4.5/5
Average on G2.
Fundraising + Finance
How do development and financeagree on the numbers?
By working from the same gift. In Ignite every gift carries its campaign and a designation when it is entered, batches post as balanced double-entry journal entries, and the trial balance lives in the platform. Finance exports a balanced file to the general ledger using QuickBooks Online or Business Central templates and marks it reconciled once the ledger agrees. Both departments read the same posted gifts.
Fundraising and finance, in short
- Development and finance disagree because gifts are re-keyed between systems. In Ignite the gift record and the journal entry come from the same posted batch.
- Journal entries are created at batch post and must balance. An unbalanced batch is rejected before anything reaches the ledger.
- Restrictions travel with the designation and fund a gift is coded to, following FASB ASU 2016-14 restriction handling, so the fund view finance needs comes from the record, not a spreadsheet.
- The GL extract has a lifecycle, from pending to exported to reconciled, with immutable files and duplicate-export prevention.
- Creating Healthier Communities reported a 150% gift-processing productivity gain and 50% faster deposit entry on StratusLIVE.
Two departments, one campaign, two totals.
The development director and the controller are both right. They are just counting different copies of the same gifts, entered at different times, in systems that never met.
The month-end reconciliation
Finance pulls the deposit report, development pulls the campaign report, and someone spends the first week of the month explaining why they differ by a few thousand dollars.
Restrictions tracked by memory
The donor said the gift was for the scholarship fund. That instruction lives in an email, a sticky note, or the fundraiser’s head, and the auditor asks about it in March.
Acknowledgements that lag the gift
Receipts wait for the export, the export waits for the batch, and the donor hears back weeks after giving. The donor waits on the plumbing.
The evidence
36%
of nonprofit organizations surveyed reported difficulty using their data for decision-making in 2025, up from 14% the year before.
What it means for your team
The data is rarely missing. It is split between a fundraising system and an accounting system that each hold half of the gift. Entering the gift once, with its campaign and fund, and posting it as a balanced entry means finance and development read the same number and spend month-end on the mission instead of the variance.
Follow one batch from entry to the ledger.
Inside Ignite, this is the Batch to Balance workflow.
A gift should be entered once and arrive in the general ledger balanced, coded, and reconciled, with no second keyboard involved.
Enter the gift with its campaign and fund
Every gift carries its campaign and at least one designation from the moment it is entered, and the designation carries its fund and restriction class. Pledges carry installment plans, and non-cash gifts are recorded by asset type, so the accounting detail exists from the first keystroke.
- Does the work
- Ignite Fundraising
- Your team
- codes the gift with its campaign and designation
Post the batch, balanced by rule
Journal entries are created only when the batch posts, as double-entry lines that must balance. An out-of-balance set is rejected at post and checked again at export, and the trial balance shows debits, credits, and any imbalance on one screen.
- Does the work
- Ignite Finance
- Your team
- reviews and posts the batch
Acknowledge from the record
Acknowledgement and receipt runs are staff-initiated and draw the salutation, address, and gift detail from the constituent record, so the thank-you goes out from the same data finance just posted.
- Does the work
- Ignite Fundraising
- Your team
- runs the acknowledgement batch
Export the balanced file to the GL
The GL extract moves from pending to exported to reconciled. Files are immutable and numbered, duplicate exports are prevented, and the QuickBooks Online and Business Central templates format the file for import into your ledger.
- Does the work
- Ignite Finance
- Your team
- runs the export and marks it reconciled once the ledger agrees
Answer the board from one number
Ask how much a campaign raised this quarter and the answer comes from the same posted gifts finance exported, with the sources shown, so nobody assembles a second version for the board packet.
- Does the work
- Constituent Support agent
- Your team
- checks the sources shown before it goes to the board
The Ignite modules underneath.
Every module works on the same constituent record, so this outcome is a workflow across the platform rather than an add-on.
Ignite Fundraising
Gift entry with required campaign coding, pledges with installment plans, and non-cash gifts by asset type.
Explore Ignite FundraisingIgnite Finance
Balanced batch posting, trial balance, restriction handling, and the GL extract lifecycle with QuickBooks Online and Business Central templates.
Explore Ignite FinanceIgnite CRM
The constituent record that acknowledgements, statements, and the board question all read from.
Explore Ignite CRMIgnite Self-Service
Giving history and tax statements for donors.
Explore Ignite Self-ServiceConstituent Support agent
Answers plain-language questions about gifts, totals, and campaigns from the live record, with sources shown.
Meet the agentProven foundation
Built from the ground up on a modern, AI-first architecture.
Ignite is a new platform, built by the team nonprofits have trusted with their constituent and financial data for over 15 years.
20M+
Constituent profiles managed across the StratusLIVE platform family.
$1B+
In annual giving processed across the StratusLIVE platform family.
150%
Gift-processing productivity gain
464% — membership-processing efficiency gain.
Read the Creating Healthier Communities storyOn the StratusLIVE platform family“Removes the need for manual import and export of data.”
Charmaine V.
Small-business nonprofit
Verified review · G2
“One source of the truth about our contacts, donors, and partners that is easily kept up to date.”
Robert W.
Director of Fundraising Operations & Digital Solutions
Verified review · G2
Fundraising + Finance
Bring this exact question to a 30-minute working session.
See one live workflow in 30 minutes, with real data and no slide deck.
Questions about fundraising and finance on one record
The questions buyers ask about this outcome, answered without a slide deck.
Related outcomes
Is Ignite Finance our general ledger?
No. Ignite Finance is the fundraising subledger. It processes gifts, posts balanced journal entries, keeps a trial balance, and produces the GL extract. Your accounting system remains the general ledger of record and keeps financial statements, bank reconciliation, payables, and payroll. Ignite hands it a balanced, reconciled file rather than replacing it.
How does the export get into QuickBooks Online or Business Central?
As a one-way file. The GL extract uses export templates formatted for QuickBooks Online and Business Central, plus CSV, so your accountant imports it the way they import any journal. It is not a live two-way connector. Files are immutable and numbered, duplicate exports are prevented, and re-opening an extract is permission-gated and logged.
Will finance see gift restrictions the way our auditor wants them?
Restrictions travel with the designation and fund the gift is coded to, and posting follows FASB ASU 2016-14 restriction handling. The fund and restriction class travel with the gift into the export, so the audit question about a designated gift is answered from the record rather than from an email thread.
What happens when a batch does not balance?
It is rejected. Journal entries are created only at batch post, as double-entry lines that must balance, and the export checks again that debits equal credits before a file is generated. The trial balance shows debits, credits, and any imbalance on one screen. Your team corrects the entry and posts again, and the corrected batch flows through like any other.
Can development change a gift after finance has exported it?
Exported files are immutable. Re-opening an extract is permission-gated to a specific role, and every re-open, reconcile, and discard is recorded in an audit log. Refunds and corrections are recorded on the constituent record, not in a side spreadsheet, and they flow through the next batch and export like any other entry.
Can the AI agents touch our financial data?
The Constituent Support agent answers questions about gifts, totals, and campaigns from live data and shows its sources. Posting a batch and running the GL export are actions your team takes. Agents research and draft; writes follow the approval gates your team configures, and agent actions land in the audit trail.
Bring last month’s reconciliation to a working session.
We post a batch and run the GL export live, in 30 minutes, no slide deck.