The Division of Finance and Administration and the Philanthropy and Strategic Partnerships team in the Division of External Relations and Strategic Communications are working on a project to process, transfer and validate backlogged gift and endowment funds from the legacy ledger to the UC Merced financial management system.
With the help of a team of accounting experts from Evergreen, a business support provider, we are analyzing comingled gift funds to disentangle them and direct them to more specific categories while maintaining donor intent and fund restrictions.
The primary goals of the project:
- Undo the comingling of restricted gift projects.
- Transfer and validate backlogged gift and endowment funds.
- Ensure valid and accurate gift project balances in UC Merced’s financial management system
- Install a timely, consistent process to transfer or allocate gift funds.
- Ensure a common understanding of a new gift project series. Communicate how to access funding, allocate shared funding and review restrictions.
The team is reviewing:
- UC Merced Foundation revenue and grants to campus data through June 30, 2022 in QuickBooks, the audited system of record.
- Regental and Foundation gift revenue data through June 30, 2023 in the university’s financial management system
- Raiser’s Edge fundraising subsidiary ledger data as it compares to QuickBooks and the financial system since the latter’s Jan. 1, 2021 launch.
- Ancillary systems such as CashNet/Transact, Banner and Fundriver as needed to validate data points.
Once a review of all gifts and endowments is complete, DFA will engage campus partners to help with the final confirmation of balances. Together, we will review validate:
- Carryforward balances from the legacy ledger
- Confirmation of appropriate Chart of Accounts chartstring attributes
- Agreement on de-comingled project totals
After these tasks are completed, DFA and ER will provide a list of gift and endowment projects with new chartstring attributes for departments to use. Running in parallel with this project, ER is creating a repository of gift documentation that will be shared with departments to ensure funds are handled and spent per donor instructions.
As of mid-February 2024, DFA and ER are working with the schools to validate the reconciliation work. After reconciliation with the schools is complete, the team will contact remaining divisions and departments to validate their funds. This project will continue through Spring 2024.
Questions? Please reach out to Associate Vice Chancellor and Controller Amanda Preston-Nelson.
