Soft credit - who get's soft credit?

Sandy Vaughn

in RE, do you put the gift under the name on the check (for example a foundation) and soft credit the person who asked it to be sent or do you put the gift under the person who asked their foundation to send it and soft credit the foundation?

Joanne McConnell

We put the gift in the foundation's name or the investment firms ( for donor advised funds)  with the soft credit going to the individual.  We also put the individual's name in the reference field.

Sandy Vaughn

Thank you so much!

 

Sandy Vaughn

Keys for Kids Ministries

 

Box 1001 |Grand Rapids, MI 49501

Office (616) 419-2654

http://www.KeysForKids.org

 

JoAnn Strommen

There are a multitude of posts on this subject with a variety of answers. For us it depends on the details. Is the foundation a Donor Advised Fund sending us the foundations money (at the individual's advice)? We HC the foundation, SC the individual. Rational is that once the individual gives the money to the DAF Foundation they essentially relinquish control of the funds. They become advisor only. 

If it is their investment company sending us the individuals money, we HC the individual.

Petra Hall

We always put the gift on the record for the donor. This gets complicated sometimes (if the gift is donated through another organization) but the CRA cares who the original donor is. We soft-credit spouses (automatically) and instigators.


Oh, and gifts from spouses always go on the record of the spouse who signed the donation, unless we have instructions (from the signee) that the donation was actually from the other spouse. This makes things much more simple in the cases of divorce (when donors are more likely to go back over tax records and refile everything).