Contribution Types – Individual/Household/Organization

This reference defines the three contributor/contribution types and how to manage record data and gift entry for each type.

Contribution Types

Household Contributions

A household contribution applies to and displays in the contribution list of every person that is linked to the household record, irrespective of which person in the household was recorded as actually making the gift.

Individual Contributions

An individual contribution applies to and displays in the contribution list of only the person that is recorded as making the contribution, irrespective of whether that person is part of a household.

An individual can belong to a household but can be set to enter/acknowledge gifts separately, and not as a household. See below Gift Entry and Contribution Type below.

Organization Contributions

An organization contribution is a gift directly from an entity and not a person. The organization must have its own record in the database. Individuals linked to an existing organization record can be identified as the contact for a specific organization gift, but only for the purpose of allowing their name to be included in acknowledgment communications and to support development personnel to know who was responsible for the organization making the gift.

Record Data and Gift Entry

Setting Household v. Individual Contributor Types

Use the Acknowledge Contributions options on the Household/Address tab to identify a default contribution type to be applied to all gifts for a person and their household members.

If a person is part of an existing household that links multiple people in the database, like the Ken Jones example below, the system default is to acknowledge all gifts enter under Ken or Sam’s name as a household gift.

If Ken and or Sam inform you that they give independently and not as a couple, you must make the one-time update to their household data and set Acknowledge Contributions to Each Individual. 

NOTE: When a change is made to the Acknowledge Contributions setting, all future contribution gifts will be entered using the new setting, however, all invoices in the person's record - not related to an organization - will be historically changed to match the new setting for reporting purposes.

Gift Entry and Contribution Type

When entering gifts on the Contribution Entry screen, the first step is always to identify if it is a Person or Organization gift.

Person Gift Entries

A person must be identified to enter an individual or a household gift.

For all gift entries, the Ack. Contrib. field will default to the Auto selection, meaning the system will acknowledge this contribution based on the Acknowledge Contributions setting on the Household/Address tab, as described above.

However, by accessing the drop-down you can override the Acknowledge Contributions setting on the Household/Address tab and chose to do the opposite if needed for that gift.

Example:

Ken and Sam are set to Acknowledge Contributions to Household but Ken is making a one-time donation from his personal account, instead of their usual giving method as a couple. When entering the gift under Ken’s name, select Individual from the Ack. Contrib. field to override their record-setting of acknowledging the household.

Most often you can expect to rely on the system defaults and should only make changes to household data and or override the auto Ack. Contrib. setting if a donor specifically informs you of a different household giving arrangement.

Organization Gift Entries

When entering an organization contribution, by selecting the Organization button instead of the Person button, the Ack. Contrib. field is replaced with Contrib. By, and the drop-down provides a list of all person records currently linked to that organization. Simply select the contact for the gift and that person will be included in the acknowledgment communication.

If the contact you are searching for is not listed in the contact drop-down, then that person doesn’t yet have their own record and or they are not linked to the organization. Make the necessary database updates then close and reopen Contribution Entry to see the updated contact list.

Reminder: It is perfectly acceptable to create a new person record with only a first and last name (if that is the only information available) in order to link that person appropriately to an existing organization record. Be sure to complete the Title and Role fields when linking the person to their organization.