CDM SOLUTIONS
This post was created using speech-to-text AI.
FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)
00:00:55:15 - 00:01:29:15
Good day, this is Dan Lammot with threshold.world and I'm excited to come back to you today to talk about the Common Data Model for Nonprofits with a special focus on one of my favorite topics, which is fundraising. So we are going to kick off with the source of all of the assets that we are going to look at today, which is the GitHub site that Microsoft has published. This is version 2.3.3 of the fundraising model. And I'm going to flip right over to the model itself so we can get a look at all of the entities that are part of the fundraising model.
00:02:08:09 - 00:02:40:13
So this is the core of the Common Data Model for Nonprofits and the fundraising entities that are related to the end to end process of fundraising, that's accommodated by the Common Data Model itself. So within these entities, you're going to be able to see simple individual one time gifts. You're going to see a recurring giving or regular giving, as some call it. You're going to see a plan giving or legacy giving. And you're also going to be able to see gift-in-kind or in-kind gifts as as some refer to it as well.
00:02:40:24 - 00:03:14:24
So I'm not going to go through all of those different scenarios, but I'll hit the major ones. So you get a sense of how these different entities support those various different types of giving. The key entities, if you really want to boil this down, really are down to three. And the rest are really connective tissue that make the processing of funds or the flow of in-kind goods and services come together for an operational CRM or fundraising system. But the three entities that matter more than anything else are designation, transaction and donor commitment.
00:03:15:12 - 00:03:53:02
Together, that triangle within this model represent the donor's intent of where the funds or gifts in kind are supposed to go that represent the actual record of the exchange of value, and they represent the timing and location of the donors commitment itself. So let's talk about those three entities and how things flow through this. So donor commitment really represents that intent, right? It is the accord between the donor and the organization about what is going to happen, when it's going to happen and how much is going to happen itself.
00:03:53:13 - 00:04:24:24
So when you look into the donor commitment entity, you're going to see all of the different values around those types of things as well. The payment schedule that links the donor commitment to the transaction is also key because it sets up the when part of the equation itself. And that may be a one time when. But if it's for regular giving or recurring giving or sustained giving, that payment schedule itself is going to determine until the application when those transactions should be taking place. And then that boils itself down to the transaction.
00:04:25:08 - 00:05:01:10
So the transaction represents the actual point in time transfer of value between the donor and the organization itself. So let's go through a few scenarios in donor commitment, payment schedule and transaction. If you have a one time gift, you should have one donor commitment, one payment schedule and one transaction. If you have a regular gift that has been transacted 12 times over a 12 month period, you're going to have one donor commitment, one payment schedule and one transaction for each of those changes in value or 12 in this case.
00:05:01:12 - 00:05:38:12
So we actually have 14 records overall. Again, one donor commitment, one payment schedule and one transaction for each of the actual transactions. And then as that recurring gift would roll forward 12 months, again, you'd have another 12 transactions, another year again, you'd have 12 transactions again for 36 transactions, one payment schedule and one donor commitment. We would love it for it to be that simple all the time but donors change their mind, circumstances change and so on and so forth. So any time there's a change in the donors desire, you can have a new payment schedule that actually determines the transaction run going forward and so forth.
00:05:39:03 - 00:06:10:07
Now, each of those transactions, each and every single transaction needs to be connected over to a designation. Some people would call that a fund. Right. Some people might call it a segment or an appeal, but the designation is the actual place where the donors funds are intended to go. That could be unrestricted designation, where it just goes into the general operating budget of a nonprofit. But it could also be a restricted fund, like an education fund that the donor is specifically designating the funds for.
00:06:10:18 - 00:06:42:17
The designated credit is the link between the transaction and the designation that allows for that many to many association between the transaction and the designation if necessary. It also gives you the ability to have one transaction related to multiple designations when you need to split gifts across a span from based on donors intent or operational procedures. So it looks a little bit complicated when you when you see all of these entities on the screen. But really what we're all we're doing is saying the donor wanted to do this.
00:06:42:22 - 00:07:27:03
This is when it was scheduled. Here's how it was transacted. This is the way those funds were designated. And then those funds ultimately end up rolling into one or multiple designations based on the intent. There are a few other entities you see on the screen here as well. The planned giving entity is specifically there for all of the different standard types of planned gifts, things like bequests, charitable gift annuities and so forth. All of those attributes are already shipped Common Data Model for Nonprofits. If you need others, you can, of course, extend them. And then that's also linked down to the payment asset that allows for things like gift in kind, whether it might be stock artwork, physical goods like a car or a boat or any other thing that a donor might wish to leave for the benefit of the non-profit organization itself.
00:07:27:21 - 00:08:00:07
But those come as standard as well. The last entity I want to point out on this screen is the designated designation plan. And when a donor makes a commitment to the organization, as you heard through the transaction span we went through, you may not have all the transactions created because the intent is that some of those are going to occur in the future. So the designation plan provides a place wherein your application can have the logic to actually execute upon that transaction will span and ensure that the funds are connected to the appropriate designations over time.
00:08:00:18 - 00:08:31:22
So how does that play out? Let's say we may have a donor named Bertram who wants to provide, you know, a multi-year gift to the organization and the first transaction is actually going to be paid up front. So in that case, the donor commitment is linked to the payment schedule which is linked to the transaction that's got today's date on it. But the designation plan actually says when those future transactions are executed, they ought to be tied to this particular designation. And then your app knows exactly what to do when the time comes.
00:08:32:19 - 00:09:08:21
So that's it for the model itself. But let's take a quick look at how this shakes out inside of the application. So, again, we have our favorite donor, Bertram Kristoffersson, here on the screen. This is Bertram's donor or contact record. You saw some of this when we talked about constituents. And you can see how Bertram is associated to the household and so on and so forth. And then you can also link over to Bertram's donor commitments. And you can see that Bertram has made a series of different donations over time. In 2016, there was an installment pledge that was to restricted advocacy designation.
00:09:09:06 - 00:09:49:23
In this year, there was a restricted education designation. And then in this year, there was a general operating or unrestricted donation. If we want to drill into that restricted education designation, which takes us from the donor commitment through the transaction all the way over to the designation, you can see all of the details about that designation here on the screen, right. Things like the group that it's designated to the endowment type, the time span when the designation is active or not, the total amount that's been fundraised into or distributed from and then really important, the GL credit and debit accounts, among many other things as well that show up inside of the CDM for Nonprofits.
00:09:50:17 - 00:10:01:12
So that's a very quick tour of a specific type of gift inside of the CDM for Nonprofits for fundraising. I would love to talk more if you'd like to cover it with us in detail. Thanks very much.