Soft credit amt vs. hard credit amt

Tracy Jacobs

We have been using Raiser's Edge only a few weeks and are flummoxed by an inability to enter single soft credits that are larger than a hard credit.

When a gift is received from an organization that charges a fee to send us the gift, we would usually hard credit the actual check amount and soft credit the donor's original gift amount. In RE we can soft credit multiple constituents with a TOTAL of soft giving that is larger than the hard credit, but a single constituent can not be soft credited more than the hard credit.

How do you handle this to ensure you acknowledge a donors' original gift and to ensure they are properly recognized?

Thank you for any help!

Tracy Jacobs

PPMM Northern Nevada

JoAnn Strommen

Tracy Jacobs:

We have been using Raiser's Edge only a few weeks and are flummoxed by an inability to enter single soft credits that are larger than a hard credit.

When a gift is received from an organization that charges a fee to send us the gift, we would usually hard credit the actual check amount and soft credit the donor's original gift amount. In RE we can soft credit multiple constituents with a TOTAL of soft giving that is larger than the hard credit, but a single constituent can not be soft credited more than the hard credit.

How do you handle this to ensure you acknowledge a donors' original gift and to ensure they are properly recognized?

Thank you for any help!

Tracy Jacobs

PPMM Northern Nevada

We hard credit the amount of the gift and can then soft credit the full amount.  The fees deducted are considered part of doing business and handled by accounting the same way as credit card fees are handled. 

Your summary of what RE can/can't do as far as SC is totally correct.  Don't know of anyway around it.

Melissa Graves 3

Tracy Jacobs:

We have been using Raiser's Edge only a few weeks and are flummoxed by an inability to enter single soft credits that are larger than a hard credit.

When a gift is received from an organization that charges a fee to send us the gift, we would usually hard credit the actual check amount and soft credit the donor's original gift amount. In RE we can soft credit multiple constituents with a TOTAL of soft giving that is larger than the hard credit, but a single constituent can not be soft credited more than the hard credit.

How do you handle this to ensure you acknowledge a donors' original gift and to ensure they are properly recognized?

Thank you for any help!

Tracy Jacobs

PPMM Northern Nevada

There are other options than soft credit. If you are talking about united way or gifts via other non-profits that take out a fee then you are correct to hard credit only the amount you received after fees. What is frustrating is that if that total was for more than one person you can include soft credits that total more than the hard credit so long as no single soft credit is more, but if the total is to be soft credited to only one person, you can't soft credit them for more. Example: $95 gift from united way coming from 2 donors who each gave $50 before fees. you can soft credit each for $50. $95 gift coming from one person who gave $100 before feed, you can only soft credit for $95. grrr many have decided to not use soft credits for these kinds of gifts and use "other" gifts instead. (knowledgebase even has an article on this if you search on united way) Examples from above: Enter $95 cash gift on UW record with no SCs Enter $50 other gift on individual 1 Enter $50 other gift on individual 2 Enter $95 cash gift on UW record with no SCs Enter $100 other gift on individual 3 It can feel confusing but just remember "other" gifts can be used this way as a type of crediting system. You would not count other in: financial reports, bank deposits, etc. but you would count them when doing gift circles or levels for recognition. If you are using the gift type of "other" for something else currently, consider if using this system would interfere with that. do not confuse "other" gift type with "other" payment method. i am suggesting using the gift type. Good Luck!

Tracy Jacobs

Melissa Graves:
There are other options than soft credit. If you are talking about united way or gifts via other non-profits that take out a fee then you are correct to hard credit only the amount you received after fees. What is frustrating is that if that total was for more than one person you can include soft credits that total more than the hard credit so long as no single soft credit is more, but if the total is to be soft credited to only one person, you can't soft credit them for more. Example: $95 gift from united way coming from 2 donors who each gave $50 before fees. you can soft credit each for $50. $95 gift coming from one person who gave $100 before feed, you can only soft credit for $95. grrr many have decided to not use soft credits for these kinds of gifts and use "other" gifts instead. (knowledgebase even has an article on this if you search on united way) Examples from above: Enter $95 cash gift on UW record with no SCs Enter $50 other gift on individual 1 Enter $50 other gift on individual 2 Enter $95 cash gift on UW record with no SCs Enter $100 other gift on individual 3 It can feel confusing but just remember "other" gifts can be used this way as a type of crediting system. You would not count other in: financial reports, bank deposits, etc. but you would count them when doing gift circles or levels for recognition. If you are using the gift type of "other" for something else currently, consider if using this system would interfere with that. do not confuse "other" gift type with "other" payment method. i am suggesting using the gift type. Good Luck!

 Thank you for your help!