It’s a common challenge for fundraisers: household tracking. No matter who writes the check or completes the online donation form, all members of a household should be recognized and treated as donors. They should also be cultivated for future giving opportunities.
The challenge of tracking households in fundraising
But tracking the true value of a household isn’t always easy. First, you must track individual relationships. Then, you must track the household’s giving level. And, ideally, the other members of the household will be soft-credited for a donor’s gift so that no matter whose record is viewed in your association’s database, the total giving from all household members is apparent. It can get complicated.
Making household value tracking easier
That’s why fundraising functionality in NetForum Enterprise association management software makes it easier for associations to track the true value of a household. These capabilities allow your development team to:
- Configure individual-to-individual relationships (such as spouse) or individual-to-household relationships (such as head of household). This lets you know who’s who in the household.
- Set up these relationship types to “auto soft credit.” This means that any time one member of the household makes a gift, the others connected by this relationship type will automatically receive a soft credit for the same amount. Even if this type of automation isn’t used, your staff can manually add soft credits to any gift when the business need arises.
- Configure and dynamically assign donor recognition levels (giving levels) based on your organization’s business rules, including minimum/maximum amount for the giving level and recognition level cycle (such as year-to-date, fiscal year-to-date, lifetime-to-date, and rolling months). You can also choose if you want to include soft credits – if you do, all members of the household can be placed in the same giving level.
- Configure and track dynamic donor summary statistics (such as year-to-date and lifetime-to-date giving) based on your organization’s business rules. Similar to recognition levels, you can choose what types of donations to include. So, if you choose to include soft credits, these important snapshot statistics will accurately reflect the giving of the full household, not just the hard-credit donor.
Learn more
These days, many associations are turning to fundraising to help generate non-dues revenue. Non-dues revenue is an important part of your association’s financial health –providing a stream of revenue outside of membership dues. This additional source of revenue allows you to smooth out fluctuations in the economic cycle. Ultimately, it helps you maintain budgets and continue to provide members with the level of service they expect. If fundraising is part of your revenue-generating plan, find out more about how fundraising functionality in NetForum Enterprise can help your organization deepen donor relationships and increase donations. Explore NetForum Enterprise fundraising capabilities
