Tracking gift deletions in RE

Laura Gervais

We've had to delete some gifts in Raiser's Edge database view recently and I need to find the best way to keep track of it. My first inclination is to utilize the Actions tab somehow but I thought I'd throw it out to the BB community to see if anyone has a more ingenious method? TIA!

Marie Stark

Could you do an adjustment and adjust the amount to 0?

Faith Murray

Actions are best saved for donor "inter-actions", per Bill Connors' recommendations - something I've found helpful. Honestly, I would re-enter a gift of $0, with the original gift date and marked "Do Not Post", and record the appropriate info under the Gift Notes there. People will naturally want to look under the Gifts tab for Gift info.


We generally only delete gifts when they are being re-entered (as, for example, when a cash gift needs re-entered as a pledge payment), or when the gift never really happened (as when posted to the wrong constituent record). When possible, we prefer to use Gift Adjustments, because they allow you to track your changes, undo your reversal if needed, add extra Notes, and accommodate fiscal year cycle close-outs without messing up our Financial Edge integration. When I first started out in RE, I used "delete" a lot, but over the years I've come to value the Adjust option more and more.

Angela Tuttle

We have been adjusting the amount to $0 and then entering a new gift if the original gift can not be adjusted.

Jolene Holswich

I agree - an Adjustment in the Gift record. This way you have a record of who made the change and they can include a note for the reason.

Heather MacKenzie

Another vote here to adjust rather than delete. There's good space for entering all the notes you need to know the what and why down the road.

Robin Evans

I'm going to echo everyone else's suggestion of using the adjustment feature. It will show you what the original amount was and gives you space to document why the adjustment was made. You never know what the auditors are going to ask for and having a paper trail to document changes like these has been incredibly helpful and has saved time in trying reconstruct a time line of how something might have happened weeks or months ago.

Dariel Dixon

I think that there is a time where a gift deletion is appropriate, and a time where an adjustment is appropriate. There needs to be a very good reason to delete a gift. It's worth mentioning, if you do any reporting on average amount of gifts or number of gifts, adjusting a gift to zero can alter these calculations. It's better to determine the situations for deleting a gift and when to do an adjustment.


I know this may be elementary to most of us reading this, but there should only be one person that has the ability to delete a gift. It's worth noting these deletions for the future, but I would hope that only you are the person deleting these gifts.

JoAnn Strommen

Well said, Dariel Dixon‍. If you don't put a gift amount criteria it will also affect last gift or even first gift, if applicable, and any ask amounts based on those gifts.


As with most things RE, there are many factors to weigh.

Judy Spigarelli

Faith Murray:

Actions are best saved for donor "inter-actions", per Bill Connors' recommendations - something I've found helpful. Honestly, I would re-enter a gift of $0, with the original gift date and marked "Do Not Post", and record the appropriate info under the Gift Notes there. People will naturally want to look under the Gifts tab for Gift info.


We generally only delete gifts when they are being re-entered (as, for example, when a cash gift needs re-entered as a pledge payment), or when the gift never really happened (as when posted to the wrong constituent record). When possible, we prefer to use Gift Adjustments, because they allow you to track your changes, undo your reversal if needed, add extra Notes, and accommodate fiscal year cycle close-outs without messing up our Financial Edge integration. When I first started out in RE, I used "delete" a lot, but over the years I've come to value the Adjust option more and more.

Hi Faith, just a quick note. If a cash gift needs to be applied to a pledge, you can choose the Apply to pledge. In the gift record, on the menu bar, click Gift, Apply to, Pledge and find the pledge which it should pay. You do not need to re-enter the gift.

JoAnn Strommen

Judy Spigarelli‍ - if gift is posted, you can not apply it to a pledge. You have to either adjust pledge to $0 and keep as cash gift, unpost payment and apply and repost or re-enter the gift.

Judy Spigarelli

JoAnn Strommen‍ - yes, I should have specified. It is different if the gift is posted. Thanks for catching this!