Soft credits and pledge payments - can you connect them?

Jennifer Bugnatto

New to Raiser's Edge.  If a pledge is created in an individual's record, but the payment(s) come from a DAF or other method so the individual is soft credited for the gift, is there a way to apply that soft credit gift payment toward the pledge in their record?    I tried seaching the community but could not find an answer or solution to this.  


If there is not, how do others handle/work around situations like this, since large pledges are usually paid off via third party methods.  (securities, DAF's)


Thank you!

JoAnn Strommen

If an individual's pledge is paid by a DAF, you will need to set procedures for your org to use.  Generally if you read the statement/letter/check stub with a DAF payment, it says the payment can not be used to pay a pledge (benefit the individual).  As the payment is from the DAF, it should be recorded on the DAF record. For informational purposes the individual is usually SC for the gift. Some orgs will delete the original pledge.  Others adjust amount to $0 and in notations explain why so there a trail/documentation. 


Most DAFs state they do not need to be receipted.  As the individual donated the money to the DAF and received tax deduction at that time they also do not need a tax statement receipt.  We just do a thank you without the tax statement or $0 amount included. 


If the payment is from stocks or securities the individual gives to your org it's completely different.  The individual is the donor and you can apply the amount against the pledge amount. 


If you just type "DAF" in the search box, you should see a number of posts related to entering gifts from DAF.  You may also want to check www.fundsvcs.org - lots of posts and info from very knowledgeable and experienced fund development people on do's and do not's.

Jen Claudy

To apply a payment to a pledge that is on another record: open the payment gift > click the Apply To button (two white cards with a green arrow) > click [Load Pledge(s) From...] > search for the Constituent.




At my org, we are sometimes informed by a donor that they have requested a gift be sent from their DAF so we enter a Pledge as an intent or receivable, rather than a traditional pledge.  Although, if we know it is coming from a DAF, we would probably enter that pledge on the DAF's record.


A former boss of mine, who was very knowledgeable about tax law, wrote our tax statements at that org to provide the value of the gift and the fair market value of any goods & services (rather than the "tax deductible amount"...let the donor do the math) and the statement, "Please consult your tax professional on the deductibility of your charitable gifts."  This way, you don't have any need or responsibility to determine what the donor can or can't do on their taxes (because there are sometimes other factors at play, beyond what type of account is being used).

Jennifer Bugnatto

Thank you both for your help!