A board member asks why her husband’s foundation gift doesn’t show up on her giving history. A major donor wants credit for the gift his company made at his urging. A couple gives from one checking account, and only one of them appears on the donor wall list. Each of these is a soft credit problem, and in Altru each one gets solved in roughly the same place.
Altru generally calls these recognition credits rather than “soft credits.” The idea is the same: the gift stays with the constituent who paid it (the hard credit), and one or more other constituents get credit for recognition, stewardship, and reporting without the money being counted twice in your revenue totals.
Decide who should get credit before you touch a record
Recognition is easy to add and tedious to clean up, so agree on a few rules first. Write them down where gift processors can see them.
- Spouses and partners. Do both people get recognition automatically, or only when the donor asks? If you use households, check whether your recognition defaults already credit the household or the other member.
- Company and foundation gifts. Does the individual who solicited or directed the gift get recognition? At what share: the full amount or a portion?
- Donor-advised funds. The fund is the payer. The person who recommended the grant is almost always the one you want on the recognition list.
- Tributes are separate. A gift “in memory of” or “in honor of” someone is a tribute, not a soft credit. Mixing the two makes your tribute acknowledgments and your recognition reports both wrong.
Adding recognition on a new donation
When you enter a donation, Altru applies whatever recognition defaults your organization has configured, and you can usually review or adjust the recognition credits before saving. That is the point to add a spouse, the person behind a corporate gift, or a board member who brought the donor in.
For each recognition credit you are deciding three things: who gets it, how much (full gift or a partial amount), and the type of recognition if your organization uses more than one. Keep the types short and meaningful. A list of a dozen loosely defined types guarantees inconsistent entry.
If you enter gifts through batches, check whether recognition is editable in your batch template or only after the batch is committed. Templates differ between organizations, so test it once with a dummy gift rather than assuming.
Adding soft credits to gifts that are already in Altru
This is where most people get stuck. A donor calls in October and says the last three years of gifts should also be credited to her spouse, or you adopt a new policy and want to apply it backward.
One or a few gifts
Open the revenue record for the gift and look for the option to edit recognition credits. Because recognition doesn’t change the payment amount, designation, or posting, editing it is normally allowed on gifts that have already posted. Still, confirm that in your own database: depending on your security role and configuration, some revenue edits may be restricted after posting. If you can’t find the option, ask your Altru administrator to check your role’s permissions or open a case with Blackbaud support.
Add a note on the constituent record explaining what you changed and why, especially if the donor requested it. The next development staffer will wonder why a 2023 gift suddenly credits someone new.
Dozens or hundreds of gifts
Editing records one at a time works up to a point. Beyond that:
- Build a revenue query that isolates exactly the gifts in scope: the payer, the date range, the revenue type, and an output column showing current recognition credits so you can spot gifts that already have them.
- Export the list and review it with whoever owns the policy. Retroactive changes are easy to overapply.
- Check whether a bulk option exists in your Altru setup. Some organizations have access to revenue update or import tools that can touch recognition; others don’t. If you’re unsure, ask Blackbaud support whether recognition credits can be updated through import for your database, and try it in a sandbox or on two or three test gifts first.
- If no bulk path is available, split the list among staff with a clear checklist and work through it. It’s slow but predictable.
Check your reports after the change
Soft credits only matter if your reports use them. After you add recognition, run the reports people actually rely on and confirm they behave the way you expect:
- Revenue totals should not change. If a revenue report jumps after you add recognition, it is summing recognition instead of payments.
- Donor recognition and giving level reports should now include the credited constituent.
- Smart fields for lifetime or annual giving may be built on revenue or on recognition. Know which one each field uses, and refresh smart fields so totals update.
- Acknowledgments normally go to the payer. Decide whether the soft-credited person also receives a letter, and don’t let them get a tax receipt for money they didn’t give.
Quick answers
Does a soft credit count toward the donor’s tax-deductible giving?
No. Only the payer made the gift. Recognition is for stewardship and reporting, so keep it out of anything that functions as a receipt.
Can one gift credit more than one person?
Yes, you can add multiple recognition credits to one gift. Agree internally on whether each gets the full amount or a share, so lists like “donors of $1,000 or more” stay defensible.
Should we soft credit household members automatically?
Many organizations do, because couples expect to be recognized together. Set it through your recognition defaults rather than relying on gift processors to remember, then spot-check a few new gifts each month.
