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Author: Kristenson, Joel
Last Updated: 2018-05-04
Overview
This article walks through the steps to record matching contributions in Trail Blazer. The process entails:
- Setting up a company/organization record as a ‘matching donor’ (along with the percentage that they’re willing to match)
- Entering the original gift and flagging it as needing a match (or multiple matches)
- Viewing a report of unfulfilled matching gifts
- Recording the matching gifts as they come in
Tip: Use the Ctrl+F hot key to jump to different sections of this article (example: “#1”, “#2” or “Related Resources”. Also, click here to watch a video on this topic.
Outline
#1 Setup a Company/Organization as a Matching Donor & Enter the Percentage they’re willing to Match
#2 Recording a Donation and Flagging it as needing a Matching Gift
#3 Viewing a Report of Unfulfilled Matching Gifts & Recording them as they come in
#4 Related Resources
#1 – Setup a Company/Organization as a Matching Donor & Enter the Percentage they’re willing to Match
Navigate to the Contacts (Donors/Voters) list and run a search query for the company/organization you want to setup as a matching donor, and open their record.
Navigate to the General > Other tab, check the box for ‘This organization (or individual) has agreed to match contributions received from others’, and enter the percentage they’re willing to match. Click [Save and Close] once you’re finished.
Repeat these steps for all donors who are willing to provide a matching gift. The next section shows how to record the original donation and flag it as needing a matching gift.
#2 – Recording a Donation and Flagging it as needing a Matching Gift
Navigate to the Contacts (Donors/Voters) list, run a search for the donor who provided the original donation, and open their record.
Navigate to the Contribute tab and click [+ New].
Fill out the contribution form under the General tab, and click [Save] (make sure to keep this form open for the next step).
Navigate to the Match tab and click [+ New].
Select the matching donor from the drop-down list (covered in section No1) and click [OK]. You can adjust the matching amount if necessary.
Repeat this step until all the expected matching gifts have been recorded, and then click [OK].
Click [Refresh] and the data will update in the donor’s record. There’s a column that will display how much (in total) is expected to be matched. You may need to widen out the column dividers in order to view this if it isn’t showing by default.
The next section covers the final steps of viewing un-paid matching gifts, and how to record the gifts as they come in.
#3 – Viewing a Report of Unfulfilled Matching Gifts & Recording them as they come in
Under the Application Menu navigate to the Contribution Matches list.
Click [Search] to populate all unpaid matching gifts. In my example I had 74 and I sorted by the ID in descending order to put the most recent ones at the top.
Here you can view all the details such as the amount expected and amount received.
When a donation comes in from a matching donor, click on the donors name hyperlink to open their record. In my example I used Hormel Foods. This step is VERY important, the ‘amount received’ for a matching gift will *not* update unless you record the donation from the matching donor.
Navigate to the Contribute tab and click [+ New].
Fill out the donation form and then [Save and Close]. It’s not a bad idea to record a note that the gift is for a matching contribution, my example is below.
Close out of the matching donor’s record and return back to the Contribution Matches list.
The final step will be to double-click in the green cell for Amount Received, enter the amount that the matching donor gave, and [Save] as you go. My example is below where I recorded the full $50 amount for Hormel Foods.
Click [Search] as you go and the results count will drop as matching gifts are fulfilled.
The related resources below link to a variety of articles and videos similar to this topic.
Related Resources
Article: How to Track Soft Credits using Contribution Notifications – ONLY for Nonprofit Customers
Article: Recording Non-Monetary (In-Kind) Contributions and Creating New Non-Monetary Types
Article: Enter Contributions
Article: Entering Pledges and Applying Payments to Outstanding Pledges
Article: Tax Deductible Contributions – How to Record the Tax-Deductible Amount and How to Mass Update a List of Contributions with a Tax-Deductible Percentage
Article: How to Remove an ‘Event’ from the Drop-Down List when Entering Donations
Video: Getting Started 103 – Adding a Contact Record
Video: Getting Started 106a – Entering Contributions (NON PROFIT ONLY)
Video: Write Letter – Edit Letter after Mail Merge
Video: Getting Started 107 – Writing Contribution Thank You Letters
Video: Year End Tax Letter
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