Donations Officer At GOAL

The Donations Officer plays a key role in the Finance function at head office, and is responsible for recording all donations received by GOAL, including GOAL UK and GOAL USA. Donations received are recorded using a Microsoft Dynamics database (CRM). Donations take the form of cheques received in the post, credit card donations given over the phone or online via the website, standing orders, direct debits, legacy receipts. The role can be particularly busy during emergency appeals or at the time of GOAL’s major fundraising activities.

Key Objectives: Keep CRM accurate and up to date within agreed timeframes.

Tasks:

Postal Donations

· Open the post on a daily basis jointly with another staff member. Post is date stamped and distributed to staff as appropriate. Post marked private and confidential to be passed unopened to the addressee.

· The post book to be signed by both individuals opening the post.

· For postal (cheques, drafts, postal orders) donations or cash donations received, note the amount received on the accompanying correspondence if the sender hasn’t already done so.

· Cash donations are recorded in the triplicate receipt book, requiring the signature of the donations officer, and another staff member as verification.

· Enter all postal donations into CRM, ensuring all details of each donation are properly recorded (e.g., bank account, appeal, fundraiser, full donor details, etc).

· Prepare the bank lodgement slip. A colleague will review same along with the cheques/cash and donations report, ensuring that the lodgement slip matches the total of the report, and that the CRM input accurately reflects in all respects the donations received.

· After the review take the lodgment to the bank for credit to GOAL’s bank account. Outgoing post and other items for the bank may also be taken at this time.

Personal Callers

· Two people must be present to receive cash & cheque donations handed in at the office. Normally this will be the GOAL receptionist and a member of the Fundraising Team. They will record the donation in the triplicate book, with all relevant details (eg, name, date, address, appeal, and amount), and any other specific info given by the donor, give the top copy of the receipt to the donor, and ascertain whether the donor also requires an acknowledgement letter to be sent in the post. All details are then passed to the donations officer processing.

· Cash & cheques received in this way are to be stored in the safe until the next bank lodgement is prepared

· The remaining procedures are as for Postal Receipts

Coin Receipts

· Occasionally large volumes of coin may be received. It is the responsibility of the donations officer (with support) to count the coins and issue acknowledgements to donors/collectors, and lodge to the bank on a timely basis. A coin counting machine is available for this task, and this task is always carried out by two people together.

Credit Card Donors – Telephone

· These calls are handled by the Fundraising Team, but as data is entered directly to CRM, the Donations Officer must be ready to provide support and guidance in these processes to ensure donations are correctly processed and recorded in CRM.

· If for any reason credit card details need to be physically recorded eg virtual terminal service interruption, the GOAL credit card form should be used for this. Once processed, the credit card details must be placed in the shredding machine. If for any reason credit card details need to be retained, ensure they are securely locked away in the filing cabinet, until they can be destroyed.

Credit Card – Online, Ireland

· Import donations from Stripe into CRM at least once a week.

· Reconcile back to the downloaded on-line donations report

Standing-Orders (Set up new Standing-Orders)

· When these are requested by potential donors, the Fundraising Team will send out the standing-order forms.

· When these are returned, check the completed standing order forms for accuracy

· On day of receipt, record the details on CRM

· Retain a copy of the form & send the original to the donor’s bank

· Follow up any standing orders not initiated by the donor’s bank

· Include details on the daily report to Fundraising of donors to be thanked

Standing-Orders (existing)

· Download standing-order receipts from bank statements

· Enter all standing order donations to CRM at least once per week. CRM facilitates upload of these regular transactions.

· Any new non-reconciling or unidentified standing-orders to be queried with our bank(s). Every unidentified receipt means a potential loss of the associated tax revenue, reduces the integrity of the database, and is a potential customer relations issue.

Direct Debits

· GOAL submits two direct debit files for donations collection through AIB each month.

· Donors can subscribe for donation by direct debit though GOAL’s website, or request a direct debit form which can be posted out to them or can be printed from the website.

· Generate the monthly direct debit files within CRM, review and reconcile them to the master schedule of existing and new direct debits, allowing sufficient time for supervisor review and approval prior to file being submitted to the bank within the appropriate timeframes for donor’s accounts to be debited.**

· Reconcile direct debit receipts to the files submitted for processing, and record any lapsed donors in CRM.**

· Notify the Fundraising Team of all new donors signing up to direct debit, on a daily basis, so that the appropriate, and required, communications may be issued to the donors.**

· All cancelled direct debits should also be advised to the Fundraising Team who will take the appropriate donor care steps.**

Legacies

· Notification of impending legacies received via post should be forwarded to the legacies officer in the Fundraising Dept. who will monitor legacies from notification through to receipt.

· When legacy payments are received through the post, forward correspondence to the fundraising dept. to update the ‘Legacy file’, before coming back to Donations for entry in CRM.

· Set up new Legacies in CRM on date of notification

· Issue acknowledgement letter specific to Legacies, accompanied by receipt if required by solicitor

US and UK Donations

· Donations for GOAL USA and GOAL UK need to be separately coded as such, and in the appropriate currency

· File UK Gift Aid claims with HMRC

Donor Acknowledgment

· Produce a daily report of all new donations requiring acknowledgement, new and cancelled direct debit donors, and pass to the Fundraising Team who will manage all donor communications.

Month End

· Ensure all donations received for the given month have been entered to CRM. Reconcile to bank statements, prepare summary donations reports (known as CRM Summaries) by bank account and pass to your supervisor for review and sign-off.

· Transfer the donations totals to Sage and reconcile the donations bank accounts. This process must be fully complete by working day 6 of the following month.

Tax Claims

· The Revenue’s Charitable Donations Scheme is managed by the Fundraising Team, but the Donations Officer may facilitate filing of claims with Revenue if required.

General

· Enter any other donations received through an alternative form of payment (MyCharity, LikeCharity, Just Giving, bank lodgments, online bank transfers, Paypal) to CRM in a timely fashion. Prepare acknowledgment letters where required.

· Maintain donor records in as complete a manner as possible, ensuring all possible fields in CRM are used. The more complete the record the better**.**

· Maintain strong communications with the Fundraising Team

· Report any technical issues to IT, your line manager, and any other stakeholders, as appropriate

· Maintain appropriate physical and electronic files in good order and securely

· Ensure PCI DSS compliance in all your work

· Take on any other appropriate work as assigned by line manager

Person Specification

· A pro-active self-starter who can think on their feet, can spot issues or anomalies and take appropriate action, and is comfortable dealing with a diverse range of tasks

· Numbers literate; a very strong commitment to accuracy and attention to detail; and comfortable handling large volumes of data

· Excellent organizational skills

· Very good IT skills. As well as Microsoft Dynamics being the key day to day tool for this role, fluency in the use of Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, Sharepoint, internet banking and payment collection applications, is also required. Experience with an accounting system would also be an advantage.

· Adapts easily to changing circumstances and demands; a flexible ‘can-do’ attitude – a genuine team player

· Ability to identify priorities, can work well under pressure, unsupervised, and as part of a small team

· Minimum of three years experience in a finance or administration role

· Excellent interpersonal, telephone, and written communication skills

· Genuine customer service orientation