Gift File FAQs

This article answers common questions about what to include in the Gifts File and how specific fields impact VEO stewardship and outreach.

Should we include sports tickets, payroll deductions, or other non-tax-deductible gifts?

In most cases, no.

Typically, gift officers would not steward items such as payroll deductions, sports tickets, or similar non-tax-deductible transactions. For that reason, these are generally excluded from the Gifts File.

However, if your organization is comfortable:

• Stewarding these gifts through the VEO, and
• Including them in “Giving Since Launch” metrics within the Manager Report

then you may choose to include them.

Should we include pledge gifts or pledge payments in the Gifts File?

Yes. Including pledge gifts and pledge payments is strongly recommended.

If these gifts are not included, the VEO may not see recent giving activity and could:

• Initiate a solicitation
• Ask for support while a donor is actively fulfilling a pledge

Including pledge activity helps ensure donor outreach remains appropriate and aligned with the donor’s current commitment.

How important is it to populate the RECURRING field?

For stewardship purposes, this field is very important.

If a donor is making recurring gifts (for example, monthly) and the RECURRING field is not populated, the VEO may:

• Steward the donor after every gift
• Prevent the donor from receiving other types of outreach due to frequent stewardship

To avoid this, we highly recommend populating the RECURRING field using any consistent value your CRM supports, such as:

• True / False
• Yes / No
• 1 / 0

Providing this data allows the VEO to steward recurring donors appropriately while continuing meaningful engagement throughout the year.

If you have questions about Gift File formatting or would like help reviewing your data, please contact version2support@givzey.com.