netFORUM has the ability to track Soft Credit donations for the purpose of sending thank you letters and keeping a gift history of constituents' donations. An example of a soft credit donation would be if someone hosted an event in their home. The donation would not be entered into any GL accounts, but you would still want to track the donation.
Soft credit gifts can be added as a normal gift would be added using the Add Gift group item link, by using the add soft credit icon located on the Gift Profile, or by using the Soft Credit Recipients section on the Add - Fundraising Gifts page. In addition, soft credits can be added based on a relationship in netFORUM.
Note: netFORUM does not validate the soft credit amount. For instance, netFORUM allows users to enter a soft credit amount that is more than the original gift amount. This allows each organization to determine its own rules governing soft credits.
To add a soft credit gift using the Add Gift group item link, complete the following steps:
Note: The gift will not be recorded in the gift totals on the constituent's record although you can view it on the Soft Credit tab of the Constituent Profile.
To add a soft credit gift from the gift profile, complete the following steps:
This will return a list of individuals that match your criteria.
To add a soft credit recipient from the Add - Fundraising Gift page, complete the following steps:
Field | Required? | Description |
---|---|---|
recipient | Yes | Enter the first few letters of the recipient's name in the recipient field and click the Search icon. A list of potential recipients matching the search criteria will appear. Click the name of the recipient from the list to populate the recipient field. |
amount | Yes | Enter the amount to be awarded as a soft credit in the amount field. |
soft credit type | No | Expand the drop-down menu and select the type of soft credit being awarded. |
related gift key | No | NEED DESCRIPTION OF THIS FIELD. |
send email confirmation | No | Click this check box to send an email confirmation informing the recipient of their soft credit gift. |
template | No | Expand the drop-down menu and choose the correspondence template to use for the email confirmation. |
If a recipient is eligible for a soft credit based on a relationship they have with the constituent named above, they will automatically appear in the Soft Credit Recipients section of the Add - Fundraising Gift page. Whether relationships are eligible for soft credit gifts is determined by the auto soft credit check box found on the Add - Relationship Type form in the CRM module.
For example, if the household/individual relationship type has the auto soft credit check box checked, and the individual/household relationship type does not have the auto soft credit check box checked the following will happen:
While recipients who meet the soft credit criteria will automatically appear in this section, there is some editing that must be done before the gift is submitted.
To edit a soft credit recipient's information, complete the following steps:
Field | Required? | Description |
---|---|---|
recipient | Yes | This field will be auto-populated with the name of the recipient listed in the soft credit recipient's section of the page. This can be edited if needed. |
amount | Yes | Enter the amount to be awarded as a soft credit in the amount field. |
soft credit type | No | Expand the drop-down menu and select the type of soft credit being awarded. |
related gift key | No | NEED DESCRIPTION OF THIS FIELD. |
send email confirmation | No | Click this check box to send an email confirmation informing the recipient of their soft credit gift. |
template | No | Expand the drop-down menu and choose the correspondence template to use for the email confirmation. |
For a suggested standard operating procedure for processing stock gifts, see Adding an In-Kind Gift-Asset help topic which is similar.