Soft credits for gifts

Melanie Dash

Hello,


I'm new to Raiser's Edge-NXT and am learning as I go.


I'm trying to determine the best way to do the following:

1. Soft credit constituents (individual & spouse) for a large gift that was given through an organization. There are 10-12 individuals that need to receive the soft credit, not counting spouses.
2. Flag one of the soft-credit constituents as "anonymous" for this specific gift, but not the organization that gave the gift.

Any helpful tips?

JoAnn Strommen

Welcome to BB and the community, Melanie Dash‍.


As 20-24 individuals being soft-credited for a gift is a bit unusual IMO, Are they receiving SC for the entire gift amount or just a portion each? I'm going to ask the basic question. Does your org have a definition for soft-credit and when it is to be used?


For most of us, SC is used when a second party has some ownership, control over the funds. Most of us do not use SC to indicate they influenced/solicited the gift. If that is tracked it is done mostly thru solicitor/fundraiser relationships.


If you truly wish to SC these people on the gift record, under SC you will need to key in each constituent's name and amount to SC. I don't believe it is possible to name a SC record and then indicate anonymity. For this person you may need to use your 'Donor unknown' record. (Some org just have this record called "anonymous" - I prefer "donor unknown" to prevent any confusion with gifts from constituents marked as anonymous.)

Melanie Dash

Hi JoAnn,


These donors are each being soft credited for a portion of the (EITC) gift. Our org does have a definition for soft-credit and when it should be used. In our old database system we soft-credited the donor and spouse; the way it was configured, we were able to report and show only "standard soft credits" (the primary donor of the household.


This is not related to solicitors/fundraisers in any way.


This particular donor only wants to be anonymous for certain types of gifts. This will make for interesting reporting.


Perhaps I should've given more information. I have 10 years advanced experience with Blackbaud CRM...however, this is new and different territory. I am enjoying learning from the experts.

JoAnn Strommen

Sounds like you have a solid foundation and experience. The forums are a great place for those just starting with BB and those entering a 'new territory.' ? Keep posting questions - I know when I started this position I found myself posting regularly as was in new territory as well. I will say over the years I have seen a few things that made me shudder and worry about an org's policies and procedures. LOL


On the gift record you should be able to enter each of the SC recipients. While you can make a person anonymous for all or for just specific gifts they make, I'm not sure what to suggest for the anonymous SC.


Again welcome to the forums.

Heather MacKenzie

Anonymity is determined by 1 of (or both) 2 checkboxes, but it's always handled the same way, regardless of it being the donor record or the soft credit record. The primary place, to make all gifts anonymous, is on the constituent tab of the record (in the db view). It's also possible to make 1 gift anonymous by marking the checkbox on the 2nd tab within the gift. It's not done during gift entry, but can be handled separately.


Reports then show this name as "Anonymous" and queries need this field in the output.

Melanie Dash

Hi Heather,


The challenge I've encountered (in DB view) has been when I click the checkbox next to "Gift is Anonymous" on the soft credited donor's gift record (the one who wishes to be anonymous), it makes the org gift record anonymous. This isn't the desired result. There are multiple soft-credited donors and only 1 wants to be anonymous.


If I understand you correctly, I can do it this way and it will show only the 1 soft-credit donor as anonymous?


Does this help clarify the issue I'm experiencing?


Sorry...not sure how to reply directly to you. Still learning!

Daniel R. Snyder

Melanie Dash‍, where does this donor need to be listed as anonymous and are the reports automated or is there some human involvement?


The reason I ask those questions is you might be able to add an annotation to the record to say the donor needs to be listed as anonymous with SC gifts from a certain source and if there was manual review that could be adjusted. Not a great solution, but could meet the request.


Thanks for posing a great question, really makes us think!

Karen Diener 2

I have soft credited multiple people for portions of gifts at times. When you do queries, exports, and reports down the road, make sure you select "Both" and "use amount in grid" so that the soft-credit recipients are queried / reported for only their portion of that big gift.

In terms of anonymity, you won't be able to accomplish what you want by using the checkboxes. Either the constituent needs to be anonymous (Bio1 / Org1 tab) or the gift. But as you've pointed out, the gift itself isn't anonymous - only that donor's portion of it.


In what way would this donor's anonymity be a factor for you? Do you produce donor lists in print, or online, or donor walls? Do you have other fields set up to capture their recognition name? When I have needed to deal with these situations, I have used a couple of different methods, depending on the situation. One is to include something in all caps within their recognition name to flag anyone reviewing the list - something like "Mary Smith - SEE NOTE!" and then have a specific constituent notepad for recognition name details. Be explicit with this too - help your "future self" know exactly what you need to do - "Do not include the soft credited gift on May 4, 2021 in Mary's giving total for fiscal year ####". Another option is to not make any comments in the recognition name itself, but do make it part of your process to review a list of recognition name notepads before anything goes to publication.


That certainly swerved into another issue all together! Hope that helps!


Karen

Melanie Dash

Dan, the donor needs to be listed as anonymous on anything that is viewed outside of our office. No public written public recognition, etc. I do the reports.


Thanks for the great suggestion! Yesterday afternoon I did just that...noted it on the donor record about the SC gifts from specific sources. This actually generated another question in my mind: Is there a way to put a "pop-up" alert/notification on a record to bring attention to those that may have special circumstances? I was able to do it in Blackbaud CRM.

JoAnn Strommen

You can set up Business rules under Configuration options.


You need a query of relevant records and then create your rule. Pretty straightforward.


Directions in knowledgebase: https://kb.blackbaud.com/knowledgebase/?_ga=2.261761669.948404954.1582556267-1860906219.1579726065&page=1&search=Business%20rules

Heather MacKenzie

Melanie Dash:

Hi Heather,


The challenge I've encountered (in DB view) has been when I click the checkbox next to "Gift is Anonymous" on the soft credited donor's gift record (the one who wishes to be anonymous), it makes the org gift record anonymous. This isn't the desired result. There are multiple soft-credited donors and only 1 wants to be anonymous.

I have never had it behave this way. So interesting! (Keep learning!!!)

Daniel R. Snyder

Melanie Dash:

Dan, the donor needs to be listed as anonymous on anything that is viewed outside of our office. No public written public recognition, etc. I do the reports.


Thanks for the great suggestion! Yesterday afternoon I did just that...noted it on the donor record about the SC gifts from specific sources. This actually generated another question in my mind: Is there a way to put a "pop-up" alert/notification on a record to bring attention to those that may have special circumstances? I was able to do it in Blackbaud CRM.

JoAnn Strommen‍'s answer should meet your needs in database view, but those pop-ups would only show up in database view. For web view, you would need to use the annotation and select the option to display the annotation automatically so it will show up at the top of an NXT record as well.

Ken Hontz

You could also try using the Annotate icon (Paper with the pin) icon on the donor's record. There is a check box in the popup to display the note automatically (when the record is opened).

Melanie Dash

Thank you all for this invaluable information. The annotate option is what I was looking for.

Dana McCawLane

@JoAnn Strommen - May I ask you a related question? I am attempting to find a solution to issues with reporting when more than one individual is receiving 100% soft credit for a gift. It is not really an issue when pulling gift reports (ie: campaign/appeal performance) but when looking at constituent cumulative giving (SCs included) that gift is pulled into the cumulative totals of more than one individual and this can throw off reporting. Do other organizations tend to set policies on the number of people who can be soft credited to a gift? Or if it needs to be more than one, should they not each have 100% credit for the gift? Just wondering how other orgs have handled this problem. TIA.

JoAnn Strommen

I don't know of any orgs that limit the # of people to SC. Based on my experience/definition of when SC is used, I can't think of any cases where a long list of constituents would get SC.

Yes, if you are including any SC in any reports it can skew your $ totals. Even pulling in one will change total $. So, in most cases reports with SC are probably more for donor “giving” reports than financial reports.

Maybe question goes back to how you define when someone should get SC. If they meet your criteria, are they not eligible for 100% credit? If it's a company gift where you know Bob and Bill, owning partners, tell you they each donated half of company gift, then sure, SC 50% each. But if both have ‘control’ of the full gift amount, I'd still SC each 100%.

Just an opinion.