Tides Canada has specific processes in place for tracking financial commitments made by donors or funders, whether made in writing or verbally.

a) Verbal or informal commitments

When a donor or client provides a verbal confirmation of their intention to make a gift, this should be recorded by the Opportunity Lead by:

1. Opening the opportunity for which we have received an informal/verbal commitment.
2. Update the Stage field to “Confirmed”
3. Ensure the payment schedule is accurately recorded, especially if the gift will be paid in multiple installments. (See Scheduling multiple payments)
4. Ensure the allocations accurately reflect the donor’s intended designation of their gift (See Allocations & Primary Fund)

For verbal/informal commitments, the Award Contract Date field is left blank to indicate that the pledge has not been made formally in writing.

b) Negotiating and signing grant agreements

The Opportunity Lead is typically responsible for negotiating any grant agreement relating to an opportunity (see Responsibilities for more information). The Senior TCF Coordinator will support this process by:

• Drafting the grant agreement in consultation with the Opportunity Lead, Development Lead, Program Lead and the Finance Lead for this opportunity.
• Ensuring the opportunity fields and payments are kept up to date to reflect the terms of the agreement. The Stage field should be set to “Confirmed” during the negotiation process.
• Coordinating internal signoffs by appropriate executives. See Additional approvals section for further details.
• Optionally, tracking the grant agreement as an activity in Salesforce
  1. Create task record in Salesforce
  2. Save the draft grant agreement document (.docx) in Opportunity Box folder
  3. Post the draft grant agreement document on the task Chatter feed
  4. Save a link to the final version of the signed agreement on the task record

c) Recording financial commitments

The Senior TCF Coordinator and Finance Lead ensure that formal financial commitments are recorded accurately in Salesforce. The following process should be followed:

1. The Senior Donations and Revenue Coordinator should receive written confirmation of any financial commitment to Tides Canada Foundation:
   • In cases where a pledge letter or pledge form accompanies the first payment, this will be received directly by the Senior Donations and Revenue Coordinator
   • In cases where a grant agreement is negotiated by the Opportunity Lead, or where a donor has confirmed their financial commitment in a letter or e-mail directly to the Opportunity Lead, the Opportunity Lead should forward the written confirmation to the Senior Donations and Revenue Coordinator.
2. The Senior Donations and Revenue Coordinator will:
   • Ensure the Stage field is set to “Confirmed”
   • ensure the final signed agreement or pledge document is saved in the Box folder for the opportunity.
   • ensure payments and allocations reflect the payment schedule and the donor’s intended restriction in how the funds can be used, as outlined in the agreement or pledge document (see Allocations & Primary Fund and Payments above).
   • ensure all deliverables and obligations relating to the pledge are recorded as tasks in the CRM assigned to the appropriate staff person (see Tracking activities below)
   • Note: Only deadlines that are indicated as required deliverables in the grant agreement/pledge document will be entered at this stage. Any additional reporting or stewardship activities above and beyond what is formally required must be recorded separately by the Opportunity Lead.
   • update the Grant Agreement/Pledge Document field on the opportunity to the URL of the final signed agreement or pledge document in box.
3. When the Grant Agreement/Pledge Document field is changed, an automatic notification will be generated for the Finance Lead, Opportunity Lead, and Development Lead. The Finance Lead will take the following steps:
   • update the Generate Revenue Code? field based on a determination as to whether a revenue code is required for the opportunity
   • Note: Revenue codes are only required for contributions that have special restrictions on how they may be spent that necessitate the ability to track specific expenses against them within the financial system. Unrestricted gifts as well as restricted gifts that are unrestricted within a given program or fund do not require a revenue code.
   • double check accuracy of payments and allocations in relation to the agreement or pledge document (see Allocations & Primary Fund and Payments above).
   • Set Award Contract Date to the date the pledge letter or grant agreement is dated
4. Once the Award Contract Date field is set, a revenue code will automatically be generated. The Revenue code will be visible in the Revenue Code field in the opportunity record.