Handling Sponsors

[Commander Jon]

Note: This post is applicable in the Cloud database's Windows App as well as in the Legacy database.

I'm sure many clubs have "sponsors".  We have about a dozen children whose families simply cannot afford to pay for dues and other supplies (handbook, uniform, etc).  So we recruit "sponsors" from our congregation who then pay for whatever their sponsored child needs.  This is all anonymous.    Sponsors may be a leader, a parents, or a church member not otherwise involved in Awana.

I'm trying to figure out how to handle this in AWdb.  Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Jonathan
SVBC Awana Club Commander
Stephens City, Virginia

[dave4him]

Hi Jon, read this post and see if it can help out.

http://approvedworkman.com/forum/index.php?topic=997.0

[Commander Jon]

Interesting, thanks David.  We've just started our 30 day trial and I'm trying to account for all the various things we do and track.  I'll give this a try tonight.

Jon

[Sherri]

I'd like to try to discuss the entire donations / sponsors / scholarship funds a bit more & this seems like a a good spot!

My first reaction to Jonathan's question was that he should create a Donation record from within the Donations tab.  But then what?  There's really no way to attach waived fees to any of those donations if you'd like to see how the donation has gotten applied.  So, Dave's suggestion handles that scenario much better.  But then, what's the point of the Donations tab?

Also, there is a post about converting unapplied payments to donations: https://www.approvedworkman.com/forum/index.php?topic=2243.0.

But then what?  Should those donations show up in the list of donations on the Donations tab?

It may be adding too much complexity in reality, but it's worth considering how we might be able to link up various ways of entering donations to the donations page & then have a way to easily apply donations to fees, which could then mark the fees as "waived" perhaps.

I know what I've done in the past is just look at the total amount in the donation tab.  Then filter my Ledger > Fees grid to show fees where waived = yes and dues = no.  And then I thanked God when donations at least came close to covering the costs we waived for scholarship kids!  Perhaps that's really good enough?  You can print out all the waived fees (with no clobber names) if you'd like to share with church how their donations were applied, without being specific about which actual donation covered which actual fee.

Any other insights or comments???

[2/15/22 - link to post changed to newer relevant topic. akj]

[dave4him]

Welcome aboard Jon..! I know you're gonna love this program. There is a LOT in AWdb so don't expect to master it in a day.. .. Utilize the 'search' function here often; there are many good tips from a lot of users.

And then I thanked God when donations at least came close to covering the costs we waived for scholarship kids!  Perhaps that's really good enough?

That's a simple enough approach that I like Sherri. The advantage for applying then waiving fees was that when I send parent letter out later in club year, the items in the Ledger were listed as "waived". I wanted this not to boast, etc. but to hopefully prompt the parent to help their child to be more responsible for their items. Too many times I've seen kids with waived items, not wearing their uniform or bringing their books to club regularly.

[Commander Jon]

Here is what I would like to see, although it may not be a feasible option the way the program is laid out.  I'm just getting started, so I don't know what is possible and what isn't.

I would like to be able to create a "Sponsor" (or "Donor") and link clubbers to that sponsor.  In our case, one individual is taking care of the needs of one (or more) children.

So when a payment is received, it is processed exactly like a household would be handled, but shows up under the sponsor instead.

This would essentially be a third "member type", but again, that may not be feasible.  But a problem I see by creating a third type is when a leader or another parent sponsors a child (which we have in our club).

I would like to see information on individual sponsors, create a statement reports, and basically handle them like a household.

Some good ideas though and when I get to that point in my setup, I will experiment with them.

Jonathan