Extending MinistryPlatform Integrations

As we strengthen the relationship between Focus Missions and MinistryPlatform, we continue to find new ways to help with syncing data between the two systems. Today we are able to announce that we now provide a way to track general donations to the trip and transfers between team members and trips to MinistryPlatform.

Mission Donations

The first update involves donations that are specific to the mission trip. Historically any donation made to the mission trip would not be carried to the MinistryPlatform Pledge Campaign. Now it is possible to set the contact ID that donations to the mission trip will go.

For any mission trip that is created within Focus Missions, a pledge will be created for this General Person. This pledge will hold all donations that are attributed to the mission trip. Also, any donations created in MinistryPlatform and attributed to this general person pledge will be automatically added to the unallocated funds for the mission trip in Focus Missions.

Internal Transfers

Another best practice that we worked with MinistryPlatform to perfect is the ability to properly track funds as they are transferred between team members, between mission trips, and allocated to team members from the trip unallocated bucket.

With MinistryPlatform’s help, we have discovered that the best practice to show the debits and credits of donations being transferred is to have an “internal transfers” contact in MinistryPlatform. When a transfer happens, a $0 donation will be added to the internal transfer donor and then a negative distribution will be created on the pledge being deducted and a positive distribution will be added to the other pledge.

For example, let’s say that you received a $100 donation to the mission trip “Brussels” from Christopher Robin’s grandmother. Since giving the donation to the mission trip was an accident, we want to transfer that $100 to Christopher Robin. In Focus Missions we would use the Add Funds feature on the team member, Christopher Robin, and add $100 from the unallocated funds for the mission trip. With this new feature, that transfer will show in MinistryPlatform. From the screenshot below, notice the $0 donation with a negative and positive distribution showing a $100 credit to Christopher Robin’s pledge and a debit from the General Person Pledge for $100.

Setting Up

To set the “General Person Contact ID” and “Internal Transfers Contact ID” log into Focus Missions and click Admin < Settings < Software Integrations < MinistryPlatform

In the MinistryPlatform settings, there is now a section called “General Person” and “Internal Transfers Person” where a contact ID can be specified that will be used to attribute donations and donation distributions.

We believe that these two new ways to track data will give greater insight into funding and keep both sides synced and up to date.