit anything on this gift. The program retains the gift as an audit trail that stays in the database.

8. Select the Attributes tab. In the grid, two attributes appear.

• The first attribute has a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment” and a description of “Replaced by”. In the Comments column, the system record ID of the new replacement gift appears.


• The second attribute has a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment” and a description of “Reason”. In the Comments column, the reason entered for the gift adjustment on the Adjust Tax Claim screen appears.

You cannot edit these attributes.9. To close the archived gift record, click the “x” in the top right corner.

Adjust a Cash or Pay-Cash gift that has been claimed (posted or not posted)When you adjust a single Cash or Pay-Cash gift that you previously claimed on the R68 report and sent to HM Revenue & Customs, the program refunds the taxes. The program also adds a section to the next R68 report, which you can send to HM Revenue & Customs to list the refunded taxes you previously claimed in error. If the previously claimed gift has been posted, the program reverses the posting.You can select whether to create an active replacement gift when the program adjusts the original one. The program deletes the adjusted gift from your database, but an archived view-only gift remains in the database as an audit trail of the adjustment.1. From the menu bar of a Cash or Pay-Cash gift for which the taxes have

previously been claimed from HM Revenue & Customs, select Gift, Adjust Tax Claim.

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To retain the old gift in view-only mode as an

audit trail in your database and not create a replacement gift, select Do not create a replacement gift. You may not need a replacement gift for the one you delete, such as for a straight refund of taxes you previously claimed in error.

2. To create a replacement gift for the adjusted gift, under Replacement Gift, select Create a replacement gift.

3. In the Reversal NL post date field, enter the date you reverse the post. By default, the current date appears. If the claimed gift is not posted, this field is disabled.

4. In the Reason field, enter why you adjust the tax claim.5. Click OK. The program creates and displays a new active duplicate gift

of the adjusted gift.



• The first attribute has a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment”, a description of “Replaces Gift”, and the date of the adjustment. In the Comments column, the system record ID of the archived gift appears.

• The second attribute has a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment”, a description of “Corrects tax claimed on”, and the date of the adjustment. In the Comments column, the tax claim number of the archived gift appears.

7. Edit information on the gift as necessary.

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8. On the toolbar, click Save and Close. The archived original gift appears. Although this gift is virtually deleted on the database, it appears as a view-only gift record. You cannot edit this gift. The program retains it as an audit trail that stays in the database.


• The first attribute has a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment”, a description of “Reason”. In the Comments column, the reason entered for the adjustment on the Adjust Tax Claim screen appears.


• The second attribute has a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment” and a description of “Replaced by”. In the Comments column, the system record ID of the replacement gift appears.

You cannot edit these attributes.10. Select the Tax tab. A new Tax Claim Refund number field appears.

When you generate the next R68 report, the tax claim refund number appears in this field, and the field is disabled.

11. To close the archived gift record, click the “x” in the top right corner.

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Adjust a pledge (with or without applied instalments) that has been claimed

Use this procedure if the Adjust Tax Claim

option impacts the pledge. If the tax adjustment is required for one or multiple instalments, use the Adjust Tax Claim option on the applicable instalments.

When you adjust a pledge for which instalments have been applied and claimed on the R68 report and sent to HM Revenue & Customs, the program refunds the taxes that were previously claimed for each of those instalments and adds a section to the next R68 report so you can send the refunded taxes to HM Revenue & Customs that were previously claimed in error. If the previously claimed gift has been posted, the program reverses the posting for the gift and each payment that was posted.You can select whether to create an active replacement gift when the program adjusts the original one. The program deletes the adjusted gift from your database but retains an archived view-only gift in the database as an audit trail of the adjustment. The program does not create a replacement gift for each instalment applied to the original pledge. You must manually add payments to replace those t reversed after you save the replacement gift.If the pledge is set up for Paperless Direct Debit or Standing Order, subsequent instalments are scheduled to be applied automatically. After you adjust a tax claim on the original pledge and a create a replacement gift, the program applies the subsequent payments scheduled to be applied to the archived gift to the replacement gift. Before your organisation receives the next automatic instalment, you must manually enter and apply all previously applied instalments (refunded or reversed because of the adjustment).

We recommend you print a list of

instalments before you adjust the pledge. You can run and print the Gift Tax Detail and Summary report for the constituent whose pledge you adjust.

1. From the menu bar of the pledge for which instalments have been applied, claimed on the R68 report, and sent to HM Revenue & Customs, select Gift, Adjust Tax Claim. This option appears only when the pledge has been posted.



To not create a replacement gift and

only retain the adjusted gift in view-only mode as an audit trail in your database, select Do not create a replacement gift. You may not need a replacement gift for the one you delete, such as for a straight refund of taxes previously claimed in error.

2. To create a replacement gift for the adjusted gift, in the Replacement Gift frame, select Create a replacement gift.


4. In the Reason field, enter why you adjust the tax claim.5. Click OK. A warning appears to inform you that you must manually add

payments to replace those reversed after you save the replacement gift.6. Click OK. The program creates and displays a new active duplicate gift

of the adjusted gift.

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7. Select the Attributes tab. In the grid, an attribute appears with a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment”, a description of “Replaces Gift”, and the date of the adjustment. In the Comments column, the system record ID of the archived gift appears.

8. Edit information on the gift as necessary. 9. On the toolbar, click Save and Close. The archived original gift appears.

Although this gift is virtually deleted on the database, it appears as a view-only gift record. You cannot edit anything on this gift. The program retains it as an audit trail that stays in the database.


10. Select the Attributes tab. In the grid, two new attributes appear.

• The first attribute has a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment” and a description of “Reason”. In the Comments column, the reason for the adjustment appears.

• The second attribute has a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment” and a description of “Replaced by”. In the Comments column, the system record ID of the replacement gift appears.

You cannot edit these attributes.11. To close the archived gift record, click the “x” in the top right corner.12. If the pledge is set up for Paperless Direct Debit or Standing Order,

subsequent instalments are scheduled to be applied automatically. Before your organisation receives the next automatic instalment, manually enter and apply all previously applied instalments (refunded or reversed because of the adjustment).

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Adjust a recurring gift (with or without applied instalments) that have been claimed

Use this procedure if the Adjust Tax Claim

option impacts the recurring gift. If the tax adjustment is required for one or multiple payments, use the Adjust Tax Claim option on the applicable payments.

When you adjust a recurring gift for which instalments have been applied, claimed on the R68 report, and sent to HM Revenue & Customs, the program refunds the taxes that were previously claimed for each payment and adds a section to the next R68 report so you can send the refunded taxes to HM Revenue & Customs that were previously claimed in error. If the previously claimed gift has been posted to the Nominal Ledger, the program reverses the posting for the gift and each instalment that was posted.You can select whether to create an active replacement gift when the program adjusts the original one. The adjusted gift is deleted from your database, but an archived view-only gift always remains in the database as an audit trail of the adjustment. The program does not create a replacement gift for each of the payments applied to the original Recurring Gift or Pledge. You must manually add payments to replace those that are being reversed after saving the replacement gift.If the recurring gift is set up for Paperless Direct Debit or Standing Order, subsequent instalments are scheduled to be applied automatically. After you adjust a tax claim on the original recurring gift and a create a replacement gift, the program applies the subsequent payments scheduled to be applied to the archived gift to the replacement gift.

Before you adjust the recurring gift, we

recommend you print a list of payments. You can run and print the Gift Tax Detail and Summary report for the constituent whose recurring gift you adjust.

1. From the menu bar of a recurring gift for which instalments have been applied, claimed on the R68 report, and sent to HM Revenue & Customs, select Gift, Adjust Tax Claim. This option appears only when the recurring gift has been posted.



To retain the old gift in view-only mode as an

audit trail in your database, select Do not create a replacement gift. You may not need a replacement gift for the one you delete, such as for a straight refund of taxes previously claimed in error.

2. To create a replacement gift for the adjusted gift, under Replacement Gift, select Create a replacement gift.

3. To automatically apply the replacement gift to the original recurring gift instalment of the adjusted gift, check Apply replacement gift to original recurring gift instalment.If you do not check Apply replacement gift to original recurring gift instalment, you must manually add payments to replace those reversed after you save the replacement gift.


5. In the Reason field, enter why you adjust the tax claim.

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6. Click OK. The program creates and displays a new active duplicate of the adjusted gift.

7. Select the Attributes tab. In the grid, an attribute appears with a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment”, a description of “Replaces Gift”, and the date of the adjustment. In the Comments column, the system record ID of the archived gift appears.


If you check Apply replacement gift to original recurring gift instalment on the Adjust Tax Claim screen, an attribute appears with a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment”, a description of “Corrects tax claimed on”, and the date of the adjustment. In the Comments column, the tax claim that contains the adjusted taxes appears.

8. Edit information on the gift as necessary.9. On the toolbar, click Save and Close. The archived original gift appears.

Although this gift is virtually deleted on the database, it appears as a view-only gift record. You cannot edit anything on this gift. The program retains it strictly an audit trail that stays in the database.

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10. Select the Attributes tab. In the grid, two new attributes appear.

• The first attribute has a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment” and a description of “Reason”. In the Comments column, the reason for the adjustment appears.

• The second attribute has a category of “Tax Claim Adjustment” and a description of “Replaced by”. In the Comments column, the system record ID of the replacement gift appears. These attributes cannot be edited.

11. To close the archived gift record, click the “x” in the top right corner.12. If the recurring gift is set up for Paperless Direct Debit or Standing Order,

subsequent instalments are scheduled to be applied automatically. If you do not check Apply replacement gift to original recurring gift instalment, manually enter and apply all previously applied instalments (refunded or reversed because of the adjustment) before your organisation receives the next automatic instalment.


Gift Tab - Net and Gross Amounts (Cash Gifts, Recurring Gifts, and Cash Payments for Recurring Gifts and Pledges)


tax claim eligible. To classify a gift as tax claim eligible in The Raiser’s Edge, a gift must qualify for Gift Aid, and a Gift Aid declaration must be recorded on the Bio 1 tab of the donor’s constituent record, applicable for the date of the gift. Also, this Gift Aid declaration must have a pays tax status of “Yes”. When the declaration has an indicator of “Oral”, the confirmation sent date must be before or equal to the system date.

On your cash gift records, recurring gifts, and cash payments for recurring gifts that qualify for Gift Aid and for which a valid Gift Aid declaration exists for the donor, you can quickly view both the net and gross amount of the gift on the Gift tab. The Amount field displays the net amount which is the gift amount before Gift Aid. On the bottom right of the Gift tab, the Gross amount field displays the amount of the gift plus the tax you can reclaim.

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Gift Tab - Net and Gross Amounts (Pledges)The program calculates the tax reclaim amount

with this formula: Total Gift Amount / (100 - Tax Rate) x Tax Rate. For example, a donation of £250 has a tax claim amount of £62.50 with the 20% tax rate: 250 / (100 - 20) x 20 = 62.50.

On your pledges that qualify for Gift Aid and for which a valid Gift Aid declaration exists for the donor, you can quickly view both the net and gross amount of the pledge on the Gift tab. On the bottom of the tab, the Gross amount and Gross balance fields appear. The gross amount is the amount of the entire pledge plus the tax you can reclaim. The gross balance is the pledge balance plus the tax claim amount you can collect on the remaining balance.

Transactions Tab (Recurring Gifts)You can reclaim tax only on gifts that are


On the Transactions tab of your recurring gift records, you can view the Gross amount, Tax claim amount, and Tax claim eligible columns. The gross amount is the total amount of the recurring gift payment plus the tax you can reclaim from HM Revenue & Customs. The tax claim amount is the Gift Aid amount. The Tax claim eligible column displays whether the gift is tax claim eligible.


Display columns on the Transactions tab

1. From the Transactions tab of a recurring gift record, right-click in the grid. A menu appears.

2. Select Columns. The Columns screen appears.

3. In the Columns box, select the column to display, such as Gross amount, Tax claim eligible, Tax claim amount, or other columns to view to help you manage your regular supporter and Gift Aid programmes, and click the right arrow to move the column over to the Display these columns box.

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4. Click OK. The selected columns appear in the grid on the Transactions tab.

Instalments/Payments Tab (Pledges)You can reclaim tax only on gifts that are

tax claim eligible. For a gift to be classified as tax claim eligible in The Raiser’s Edge, a gift must be qualified for Gift Aid and a Gift Aid declaration must be recorded on the Bio 1 tab of the donor’s constituent record, applicable for the date of the gift. Also, this Gift Aid declaration must have a pays tax status of Yes. When the declaration has an indicator of Oral, the confirmation sent date must be less than or equal to the system date.

On the Instalments/Payments tab of your pledge gift records, you can view the Gross amount, Gross balance, Tax claim amount, and Tax claim eligible columns. On the bottom right of the Instalments/Payments tab, the Gross balance field displays the balance for the entire pledge. In the grid, the gross amount is the amount of all pledge payments plus the tax you can reclaim. The gross balance is the pledge payment balance plus the tax you can reclaim on the balance. The tax claim amount is the Gift Aid amount. The Tax claim eligible column displays whether the gift is tax claim eligible.

Display columns on the Instalments/Payments tab

1. From the Instalments/Payments tab of a pledge gift record, right-click in the grid. A menu appears.


If a write-off appears in the grid on the

Instalments/Payments tab, its gross amount and tax claim amount also appear.

2. Select Columns. The Columns screen appears.

3. In the Columns box, select the column to display, such as Gross amount, Tax claim eligible, Tax claim amount, Gross balance, or other columns to view to help you manage your regular supporter and Gift Aid programmes, and click the right arrow to move the column over to the Display these columns box.

4. Click OK. The selected columns now appear in the grid on the Instalments/Payments tab.

Administration - Update Gift Aid StatusWith the Update Gift Aid Status link, you

can bring the Gift Aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility status of all existing unclaimed gifts up-to-date at any time. You do not have to wait until you run the next Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report.

In Administration, you can click Update Gift Aid Status to update the Gift Aid qualification status or tax claim eligibility of unclaimed gifts at any time. The Update Gift Aid Status feature uses the Gift Aid disqualification rules you set up in Configuration.The same Update Gift Aid Status screen that appears here also appears when you update the Gift Aid qualification status of each of your gifts from Configuration. The only difference is the information you can update. From Configuration, before you update, you can set up or change the disqualification rules to apply to all new and previously unclaimed gifts. When you update then, you must update both the Gift Aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility of all unclaimed gifts with the gift dates you define.In Administration, you can access the Update Gift Aid Status screen to quickly update when you do not need to add new rules or change existing rules. You can also update both the Gift Aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility of all unclaimed gifts or update only the tax claim eligibility with gift dates you define.

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Update the Gift Aid status from Administration

You can click Update Gift Aid Status to

update the Gift Aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility of unclaimed gifts at any time. This helps you identify and correct the tax claim eligibility for those qualified gifts for which donors give a Gift Aid declaration at a later date than they give a gift. This feature uses the disqualification rules set in Configuration. If the rules have not changed, you can click the link to update the tax claim eligibility only. This helps you correct the tax claim eligibility status of gifts for which a valid declaration has been recently received and ensures each qualified, unclaimed gift has the most up-to-date value for tax claim eligibility. For more information about these rules, see “Configuration - Business Rules Page - Gift Aid Rules” on page 30.

1. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Admin. The Administration page appears.

2. Click Update Gift Aid Status. The Update Gift Aid Status screen appears.

When you select Selected records, the

Open Query screen appears. From this screen, you can find and open a query of gift records to update, or you can click Add New to create one.

3. On the General tab, click Include to select All records, Selected records, or One record to update. When you select Selected records, select the query of gift records that you created previously. For information about how to create queries, see the Query & Export Guide.


4. Under What gift dates do you want to consider?, in the Date to use field, select the dates of the gifts to update. You can select All dates after 06/04/2000, Specific range (Start Date and End Date fields appear when you make this selection.), This month, This quarter, and This calendar yr (year).

5. Under Indicate the information you want to update, select whether to update both the gift aid qualification status and tax claim eligibility status or only the tax claim eligibility status.• If you select Update both Gift Aid Qualification status and Tax

Claim Eligibility of all unclaimed gifts, when you click Update Now, the Gift Aid disqualification rules set up in Business Rules run against all gifts with gift dates greater than or equal to 6 April 2000, that have not been previously submitted to HM Revenue & Customs to reclaim tax, and do not have Set Gift as Not Qualified for Gift Aid selected on the Tax tab. After the disqualification rules run, the program updates the Gift Aid qualification status of each applicable gift according to the results of the rules.The program then checks all Gift Aid qualified gifts that have not yet been claimed and determines whether a valid declaration is saved on the Bio 1 tab of each constituent for the applicable gift date. The program updates and saves the tax claim eligibility of all applicable gifts, based on the results of the tax declaration check.

• If you select Update Tax Claim Eligibility only, when you click Update Now, the program looks at all Gift Aid qualified gifts that have not yet been claimed and determines whether a valid declaration appears on the Bio 1 tab of each constituent for the applicable gift date. The program updates and saves the tax claim eligibility of all applicable gifts, based on the results of the tax declaration check.

6. To include unclaimed gifts that have already been posted to the nominal ledger, as well as those that have not yet been posted, check Include gifts already posted to the Nominal Ledger. If you leave this checkbox unchecked, the program updates only the unclaimed gifts that have not been posted.

7. Under Miscellaneous information, to create a new gift query of the records for which the program updates the tax claim eligibility status, check Create gift query of gifts for which tax claim eligibility was updated.

8. To create a report of the records the program updates, check Create control report and select to print or preview the report.

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When you use the Filters tab and

Attributes tab of the Update Gift Aid Status screen, you do not change or add the Gift Aid disqualification rules. You only limit the group of gift records to update.

9. Select the Filters tab.

10. In the grid, beside Appeals, Campaigns, Funds, Packages, Payment Types, Gift Codes, Gift Types, Gift Subtypes, Voucher Agencies, and Credit Card Types, decide how to filter, or limit, the gift records to update. In the Filter Option column for the each filter, you can select “Include All” or “Include Selected”. When you select Include Selected, in the Selected Filters column of the same row, click the binoculars and select the filter to use.

11. Select the Attributes tab.

12. To include gift records that have specific gift attributes, check Include Records with these Attributes and select the attributes to include in the grid.


13. To exclude gift records that have specific gift attributes, check Exclude Records with these Attributes and select the attributes to exclude in the grid.

14. To update, click Update Now. A progress bar appears.Once the update is complete, if you selected to preview a control report, it appears. The control report shows the constituent name, gift date, fund, and amount of each gift updated, as well as any exceptions generated. It also shows the total gifts updated and the total number of exceptions.When you close the control report, you return to the Update Tax Claim Eligibility screen. You can run the Update Gift Aid Status feature as often as necessary.

Gift Aid Data Extraction and ReportingOnce you start to turn donations into Gift Aid, you need to extract this data from The Raiser’s Edge. You can use Query, Export, Reports, Dashboard, and Mail to get the data. For example, you can effectively thank your donors to let them know how much more their donation is worth with the tax claim amount added in. These features in The Raiser’s Edge help you easily correspond with your donors about their commitments to your organisation and encourage future donations and Gift Aid declarations. You can also easily report on how your regular supporter programmes do, using both net and gross totals, tax claim amounts, and potential tax claim amounts. This easily shows you how Gift Aid raises your total giving levels.

Query and ExportIn Query, and Export, many fields exist to help you extract data to better analyse, report on, contact, recruit donors, and maintain net and gross gift data for your regular supporters. You can also easily extract data to help determine how much tax to reclaim from HM Revenue & Customs. For detailed information about Query and Export, see the Query & Export Guide.



• Special gift information fields in Query help better analyse the net and gross tax amounts of your constituents’ donations, the tax claim amount, and whether gifts qualify for Gift Aid.

Gross Amount - This is the total gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Gross Pledge Balance - This is the total pledge balance plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Gross Amount To Credit To Constituent - This is the total amount of the gift with your gift processing options applied: Credit Soft Credits to, Credit Matching Gifts to, and For Taxable Giving. To set up these options, select Tools, Query Options from the menu bar of the Query screen, and then select the Gift Processing tab on the Query Options screen.Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on the gift.Tax Claim Eligible? - This informs you whether the gift is tax claim eligible.Instalment Gross Amount - This is the total pledge instalment amount plus the tax you can reclaim.

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Instalment Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a pledge instalment.Recurring Gift Instalment Gross Amount - This is the recurring gift’s total transaction amount plus the tax you can reclaim.Recurring Gift Payment Gross Amount - This is the recurring gift’s total amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Recurring Gift Payment Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a recurring gift transaction.Campaign Gross Split Amount - This is the campaign’s total split gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Campaign Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a gift to a campaign.Fund Gross Split Amount - This is the fund’s total split gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Fund Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a gift to a fund.Appeal Gross Split Amount - This is the appeal’s total split gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Appeal Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a gift associated with an appeal.Package Gross Split Amount - This is the package’s total split gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Package Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a gift associated with a package.Canvasser Gross Amount - This is the total gift amount credited to the canvasser plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Canvasser Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a gift associated with a canvasser.Tribute Average Gross Amount - This is the average of the total tribute gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Tribute Gross Median - This is the median of the total tribute gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Tribute Gross Mode - This is the mode of the total tribute gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Tribute Gross Pledge Balance - This is the total tribute pledge balance plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Tribute Gross Total Amount - This is the total tribute gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Split Gift - Gift Aid Qualification Method - This is the method by which the Gift Aid Qualification Status is assigned to a portion of the gift record, as set on the Split Gift tab.


Split Gift - Gift Aid Qualification Status - This is the Gift Aid Qualification Status (Qualified for Gift Aid or Not Qualified for Gift Aid) assigned to a portion of the gift record, determined by the Gift Aid Qualification Method set on the Split Gift tab.Split Gift Potential - Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax claim amount that will appear for a portion of a gift that is qualified for Gift Aid but not tax claim eligible.Split Gift Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a portion of the gift.Refund Tax - This is the tax amount you return to HM Revenue & Customs when you erroneously claim a gift. You adjust a gift by using the Gift, Adjust Tax Claim menu on a gift record.Reverse Posting - This is an offsetting transaction on the nominal ledger for a gift that has previously been posted. This transaction zeroes out the gift on the nominal ledger, as though the gift was never posted. If a gift is flagged as tax claim eligible when first posted, both the gift amount and tax claim amount were posted to the nominal ledger. If the gift should not have been tax claim eligible, it needs to be reversed and reposted without the tax claim amount.Archived Gift - This is a gift on which a tax claim adjustment has been processed. It is virtually a deleted gift, but the record must be retained on the database to facilitate future audits by HM Revenue & Customs.Tax Claim Number - This is a number generated by the R68 (New Gift Aid) Report. Once you claim the gift by running the report, this number automatically appears in the Claim number field on the Tax tab of the gift record.Tax Claim Refund Number - If a tax claim refund is generated on the R68 (New Gift Aid) Report, the claim number from that report appears on the Tax tab of the archived gift for which that refund was generated. With the this field, the archived gift can provide the claim numbers for both the original (erroneous) tax claim and the refund of the claimed tax. This is essential information for HM Revenue & Customs audits.

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Adjustment Reason - This is the reason a tax claim is being adjusted. Examples may be “Donor pays insufficient taxes” or “Gift Amount entered incorrectly.” The reason is saved as a gift attribute on the archived gift, and appears on the Refunds section of the R68 (New Gift Aid) Report when a tax refund is generated.

• Special Constituent/Individual information fields in Query help you better analyse the Gift Aid declarations on file for your constituents’ donations. These fields appear under Declarations. For more information about Gift Aid declarations, see “Constituent Records” on page 36.

Declaration Made - This is the date the declaration was made to your organisation. The Made field appears in the Declaration frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen.Declaration Source - This is the method that successfully persuaded the constituent to make the declaration. For example, “Telethon Appeal”, “Charity Race Sponsorship Form”, “Face to Face”, or “DialogueDirect”. This information helps you determine which methods are most effective for soliciting declarations.Declaration Start Date - This is the date the declaration begins and becomes active. The Starts field appears in the Declaration frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen.Declaration End Date - This is the date the declaration ends and becomes inactive. The Ends field appears in the Declaration frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen. A declaration may not always have an end date.Declaration Indicator - This tells you how the declaration was made — Oral, Written, or Internet, for example. The Indicator field appears in the Declaration frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen.


Confirmation Sent - This is the date you sent the confirmation letter to the constituent. The Sent field appears in the Confirmation frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen.Confirmation Returned - This is the date you received the letter back from the constituent, with all declaration details confirmed. The Returned field appears in the Confirmation frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen and can be used, for example, when a tax declaration is given orally by the constituent to your organisation.Constituent Pays Tax - This reflects whether the constituent pays tax — Yes, No, or Unknown, for example. The Pays Tax field appears in the Status frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen.Tax Payer Status - This is the constituent’s current employment status — Employed, Pensioner, Student, Unwaged, for example. The Status field appears in the Status frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen.Tax Comments - These are the notes you recorded about the tax declaration in the Comments box on the Tax Declaration Information screen.

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• Special gift information fields in Export help you better analyse the net and gross tax amounts of your constituents’ donations and whether they are qualified for Gift Aid.

Gross Amount - This is the total gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Gross Balance - This is the total pledge balance plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a gift.Tax Claim Eligible? - This tells you whether the gift is tax claim eligible.Instalments Gross Amount - This is the total instalment amount plus the tax you can reclaim.Instalments Gross Balance - This is the total instalment balance plus the tax you can reclaim.Instalments Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on an instalment.Campaigns Gross Amount - This is the campaign’s total gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Campaigns Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a gift to a campaign.Funds Gross Amount - This is the fund’s total gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Funds Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a gift to a fund.Appeals Gross Amount - This is the appeal’s total gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Appeals Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a gift associated with an appeal.Packages Gross Amount - This is the package’s total gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Packages Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a gift associated with a package.Canvasser Gross Amount - This is the total gift amount credited to the canvasser plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Canvassers Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a gift associated with a canvasser.Tributes Total Gross Gift Amount - This is the total tribute gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Tributes Total Tax Claim Amount - This is the total tax amount you can reclaim on a gift given to a tribute.Tributes Average Gross Gift Amount - This is the average tribute gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Tributes Largest Gross Gift Amount - This is the largest tribute gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.


Tributes Smallest Gross Gift Amount - This is the smallest tribute gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Split Gift - Gift Aid Qualification Method - This is the method by which the Gift Aid Qualification Status is assigned to a portion of the gift record, as set on the Split Gift tab.Split Gift - Gift Aid Qualification Status - This is the Gift Aid Qualification Status (Qualified for Gift Aid or Not Qualified for Gift Aid) assigned to a portion of the gift record, determined by the Gift Aid Qualification Method set on the Split Gift tab.Split Gift Potential - Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax claim amount that will appear for a portion of a gift that is qualified for Gift Aid but not tax claim eligible.Split Gift Tax Claim Amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on a portion of the gift.Refund Tax - This is the tax amount you return to HM Revenue & Customs when you erroneously claim a gift. You adjust a gift by using the Gift, Adjust Tax Claim menu on a gift record.Reverse Posting - This is an offsetting transaction on the nominal ledger for a gift that has previously been posted. This transaction zeroes out the gift on the nominal ledger, as though the gift was never posted. If a gift is flagged as tax claim eligible when first posted, both the gift amount and tax claim amount were posted to the nominal ledger. If the gift should not have been tax claim eligible, it needs to be reversed and reposted without the tax claim amount.Archived Gift - This is a gift on which a tax claim adjustment has been processed. It is virtually a deleted gift, but the record must be retained on the database to facilitate future audits by HM Revenue & Customs.Tax Claim Number - This is a number generated by the R68 (New Gift Aid) Report. Once you claim the gift by running the report, this number automatically appears in the Claim number field on the Tax tab of the gift record.Tax Claim Refund Number - If a tax claim refund is generated on the R68 (New Gift Aid) Report, the claim number from that report appears on the Tax tab of the archived gift for which that refund was generated. With the this field, the archived gift can provide the claim numbers for both the original (erroneous) tax claim and the refund of the claimed tax. This is essential information for HM Revenue & Customs audits.

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Adjustment Reason - This is the reason a tax claim is being adjusted. Examples may be “Donor pays insufficient taxes” or “Gift Amount entered incorrectly.” The reason is saved as a gift attribute on the archived gift, and appears on the Refunds section of the R68 (New Gift Aid) Report when a tax refund is generated.

• Special Constituent information fields in Export help you better analyse the Gift Aid declarations on file for your constituents’ donations. These fields appear under Declarations.

Declaration Made - This is the date the declaration was made to your organisation. The Made field appears in the Declaration frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen.Declaration Source - This is the method that successfully persuaded the constituent to make the declaration. For example, “Telethon Appeal”, “Charity Race Sponsorship Form”, “Face to Face”, or “DialogueDirect”. This information helps you determine which methods are most effective for soliciting declarations.Declaration Start Date - This is the date the declaration begins and becomes active. The Starts field appears in the Declaration frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen.Declaration End Date - This is the date the declaration ends and becomes inactive. The Ends field appears in the Declaration frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen. A declaration may not always have an end date.Declaration Indicator - This tells you how the declaration was made — Oral, Written, or Internet. The Indicator field appears in the Declaration frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen.


Confirmation Sent - This is the date you sent the confirmation letter to the constituent. The Sent field appears in the Confirmation frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen.Confirmation Returned - This is the date you received the letter back from the constituent, with all declaration details confirmed. The Returned field appears in the Confirmation frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen and can be used, for example, when a tax declaration is given orally.Constituent Pays Tax - This reflects whether the constituent pays tax — Yes, No, or Unknown, for example. The Pays Tax field appears in the Status frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen.Tax Payer Status - This is the constituent’s current employment status — Employed, Pensioner, Student, Unwaged, for example. The Status field appears in the Status frame on the Tax Declaration Information screen.Tax Comments - These are the notes you recorded about the tax declaration in the Comments box on the Tax Declaration Information screen.

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Gift Aid ReportsTo classify a gift as tax claim eligible in

The Raiser’s Edge, a gift must qualify for Gift Aid, and a Gift Aid declaration must be recorded on the Bio 1 tab of the donor’s constituent record, applicable for the date of the gift. Also, this Gift Aid declaration must have a pays tax status of “Yes”. When the declaration has an indicator of “Oral”, the confirmation sent date must be less than or equal to the system date.

Gift Aid Reports provide tax details about your donors. You can track donations made by your constituents; gather information about the gross, net, and tax claim amount of all gifts; and summarise this information by fund or gift type. To access Gift Aid Reports, on the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Reports. Click Gift Aid Reports. The Gift Aid Reports page appears. Four Gift Aid reports are available: Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report, Gift Aid Proposal Report, Rerun Tax Claims Report, and Tax Claim Breakdown Report. For detailed information about reports, see the Reports Guide and the Sample Reports Guide.

When you run a Generate R68 (New

Gift Aid) Report to claim taxes on gifts that have been received, it does not pick up any gifts for which “Oral” is selected in the Indicator field on the constituent’s Tax Declaration Information screen (accessed from the Declaration Information button on the Bio 1 tab), unless a date less than or equal to the system date appears in the Confirmation Sent field. Be careful when you enter a date in the Confirmation Sent field because the program allows you to enter any date.

• The Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report processes tax claims and generates totals for the R68 2000 report. We recommend you run this report only for one tax claim period at a time. For gifts that span two tax periods, we recommend you run two different tax claim reports. To include a gift for tax claim in the report, the Claim number field on the Tax tab of the gift payment must be blank, the date range on the General tab must include the payment date of the gift, the gift date must be between the constituent’s applicable declaration start and end dates, and the gift must qualify for Gift Aid. You can select to include tax claims, tax refunds, or both. You should submit the R68 report to HM Revenue & Customs to reclaim taxes on your tax claim eligible donations. You can also use this report to submit refunded taxes to HM Revenue & Customs.Before you generate this report, you can select to update eligibility of all unclaimed gifts. The program looks at all Gift Aid qualified gifts that have not yet been claimed and determines whether a valid declaration appears on the Bio 1 tab of each constituent for the applicable gift date. The program updates and saves the tax claim eligibility status of all applicable gifts, based on the results of the tax declaration check. This helps you reclaim tax for those gifts for which valid declarations were received after the gift was originally saved.


For information about how The Raiser’s

Edge can help you with your Gift Aid programme, we suggest you read this Gift Aid section in its entirety. Start with “Gift Aid” on page 25.

On the Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report, you can check a checkbox to include unclaimed gifts that have already posted to the nominal ledger, as well as those that have not yet been posted. To include only unclaimed gifts that have not been posted, leave the checkbox unchecked. This checkbox is enabled only when Update eligibility of all unclaimed gifts before generating report is checked.On the Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report, check If applicable declaration is other than Oral, scanned documents must exist to exclude tax claim amounts for any gift for which the constituent does not have at least one valid, applicable Gift Aid declaration on his constituent record with Scanned Documents exist checked. The Scanned Documents exist checkbox appears on Tax Declaration Information screens, accessed from the Declaration Information button on the Bio 1 tab of an individual constituent record.

For information about Gift Aid and Gift Aid

record keeping, see www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/giftaid-charities/how.htm. For information about HMRC audits, go to www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/guidance-notes/chapter7/audit-background.htm.

When you check If applicable declaration is other than Oral, scanned documents must exist, to determine whether to include the tax claim amount for a gift on the report, the program checks, in addition to normal declaration criteria, to see whether Scanned Documents exist is checked on declarations with an Indicator of any value except for Oral. If Scanned Documents exist is checked on at least one applicable declaration, and the other criteria on that declaration make the gift tax claim eligible, the report includes the tax claim amount. If Scanned Documents exist is not checked on all valid declarations applicable for the gift, the tax claim amount for the gift cannot be included on the report, regardless of other criteria. If the Indicator on a Gift Aid declaration is Oral, the process runs normally, without considering the Scanned Documents exist checkbox.

• The Gift Aid Proposal report provides gross and net calculations for the donor about how the taxes claimed may affect the donated amount. For example, if a donor gives £50, and the current tax rate is 20%, your charity actually receives £62.50. With this report, you can show a prospective donor the amount of their full contribution.

• The Rerun Tax Claims report processes the tax claims again if an error is made or if the original R68 report is lost or damaged. For more information, see the previous entry for the Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report.

• The Tax Claim Breakdown Report provides information about the gross, net, and potential tax claim amount for gifts and can be summarised by fund or gift type. To include a gift in this report, the gift must qualify for Gift Aid. Before you run this report, you can select to update eligibility of all unclaimed gifts. Gifts that are tax claim eligible show tax claim amounts. Gifts that are qualified but are not tax claim eligible show potential tax claim amounts. You can check a checkbox to include unclaimed gifts that have already posted to the nominal ledger, as well as those that have not yet been posted. To include only unclaimed gifts that have not been posted, leave the checkbox unchecked. This checkbox is enabled only when Update eligibility of all unclaimed gifts before generating report is checked.

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On the Tax Claim Breakdown Report, you can check If applicable declaration is other than Oral, scanned documents must exist to exclude tax claim amounts for any gift for which the constituent does not have at least one valid, applicable Gift Aid declaration on his constituent record with the Scanned Documents exist checkbox checked. The Scanned Documents exist checkbox appears on Tax Declaration Information screens, accessed from the Declaration Information button on the Bio 1 tab of an individual constituent record. For more information about how this checkbox works, see the Generate R68 (New Gift Aid) Report entry in this section.On the Tax Claim Breakdown Report, in the Detail section of the Format tab, you can select to include an additional constituent section on the report that displays all Gift Aid declaration information for each constituent. You can also select to include HM Revenue & Customs Audit details. You can select to generate a random sampling of constituents. You can include the number of records to include or the percentage of your total constituents. You can select to create an output file with this information that you can use in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet outside of the program. The output file contains the constituent ID numbers, the donors’ names, the donors’ addresses, the gift types and methods of donation, the donation dates, the amounts of the net donation, and the claim numbers.

Gift Tax Detail and Summary ReportThe Scanned Documents exist

checkbox appears on Tax Declaration Information screens, accessed from the Declaration Information button on the Bio 1 tab of an individual constituent record.

The Gift Tax Detail and Summary Report helps you report on gift and tax amounts. The Gift Tax Detail and Summary Report is one of several Financial Reports available in The Raiser’s Edge. The Gift Tax Detail and Summary Report provides details about constituent giving during a time period you select. You can run a summary version of the report, and view totals of gifts received within the date range for each campaign, fund, appeal, or constituent code. Columns appearing on your reports can include information about net and gross amounts, tax claim eligibility, tax claim amounts, potential tax claim amounts, and unclaimed tax amounts.


On this report, you can also select to exclude tax claim amounts for any gift for which the constituent does not have at least one valid, applicable Gift Aid declaration on his constituent record with Scanned Documents exist checked. If there is a valid, applicable Oral declaration, the report includes the tax claim amount regardless of whether this checkbox is checked.

Access the Gift Tax Detail and Summary Report

1. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Reports. The Reports page appears. 2. Click the Financial Reports button or link. The Financial Reports page

appears. 3. To create a new report, select Gift Tax Detail and Summary Report in

the list on the left, and click New on the action bar. To open a report that already exists, select the report in the grid on the right and click Open on the action bar. The Gift Tax Detail and Summary Report screen appears. For detailed information about reports, see the Reports Guide and the Sample Reports Guide.

Cash Flow ReportThe Cash Flow Report shows anticipated cash flow. The report reviews recurring gifts and pledges due within the date range you define and calculates the projected cash flow over one or several periods. You can decide whether to include the payment, tax, payment and tax, or the sum of the payment and tax. The detail version of the report includes constituent names and addresses along with pledge balances. The summary version of the report includes totals due in each date range but does not list constituent names or addresses. The exact data included depends on your parameter tab settings.

Access the Cash Flow Report

1. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Reports. The Reports page appears. 2. Click Pledge and Recurring Gift Reports. The Pledge and Recurring

Gift Reports page appears. 3. To create a new report, select Cash Flow Report in the list on the left,

and click New on the action bar.

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To open a report that has already been created and saved, select the report in the grid on the right and click Open on the action bar. The Cash Flow Report screen appears. For detailed information about reports, see the Reports Guide and the Sample Reports Guide.

DashboardSeveral Gift dashboard panels provide information about the net amount, gross amount, and tax claim amount for your regular supporters’ donations. To access a dashboard, on the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Dashboard. The Dashboard page appears. To create a new dashboard page, click New on the action bar. The Customise Dashboard page appears. Gift-related dashboards appear under the Gift category. For detailed information about Dashboard, see the Dashboard Guide.


• The Recent Gifts List monitors gifts given to your organisation in the current week, last week, month, quarter, calendar year, or financial year. You can select to show tax claim eligible gifts as net amounts or gross amounts. To further filter these gifts, you can select a minimum gift amount to view, constituent codes, gift types, campaigns, funds, or appeals.

• The Gift Tax Summary calculates net gift amounts, gross gift amounts, and tax claim amounts in an easy-to-create and use Dashboard panel. You can select to calculate totals for these amounts by campaign, fund, appeal, package, canvasser, pay method, gift type, month, financial year, or calendar year.

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MailYou can set user options for Mail. On

the Options screen, select the Mail tab. For standard mailing functions, you can select to display all tax claim eligible gifts in net or gross format. For more information about user options, see the User Options chapter of the Program Basics Guide.

In Mail, fields exist to help you extract data so you can easily contact your regular supporters and include information about the gross, net, and tax amounts of their donations. Mail makes it easier to correspond with your donors because it can automate many standard processes such as gathering data for mail merges and selecting addresses. You can create letters for many donors at one time. For detailed information about mail tasks in The Raiser’s Edge, see the Mail Guide.

Appeal CardsYou can send Appeal Cards to previous donors to ask for a specific donation. For example, you want to remind constituents to donate money to your Annual Fund. Because you already mailed letters explaining the Annual Fund goals, you want to send a brief appeal card reminding the constituents to make a donation to the fund. On the appeal card, you include a specific suggested donation amount for each constituent, which you calculate by increasing a previous gift by a certain amount you specify. You can also print information about past gifts donated by the constituent. To attract new donors, you can also send appeal cards to new prospects. Appeal cards make it easy for you to track donations and evaluate the cost of the appeal versus the amount of money raised from the appeal. Also, you can update the No. solicited field on the General tab of an appeal record to include the constituents for whom you print appeal cards.• Fields appear on the Fields to Include tab of the Appeal Cards screen that can

be useful when sending appeal cards to your regular supporters. These fields appear in the Gifts folder in the Available Fields box. For the Gifts folder to appear in the Available Fields box, you must select “Create custom data file” in the Reminder type field on the General tab of the Appeal Cards screen. To include these fields, select each one at a time and click the single right arrow to move the field from the Available Fields box to the Fields to Export box. For information about using the Fields to Include tab, see the Fields to Include Tab chapter of the Mail Guide.

Largest gift gross amount - This is the largest recorded total gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Largest gift tax claim amount - This is the largest recorded tax amount you can reclaim.Largest gift gross pledge amount - This is the largest recorded total pledge amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Largest gift gross balance - This is the largest recorded total gift balance plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Last gift gross amount - This is the last recorded total gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Last gift tax claim amount - This is the last recorded tax amount you can reclaim.Last gift gross pledge amount - This is the last recorded total pledge amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Last gift gross balance - This is the last recorded total gift balance plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Total gross amount - This is the total gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.


Total tax claim amount - This is the total tax amount you can reclaim.

Donor Acknowledgement LettersYou can use the Donor Acknowledgement Letters mail task to select and export acknowledgement information to create thank-you letters for your regular supporters. You can create many letters at once for a group of donors. You can insert merge fields such as Gross amount, Gross instalment amount, Potential tax claim amount, Potential gross amount, and Potential net amount to personalise the letter for each constituent. With the Donor Acknowledgement Letters mail task, you export the corresponding fields to merge with a letter you have written in an application that supports mail merges. The following section lists fields that can be useful when creating letters for your regular supporters to include tax information. For information about Donor Acknowledgement Letters, see the Available Mail Tasks chapter of the Mail Guide.

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• Fields appear on the Fields to Include tab of the Donor Acknowledgement Letters screen that can be useful when acknowledging your regular supporters. These fields appear in the Gifts folder in the Available Fields box. To include these fields, select each one at a time and click the single right arrow to move each field to the Fields to Export box. For information about using the Fields to Include tab, see the Fields to Include Tab chapter of the Mail Guide.

Gross amount - This is the total gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Potential gross amount - This is the total gift amount plus the tax amount you could reclaim if a declaration was on file for the constituent valid for the date of the gift and the gift was qualified for Gift Aid.Tax claim amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim.Potential tax claim amount - This is the tax amount you could reclaim if a declaration was on file for the constituent valid for the date of the gift and the gift was qualified for Gift Aid.Gross pledge amount - This is the total pledge amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Gross pledge balance - This is the total pledge balance plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Gross instalment amount - This is the total instalment amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Gross instalment balance - This is the total instalment balance plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Instalment tax claim amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on an instalment.


Gross YTD amount - This is the total year-to-date gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.

Honour/Memorial Acknowledgement LettersAn acknowledgee is a person who has a

relationship with an honour/memorial constituent and needs to be notified when a gift is donated on behalf of the honour/memorial constituent. For more information, see the Tribute Data Entry Guide.

If you use Blackbaud’s Honour/Memorial Tracking, you can use the Honour/Memorial Acknowledgement Letters mail task to create notification letters for tribute acknowledgees. For example, your organisation is a church and William Hodges, one of the members of your congregation, is being honoured on his 80th birthday. You set up a tribute on William Hodges’s constituent record and list him and his two children in the Acknowledgees grid on the Tribute screen. When gifts are donated to the church in honour of William, you use the Honour/Memorial Acknowledgement Letters mail task to notify William and his children of the gifts donated in his honour.You can use the Honour/Memorial Acknowledgement Letters mail task to select the fields you want to export to your word processor to merge with the notification letter you have written. You can include fields such as Gross amount and Tax claim amount. When you run the Honour/Memorial Acknowledgement Letters mail task, you can also create a constituent query that contains all acknowledgees receiving a letter, including those who are not constituents in your database.

For detailed information about

Honour/Memorial gifts, see the Tribute Gifts Guide.

• Fields appear on the Fields to Include tab of the Honour/Memorial Acknowledgement Letters screen that can be useful when creating notification letters for your tribute acknowledgees. These fields appear in the Gifts folder in the Available Fields box. To include these fields, select each one at a time and click the single right arrow to move each field to the Fields to Export box. For information about using the Fields to Include tab, see the Fields to Include Tab chapter of the Mail Guide.

Gross amount - This is the total gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Tax claim amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim.

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Gross pledge amount - This is the total pledge amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Gross pledge balance - This is the total pledge balance plus the tax amount you can reclaim.

Membership CardsFor information about Membership

Management, see the Membership Data Entry Guide. For information about membership gifts, see the Membership Gifts Guide.

If you use Membership Management, you can print membership cards for members and their families. Members use their cards to gain access to facilities or events you sponsor, such as golf tournaments or dinners. To track member attendance at membership facilities or activities, you can add a barcode to the membership card. If you use Membership Scanning, you can scan in membership cards and view and update member information.• Fields appear on the Fields to Include tab of the Membership Cards screen that

can be useful when printing membership cards for your regular supporters. These fields appear in the Gifts folder in the Available Fields box. For the Gifts folder to appear in the Available Fields box, you must select “Create custom data file” in the Reminder type field on the General tab of the Membership Cards screen. To include these fields, select each one at a time and click the single right arrow to move the field from the Available Fields box to the Fields to Export box. For information about using the Fields to Include tab, see the Fields to Include Tab chapter of the Mail Guide.

Gross amount - This is the total gift amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Tax claim amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim.Gross instalment amount - This is the total instalment amount plus the tax amount you can reclaim.


Gross instalment balance - This is the total instalment balance plus the tax amount you can reclaim.Instalment tax claim amount - This is the tax amount you can reclaim on an instalment.

Recurring GiftsA regular supporter may often give a

legacy gift. With the Legacies module, you can create gift records for your organisation’s legacy giving. For more information, see the Legacies Guide.

A recurring gift is a donation that is paid out in scheduled instalments over an indefinite or limited period of time. Hopefully, your regular supporters will not specify an end date for their recurring gifts. That way, their donations become long-term, dependable income for your organisation. Having this dependable income means you can maintain your giving levels, continue to invest in long-term projects, and commit to future plans even in an unstable economy.In The Raiser’s Edge, when you set up a gift record with the Gift type of Recurring Gift, you are creating a template. The Raiser’s Edge uses the recurring gift template to conveniently generate gift records with a Gift type of Recurring Gift Pay-Cash, following a schedule you specify on the template. A recurring gift can be open-ended. When you set up a schedule for a donor, you do not have to specify an end date or a set number of transactions, even though you can. If a donor decides not to specify an end date for a donation, he can still feel very much in control of his donation because he has the freedom to upgrade or downgrade the donated amount, and skip payments when necessary. On a recurring gift template, it is easy to accommodate a regular supporter’s wishes. You can easily amend the recurring gift template and keep track of the upgrade or downgrade, the amendment amount, amendment date, and variance between the original recurring

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gift amount and the newly amended gift amount. You can also easily skip transactions when a donor asks you to do so. You should be able to attract more regular supporters by using recurring gifts because a recurring gift allows more flexibility in giving. The donors do not feel “locked in” to a set amount, as they often do with a pledge.With recurring gifts, you have some excellent reporting capabilities. You can report on who has amended their recurring gifts, when, and by what amount; you can easily find donors who have missed or skipped recurring gift transactions since the last payment made; and you are able to produce statistics to help determine who you should target and why. You can easily produce statistics to determine who you have lost, how many donors you have lost per month, which age group or gender is donating the most money, or from which postcode you are receiving the highest donations. You can also easily determine the success rate of your upgrade campaigns.To fully understand gift records in The Raiser’s Edge, we recommend you read the Gift Records Guide.

Configuration - Business RulesOn the Business Rules page of Configuration, you can set up business rules that help when adding recurring gifts to your database.

GeneralAvailability of credit is not checked here. The

program validates an account number based on a formula which includes the prefix and number of digits in the account number.

When you add a recurring gift record (or any other gift record) with the Pay method of Credit Card to the database, you should decide what the program should do if the credit card number is found to be invalid.

Configure business rules for invalid credit card numbers

1. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Config. The Configuration page appears. 2. Click Business Rules. The Business Rules page appears. 3. From the tree view, select General.

4. Under When saving a constituent or gift, if credit card number is invalid, select Do not allow record to be saved, Display warning, or Save record anyway.

For more information about the General business rules, see the Business Rules section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.


Generate IDsWhen you add a recurring gift record (or any gift record), you can select to have The Raiser’s Edge automatically generate a unique gift ID number for each gift you add to the database. On the Business Rules page, from the tree view, select Generate IDs. Under When adding records, automatically generate, check Gift IDs. For more information about the Generate IDs business rules, see the Business Rules section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

Gift Options - Activity OptionsYou can also select to have a warning

message appear when a constituent has an outstanding recurring gift when you add a recurring gift from Batch. On the Business Rules page, select Batch options. Under When adding a gift to a batch, warn if constituent has, check Outstanding recurring gifts.

When you add a recurring gift to the database, you can select to display a warning message to inform you when the constituent has at least one outstanding (past due) recurring gift and to ask whether to apply the gift to a recurring gift. On the Business Rules page, from the tree view, under Gift options, select Activity options. Under When adding a gift warn if constituent has, check Outstanding recurring gifts. You can also check Outstanding pledge balances, Outstanding registration fees, and Lapsed memberships. For more information about gift activity business rules, see the Business Rules section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

Administration - Batch SecurityTo assign security rights to recurring gift records (and other gift records) for a group, you can grant or deny view, add, edit, or delete rights for the entire record. You can also assign rights to amend recurring gift records.

Set security rights for reccurring gift records

1. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Admin. The Administration page appears. 2. Click Security. The Security page appears. 3. To create a new group or edit an existing group, on the action bar, click

New Group or select an existing group, and click Open. 4. On the Group screen, in the Group Privileges box, check Records.

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5. Click Options. The Security Options screen appears.

6. In the Record Types box, check Gift. 7. In the Gifts Privileges box, check View, Add, Edit, and Delete to give

users rights to perform these functions. 8. In the Miscellaneous Gifts Options box, check Amend Recurring Gifts

to give users rights to perform this function. If you leave Amend Recurring Gifts unchecked, a user can view previous amendments on the Amendments tab of a recurring gift template but cannot add, open, or delete amendment records. For detailed information about security in The Raiser’s Edge, see the Security chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.


Recurring Gift RecordYou cannot post a recurring gift template

to the nominal ledger or create a receipt for a recurring gift template because it does not represent an actual gift donated to your organisation. You can post and receipt the cash payments.

When you add a recurring gift record to your database, you add a template that The Raiser’s Edge uses to generate gifts on scheduled intervals. Recurring gifts are similar to pledges paid in instalments, except that recurring gifts are more flexible. They can be open-ended and give the donor more freedom to manage their donations. Whether a donor pays a recurring gift by direct debit, standing order, or credit card, the payment for the recurring gift always has a Gift type of Recurring Gift Pay-Cash. For more information about a recurring gift template and its cash gift records, see the Recurring Gifts chapter of the Gift Records Guide.

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You can link a recurring gift template

to a membership record. From the menu bar of the recurring gift template, select Gift, Links, Membership. You can link a recurring gift to a new membership or an existing membership. Each time a cash gift record is generated, the membership can be renewed, upgraded, or downgraded. For information about membership records, see the Membership Gifts Guide. A recurring gift template cannot be linked to a proposal or an event record.

This section explains each tab on the recurring gift record and how the program copies the information you enter on these tabs as defaults for your cash gift records generated from the template. For a complete explanation of the tabs and functionality available on a gift record, see the Understanding the Tabs on a Gift Record section in the Gift Record Basics chapter of the Gift Records Guide.

Gift TabThe Gift tab of a recurring gift template contains key gift information, including the name of the constituent who donated the gift, the gift amount, and the fund to which the recurring gift is designated. When you add a recurring gift, you first need to click the binoculars in the Constituent field to search your database for the constituent who donated the gift. All other fields on the gift record remain disabled until the Constituent field is populated. This section explains the fields on the Gift tab that have specific significance on the recurring gift template. For detailed information about the Gift tab, see the Gift Tab segment in the Understanding the Tabs on a Gift Record section in the Gift Record Basics chapter of the Gift Records Guide.

• In the Gift date field, enter the date the constituent agrees to donate the recurring gift. When you generate cash gift records from the template, the program automatically defaults the transaction date in the Gift date field on the cash gift records. For example, on 29 July, Kate Williams agrees to donate £10 to your organisation on the fifteenth day of every month. On the recurring gift template, enter the date 29/07/2008 in the Gift date field to record the date Kate agrees to donate the gift. When you generate the first cash gift record on 15 August, the program automatically enters the date 15/08/2008 in the Gift date field on the cash gift record.


You may receive gifts in foreign currency. To

convert the foreign currency to your monetary system, use the Currency Exchange feature. From the menu bar of a gift record, select Gift, Currency Exchange. The Currency Exchange screen appears. In the Currency type field, select the type of currency to convert. For example, if you receive a gift in US Dollars and need to convert it to UK Pounds, select “US Dollars”. In the grid, in the Gift Amount and Receipt Amount rows, in the second column, enter the amount to convert. For the previous example, enter the amount donated in US dollars in the Dollars (US) column for the Gift Amount and Receipt Amount rows. Click OK. You return to the gift record. The converted amount appears in the Amount field. Exchange rates are set up on the International page of Configuration. For more information, see the International section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

• In the Amount field, enter the amount the constituent wants to pay at a recurring interval. For example, if a constituent wants to donate £10 each month, enter £10 in the Amount field.

• To schedule a recurring gift, click the Schedule button. The Transaction Schedule screen appears.

In the Frequency field, select the frequency with which the constituent plans to donate the recurring gift. You can select Annually (once a year), Semi-Annually (twice a year), Quarterly (four times a year), Bimonthly (every other month), Monthly (once a month), Semi-Monthly (twice a month), Biweekly (every two weeks), and Weekly (once a week).Once you make a selection in the Frequency field, additional fields appear so you can select and enter the particular days/dates the transactions are due. For example, if you select “Monthly” in the Frequency field, two options appear — Day [ ] of every [ ] month(s) and The [ ] [ ] of every [ ] month(s). Select an option, and fill in the blanks. For example, if a recurring gift transaction is going to occur monthly on the 15th of every month, you select “Monthly” in the Frequency field. Then, select the first option and enter “15” in the first empty field and “1” in the second: Day [15] of every [1] month(s). If the transaction is going to occur on the first Monday of every month, select “Monthly” in the Frequency field, and select the second option. In the empty fields, select “First”, then “Monday”, and enter a “1”: The [First] [Monday] of every [1] month(s).In the Starting on field, enter the date the first payment is due. The gift date defaults into the Starting on field. You can change this date. When the date in the Starting on field is not the same date as the normally scheduled transaction date, the first transaction is due on the first transaction date after the Starting on date. For example, today’s date, 29/07/2008, defaults into the Starting on field. You leave the date in this field. You selected a transaction schedule of monthly on the 15th of every month. The first transaction will actually start on 15/08/2008.On occasion, a constituent may give you an end date for a recurring gift. For example, a constituent decides to donate monthly for the next three years, with the recurring gift ending on 31/12/2011. Enter this date in the Ending on field. This is the date transactions stop generating for the recurring gift. Normally, you leave the Ending on field blank. Most recurring gifts are indefinite.Once you establish a transaction schedule, click Preview. The schedule appears in the grid.

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To return to the Gift tab, click Close.• The Acknowledge field on the Gift tab of the recurring gift template defaults to

Not Acknowledged. You can acknowledge a recurring gift when the constituent agrees to donate the gift, every time the constituent makes a recurring donation, or according to your own schedule. If you decide to acknowledge the recurring gift when the constituent agrees to donate the recurring gift, you can generate a single letter from the Microsoft Word icon in the Letter field on the gift record or by using the Donor Acknowledgement Letters mail task in Mail. Once you create your letter(s), the program automatically defaults Acknowledged into the Acknowledge field. For more information about how to create a single letter from a gift record, see the Creating a Letter from a Gift Record section in the Mail Merge With Microsoft Word chapter of The Raiser’s Edge & Microsoft Office Integration Guide. For more information about the Donor Acknowledgement Letters mail task, see the Mail Guide.Your selection in the Acknowledge field does not default to the cash gift records generated from the recurring gift template. When you generate cash gift records from the template, the program defaults Not Acknowledged in the Acknowledge field on those records, also. On each cash gift record, you should select whether to acknowledge the specific recurring gift transaction and enter a reference date. You can use the Microsoft Word icon in the Letter field on the gift record or the Donor Acknowledgement Letters mail task in Mail to acknowledge the payments and default this information.

You must receipt each cash gift record

generated from the recurring gift template separately. To combine all the gifts on one receipt, such as if your regular supporters prefer to receive one receipt at the end of the year, select “Consolidated receipts” in the Receipt type field on the Bio 2 tab of each supporter’s constituent record. When you run the Receipts mail task, you can include the Recurring Gift Pay-Cash gift type.

• The Receipt field tracks whether you sent a receipt for the gift. Because a recurring gift template does not represent an actual gift, you cannot create a receipt for the recurring gift template itself. You can create a receipt for each cash gift record generated from the template. Therefore, you must record the receipt status on each of these cash gift records. Your entry in the Receipt field on the recurring gift template does, however, default to each cash gift record generated from the template. So, if you create a recurring gift template for a constituent who does not want to receive receipts for his gifts, select Do Not Receipt in the Receipt field on the template. The program then defaults Do Not Receipt in the Receipt field on each cash gift record generated from the template.When you use Mail to create gift receipts, select Not Receipted in the Receipt field on the template and do not enter a reference date. The program defaults Not Receipted in the Receipt field on each cash gift record. After you create receipts in Mail, the program updates this Receipt field to Receipted and adds the date you printed the receipts on the cash gift record. For more information about generating receipts using the Receipts mail task, see the Mail Guide.

• To increase the number of constituents who pay their recurring gifts, you can send a letter or card to remind donors of the commitments they have made. In Mail, you can use the Reminders mail task to print recurring gift reminders on several types of forms you order from Blackbaud. If you do not want to use these forms, you can use the mail task to export data to an application where you created a custom form. For a donor to receive a recurring gift reminder using the Reminders mail task, check Send reminders.When you create recurring gift reminders, you can select to send either a single reminder for the entire recurring gift or a reminder each time a payment is due. For more information about how to use the Reminders mail task to send recurring gift reminders, see the Mail Guide.


• The History button appears beside the Send reminders checkbox. Click History. The Reminders Sent screen appears, so you can view all reminders sent to the constituent for the recurring gift.

• The Status/date fields determine whether you can apply or generate gifts from the recurring gift template and track the date of the most recent status change. When you add a recurring gift, the Status defaults to Active and the status date defaults to the date you enter the gift. When you select a different status in the Status field, the date you make the change defaults into the date field and overwrites the date currently in the field. A recurring gift template can have a status of Active, Held, Terminated, Cancelled, or Completed. When a recurring gift template has the status of Active, the program can generate cash gift records from the template according to the schedule you establish. If a recurring gift template has a status of Held, Terminated, Cancelled, or Completed, the program cannot generate cash gift records. For a detailed explanation of each status, see the Gift Records Guide. Gift status and how it affects the electronic generation of recurring cash gift payments is discussed in the Electronic Gifts (EFT) Guide.

• In the Pay Method field, select the payment method the regular supporter uses to pay the recurring gift. For electronic gifts, select “Direct Debit”, “Standing Order, or “Credit Card”. The payment method is a very important part of the recurring gift template because the method a constituent uses to donate a gift affects the options available to generate transactions from the recurring gift template. For information about all pay methods available for gift records in The Raiser’s Edge, see the Gift Records Guide.A constituent can donate a cash gift to your organisation in two ways: electronically and non-electronically. If a constituent uses a non-electronic payment type, such as personal or business cheque, your organisation receives the gift when you deposit the donor’s cheque in the bank. For your recurring gifts, you will normally use the electronic payment types, such as a direct debit, standing order, and credit card. When you use these electronic payment types and check the EFT? checkbox, you can process the transactions using an electronic funds transfer. When you use Electronic Funds Transfer, you can automatically generate cash payments for your recurring gifts, create direct debit transmission files to send to BACS, create credit card transmission files to process through IATS, and import standing orders into a batch or directly into the program. For more information, see “Electronic Funds Transfer” on page 3. For detailed information, see the Electronic Gifts (EFT) Guide.

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Miscellaneous TabYou can use the Notes grid on the recurring

gift template and the cash gift records to track anything you deem important. For example, you may use it to make notations about why a status changed for a recurring gift.

All entries on the Miscellaneous tab of the recurring gift template appear as defaults on cash gift records generated from the template. For example, if you add a note in the Notes grid on the recurring gift template, the program adds the note to every cash gift record generated from the template. If the note does not apply to a particular cash gift record, you can delete the note from the cash gift record without deleting the note from the recurring gift template, and add new relevant notes about the cash payment. For detailed information about the fields, checkbox, and grid on the Miscellaneous tab, see the Miscellaneous Tab segment in the Understanding the Tabs on a Gift Record section in the Gift Record Basics chapter of the Gift Records Guide.

Because a recurring gift template is not associated with an actual gift, you cannot post it to a nominal ledger. Instead, you post each cash gift record generated from the recurring gift template to the nominal ledger separately. The program will default the Not Posted and Do Not Post entries in the NL post status and NL post date fields on the recurring gift template to each cash gift record generated from the template. For example, you create a recurring gift template for a constituent who donates monthly gifts of £10 and select Not Posted in the NL post status field on the recurring gift template. The program defaults Not Posted in the NL post status field for each cash gift record generated from the template. When you use the Post to Nominal Ledger functionality in Administration, the NL post status automatically changes to Posted and the date you post the gift defaults into the NL post date field. For information about the Post to Nominal Ledger functionality in Administration, see the Nominal Ledger section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.


Soft Credit TabA soft credit allows more than one constituent to share credit for a recurring gift. You can split the credit evenly between all soft credit recipients, give each recipient full credit for the gift, or define your own credit distribution. You can soft credit as many constituents as necessary as long as each soft credit recipient is a constituent in the database. For detailed information about the Soft Credit tab, see the Soft Credit Tab segment in the Understanding the Tabs on a Gift Record section in the Gift Record Basics chapter of the Gift Records Guide.When you add soft credit recipients on the Soft Credit tab of a recurring gift template, the program defaults the soft credit recipients to the Soft Credit tab of each cash gift record generated from the template. For example, Julie Bach donates a recurring gift of £100 to your organisation. She requests her aunt and uncle, Michelle and Max Taylor, each receive a soft credit of £50. You add the soft credit for Michelle and Max Taylor on the Soft Credit tab of the recurring gift template. When you create cash gift records from the template, the program soft credits Michelle and Max Taylor on the Soft Credit tab of each cash gift record.

Matching Gifts TabSometimes, companies match gifts donated to charities or not-for-profit organisations by their employees or corporate partners. For example, Julie Bach, an employee of Glass & Paint Corporation, donates a recurring gift of £20 to your organisation directly from her wages as a part of Glass & Paint’s payroll giving programme. As part of the payroll giving programme, Glass & Paint matches employee gifts on a one-to-one ratio. Because Glass & Paint matches gifts

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donated by their employees, you receive an additional £20 gift from Glass & Paint each time you receive a cash gift payment for Julie’s recurring gift. You can add a matching gift to a recurring gift template the same way you add a matching gift to any other gift record. For detailed information about matching gifts, see the Matching Gifts chapter of the Gift Records Guide.

Tribute TabAn honour/memorial is a constituent who is

being honoured, remembered, or celebrated by gifts donated to your organisation. A tribute explains the reason why you are honouring, remembering, or celebrating a constituent. For detailed information about tribute gifts, see the Tribute Gifts Guide.

When you use Honour Memorial Tracking, you can designate a recurring gift to one or more tributes using the Tribute tab on the recurring gift template. When you add honour/memorial information to the Tribute tab of the recurring gift template, the program defaults this information on the Tribute tab of each cash gift record created from the template. For example, Julie Bach donates a £20 recurring gift in memory of Willa Kent. You add the tribute to Willa Kent on the


Tribute tab of the recurring gift template. Every time Julie gives £20 and you generate a cash gift record, the program adds Willa Kent’s tribute on the Tribute tab of the cash gift record. You designate a recurring gift to a tribute the same way you designate any other gift type to a tribute. For detailed information about tribute gifts, see the Tribute Gifts Guide.

Attributes TabYou can use attributes to store additional, helpful information about a recurring gift. All entries on the Attributes tab on the recurring gift template appear as defaults on cash gift records generated from the template. If an attribute does not apply to a particular cash gift record, you can delete the attribute from the cash gift record without deleting the attribute from the recurring gift template. You can also add other relevant ones. The Attributes tab can be helpful for tracking, for

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example, the venue or agency who solicited the regular supporter and sent you the recurring gift. Or, perhaps you want to track that the recurring gift was brought in from a particular source, such as a television advertising campaign. For information about setting up attributes in The Raiser’s Edge, see the Attributes section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

Tax TabFor information about the Tax tab of the recurring gift record, see “Gift Aid” on page 25.


Transactions TabYou can add additional columns to the grid on

the Transactions tab, and you can remove columns. Right-click on the grid. A menu appears. Select Columns. The Columns screen appears. Select the columns you want to view in the grid by using the single right and left arrows to move the columns back and forth between the Columns and Display these columns boxes. Once you move all the columns you want to view into the Display these columns box, click OK. You return to the Transactions tab. Your selected columns now appear in the grid.

When you select Recurring Gift in the Gift type field on the Gift tab of the recurring gift template, the Transactions tab appears. The grid on this tab displays information about all transactions generated or applied to the recurring gift. For example, if a constituent made three payments for the recurring gift, the grid displays three entries describing the date the payments were made, the amount of each payment, any reference information, and the type of letter sent acknowledging the payment. If you committed the payment to the database using Batch, the program also displays the batch number to which you committed the gift. If you have not already set up a schedule for the recurring gift on the Gift tab, you can set it up on the Transactions tab by clicking the Schedule button. On the Transactions tab, you can also skip a transaction and roll back a transaction. Skipped transactions appear in the grid, and prevent a particular scheduled transaction from being generated. If a constituent sends a donation for a skipped transaction, you can remove (rollback) the skipped transaction as long as you have not generated another transaction after the skipped transaction you want to pay. The skipped transaction entry is removed from the grid. For information about the Transactions tab and detailed procedures about how to skip and roll back transactions, see the Recurring Gifts chapter of the Gift Records Guide.

Amendments TabFor information about the Amendments tab and recurring gift amendments, see “Recurring Gift Amendments” on page 117.

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Split Gift TabOn the Split Gift tab, you can split a recurring gift between multiple campaigns, funds, appeals, or packages. When you split a gift, the program displays the campaigns, funds, appeals, and packages you select on the Split Gift tab in the corresponding fields on the Gift tab. Then, the program disables the Campaign, Fund, Appeal, and Package fields on the Gift tab. When you enter information on the Split Gift tab of a recurring gift template, the program copies this information as a default to each cash gift record generated from the template. You can split a recurring gift the same way you split a gift record for any other gift type. For detailed information about the Split Gift tab, see the Split Gift Tab segment in the Understanding the Tabs on a Gift Record section in the Gift Record Basics chapter of the Gift Records Guide.

Add Recurring Gifts to the DatabaseYou can add recurring gift templates to your Raiser’s Edge database in several ways.


• From the Gifts page of Records – On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Records. Click Gifts. On the Gifts page, click New Gift. The New Gift screen appears. Once you search your database for the Constituent who gives the gift, select “Recurring Gift” in the Gift type field and continue to add your gift information. For information about how to add gift records to your database, see the Gift Records Guide.

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• From the Gifts tab of a constituent record – On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Records. Click Constituents. On the Constituents page, click Open a Constituent. The Open screen appears, so you can search your database for the constituent who gives the recurring gift. Once you find and open the constituent record, select the Gifts tab. On the action bar, click New Gift. The New Gift screen appears. In the Gift type field, select “Recurring Gift” and continue to add your gift information. For information about how to add gift records to your database, see the Gift Records Guide.

In Batch, you can add many recurring gift records to the database at once. You enter recurring gift records quickly because you do not have to add each gift record individually. Instead, you select the fields you want to add and the program lists the fields in a spreadsheet, called a batch, so you can efficiently enter data. To create records for the recurring gifts entered in a batch, after data entry, commit the batch to the database.


On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Batch. The Batch page appears. On the action bar, to create a new gift batch, click New Gift Batch. To open an existing batch, select a batch in the grid, and click Open on the action bar. The Batch screen appears. For detailed information about adding and updating gift records using Batch, see the Gift Batch chapter of the Batch Guide.

In Import, using the Gift import type, you can import new recurring gift records into your database. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Admin. The Administration page appears. Click Import. The Import page appears. All import types appear in a tree view on the left side of the screen. Information appears on the right side of the screen depending on the import type you select on the left and if you have a corresponding import type saved. To create a new gift import, select the Gift import type, under Gift in the tree view, and click

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New Import on the action bar. The Import screen appears. For detailed information about how to import new records into The Raiser’s Edge, import updates to existing records in The Raiser’s Edge, and create an import file of records in your Raiser’s Edge database to use in another application, see the Import Guide.

Using Import Recurring Gifts on the Plug-Ins page, you can import new recurring gift records into your Raiser’s Edge database in an import file with a set format defined by Blackbaud. You can use a single flat file to import recurring gift records and any associated new individual constituent records and/or new bank/financial institution records. This feature can be beneficial


when you receive import files with this type information from outside fundraising agencies or organisations. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Plug-Ins. The Plug-Ins page appears. Click Import Recurring Gifts. The Import Recurring Gifts screen appears. For information about how to use Import Recurring Gifts on the Plug-Ins page, see the Import Guide.

Convert Pledges to Recurring GiftsBefore you convert any gift records in

The Raiser’s Edge, we recommend you have a complete backup of your database. Once you convert the records, the conversion is permanent. To successfully back up your data, we recommend you use a proper tape backup system. If you do not have a tape backup system in place, you can back up your data through the Blackbaud Management Console. For more information, see the Database Administration Guide.

You may want to convert certain pledge gifts to recurring gifts. Recurring gifts are best used to track scheduled gifts for your regular supporters. For example, pledges have an instalment schedule with an end payment date and a total amount. Recurring gifts do not; they can be open-ended with no set number of transactions. On a recurring gift, you have the Amendments tab. When a donor requests to change a recurring gift (for example, change the transaction schedule, upgrade or downgrade the donated amount; change the appeal and canvasser; or change the fund to which the donation is going), you can easily amend the recurring gift information and track the changes on the Amendments tab. Pledges

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do not have this convenient amendment functionality. If you previously used The Raiser’s Edge 6, you may have added open-ended gifts to your database as pledges because recurring gifts did not exist. To convert these pledges to recurring gifts in The Raiser’s Edge 7, you can use the Convert Pledges to Recurring Gifts utility in Administration.

On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Admin. On the Administration page, click Convert Pledges to Recurring Gifts. The Convert Pledges to Recurring Gifts screen appears.

Before you run the Convert Pledges to Recurring Gifts utility, create a gift query of the records to use for the conversion. By doing so, you can review your query results to make sure you are converting the correct pledge gift records. For information about how to create a query, see the Query chapter of the Query & Export Guide. For detailed information about converting pledges to recurring gifts, see the Converting Pledges to Recurring Gifts section in the Recurring Gifts chapter of the Gift Records Guide.


Recurring Gift AmendmentsYou can add additional columns to the grid on

the Amendments tab, and you can remove columns. Right-click on the grid. A menu appears. Select Columns. The Columns screen appears. To select the columns to view in the grid, use the single right and left arrows to move the columns back and forth between the Columns and Display these columns boxes. Once you move all the columns to view into the Display these columns box, click OK. You return to the Amendments tab. Your selected columns appear in the grid.

The Amendments tab of a recurring gift template tracks amendment information for a recurring gift record. The grid on the Amendments tab displays by default the amendment date, the name of the person who entered the amendment information, the amended gift amount, the previous gift amount before the change, the variance between the amended amount and the previous amount, and the fund to which the amended recurring gift is going. You can add additional columns that may be more helpful for your organisation, and you can remove any columns you feel are not helpful.

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Because the amendment takes over

the recurring gift immediately, if you have an amendment that does not start until a future date, you should not add the amendment until after the last payment of the old schedule. For example, Julie Bach has a recurring gift set up for £10 to be paid on the 1st of every month. Today is 15/10/2007. Julie lets you know she wants to upgrade the amount of her recurring gift to £15, starting January 2008. If you add the amendment now, the 01/11/2007 and 01/12/2007 transactions appear as skipped on the Transactions tab, and these two transactions will not be processed. To keep this from happening, do not add the amendment until after 15/12/2007. As a work around, you can keep the amendment in a file, add an action reminder to the database to remind you of the date you should add the amendment, and add the amendment at the appropriate time.

Once you add an amendment for a recurring gift, the amendment takes over the recurring gift immediately. On the Gift tab of the original recurring gift template, the Gift date, Gift subtype, Amount, Campaign, Fund, Appeal, Package, Canvassers, Acknowledge/date, and Letter fields are all disabled, as is the Transaction Schedule accessed from the Schedule button. On the Tax tab, the Tax claim options are disabled. Any changes you need to make to the recurring gift template must now be made to the amendment record on the Amendments tab. If more than one amendment exists, you can make changes only to the last amendment added. If you delete the last amendment, the recurring gift information (listed above) goes back to the previous amendment or the original recurring gift information, when no other amendment exists.

Add an amendment to a recurring gift template

1. Select the Amendments tab. 2. On the action bar, click New Amendment. The New Amendment screen

appears.

You cannot process a post-dated amendment

for a gift that is paid by direct debit. When you try to save an amendment record for a recurring gift with a Pay method of Direct Debit and the date in the Amendment date field on the amendment record is greater than the system date, you receive a warning message.

3. On the Amendment tab, in the Amendment date field, enter the date you amend the recurring gift. Your entry here does not change the Gift date on the Gift tab of the original recurring gift template. The original Gift date is kept intact, disabled, and kept for historic purposes.

4. In the Gift subtype field, select a new subtype, or leave the subtype from the original recurring gift template. Once you select a subtype in the Gift subtype field, it appears in the Gift subtype field on the Gift tab of the original recurring gift template, and that field is disabled.


The gift subtype is a way for you to further define a gift. It can also be used to define a nominal ledger distribution. The nominal ledger distribution is the financial account numbers associated with the Gift type, Gift subtype, and Fund you select on the gift record. For information about nominal ledger distributions, see the Interfund Entries section in the Configuration chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

5. In the Amount field, enter the amended amount the constituent wants to pay at a recurring interval. A regular supporter may want to upgrade or downgrade his donation amount. Once you enter an amendment amount, that amount appears in the Amount field on the Gift tab and the Amount column of the Split Gift tab of the original recurring gift template, and those fields are disabled.

On the Transaction Schedule screen, the

Starting on date defaults to the amendment date and cannot be less than the last transaction date of the recurring gift. The first transaction date is always after the last transaction date of the recurring gift, and is calculated from the Starting on date or the date of the last transaction, whichever date is latest. If payments are missed between the last payment date and the start of the new schedule, the payments are automatically skipped.

6. You can reschedule an amended recurring gift, if requested, or you can leave the schedule from the original recurring gift template. To reschedule transactions, click Schedule . The Transaction Schedule screen appears. Once you enter a new schedule and click Close, the new schedule appears on the Transaction Schedule screen, and all fields are disabled. The new schedule also appears on the Transaction Schedule screen accessed from the Schedule button on the Gift and Transactions tabs of the original recurring gift template, and those fields are also disabled.

7. In the Campaign field, select a new campaign or leave the campaign from the original recurring gift template. Once you enter a new campaign, that campaign appears in the Campaign field on the Gift tab and the Campaign column of the Split Gift tab of the original recurring gift template, and those fields are disabled.

8. In the Fund field, select a new fund or leave the fund from the original recurring gift template. Once you enter a new fund, that fund appears in the Fund field on the Gift tab and the Fund column of the Split Gift tab of the original recurring gift template, and those fields are disabled.

9. In the Appeal field, select a new appeal or leave the appeal from the original recurring gift template. It is often a new appeal that prompts a change in the donated amount. Once you enter a new appeal, that appeal appears in the Appeal field on the Gift tab and the Appeal column of the Split Gift tab of the original recurring gift template, and those fields are disabled.

10. In the Package field, select a new package or leave the package from the original recurring gift template. Once you enter a new package, that package appears in the Package field on the Gift tab and the Package column of the Split Gift tab of the original recurring gift template, and those fields are disabled.

11. In the Canvassers field, select a new canvasser or leave the canvassers from the original recurring gift template. Once you enter a new canvasser, that canvasser appears in the Canvassers field on the Gift tab of the original recurring gift template, and that field is disabled.

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When you add an amendment, if you

previously used the Microsoft Word button to create a letter, and saved the letter as an action, the link between that action and the recurring gift template is broken. The action is not deleted. It remains on the Actions tab of the donor’s constituent record. The original action is unlinked from the recurring gift template because once you add an amendment, a new letter may be created and saved as an action. If you delete the amendment, the original action is relinked to the recurring gift template.

12. When you add an amendment record, your selections in the Acknowledge/date and Letter fields on the original recurring gift template default into the Acknowledge/date and Letter fields on the amendment record. To acknowledge the recurring gift by creating a single letter using the Microsoft Word button on the toolbar of the original recurring gift template, you should select “Not Acknowledged” in the Acknowledge field, and clear the date. In the Letter field, select the letter you want to write. Once you create the letter using the Microsoft Word button on the toolbar of the original recurring gift template, the date you create the letter appears in the Acknowledge date field and the Letter field is disabled. You can also acknowledge a recurring gift amendment by using the Donor Acknowledgement Letters mail task in Mail. Any letter created for the amendment will list on the Letters sent to screen, accessed from the Letters button on the amendment record or the original recurring gift record. For more information about creating a single letter from a gift record, see the Creating a Letter from a Gift Record section in the Mail Merge With Microsoft Word chapter of The Raiser’s Edge & Microsoft Office Integration Guide. For more information about using the Donor Acknowledgement Letters mail task, see the Mail Guide.

13. When “Direct Debit” appears in the Pay method field on the Gift tab of the recurring gift template, the Resend advance notice checkbox is enabled on the amendment record. Check Resend advance notice. When you amend the amount of a recurring gift, a new advance notice letter must be sent to the donor. An advance notice letter informs the constituent that a payment is going to be debited from his bank account. According to BACS regulations, this letter must contain the instalment schedule, total gift amount, your organisation’s name, and due date of the first instalment. You should check with your sponsoring bank to confirm the number of days prior to the first collection that you should send the advance notice letter. Advance notice letters are sent through the Donor Acknowledgement Letters mail task in Mail. The Raiser’s Edge supports sending a combination of a confirmation, advance notice, and acknowledgement letter to save processing time and postage. For more information about confirmation letters and advanced notice letters and the time lines with which you should adhere, contact your sponsoring bank. For more information about using a mail merge to generate these letters, see the Mail Guide and The Raiser’s Edge & Microsoft Office Integration Guide.When you check Resend Advance notice, the Date adv. notice sent checkbox on the Instruction Details screen, accessed from the Details button on the Gift tab of the recurring gift template, is cleared when you save the amendment. To ensure the amendment is included in the Acknowledgement Letters mail task in Mail, you must select “Not Acknowledged” and clear the date in the Acknowledge/date fields on the amendment record. You do not have to select a letter in the Letter field.

14. In the Notes box, enter any important information about the amendment or recurring gift template.


15. On the Split Gift tab of the amendment record, you can split a recurring gift between multiple campaigns, funds, appeals, or packages or leave the distributions from the original recurring gift template. Once you split a recurring gift between multiple campaigns, funds, appeals, or packages, the changes appear in the correct fields on the Gift tab of the original recurring gift template, and the fields are disabled.

When you add recurring gift amendments to your database, be careful of any amendments that may cause the gift to become disqualified for Gift Aid. If you set up any appeals, campaigns, funds, gift subtypes, or packages as criteria to disqualify a gift for Gift Aid, be careful when you make these same selections on the recurring gift amendment record. For example, in Business Rules, if you set up a rule to ensure all gifts with a Gift subtype of Payroll Giving are disqualified for Gift Aid and you select “Payroll Giving” in the Gift Subtype field on the amendment record, the recurring gift that was originally tax claim eligible becomes ineligible for tax claim. On the Tax tab of the recurring gift template, the Gift Aid Qualification Status appears as Not Qualified for Gift Aid and the tax claim eligibility status appears as “Gift is not eligible for tax claim”.

Add Recurring Gift Amendments to Recurring Gifts in the Database

If you convert a gift from a foreign

currency to your monetary system with the Currency Exchange feature (Amendment, Currency Exchange from the menu bar of the amendment record), the Currency type for an amendment cannot be different than the original Currency type on the original recurring gift template. If a constituent donates in a different currency, you must end the recurring gift and create a new one. However, you can change the Exchange rate for an amendment.

You can add recurring gift amendment records to a recurring gift template in your Raiser’s Edge database in several ways.• From the Gifts page of Records – On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Records.

Click Gifts. On the Gifts page, click Open a Gift. The Open screen appears so you can search your database for the recurring gift to change. Once you find and open the gift record, select the Amendments tab. On the action bar, click New Amendment. The New Amendment screen appears. For information about amending recurring gift records, see “Recurring Gift Record” on page 99. For detailed information about recurring gift records, see the Recurring Gifts chapter of the Gift Records Guide.

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• From the Gifts tab of a constituent record – On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Records. Click Constituents. On the Constituents page, click Open a Constituent. The Open screen appears so you can search your database for the constituent who gave the recurring gift to amend. Once you find and open the constituent record, select the Gifts tab. In the Gifts grid, select the recurring gift you want to change, and click Open on the action bar. The Gift screen appears. Select the Amendments tab. For information about amending recurring gift records, see “Recurring Gift Record” on page 99. For detailed information about recurring gift records, see the Recurring Gifts chapter of the Gift Records Guide.

To create a new import to add new amendment

records for recurring gift templates in your database, or to update amendment records that already exist, you must include the Constituent Import ID and the Gift Import ID as import fields on the Fields tab of the Import - Amendment parameter file.

• In Import, you can use the Amendment import type to import new amendment records into your database for existing recurring gift templates. You can also update amendment records that already exist on the Amendments tab of a recurring gift template. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Admin. The Administration page appears. Click Import. On the Import page , all import types appear in a tree view. Information appears on the right side of the screen depending on the import type you select on the left and if you have a corresponding import type saved. To create a new import to add new amendment records for recurring gift templates, or to update amendment records that already exist, select the


Amendment import type, under Gift in the tree view, and click New Import on the action bar. The Import screen appears. For detailed information about how to import new records into The Raiser’s Edge, import updates to existing records in The Raiser’s Edge, and create an import file of records in your Raiser’s Edge database to use in another application, see the Import Guide.

Process Recurring Gift TransactionsIf you use NetSolutions, you can

download credit card and direct debit transactions online. You can also download a donor’s Gift Aid declaration. For more information, see the NetSolutions Guide.

Once you create a recurring gift template and a constituent begins to donate gifts regularly according to schedule, you must create a cash gift record for each donation. You can generate transactions for a recurring gift template in several ways.

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A constituent can give a cash payment for a

recurring gift electronically and non-electronically. If a constituent uses a non-electronic payment type, such as personal or business cheque, your organisation receives the gift when you deposit the cheque in the bank. For recurring gifts, you normally use electronic payment types, such as a direct debit, standing order, and credit card. When you use these electronic payment types and check EFT? beside the Pay method field, you process the transactions using an electronic funds transfer. With Electronic Funds Transfer, you can automatically generate cash payments for recurring gifts, create direct debit transmission files to send to BACS, create credit card transmission files to process through IATS, and import standing orders into a batch or directly into the program. For more information, see “Electronic Funds Transfer” on page 3. For detailed information, see the Electronic Gifts (EFT) Guide.

• You can add a new cash gift record from the Gifts page of Records and apply it to the recurring gift template. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Records. Click Gifts. On the Gifts page, click New Gift. The New Gift screen appears. In the Constituent field, click the binoculars to search your database for the constituent who is donating the gift. Once you find and select the constituent, if you set the When adding a gift warn if constituent has... Outstanding recurring gifts business rule, a message appears to inform you that the constituent has at least one outstanding recurring gift and to ask whether to apply the gift to a recurring gift. Click Yes. The Apply Gift to Recurring Gift screen appears so you can select the recurring gift to which to apply the cash gift. You then enter a Transaction amount. If you did not set the business rule, to access the Apply Gift to Recurring Gift screen, select Gift, Apply to, Recurring Gift from the menu bar of the cash gift record. For more information about how to apply a cash gift record to a recurring gift template, see the Gift Records Guide. For information about how to set up business rules, see the Configuration & Security Guide.

• You can add a new cash gift record from the Gifts tab of a constituent record. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Records. Click Constituents. On the Constituents page, click Open a Constituent. The Open screen appears so you can search your database for the constituent who gives the recurring gift. Once you find and open the constituent record, select the Gifts tab. On the action bar, click New Gift. The New Gift screen appears. If you set the When adding a gift warn if constituent has... Outstanding recurring gifts business rule, a message appears to inform you that the constituent has at least one outstanding recurring gift and to ask whether to apply the gift to a recurring gift. Click Yes. The Apply Gift to Recurring Gift screen appears so you can select the recurring gift to which to apply the cash gift. You then enter a Transaction amount. If


you did not set the business rule, to access the Apply Gift to Recurring Gift screen, select Gift, Apply to, Recurring Gift from the menu bar of the cash gift record. For more information about how to apply a cash gift record to a recurring gift template, see the Gift Records Guide. For information about setting up business rules, see the Configuration & Security Guide.

• In Batch, you can add many cash gift records to the database at once. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Batch. The Batch page appears. On the action bar, to create a new gift batch, click New Gift Batch. To open an existing batch, select a batch in the grid, and click Open on the action bar. The Batch screen appears. In the Constituent Name column, click the binoculars. The Open screen appears so you can search your database for the constituent who is giving the recurring gift. Once you find and open the constituent record, if you set the When adding a gift to a batch, warn if constituent has... Outstanding recurring gifts business rule, a message appears to inform you that the constituent has at least one outstanding recurring gift and to ask whether to apply the gift to a recurring gift. Click Yes. The Apply Gift to Recurring Gift screen appears so you can select the recurring gift to which to apply the cash

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gift. You then enter a Transaction amount. If you did not set the business rule, to access the Apply Gift to Recurring Gift screen, select Gift, Apply to, Recurring Gift from the menu bar of the Batch screen. For detailed information about how to add and update gift records using Batch, see the Batch Guide.

• In Import, you can use the Recurring Gift Payment import type to import new cash gift records into your database to apply to recurring gift templates. On the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Admin. On the Administration page, click Import. The Import page appears. All import types appear in a tree view on the left side of the screen. Information appears on the right side of the screen depending on the import type you select on the left and if you have a corresponding import type saved. To create a new import to add new cash gift records to apply to recurring gift templates, or to create an import file containing cash gift payment


information for recurring gift templates, select the Recurring Gift Payment import type, under Gift in the tree view, and click New Import on the action bar. The Import screen appears. For detailed information about how to import new records into The Raiser’s Edge and create an import file of records in your database to use in another application, see the Import Guide.

Recurring Gift Data Extraction and ReportingOnce you add recurring gift templates to your database, receive payments toward the recurring gifts, and start to use the recurring gift amendment functionality to track the changes in your regular supporters’ giving, you will need a way to extract this data from The Raiser’s Edge. You can use Query, Export, Reports, Dashboard, and Mail to get this data. For example, you can effectively thank your donors, correspond with them about their commitments to your organisation, communicate with your donors about where their money is going, and contact donors when they have missed a certain number of payments. You can also report internally on how your regular supporters programmes are doing, how many donors you have gained or lost, who has upgraded or downgraded their donations, and analyse demographic statistics to determine which regions to target and why.

Query and ExportIn Query and Export, many fields exist to help you extract data so you can better analyse, report on, contact, recruit, and maintain your regular supporters. For detailed information about Query and Export, see the Query & Export Guide.• Special gift information fields help you extract information about your

recurring gifts.

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To remove regular supporters who have

missed payments consecutively from future mailings, transaction files, etc., you can create a query using the Number of Consecutive Missed Payments field. Then you can use this query to globally change the appropriate recurring gift records’ status to Terminated. For information about Global Change, see the Global Add, Delete, & Change Guide.

Number of Consecutive Missed Payments - This number is the number of payments skipped or missed since the last payment made. This field calculates only for recurring gifts. For other gift types, the field will appear blank.Latest Payment Amount - This is the most recent payment amount for a recurring gift template.Latest Payment Made - This is the most recent payment date for a recurring gift template.Instalment Frequency - This frequency for Recurring Gift Pay - Cash gifts is always the current frequency on the recurring gift.

Fields under the Amendments group

having a plus sign beside them can be expanded. When you click the plus sign, additional fields appear.

• An entire Amendments group helps you extract information about your recurring gift amendments.

Acknowledge Notes

Acknowledge Date Package List

Amendment Date Previous Amount

Amount Previous Frequency

Amount Variance Resend Advance Notice?

Appeal List Subtype

Campaign List System Record ID


For clarification, the Amount Variance is the difference between the Amount on the Amendment tab of the amendment record and the Amount on the Amendment tab of the previous amendment record, if more than one amendment exists. If only one amendment exists, it is the difference between the Amount on the Amendment tab of the amendment record and the Amount on the Gift tab of the original recurring gift. The Amount Variance is easily calculated when the frequency for the amount and the previous amount are the same (amendment amount - previous recurring gift amount = variance amount). However, when the frequency changes on an amendment,

Canvasser List VBA User Field (Export only)

Currency Amount Tax Claim Eligible?

Currency Type (Query only) +Appeals

Currency Country (Export only) +Campaigns

Date Added +Canvassers

Date Last Changed +Funds

Exchange rate +Packages

Frequency +Previous Appeals

Frequency Description +Previous Campaigns

Fund List +Previous Canvassers

Import ID +Previous Funds

Last Changed By +Previous Packages

Letter

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the previous amount will be calculated using the new frequency. For example, if the original recurring gift is £60 annually, and the amendment changes to £6 monthly, the £60 is converted to a monthly frequency (£60/12 months = £5 monthly). Then the difference is calculated: £6 (amendment amount) - £5 (previous recurring gift amount) = £1 (amount variance).


• The Letters Sent group helps you easily export the history of letters sent to your constituents. This includes those letters sent to your regular supporters concerning their recurring gifts or recurring gift amendments. The Letters Sent group appears under the Constituent category in Export. It does not appear in Query.

ReportsOn the Reports page, you can access reports to help you analyse your regular supporters programmes.• Profiles summarise information contained on your constituent records. On the

Constituent Profile, Individual Profile, and Organisation Profile, you can include an Amendment History. This can be helpful when you need to see the giving trends for a donor or group of donors over a period of time. You may want to see how many times this financial year a particular individual upgraded (or downgraded) her recurring gift. When you set up a constituent, individual, or organisation profile, you can enter a heading; decide to whom soft credits should go; select the date for the profile; and decide which campaign(s), fund(s), and appeal(s) to include. To access these profiles, on the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Reports. The Reports page appears. Click the Profiles, Lists, and Directories button or link. The Profiles, Lists, and Directories page appears. To

Constituent Letter

Date Sent System Record ID

Gift Date VBA User Field

Gift Type

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create a new profile, select the profile type in the list on the left, and click New on the action bar. To open a profile that has already been created and saved, select the profile in the grid on the right and click Open on the action bar. The Profile screen appears. For detailed information about profiles, see the Reports Guide and the Sample Reports Guide.

• The Recurring Gift Missed Payment Report helps you locate the regular supporters you have lost and helps you determine when you lost them. The report shows the gift amounts to which a donor has committed, but not yet paid. It processes information for recurring gifts with consecutive missed payments — the number of payments that have been skipped or missed since the last payment made. You can process this report as a summary report, detail report, or both. You can filter by campaign(s), fund(s), appeal(s), constituent code(s), gift status (all except Completed), pay method, and frequency. You can report on recurring gifts with no payments, recurring gifts with at least one payment, or all recurring gifts, regardless of the number of payments. You can summarise the report by campaign, fund, appeal, package, constituent code, canvasser, and pay method. You can break it down by frequency, campaign, fund, appeal, package, canvasser, and pay method. Along with the constituent name, you can include the constituent ID and a maiden name. From this report, you can also create a constituent or gift output query.


To remove regular supporters who have

missed payments consecutively from future mailings, transaction files, etc., you can run the Recurring Gift Missed Payment Report and select to create an output query. Then you can use this query to globally change the appropriate recurring gift records’ status to Terminated. For information about Global Change, see the Global Add, Delete, & Change Guide.

To access the Recurring Gift Missed Payment Report, on the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Reports. The Reports page appears. Click the Pledge and Recurring Gift Reports button or link. The Pledge and Recurring Gift Reports page appears. To create a new report, select Recurring Gift Missed Payment Report in the list on the left, and click New on the action bar. To open a report that has already been created and saved, select the report in the grid on the right and click Open on the action bar. The Recurring Gift Missed Payment Report screen appears. For detailed information about reports, see the Reports Guide and the Sample Reports Guide.

• The Recurring Gift Amendment Report helps you determine the success rate of your upgrade appeals or campaigns. It can show you who has upgraded or downgraded, when, and how much your donors were previously giving and how much they are giving now. It processes information for amended recurring gifts on a specific date or during a specified date range. You can select to include recurring gifts with amounts that have been upgraded, downgraded, or remained the same; and you can select to process this report as a summary report, detail report, or both. You can filter by constituent code(s), appeal(s), campaign(s), fund(s), and payment type(s). You can summarise the report by campaign, fund, appeal, package, constituent code, canvasser, and pay method. You can break it down by constituent name, amendment month and year, campaign, fund, appeal, canvasser, and frequency. Along with the constituent name, you can include the constituent ID and a maiden name. From this report, you can also create a constituent or gift output query.

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To access the Recurring Gift Amendment Report, on the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Reports. The Reports page appears. Click the Pledge and Recurring Gift Reports button or link. The Pledge and Recurring Gift Reports page appears. To create a new report, select Recurring Gift Amendment Report in the list on the left, and click New on the action bar. To open a report that has already been created and saved, select the report in the grid on the right and click Open on the action bar. The Recurring Gift Amendment Report screen appears. For detailed information about reports, see the Reports Guide and the Sample Reports Guide.

• Statistical reports provide you with a breakdown of how many constituents have a specified field value, how many gifts they gave, and how much money they donated. The exact data included depends on your parameter tab settings. The Recurring Gift Statistical Report can help you find the regular supporters you have lost and help you better target future donors. You can determine statistics such as how many donors were lost per month; which gender or age group is giving the most money; which gender or age group is less likely to continue giving; or from which postcode, county, or region you are receiving the highest donations.The report processes information for the gift date you decide to use (Gift date or NL post date) and gifts on a specific date or during a specified date range. You can select to use all the fields you normally use on a Raiser’s Edge statistical report, with the addition of Gift payment method, Gift frequency, and Gift package. You can filter by fund(s), appeal(s), constituent code(s), campaign(s), and payment type(s). You can select a maximum of 10 columns, such as number of constituents; number of constituents with an active recurring gift; number of active recurring gifts; total number of recurring gifts cancelled/terminated; number of recurring gifts cancelled/terminated with or without payments; total number of new recurring gifts; number of new recurring gifts with or without payments; average payments given for new recurring gifts; total number of recurring gift payments; total amount of missed recurring gift payments; total number of amended recurring gifts; number of recurring gifts that were upgraded, downgraded, or remained the same; and number of cancelled/terminated recurring gifts/number of active recurring gifts. You can also set report limits based on certain factors. To help explain complicated data, you can also produce a bar or pie graph of the report results.


To access the Recurring Gift Statistical Report, on the Raiser’s Edge bar, click Reports. The Reports page appears. Click the Demographic and Statistical Reports button or link. The Demographic and Statistical Reports page appears. To create a new report, select Recurring Gift Statistical Report in the list on the left, and click New on the action bar. To open a report that has already been created and saved, select the report in the grid on the right and click Open on the action bar. The Recurring Gift Statistical Report screen appears. For detailed information about reports, see the Reports Guide and the Sample Reports Guide.

Recurring Gift Statistical Report broken down by constituent Gender field

Recurring Gift Statistical Report broken down by gift Months in the year field

DashboardRecurring Gift dashboard panels provide missed payment information about your regular supporters’ recurring gifts and summary information about amendments to your recurring gifts. Two Recurring Gift dashboards are available in The Raiser’s Edge: Recurring Gift Missed Payment Summary and Recurring Gift Amendment Summary. To access these dashboards, on the Raiser’s Edge bar, click

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Dashboard. The Dashboard page appears. To create a new dashboard page, click New on the action bar. The Customise Dashboard page appears. The Recurring Gift Missed Payment Summary and Recurring Gift Amendment Summary appear under the Gift category. For detailed information about Dashboard, see the Dashboard Guide.

For a gift to be classified as tax claim

eligible in The Raiser’s Edge, a gift must be qualified for Gift Aid and a Gift Aid declaration must be recorded on the Bio 1 tab of the donor’s constituent record, applicable for the date of the gift. Also, this Gift Aid declaration must have a pays tax status of Yes. When the declaration has an indicator of Oral, the confirmation sent date must be less than or equal to the system date.

• The Recurring Gift Missed Payment Summary shows unrealised payments for recurring gifts — the gift amounts to which your donors have committed, but not yet paid. This dashboard processes information for recurring gifts with consecutive missed payments. Consecutive missed payments are the number of payments that have been skipped or missed since the last payment made. You can report on recurring gifts with no payments, recurring gifts with at least one payment, or all recurring gifts, regardless of the number of payments. You can summarise this dashboard by campaign, fund, appeal, package, constituent code, canvasser, or pay method. You can break it down by frequency and show tax claim eligible gifts in net or gross amounts. For detailed information about the Recurring Gift Missed Payment Summary, see the Gift segment in the Dashboard Panels section in the Working With Dashboard chapter of the Dashboard Guide. For detailed information about how to create a dashboard panel, see the Panel Basics chapter of the same guide.


An overall downgrade for your recurring gifts

displays in the Variance column in parentheses to designate the negative amount.

• The Recurring Gift Amendment Summary displays summarised information about amendments in your database. For example, you can filter on your two upgrade appeals for this financial year to see if the total amounts of your recurring gifts have gone up, down, or remained the same. You can also see the variance (difference) between the total current amount and the total previous amount of your recurring gifts, and this total change by percentage. You can summarise the dashboard by campaign, fund, appeal, package, constituent code, canvasser, or pay method. You can break it down by frequency and show tax claim eligible gifts in net or gross amounts. For detailed information about the Recurring Gift Amendment Summary, see the Gift segment in the Dashboard Panels section in the Working With Dashboard chapter of the Dashboard Guide. For detailed information about how to create a dashboard panel, see the Panel Basics chapter of the same guide.

MailIn Mail, fields exist to help you extract data so you can easily contact your regular supporters. Mail makes it easier to correspond with donors because it automates many standard processes such as gathering data for mail merges and selecting addresses. You can create letters for many donors at once. For detailed information about using mail tasks in The Raiser’s Edge, see the Mail Guide.

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Donor Acknowledgement LettersYou can also send your Advance notice letters

through the Donor Acknowledgement Letters mail task. The Raiser’s Edge supports sending a combination of confirmation, advance notice, and acknowledgement letter to save time and postage. For information about using a mail merge to generate these letters, see the Mail Guide and The Raiser’s Edge & Microsoft Office Integration Guide.

You can use the Donor Acknowledgement Letters mail task to select and export acknowledgement information to create thank-you letters for your regular supporters. You can create many letters at once for a group of donors. You can insert merge fields, such as Amount last paid and Date last payment, to personalise the letter for each constituent. Using the Donor Acknowledgement Letters mail task, you export the corresponding fields to merge with a letter you have written in an application that supports mail merges. The following section lists fields that can be useful when creating letters for your regular supporters. For information about Donor Acknowledgement Letters, see the Available Mail Tasks chapter of the Mail Guide.• Fields appear on the Fields to Include tab of the Donor Acknowledgement

Letters screen that can be useful when acknowledging your regular supporters. These fields appear in the Gifts folder in the Available Fields box. To include these fields, select each one at a time and click the single right arrow to move each field to the Fields to Export box. For information about using the Fields to Include tab, see the Fields to Include Tab chapter of the Mail Guide.

Amount last paid - This is the amount of the most recently entered cash gift record for a recurring gift template.Date last payment - This is the date of the most recently entered cash gift record for a recurring gift template.Amendment type - The type can be an upgrade, downgrade, or can remain the same. If the gift is not an amended recurring gift, the field will appear blank.Amendment date - This is the date of the most recently entered amendment record for a recurring gift template.


• On the Gift Types tab of the Donor Acknowledgement Letters screen, an All Recurring Gift group appears. Recurring Gift and Amendment appear within this group. You can select to move these types from the Gift Types box to the Include these Gift Types box. Under the All Cash group, you can also select Recurring Gift Pay-Cash. You can include these helpful recurring gift mail types in your letters. For information about using the Gift Types tab, see the Gift Types Tab chapter of the Mail Guide.

RemindersYou may decide to send reminders to the regular supporters who have skipped several payments on their recurring gift commitment. You may be able to improve the financial success of your regular supporters programme by kindly reminding these donors of their commitments. You can send a reminder for each recurring gift transaction or a single reminder for the entire recurring gift. The following section lists fields that can be useful when creating reminders for your regular supporters. For information about Reminders, see the Available Mail Tasks chapter of the Mail Guide.• Fields appear on the Fields to Include tab of the Reminders screen that can be

useful when sending reminders to your regular supporters. These fields appear in the Gifts folder in the Available Fields box. For the Gifts folder to appear in the Available Fields box, you must select “Create custom data file” in the Reminder type field on the General tab of the Reminders screen. To include these fields, select each one at a time and click the single right arrow to move the field from the Available Fields box to the Fields to Export box. For information about using the Fields to Include tab, see the Fields to Include Tab chapter of the Mail Guide.

Amount last paid - This is the amount of the most recently entered cash gift record for a recurring gift template.

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Date last payment - This is the date of the most recently entered cash gift record for a recurring gift template.


• On the Gift Types tab of the Reminders screen, an All Recurring Gift group appears. Recurring Gift and Amendment appear within this group. You can select to move these types from the Gift Types box to the Include these Gift Types box. You can include these helpful recurring gift mail types in your reminders. For information about using the Gift Types tab, see the Gift Types Tab chapter of the Mail Guide.

Renewal NoticesFor information about Membership

Management, see the Membership Data Entry Guide. For information about membership gifts, see the Membership Gifts Guide.

The Renewal Notices mail task is available when you use Membership Management. You can print renewal notices for memberships that have lapsed or will lapse. Sending renewal notices can increase your membership retention rate. When a membership is about to expire, you send a renewal notice to encourage and remind a member to extend a membership. The following section lists fields that can be useful when creating renewal notices for your regular supporters who use recurring gifts to pay their membership dues.• Fields appear on the Fields to Include tab of the Renewal Notices screen that

can be useful when sending renewal notices to your regular supporters. These fields appear in the Gifts folder in the Available Fields box. For the Gifts folder to appear in the Available Fields box, you must select “Create custom data file” in the Notice type field on the General tab of the Renewal Notices screen. To include these fields, select each one at a time and click the single right arrow to move the field from the Available Fields box to the Fields to Export box. For information about using the Fields to Include tab, see the Fields to Include Tab chapter of the Mail Guide.

Amount last paid - This is the amount of the most recently entered cash gift record for a recurring gift template.Date last payment - This is the date of the most recently entered cash gift record for a recurring gift template.

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Amendment type - The type can be an upgrade, downgrade, or can remain the same. If the gift is not an amended recurring gift, the field will appear blank.Amendment date - This is the date of the most recently entered amendment record for a recurring gift template.