This Glossary is intended to support understanding of terms used in CommunitySuite. In some cases, definitions for key terms are accompanied by examples. Note that examples are not comprehensive; not all examples will be relevant, applicable, or appropriate to all organizations.
- Account - In accounting, an account is a record that tracks assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses by transactions posted to the general ledger.
- Admin Fee - An administrative fee is an expense charged to funds, donations, or grants to cover the organization's expenses. Fee rates and calculations can vary based on the size of the fund or organization.
- Affiliate - A profile designation for organizational profiles to indicate that an organization has designated it as an affiliate. There is not an official or legal definition of an affiliate. They come in many different forms and could be a component fund, an informal partnership, or contractual relationship with an entirely separate legal entity (see Supporting Org).
- Affiliate Portal - Each affiliate can have its own Giving Hub, and fund advisors can be provided access to activity for all funds that are part of the affiliate. The affiliate portal can also be repurposed to develop custom donation pages that are not for an affiliate entity but are simply a way to organize a group of funds together.
- Example: John is a fund advisor to all funds for an affiliate. If John is given access to this affiliate in his Fund Management tab of the portal, John will see all activity for the affiliate funds grouped together.
- Example: An affiliate needs its own donation page that does not include other funds from the organization.
- Example: A custom donation page that promotes a group of funds for a specific purpose, such as a targeted fundraising initiative.
- Agency Fund - Agency funds are endowed funds held and managed by the organization on behalf of a nonprofit. The fund agreement determines how these funds are managed within Community Suite. Specific rules related to agency fund reporting are outlined in FASB 136.
- If the fund is subject to variance power and funded by donations that are irrevocable, the fund balance is presented on the nonprofit's balance sheet as an asset and as a liability on the organization's balance sheet. This is only required for donations that are received by the nonprofit. Donations from the public are not subject to the same requirement. The sub fund functionality in CommunitySuite is encouraged in this scenario. Using the agency functionality in CommunitySuite will allow the system to process the journal entry monthly or yearly to move balances from the equity section of the balance sheet to the liability section for financial reporting.
- If the fund is non-endowed and fully spendable, there is an option in donation and grant settings to allow all transactions to post directly to a liability account.
- Alumni - A profile designation for profiles that are graduates of a college or university. Programs, Degrees, and Activities can be associated with this profile designation and reported on.
- Bank Reconciliation - Bank reconciliation is a process that is performed by the organization to reconcile transactions within the accounting system with bank records. This is normally processed on a monthly or quarterly basis depending on the type of account.
- Budget - Budgets are used as a planning document to predict revenue and expenses for a fiscal year. This can be a tool to help assess the health of the organization.
- Campaign - CommunitySuite's functionality for building mailing lists and/or managing events. Campaign setup drives the event's online registration.
- Cash Management - CommunitySuite's functionality for providing system suggested movements of money based on where a fund's money is currently held in relation to where a fund's investment strategy says it should be.
- Content Areas - Customized text, emails, and messages that can be added to the Portal, Giving Hub, and other public facing text that originates in CommunitySuite.
- Customer - A profile designation for profiles that have made non-charitable payments to the organization.
- Example: Payment on an invoice.
- Example: Non-charitable income for items such as ticket sales or auction items.
- Designation - Additional layer on a profile that houses specific types of transactions or information. Resides in the Designations section of a profile. A profile can have any combination of the following designations: customer, donor, fund advisor, grantee, nonprofit, student, vendor, alumni, user, and affiliate/supporting org.
- Disbursement - Payment from a fund in way of a grant or voucher.
- Distribution - Calculation organizations use to allocate a portion of the fund according to their spending policy. Distribution calculations can vary from organization to organization.
- Donation - A contribution of money or goods given to the organization.
- Giving Hub - The page that accepts online donations. The Giving Hub contains tabs for donations, events, grant catalog, grant cards, and nonprofit directory.
- Donor - A profile designation for profiles that have donated or are donation advisors. This designation lists all direct and advised donations. The donor designation on a household also lists all donations and advised donations from household members.
- Endowed - An endowed fund is a permanent fund which distributes its earnings to nonprofits based on the organization's spending policy.
- Engagement Strategy - A long-term umbrella strategy for how to engage and cultivate a relationship.
- Fund - A fund is an investment vehicle that allows organizations to collect money for a specific purpose from individual donors or a group of donors.
- Fund Advisor - A profile designation for profiles that should receive fund statements and/or have access to the Fund Management tab of the portal.
- Fund Statement - Fund statement is a summary of a fund's changes in financial position for a given period of time.
- General Ledger (GL) - A record with a list of transactions of the organization's financial accounts for a specified amount of time.
- Grant -The record of expense on a fund that is primarily given to 501c3 organizations based on spendable balances or charitable donations for a particular purpose.
- Grant Catalog - A grant catalog is a feature in CommunitySuite that facilitates crowdfunding for nonprofits.
- Grantee - A profile designation for profiles that have received a grant.
- Household - A type of profile used for a couple.
- Household Trifecta - A household profile that has individual profiles linked as household members. Notes, donations, profile types, opportunities, etc. can be placed on the profile to which they pertain, whether that is the individual or household profile. Cumulative giving of the household and household members is visible on the household donor designation.
- Individual - A type of profile used for a person.
- Internal Grant - The record of internal grant expense on a fund that issued from one fund in an organization to another fund within the organization based on spendable balances or charitable donations for a particular purpose.
- Investment Strategy - Investment strategies are used to manage an organization's different levels of risk tolerance and time horizons for allocation of investment accounts by fund. CommunitySuite uses these strategies to enforce the cash management functionality.
- Invoice - A statement with a list of goods or services provided and amount due.
- Legacy Code - Item ID from previous system.
- Nonprofit - A profile designation for profiles that are nonprofits. This designation can be used to build a public nonprofit directory. Nonprofit designations can also be applied to profiles for filtering purposes.
- Nonprofit Directory - An online directory of nonprofits powered by profiles that have the nonprofit designation. Nonprofits can be assigned to categories and display contact information, a URL, and a mission statement. The nonprofit directory is an optional tab on the Giving Hub.
- Note - A record attached to an object in CommunitySuite such as a profile, fund, donation, or grant. Notes can be used to record important historical information and create alerts on specific objects.
- Example: On a profile, document a meeting with a donor.
- Example: On a fund, add information about the fund history.
- Opportunity - Opportunities are customizable and allow goals to be set or desired outcomes for the organization. Opportunity types and stages tell a user where they currently are at in a particular relationship lifecycle, while notes document how stages have been reached. Tasks outline next steps. Opportunities can also be used to manage workflows within an organization.
- Org Role/Organizational Role - Relationship between an organization and an individual or household profile. The relationship has a status and an optional date range.
- Organization - A type of profile used for an organization.
- Passthrough Fund - Passthrough funds are non-endowed funds that work to support projects eventually spending the entire fund balance for the purpose intended in the fund agreement.
- Pledge - A commitment from a donor to fulfill an obligation over a period of time that impacts the general ledger. Pledges are recognized as revenue and are generally substantiated with a written commitment.
- Portal - A secure website where various individuals can log in to see information applicable to their in-system designations. It includes the Fund Management tab for fund advisors.
- Principal - The principal balance is recorded on an endowed fund to show the original donation and on-going donations to the fund. This balance is intended to be held in perpetuity and would be applicable to endowed funds only.
- Profile - Record for an individual, household, or organization.
- Profile Fund Category - Defined relationship from a person to a fund.
- Profile Link - A relationship and reciprocal relationship that connects two profiles.
- Profile Payment - A way to process revenue into the organization outside of a normal donation gift.
- Profile Type - Profile types are used to help segment, filter, and prioritize the database of profiles.
- Promise - A commitment from a donor to fulfill an obligation over a period of time that does not impact the general ledger. Promises are not recognized as revenue.
- Revenue Share - CommunitySuite allows organizations that manage funds in investment pools to share investment income, gains, losses, and fees on a monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis. Share the income, gains, losses, and/or fees from the investment or banking accounts with all of the funds that are held within a pool.
- Service Area - Custom geographical area codes to assign to grants, funds, profiles, donations, and campaigns.
- Styles - Basic and advanced style selections that can be configured for the public facing portals. This can be applied to online donations, grant catalog, events, the nonprofit directory, and the Portal.
- Spendable - Portion of an endowed fund's balance that is considered spendable. The spendable balance is increased by distribution calculations and decreased by grants and vouchers.
- Steward - Staff contact or relationship manager.
- Student - A profile designation for profiles that have received a scholarship.
- Supporting Org - A profile designation for an organization. A supporting organization is a tax exempt charitable alternative to a private organization. It has status as a public charity with an independent mission and board of directors from the organization. The relationship with the organization is to oversee the grant distribution, audits, investment oversight, and reporting.
- Task - A reminder to complete a piece of work.
- Example: Review duplicate profiles.
- Example: Contact Sarah about her fund activity.
- Template - A template is a predesigned document that can be used to create documents quickly.
- Users - A profile designation for profiles that can log in to the internal side of CommunitySuite.
- Vendor - A profile designation for profiles that the organization has paid. The vendor designation is on profiles that bill the organization and profiles that receive grants or scholarships.
- Voucher - The record of expense needing payment on the behalf of the organization or one of its funds.