Gift Processing and Financial Assistant

Department:	Office of Development and Affairs	Effective Date:	February 2005
Grade:	USG 6	Reports to:	Spvr of Gift Processing Asst

General Accountability

As part of the Gifts Processing team, the Gift Processing and Financial Assistant is responsible for handling the overall processing of donations for the University of Waterloo. This process involves receiving, recording, banking, receipting, and acknowledging donations. Specialized functions related to the transmission of gift income and disbursements to the General Ledger, account reconciliation, and other associated tasks are additional responsibilities.

Nature and Scope

The Gifts Processing team consists of a Gift Processing and Financial Assistant, plus two full time and two part time Gift Processing Assistants. The Gift Processing team reports to the Supervisor of Gift Processing Assistants, and is also accountable to the Finance Officer and the Sr. Director of Donor Relations and Advancement Services.

The Team has working relationships with and provides functional support to all the Office of Development & Alumni Affairs (ODAA) staff. The ODAA consists of approximately 70 staff members. Development and Alumni Officers are physically located in the central ODAA office, and in the six Faculty Offices. Other development officers with whom the office collaborates are located in the Library and in each of the Colleges, shifting the paradigm of a centrally organized office to a central/decentral advancement program. This presents communication challenges with subgroups such as Development Officers, Alumni Officers, Prospect Research, Records, System Administration, Secretarial services, and Mail Call Telemarketer Managers due to the central/decentral structure.

Gifts Processing

The majority of donations and related pledge forms and/or information result from solicitations done by Development Officers, the Call Centre, direct mail appeals, events and memorials. Gift Processing Assistants must diligently deal with the timely receipt of the related forms and/or information and donations for all University fundraising initiatives. Often the solicitation of a major donor has involved visits, proposals, follow-up with senior business and university officers. Pledges can be complex and may require follow up with the Development Officer for pertinent information. The ability to effectively communicate with sensitivity, written or orally, is essential. Attention to detail and accuracy are necessary for efficient processing.

Within the collaborative team environment each Gift Processing Assistant will process incoming donations ranging from small to medium Annual Fund gifts, to large major donor contributions. Donations are primarily received as cheques, credit card, pre-authorized payment, debit card, payroll and pension deductions, departmental transfers, and foreign currency. Donations may also be received in the form of a gift-in-kind, securities, life insurance and other planned giving vehicles. Bank deposit preparation and handling, and posting batches to the giving history files are completed daily. Handling of the daily coding and input of multi-year pledges taken through the telemarketing program as well as other fundraising initiatives, setting up payment schedules, and pledge maintenance are tasks also completed. Precise updates to biographic and business data are routinely completed. Batches of cheques, payroll and pension deductions, PAC and credit card donations are reconciled. Serialized receipts are reconciled for amount and sequential numbering. Receipts are issued following Canada Revenue Agency standards. The ability to prioritize, multi-task and meet deadlines are crucial to ensure that accurate and complete reporting requirements are met.

Non-routine donations are processed after consulting with the Supervisor of Gift Processing Assistants or knowledgeable team member, as needed. Extraordinary handling may include identifying and coding gifts which should take an exceptional path i.e. donations which go to the expendable account instead of the principal for endowments. Consequences of not taking this action could include funds disbursed to the wrong account. Other exceptions may include split projects within one cheque (part donation, part non-donation such as those resulting from fundraising dinners); donations to the US Foundation; or donations given via another agency like the United Way or the Colleges. Gift Processing Assistants must be knowledgeable about Tax Law to identify non-donations which may cross their desks i.e. sponsorships or research contracts which do not get receipted.

Generating, proof reading and mailing batches of specialized letters of acknowledgement and receipts to donors is performed daily. There are more than twenty-five specialized letters of acknowledgment. Donations received from individuals, foundations, or corporations are handled differently. The type of gift that is donated as well as the amounts received further determines which specialized letter of acknowledgement is generated. Some letters are mailed from the ODAA and others are forwarded to specific Faculties or Development Officers. Types of specialized letters include: eight Campaign Waterloo individual and corporate donors, three annual thank you letters for individual, corporate or Keystone Campaign donors, campaign reminders for individuals and corporations, and six circle letters depending on the amount of the gift. For memorial donations, the donor and family each receive a letter of acknowledgement. Some corporate gifts trigger a corporate thank you letter as well as a circle letter to a member. Excellent writing skills are important to iterate our appreciation and stewardship of their gift as well as include specific details pertaining to their gift.

The Donor Circle Program requires the Gift Processing Assistants to provide administrative support by reviewing up to six different mailing lists, recording benefit information, proofreading and mailing tangible benefit(s) such as a library card or parking pass to donors with one of the six corresponding specialized letters.

Gift Processing Assistants work with confidential information from alumni, faculty, staff, retirees, parents, friends, students, corporations, foundations, government and other organizations. Some donors contact Gift Processing Assistants by telephone or electronic mail. All inquiries of sensitive information are handled responsibly; ensuring appropriate information is disclosed in a professional manner while consistent with the federal privacy legislation, PIPEDA. A high degree of accuracy and attention to detail, knowledge of several program details such as current targeted fundraising projects, methods of solicitation, and tracking of individual donations is required. With increasingly complex procedures, a broad knowledge base ensures accurate recording, receipting, coding, reporting, and acknowledging donations in a specialized computing environment. Due to the complexity and sensitivity of information, policies and procedures are documented and practiced.

Financial Duties

The Gift Processing and Financial Assistant has an implicit understanding and extensive working knowledge of the gift processing functions, the underlying financial transactions created by the Benefactor system, and the financial implications of making adjusting entries in the gift processing module of Benefactor.

Balancing the Point-of-Sale terminal is completed daily. Donations, event fees, and frame sales by credit card are processed. Valid credit card numbers, totals, expiry dates and acceptance of the transaction are reviewed for accuracy.

All income to Benefactor by cheque, payroll and pension deduction, and PAC interfaces is reconciled to the general ledger. Non-donation income from Alumni programs such as Meloche Monnex or Manulife insurance rebates, or credit card rebates are handled deposited and reconciled.

The transmission of gift income from Benefactor to Finance’s general ledger is performed weekly. Prior to transmitting the deposits processed on Benefactor for the week, a number of checks are completed. A query is run to capture anomalies and entries the system codes as an “error”. Each item is cross referenced and verified with a log book where Gift Processing Assistants record changes to, or voiding of, gifts and pledges. Any outstanding items are investigated and resolved. All applicable adjustments or linking of files is completed. After the transmission, a report is re-run to ensure the transfer was complete. Any exceptions are communicated to Finance.

Reconciliation of reports from Finance is completed each month end. Entries are cross referenced to the gift processing records to ensure all transmissions were picked up. Donations in US funds are manually deposited by Finance. US donations are cross referenced with the original journal entries to ensure each deposit as well as the correct foreign exchange rates were keyed. Payroll and pension deductions are investigated as differences may result due to the timing of changes or incorrect deletions/additions made to the payroll deduction tape. All adjustments initiated by Finance to our account are verified prior to adjustments made to the donor record on Benefactor. Adjustments result from NSF cheques, missed memos regarding allocation of donations, discrepancies in comparing transfers from other departments, or wire transfers.

Bi-weekly transfers of donated funds to endowments for $10,000+ are identified and disbursed. Timely transfers are critical to maximize earnings on the donation. If donations to endowments are not transferred by the last Tuesday of each month, the opportunity to maximize expendable earnings for the month is foregone. Prior to disbursing the funds, a detailed disbursement summary report is generated. This report captures detail for donation allocation. It is analysed to ensure the account number and project number as well as the allocation of funds is complete. (It is common to have a donation applied to more than one project.) Changes are made in Benefactor to the donor’s file to allow the donation to be disbursed to more than one account. Donations that may not have complete information due to the timing or complexity require liaising with Development Officers, departments and Colleges.

A systemic approach is employed to effectively disburse approximately four million dollars of processed gifts to various Faculties, departments and Colleges quarterly. This multi-day task involves reviewing a 600 plus page detailed Disbursement Report. Extensive knowledge is required to recognize when fund names and account coding describing the substance of the donation does not fit with the classification captured in the segments of the 31 digit general ledger account number. Also, it is analysed to ensure the allocation of funds is accurate and matches the description provided in the details disclosed in this report. (It is common to have a donation be applied to more than one project.) With privileged access to the Benefactor disbursement utility, changes are made to allow Benefactor to disburse the donations to more than one account. Seven sequential steps are required to process one multi-fund disbursement. It may involve communicating with departments for clarification, incomplete or missing information, new fund accounts, or general ledger numbers. Changes are flagged. All flagged accounts are re-run and previewed prior to disbursement. As a steward of the donations, absolute accuracy ensures donations are disbursed to requested accounts. Copies of the Disbursement Report are sorted, labelled and circulated to over sixty Faculties, departments and Colleges.

The Gift Processing and Financial Assistant also liaises with Finance to resolve all discrepancies that occur such as missing cheques in a bank deposit, missing bank deposits, deposit outages, questionable credit cards or pre-authorized payment schedules.

Statistical Data

The team processes over 30,000 donations totalling more than $20 million annually to the University of Waterloo
The largest gift received is $33 million
Over 1,000 gifts of $1000+ donations processed in 2004
Number of University Relations staff – Central Offices: 67; Faculty Offices: 15; and Virtual staff: 10.5
Donations are directed to 1175 gift designations / accounts
2,820 deposits were processed in 2004

Specific Accountabilities

Work independently within a collaborative team environment to process incoming donations.
Disburse applicable gifts through the Gift Disbursement utility on Benefactor quarterly. (transferring gift income to the various Faculties, departments and Colleges)
Identify and disburse endowment donations bi-weekly to funds for investment purposes.
Liaise with Finance to reconcile the holding account; resolve all discrepancies that occur such as missing cheques in a bank deposit, missing in bank deposits, deposit outages, questionable credit cards or pre-authorized payment schedules.
Handle, deposit, receipt and acknowledge donations for corporations and foundations.
Deposit non-donation income for Alumni Programs – such as Meloche Monnex or Manulife insurance rebates, luncheon & event fees, ticket sales etc.
Prepare, handle and reconcile deposited donations (e.g. cheques, payroll and pension deductions, PAC interfaces).
Schedule, generate and issue receipts and reminders.
Process routine and specialized letters of acknowledgement. Maintain an extensive file of letters which are customized for specific donations, or merged with template letters for mass production.
Post batches of donations to update the giving history donor files.
Handle daily coding and input of multi-year pledges taken through the telemarketing program or fundraising initiatives.
Ensure all transactions are conducted within the policies and procedures of the University of Waterloo, and any municipal, provincial or federal laws.
Maintain extensive donation records, electronic and paper.
Maintain documentation of operational procedures.
Act as a support for receptionist, and perform other non-routine duties as assigned.