Once you have added some of your organization’s contacts into Donor Management, you can add donation records to those contacts; that way, you can better understand each contact’s giving history and how they choose to interact with your organization.
Adding a Donation Record from the Giving Page
The first way to add a new contact record is through the “Giving” tab. If you’re not already there, be sure to click on the “Giving” tab in the left-hand navigation options.
Once you’re in the “Giving” tab, click on the “Add Donation” button at the top right-hand corner of your screen.
Adding a Donation Record from the Dashboard
The second way to add a donation record is directly from the Dashboard itself.
If you are viewing Donor Management on a laptop or desktop, you should be able to use the blue “Quick Add” button at the top left corner of your screen (above the “Dashboard” tab).
If you are viewing Donor Management on a mobile device, such as a phone or tablet, you should be able to click on an “Add” button at the bottom of your screen.
There will be a pop-up that appears with several options – you'll want to click on “Donation.”
Adding the Required Donation Details
Regardless of what option you pick, you should now see an option to enter additional details for this new donation record.
The first set of details are required for every donation record:
Donor: In this field, you’ll want to begin typing the name of the contact who made this donation.
If this is a new contact making the donation, you will need to add the contact record first, before continuing with the donation record.
Donation Date: This is where you’ll want to enter the date of the donation. By default, this field should display today’s date – but you can adjust it to the correct date by either typing the date in manually, or using the included calendar tool.
Donation Amount: This field is where you should enter the amount of the donation that the contact has made.
You have the option to add “Fair Market Value” to a donation record here as well. (We’ll discuss fair market value in an upcoming module!)
Donation Payment Method: You can select the payment method in this field from the drop-down options available. Options include ACH, cash, check, credit card, “in kind,” and several other common payment options.
Additional Optional Donation Details
You also have the option to add additional details to a donation record to help organize and track your organization’s fundraising.
Payment Description: This field allows you to add additional descriptive details about a payment, such as a check number or date.
Campaign: This field provides a list of existing campaigns within Donor Management that you can add this new donation record to, via the drop-down menu.
Similar to the “donor” field, you will need to create a campaign before assigning a donation to that campaign. We’ll go over how to create campaigns next!
Designation: This field provides a list of existing designations within Donor Management that you can add to this new donation.
Just like the “donor” and “campaign” fields, a designation must be created before you can assign any donation records to the campaign. Along with campaigns, we’ll go over how to create designations next!
Donation Notes: This field is where you can add additional details about a donation record that might be helpful for future stewardship or fundraising efforts.
For example, you can enter details like “this check was received after the gala,” or “this donation was the result of stewardship and another ask shouldn’t happen until X date.”
Tribute Type: This field allows you to indicate whether or not this donation has been designated as a “tribute” - tributes typically are donations made by one person on behalf of another. Tributes can include “honor”, “memorial,” “on behalf,” “not specified,” and, by default, “none.”
Mark Donation as Acknowledged: This checkbox option lets you mark a donation as having already been acknowledged.
Our system leaves each donation record as “not acknowledged” by default, so that you can send an acknowledgement directly through Donor Management to those who have donated. However, if you choose to send acknowledgements outside the system (such as a handwritten note), then you can select this option instead.
Once you’ve filled out all of the information you have for a donation record, you’ll want to click on the “Save & Exit” button at the bottom of your screen.
If you want to add multiple donation records in a row, you can also click on the “Save & Add Another” button and the page will save the information you added and then refresh to allow you to input entirely new information.