Record Soft Credit

Owned by Robert Lenk
Last updated: Feb 07, 2024 by Chris Barrett
2 min read

About Soft Credits

Soft credits are a fundraising concept that assist institutions in tracking and acknowledging individuals who do not provide direct donations or gifts but held considerable influence over the decision by the donor to provide the donation. For example, a parent may donate $100 to your institution that is matched by her employer who provides an additional $100 donation. Although the parent did not make the additional $10 donation herself, the institution wishes to record the fact she had a role in the donation.

Record Soft Credit

Prior to recording the soft credit, the direct gift must be recorded and posted.

  1. Navigate to the individual who will receive soft credit recognition

  2. Navigate to Person Selected > Gifts

  3. Next to the gift to award soft credit click the dollar icon under Transaction History

  4. Under Add Soft Credit click the + icon

    • Soft Credit Type: The overarching relationship between the direct gift and soft credit (e.g. matching gift). Options are delivered and may not be changed.

    • Soft Credit Bios ID#: Click Lookup Person or Lookup Org to locate the related party (e.g. the employer who matched the gift)

    • Tracking Template: Optionally enter the name of an activity that will trigger. If no activity is selected, the activity specified as the default Thank You Document on the Alumni Fund will trigger. The activity must reside in activity tracking template member M.

    • Payment Constit. Code: Select the type of constituent

    • Description: Free form text to provide additional information on the soft credit

    • A/R Code: Automatically populated accounts receivable code

    • Transaction Amount: The dollar value of the original direct gift (Read Only)

    • Transaction Date: The date of the original direct gift (Read Only)

    • Gift Purpose: The reason for the original direct gift (Read Only)

    • CC-GL-Fund: The Campus Cafe general ledger account associated with the original direct gift (Read Only)

    • Split Amount: If the original direct gift was split between general ledger accounts, the amount split (Read Only)

    • Split Amount CC-GL-Fund: If the original direct gift was split between general ledger accounts, the other general ledger account (Read Only)

    • PET: The project expense tracking number associated with the original direct gift (Read Only)

    • Campaign: The broad fundraising initiative associated with the original direct gift (Read Only)

    • Appeal: The specific fundraising initiative associated with the original direct gift (Read Only)

    • Check Number: The check number associated with the original direct gift (Read Only) 

  5. Click Save (Because soft credits are not directly received gifts, they do not appear in Gift Cash Batch for posting.)