A board member pledges $10,000 after a lunch with your director: $6,000 to the annual fund, $4,000 to the new education wing. Your development officer has been tracking that ask as an opportunity for months. Now the check arrives, you enter it as one gift split across two designations, and you want the opportunity to show it was won. That last step is where things get murky.
This article covers what “split gift” can mean in Altru, how to think about linking it to an opportunity, and what to do when Altru doesn’t handle the link the way your reporting needs.
First, which kind of split do you have?
People say “split gift” for at least three different situations, and each one behaves differently:
- One payment, several designations. The donor writes one check, and you divide the amount across funds or campaigns on a single revenue record. This is the most common case.
- One payment, several purposes. Part of the money is a membership and part is a donation, or part pays a pledge and part is a new gift. The revenue record has more than one application.
- Two people, one gift. A couple or a family foundation gives jointly, and you want credit to show on more than one constituent record. That’s usually handled with soft credits or household relationships rather than a split.
Be clear about which one you’re dealing with before touching the opportunity. The third case usually doesn’t need a split at all.
What to confirm in your own database
Altru’s opportunity and prospect tools are lighter than what larger fundraising systems offer, and behavior can change between releases. Rather than trust a general description (including this one), test it:
- Enter a test split gift in a sandbox or on a clearly marked test constituent. Use two designations and a small amount.
- Try linking it to an open opportunity on that constituent. Note whether Altru lets you link the whole revenue record, only one designation, or each designation separately.
- Check what the opportunity shows afterward. Does the amount received reflect the full gift or only part? Does the status update?
- Run your usual pipeline or opportunity report and see how the gift appears there. Reporting is where a partial link causes the most confusion.
If the result is unclear, ask Blackbaud support directly how opportunities are meant to relate to revenue with multiple designations in your version. Get the answer in writing and save it with your gift entry procedures.
Workarounds when the link doesn’t fit
Link the whole gift to one opportunity
If the ask was a single conversation for a single total, one opportunity for the full amount is often the most honest record. The designation split lives on the revenue; the opportunity just records that the ask succeeded. This works well when your fundraising reports measure solicitor performance by total dollars raised, not by fund.
Create one opportunity per designation
If the education wing is a separate campaign with its own goal and you need the pipeline for that campaign to be accurate, consider tracking the ask as two opportunities from the start, one per purpose. It’s more work up front, but it keeps campaign reports clean. Do this only if Altru allows each opportunity to connect to its part of the gift; that’s exactly what your sandbox test will tell you.
Close the opportunity manually and document it
When linking simply doesn’t produce a correct amount, mark the opportunity as accepted or won, enter the amount by hand, and add a note referencing the gift date and amount. It’s less elegant, but it’s accurate, and anyone reading the record later can follow the trail.
Report from revenue, not from opportunities
For board reports on campaign progress, a revenue query filtered by designation and date is usually more reliable than an opportunity report. Use opportunities to track activity and asks; use revenue to count money. Many shops end up here regardless.
Set a rule so it’s consistent
Whatever you choose, write it down. Something as short as this is enough:
- One ask, one total: one opportunity, linked to the full gift.
- Separate campaign goals involved: separate opportunities, created when the ask is planned.
- If the link fails or shows a partial amount: close manually and note the gift date, amount, and designations.
Share it with everyone who enters gifts and everyone who manages prospects. Most of the cleanup in opportunity data comes from two people doing the same thing two different ways, not from Altru itself.
Quick answers
Should a soft credit to a spouse count toward the opportunity?
Usually no. Link the opportunity to the hard-credit revenue only, and let the soft credit handle recognition. Otherwise you risk counting the same dollars twice.
What about a pledge paid in installments across designations?
Link the opportunity to the pledge, not to each payment. Test how your version handles a pledge with multiple designations before relying on it for campaign totals.
