Member Update: 2018 Funds Distribution and New Pledge Reporting Site

America’s Charities is excited to announce that we have rolled out a new, streamlined reporting site through which our member and partner charities can access pledge, donor, and distribution data.

Here are important items of note:

1. Your login criteria remains the same. The new reporting site, www.charities.org/reports, will be directly integrated into your member portal. You will be able to log in using the same username and password.
2. PledgeFirst will remain active through the transition. Our current reporting system, PledgeFirst, will also remain active for the time being so charities to access certain managed campaign and historical data.
3. This change will be in effect beginning with distribution of 2018 funds. Our funds management team is hard at work uploading 2018 campaign distribution data into the new reporting site. As we move forward with the new system for 2018 distributions, we will no longer load campaign data into PledgeFirst. There will be a limited number of exceptions – some of our managed campaign data will still appear in PledgeFirst while we complete conversion to the new system. It is important to check both PledgeFirst and our new system until this conversion is complete. We will notify you at such time that we entirely cease uploading data into PledgeFirst.
4. Please note that distribution of 2018 funds is a few weeks behind schedule. In addition to a new reporting portal, we have also implemented a new distribution system, and have had to delay 2018 distribution as a result. 2018 CFC funds are top priority and first distribution will go out by June 30. We are currently on schedule to distribute 2018 state and local government and corporate campaigns in August.
5. The 2018 CFC distribution fee has been assessed. Please note that the CFC has taken its distribution fee entirely out of its first few payments. America’s Charities does not assess this fee, rather, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) assesses it on all organizations participating in the CFC to recoup costs associated with running the program. This means that your first distribution of CFC funds from America’s Charities may be smaller than anticipated. The distribution fee has gone up from 16.5% in 2017, to 19.8% in 2018. While we are disappointed in this increase, we know the reasoning behind it and noted these in our latest CFC update in April. We remain confident that this fee will decrease with time as new processes are standardized and charges for implementation of a new giving program and other structural changes taper off.
6. Historical data will be loaded into the new system. We are also working to upload historical data for 2017 and 2016 into the new system, however, this will take time as updates for 2018 are our first priority. We understand that the ability to see pledge history in one area is important and appreciate your patience as we convert to the new system. Again, you will still be able to download reports containing historical data from PledgeFirst.

Most of the reports featured on PledgeFirst translate directly to our new system:

• Donor Detail Report is the replacement for Pledge and Donor Report and gives an overview of all donors who pledged to your organization. This report contains information on who made the donation; the amount pledged; the campaign; the payment type and any notes.
• Donor Acknowledgement Report – is the same as Donor Acknowledgement Report in PledgeFirst. This gives an overview of donors who have opted to receive an acknowledgement/thank you from your organization.
• Campaign Summary is the replacement for the Pledge Summary Report, viewable by campaign year to see summaries of campaigns and amounts.
• Distribution Summary Report is the replacement for both the Distribution Report and Member Distribution Report. This combined report gives data per distribution. To pull a report for a particular distribution, you will need to plug in the Distribution ID number, found on your check stub or EFT transfer.
• Distribution Donor Detail Report is a new report that will allow you to search by Distribution ID number to view donor detail for each distribution America’s Charities makes to your organization.

We are in the process of working on additional functionality and improvements to roll out with the new reporting site, to make sure our reporting capability is as robust as possible.

We thank you for your patience as we complete this transition. Should you have any questions related to distribution or accessing our new reporting system, please reach out to our Help Desk, help@charities.org. For questions related to the CFC program or membership with America’s Charities, please email clientsolutions@charities.org.