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Recording and Posting Covenant Partner Contributions

Specific steps for recording contributions toward a covenant partnership are detailed below. We’ll use a specific example to better illustrate the process.

Example

A covenant partnership agreement is reached in which Williams Chapel AME Zion church and Wilmington Congregational Church are to jointly sponsor your affiliate's construction of a home at 217 S. Wood St. Each church will contribute half of the estimated cost of $50,000.

1. If you haven’t done so already, add Williams Chapel AME Zion church and Wilmington Congregational Church to Keystone as contacts with appropriate Covenant Partner and Donors category assignments.
   In general, if the contact appears in the Name drop-down list in the Covenant Partner Selection area on the Covenant Partners screen, you can assume that the contact is set up properly as a covenant partner. At that point you can skip to step 2.
   
   If anyone will be making donations directly to your affiliate that they want applied toward the house sponsorship, they need to be set up as donors in Keystone. You will assign their donations as described below. However, only the sponsoring organizations - in this case, the two churches - should be set up as covenant partners.
   
   In this example, enter both Williams Chapel AME Zion and Wilmington Congregational Church as contacts (if they aren’t in your database already) and assign each to the Donors/Churches and Covenant Partners/Churches categories. For more information on entering contacts, refer to the Adding Contacts to Your Database section. This section also describes how to add categories to your new contacts.
   
   Remember, a member of one of the churches who contributes directly to the affiliate is entered as a donor, but not as a covenant partner.
2. Define a Fundraising Activity (FRA) for each covenant partner involved in the house sponsorship.
   Since there are two covenant partners in the example, two FRAs are required. In our example, they are designated with the abbreviations AMEZ02 and WilCong02. Both FRAs are defined as a Covenant Partner Pledge, with a Goal Value of $25,000.00 each.
   
   For more information on defining FRAs, refer to the Introduction to Fundraising Activities section.
3. Record donations received from each contributor, and include the appropriate FRA in the donation records. 
   In our example, Wilmington Congregational makes three payments, totaling $25,000.00. Each of these three donations is recorded noting the FRA WilCong02. Williams Chapel makes five payments totaling $24,000.00, each of which is recorded noting the FRA AMEZ02. For more information about entering donations, see the Recording Donations section.
   
   In addition, the proprietor of Jackson's Dry Cleaning makes a donation of $1,000 toward the sponsorship by his church (Williams Chapel). This donation is recorded on the Donations tab of Jackson's Dry Cleaning's Donor record, with AMEZ02 entered in the FRA field for the record containing this $1,000 donation.
   
   This makes the total donations received under AMEZ02 $25,000. ($24,000 from Williams Chapel and $1,000 from Jackson’s Dry Cleaning) You can go to the Donations/Grants tab on the Fundraising Activities screen, select the AMEZ02 FRA, and view this same information.
4. Post donations received under the FRA(s) to the covenant partnership(s) and sponsored home(s). 
   To post the total for an FRA to a house sponsorship, open the Summary tab of the Fundraising Activities screen and select one of the FRAs related to the sponsorship (either WilCong02 or AMEZ02). Then, click the Post button, which opens the Post Current Actual to Covenant Partner window. Verify that the following fields are correct before posting.
   
• Value to be Posted - shows the total donations you are about to post for the FRA.
• Covenant Partner - should be set to the covenant partner you selected, in this example Williams Chapel AME Zion.
  
• Funded House - should be set to the address of the sponsored house.
  If you have not yet entered the address, you may do it now by clicking the Add House Address button. This takes you to the Property Addresses screen where you can enter the house’s address.

Once you have determined that these fields are set correctly, click the Post To Covenant Partner button to post the total to the covenant partner and to the address. If you decide not to post at this time, click the Close button.

 If this FRA has been previously posted to this covenant partner, you will see a message asking for confirmation. If you want to update the total (for example, if an additional donation has been received and you wish to include the new donation in the posted totals), click Yes.


In our example, totals would also be posted for the FRA WilCong02 to Wilmington Congregational Church and 217 S. Wood St.

Repeat this process for the other FRA in our example (AMEZ02).

5. Review covenant partner contributions on the Covenant Partners and Property Addresses screens. 
   Once you have posted the donations assigned to the FRAs, the total should be reflected on the Contributions tab of the Covenant Partners screen, including:
   
• Address - indicates the home toward which the contribution was directed.
• House Completed - specifies the date of completion of the home, as recorded in the Dates tab on the Property Addresses screen. This date does not need to have been set at the time you post contributions.
• Contribution - summarizes the donations made by the covenant partner toward the sponsorship of the home.

Covenant partner contributions should generally be recorded as donations, assigned to the fundraising activity for that house sponsorship at the time you enter the donation, and then posted as described above.

The Contributions tab for Wilmington Congregational Church shows a similar entry.

Do not enter donations directly into the Contributions tab on the Covenant Partners screen as this may invalidate donation reports as an accurate summary of donations received.

If you need to change or delete a contribution made by a covenant partner, you must change that particular donation in the partner's record on the Donations tab on the Donors screen. After you do that, you must then return to the Fundraising Activities screen and post the changes (click the Post button on the Summary tab). This will update the balances for both the covenant partner and the fundraising activity they contribute to.

All covenant partners that contribute to a house and their contributions should also be listed on the Contributions by Covenant Partners tab of that house on the Property Addresses screen.