Overview

Soft credits are donations that are made to your organization by a major entity like a charitable foundation, and the total of the donation is made up of other individual entities.

For example: $1,000 is donated from United Way, and they send a list of the two donors who made up this entire donation. You'll enter the primary transaction via United Way, and give soft credits to the two donors on the list they sent you.

Linked Articles:

- Soft Credit Transactions vs. All Soft Credits (Filters)

Entering soft credits

Start by making sure all the participating contacts are in Kindful. This includes the major entity as well as the individual donors that make up the donation.

Select the +Add New button in the top of the left sidebar, and choose Transaction from the drop-down menu.  

Enter the transaction under the major entity (e.g. United Way).

Enter the details of the donation (campaign, date, full amount, etc.).

Then click Manage Soft Credits.

Next, you'll be able to itemize individual donations for each of the donors that made up the full amount.

For each individual, type their name in the Contact field, and then select their name when it appears. Enter the Amount that person gave, and select Create Soft Credit when both fields are filled.

As you add each individual donation, you can see the remaining balance in the lower left until it adds up to the full amount ($0 remaining).

When you've finished and the balance is $0.00, select Done.

Finally, confirm the original transaction again before pressing Create.

Of Note: You are able to add Soft Credit Transactions that total either less than or more than the initial gift amount. It is advised to be careful when adding soft credits that total more than the original amount, as it may impact some other views of donor information. 

Viewing soft credits

On the Activities page (available in the drop-down menu from the Activities & Contacts section), you'll see a transaction from the large entity (e.g. United Way) with details of the soft credited individuals (e.g. Daniel Stephens, Tardy Marty).

Also, on the profiles of the individuals, you'll see soft credits through the large entity.

Reporting On Soft Credits

You can easily report on the soft credit as well as the original transaction by running the following filter(s), for example.

To find just soft credit transactions, filter for "Activity Type: Soft Credit" on the Activities page. This will produce a list of just soft credits. If you want to find transactions as well, you can also add in the parameter of "Transaction" to this "Activity Type" filter you use.

To create a report and include all necessary information, when you click on "Create Report", be sure to include the column of "Original Transaction Owner" for all Soft Credit reports. This will show the contact/transaction from where the soft credit donation came.

Still have questions?

Feel free to send our support team an email, or you can call the phone number found in the lower left hand corner of your Kindful Admin account to speak to a team member.