Lesson 5.4 – Creating Gifts and Designations

Welcome to Lesson 5.4! At the base of the FastFund Raising Gift Pyramid are Gifts. All donations and receipts entered into the system must be assigned a gift classification.

Gifts serve two critical functions: they define the exact type of donation or designation chosen by the donor, and they act as the direct integration point between your fundraising module and your general ledger accounting system.

In this lesson, we will explore how to define gifts, link them to your revenue accounts, and manage them within your database.

1. The Role of Gifts

While an Appeal represents the event or motivation that drove the donor to give, the Gift represents the specific way the money was collected or what the money is restricted for.

For example, if your Appeal is an “Annual Golf Outing,” you would not want to lump all the revenue into one generic bucket. Instead, you would create specific Gifts for that appeal, such as:

• Sponsorships
• Green Fees
• Raffle Tickets
• In-Kind Prizes

Gifts can also be used to identify regular cash receipts that are not charitable donations, such as merchandise sales, membership dues, or seminar registrations.

The Accounting Link: Most importantly, every Gift must be linked to a specific General Ledger Revenue Account. When you process a donation and select a Gift, FastFund automatically knows exactly which revenue account to credit, eliminating double data entry for your fiscal team. (Note: You cannot add a gift if you do not have revenue accounts set up in your Chart of Accounts).

2. Adding a New Gift

Because of the hierarchical structure, it is often best to set up your Gifts so they are ready to be linked when you create your Appeals.

Steps to Add a Gift:

1. Navigate to Lists on the Main Menu and under the CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT section, select Gifts.
2. Click the New + icon.
3. Enter the Name of the gift (e.g., “Ticket Sales” or “Building Fund Donation”).
4. Select the appropriate revenue account from the Account drop-down list.
5. Use the Notes field to enter a description of the gift’s purpose.
6. Click the blue SAVE button.

[INSERT SCREENSHOT: Display the ‘New Gift’ data entry screen, highlighting the Name field, the Account drop-down menu, and the Notes area.]

3. Website Donation Integration (EFT)

If your organization uses FastFund’s strategic partner, EFT Corporation, to process credit card and ACH donations on your website, your online donation forms must be perfectly mapped to your FastFund database.

Once you save a new Gift, FastFund automatically assigns it a unique Gift ID number. To ensure online donations are imported correctly, you must provide this specific Gift ID (along with the Appeal ID) to EFT Corporation so they can configure your web forms to route the money to the correct designation.

4. Managing and Inactivating Gifts

As your fundraising strategies evolve, you may need to update your gift designations or retire old ones.

• Editing a Gift: From the Gifts list, click on the specific Gift Name to open the details window. Make your necessary changes (such as linking it to a different revenue account) and click SAVE.
• Deleting a Gift: You can permanently delete a gift by clicking the red Delete button, only if the gift has never had any financial transactions posted to it.
• Inactivating a Gift: If a gift has been used in the past and has posted transactions tied to it, FastFund’s internal controls will prevent you from deleting it. Instead, you must open the gift record, check the Inactive box, and click SAVE. Inactive gifts can no longer be assigned to new appeals or used in new transactions, but they will remain in your historical reporting.