Hello,
Wondering if any users have suggestions for how best to process gifts from donors giving through channels like Canada Helps, United Way or Benevity? Right now, we've created two payment methods, one is 'direct deposit' for the gift portion and the other method is 'third party fees' for the fees portion that the third party takes. The 'third party fees' payment method is linked to our expense GL for fees. We are processing the gifts in the individual constituent account. Wondering if anyone is processing gifts like this on the org account, e.g. United Way, and then soft crediting the individuals who gave through this org? Technically, the third party is the "payee". Any thoughts/suggestions/process discussion is much appreciated!
It might not be the best method, but we use the Adjustment Reason for Third-Party processing fees. We enter the gross donation in the individual constituent like you are, enabling us to use the contribution amount in thank you acknowledgements and then adjust out the fees, if any, refunding them from the direct deposit payment method. This balances out the net donation for our finance team, and gives us the detail we need within the contribution history. If you need full tracking by each third party provider, I would setup a Direct Deposit payment method for each of the providers.
This is great, Kyle Tiney, thank you! We didn't even think of it this way, but I like how it allows you enter the gross amount and acknowledge the donor for it. This was one of the issues we were trying to solve. We were going to use Source to track where the gift came from but setting up the providers as payment methods like you suggest is excellent. Okay - am passing this on to my team!