Entering Matching gifts

Question

My organization receives gifts which are then sometimes matched by an employer. As it stands now, we are entering the original contribution with no indication of a potential or forthcoming match. Then when we receive a match, we enter a second contribution for that individual and we fill in the Matched From and Matched Amount fields. Is this the proper way to enter these transactions? I had thought that entering these fields in the original contribution would add the matched amount to the total for that individual but it doesn't which is why we enter the second contribution with those fields. Assuming that this is the right way to do this, how can I generate a report which lists an individual's contributions and shows which are matching gifts? Related, what report uses the Matching Funds fields?

Answer 1

This isn't really the correct way to record matched gifts. Matched gifts should be hard credited (recorded against) the donor and not the fundraiser so to speak. It sounds as though your recording them against the fundraiser and therefore you could end up claiming tax/gift aid incorrectly. The way we would normally do this would be to record the second contribution against the Employer that carried out the matched giving. At this point you could create the soft credit to the employee. This way you'd see both original gift against the fundraiser and the soft credit for the matched gift also. You'd also get a good idea of the value of employers by virtue of recording the hard credit against them.

Hope that helps!