A check arrives from Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, or a community foundation, with a note saying it’s “recommended by Jane and Tom Rivera.” Who gave the gift? Legally, the fund did. In practice, the Riveras are the people you thank, invite to the donor reception, and count when you look at their lifetime giving. A good Altru setup has to answer both questions without double counting.
The approach below works within standard Altru revenue and constituent features. Where Altru’s behavior depends on your configuration, we say so. Test it in a sandbox, or on one record, before you write up a procedure for the team.
The core rule: the fund is the donor, the advisor gets credit
- Revenue goes on the fund’s record. Set up the sponsoring organization (the DAF sponsor, not the individual’s named fund) as an organization constituent and record the payment there. That keeps your revenue, batches, and audit trail aligned with the money that actually hit your bank account.
- The individual gets recognition credit. Add a recognition (soft) credit on that revenue to the person who recommended the grant. That is what drives donor lists, giving-level recognition, and “total giving” views for the person you have the relationship with.
- The receipt goes to nobody, or to the fund. The advisor already took their deduction when they put money into the fund. Don’t send them a tax receipt. A thank-you letter is fine; word it so it reads as an acknowledgment, not a receipt.
Some teams create one organization record per named fund (“The Rivera Family Fund at Fidelity Charitable”). Others use a single record per sponsor and put the fund name in the revenue reference or a note. One record per sponsor keeps the constituent list much cleaner. Whichever you choose, make it the rule so you don’t end up with three versions of the same sponsor.
Married couples and the missing spouse credit
This is where most confusion comes from. You soft-credit the gift to Jane, and Tom’s record shows nothing. That is usually expected: a recognition credit attaches to the constituent you name, and whether it also appears on a spouse’s or household’s record depends on how your organization set up recognition credits, household rollups, and the smart fields or queries you use for totals.
Three options, roughly from simplest to most precise:
- Credit the household. If your reporting and recognition are household-based, give the recognition credit to the household record, or confirm that individual credits roll up to the household in your totals.
- Add a second credit for the spouse. Give both spouses recognition credit. This works well for donor walls and listings. Make sure your total-giving reports don’t add both credits together for the household, or the gift will be counted twice.
- Credit one spouse and report at the household level. Keep one recognition credit and build your giving totals from the household. This is clean, but staff looking at the other spouse’s record will need to know to check the household.
Before you pick one, find out what your “lifetime giving” smart field or query actually adds up: hard credit only, recognition credit only, or both. That number is what people quote back to donors, and many DAF reporting problems turn out to be a definition question, not a data-entry mistake.
Pledges that a DAF ends up paying
This takes more care, both in Altru and in what you put in writing.
The compliance side. IRS rules generally don’t allow a DAF grant to satisfy a donor’s legally binding personal pledge. That means a signed pledge agreement from the Riveras shouldn’t be “paid off” by their fund on paper. Many organizations deal with this by calling individual commitments that may be paid from a DAF a non-binding statement of intent, and by leaving pledge language out of their thank-you letters to the sponsor. Have your finance office or counsel sign off on the wording you use.
The Altru side. In Altru, a pledge and its payments are generally expected to belong to the same constituent. A payment from the fund’s organization record may not apply cleanly to a pledge on the individual’s record. Before you settle on an approach, test it in a sandbox, or ask Blackbaud support how your version handles it. Common patterns:
- Record the pledge on the sponsor organization with recognition credit to the individual, when you know at the start that the fund will pay. Payments then line up with the pledge.
- Track the individual’s intent outside of pledge revenue, for example as an attribute, note, or planned-gift style tracking. Record each DAF grant as an outright gift from the fund with recognition credit. This avoids implying an enforceable pledge, but your pledge balance reports won’t show it.
- If a pledge already exists on the individual and a DAF check arrives, don’t force the payment onto it. Record the DAF gift on the fund, soft-credit the donor, then decide with your finance team whether to write down the pledge balance and document why.
Watch for benefits, especially membership
This matters for museums, zoos, and gardens. DAF grants generally can’t pay for anything that gives the advisor more than incidental benefits. That includes membership dues with admission benefits, gala tickets, and event packages. If someone tries to renew a household membership with a DAF check, talk to your finance office before you process it as a membership. Some organizations accept the grant as a straight donation and ask the member to pay for the membership separately. Others offer a donation-only giving level with no benefits.
Make it repeatable
- Use a consistent revenue designation, appeal, or attribute to flag DAF gifts, so you can query them separately at year end.
- Save a query of DAF revenue showing the recognition-credit constituent. Sort by the individual and you have an advisor-level giving report for stewardship.
- Keep sponsor organization records clean. A periodic duplicate check on organizations stops “Fidelity Charitable” and “Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund” from splitting your history.
- Write the household-credit decision into your gift-entry guide, so seasonal or new staff don’t make it up gift by gift.
Quick answers
Should the individual or the fund get the hard credit?
The fund. It’s the legal donor and the source of the payment. The individual gets recognition credit.
Why doesn’t the gift show in my donor’s total giving?
Your total-giving field may count only hard credit. Check how the smart field or query is defined, and whether it includes recognition credits.
Can we thank the advisor by name?
Yes. Acknowledge them warmly and list them for recognition. Just don’t send a tax receipt or describe any benefits they received.
