Glossary
Sector terms and Relae terms, in one list. Where the sector uses several names for one idea, all of them are here.
Fundraising terms
Section titled “Fundraising terms”Access. Whether anyone connected to your organization can open the door to a prospect. Also taught as linkage. See affinity, access and capacity.
Advantage. What a donor receives in return for a gift. Dinner at a gala, a benefit, a piece of art from an auction. It reduces the receiptable amount.
Affinity. How warm someone is to your mission, read from their giving behaviour. Also taught as interest.
Annual fund. Ongoing yearly fundraising for operations, as distinct from a capital or endowment campaign.
Ask. A specific request for a specific amount, for a specific purpose.
Capacity. What someone could give from their means, as distinct from what they have given. Also taught as ability.
Case for support. The written argument for why someone should give to you.
Constituent. Anyone in your records. Donors, prospects, members, subscribers, volunteers, board members. Broader than “donor”.
Cultivation. Building a relationship before an ask.
Designation. What a gift recognises. The youth programme, the building, a named chair. Different from a fund.
Development. The sector’s word for fundraising, particularly the relationship-building part.
Fund. Where money goes, and its restriction. Unrestricted, the endowment, a restricted programme fund. Different from a designation.
Gift in kind. Goods or services rather than money. Counted at fair market value.
Lapsed donor. Someone who gave in a previous period and has not given in the current one.
Major gift. A gift large enough to warrant individual attention. The threshold is yours to set, not a sector standard.
Moves management. Planning and tracking the deliberate actions that advance a relationship toward a gift. A move is one such action.
Pipeline. The prospects you are working, by stage.
Pledge. A commitment to give, usually in instalments, sometimes across several years. Distinct from the payments against it.
Portfolio. The set of prospects one person is responsible for. Usually 75 to 150 people at most.
Prospect. Someone you believe could make a significant gift, who you are working toward an ask.
Qualification. Deciding whether a prospect is real, before investing time in cultivation.
Renewal. A donor giving again in a new year.
Retention. The share of donors who give again. The number that moves total revenue most.
Solicitation. The ask itself.
Split receipting. Issuing a receipt for the eligible amount when a donor received an advantage. See configure receipts.
Stewardship. What happens after a gift. Thanking, reporting, keeping the relationship alive.
Wealth screening. Buying third-party estimates of donors’ financial means. Relae does not do this.
Relae terms
Section titled “Relae terms”Channel. A way money reaches you. Ticketing, a giving portal, cheques, bank transfers, an existing CRM.
Eligible amount. The receiptable portion of a gift, after subtracting any advantage. Computed from values your charity determines and enters.
Match memory. The store of every reconciliation decision you have made, reapplied automatically on later imports so the same question is never asked twice.
Rating. A donor’s score on one of the three axes. Set by you, except affinity, which is read from giving.
Review queue. Where gifts wait when the engine is unsure who they belong to.
Segment. A list built from record criteria, for soliciting.
Workspace. One organization’s data and settings. Consultants have one per client.
Worklist. The ordered short list of conversations worth having next.
Canadian terms
Section titled “Canadian terms”CRA. Canada Revenue Agency, which regulates registered charities and receipting.
Official donation receipt. The tax receipt a registered charity issues. Its required contents are prescribed.
PIPEDA. Canada’s federal private-sector privacy law, which governs how you handle donor personal information. Quebec organizations also fall under Law 25.
Registered business number. Your charity’s registration number, which appears on every receipt.