I am a new Tessitura user with limited background in other CRM systems. I have inherited a 12-year-old Tess database that changed Devo personnel in charge of maintenance about every three years. I am trying to streamline processes and ensure that we are using the most efficient and accurate methods of data management from here on out.
One area that has given me a lot of pause is Workplace Giving. It looks like for the past two years, the most recent coordinator at our organization would enter contributions under a Tess account for the third-party entity in charge of funds disbursement - we have constituents for "Your Cawse" and "Benefity" in Tess. Then, she would (sometimes) soft credit the actual donor from there. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, because we are missing quite a lot of data - if Xiao Mei works at Newspaper X, the way the previous coordinator entered information, we have no record of Newspaper X being involved in the giving - the total amount is soft-credited to Xiao Mei.
So I know that isn't the best way to do it, but I am stuck on what is. Let's say I have a $500 cheque from "Benefity"; $250 comes from Xiao Mei (Individual - Payroll) and $250 comes from Newspaper X, her employer (Employer Match - Payroll Match). Do I enter $500 under Xiao Mei's constituent record and soft credit $250 to Newspaper X's? Do I enter $500 under Newspaper X's constituent record and soft credit $250 to Xiao Mei's? Was the old coordinator correct and the whole thing goes to Benefity with $250 soft credited to Newspaper X and Xiao Mei respectively?
Related question: Is there a way to soft credit a constituent with the "Matching Gift" designation instead of "Family" or "Miscellaneous"? And if so, how?
I am sure there is a simple solution but I have choice paralysis and the workplace giving transactions I need to enter are stacking up... Thanks for reading and I hope someone can share how they do it!
Thank you, friends, this is enlightening!
When I try to enter the gift under Xiao Mei, I don't have the option to assign only 50% of it to Newspaper X. If I put the full $500 amount in and use the Membership pane to assign it as a Matching Gift to Newspaper X, the full amount gets soft credited to Newspaper X. But if I only put in $250 and assign it to Newspaper X in that way, when I try to add the second $250 I get the message "You cannot enter more than one membership contribution in a single transaction."
Does anyone know why this might be the case and how I can fix it?
Alternatively, I can use the Match/Credit pane and allocate only $250 of the full $500 to Newspaper X, but I cannot select the designation "Matching Gift" - only "Miscellaneous" or "Family." Is that the way to do it? Why is "Matching Gift" not an option?