Gift Entry: Matching Gift Hard Credit & Soft Credit

Shelby Mills

I posted a similar discussion but this one is a bit different since it involves matching gifts.

If a donor gives a gift and that gift is matched by their employer through CyberGrant who all gets the hard and soft credits?

JoAnn Strommen

@Shelby Mills Welcome to the BB Community forums. Replying to both posts.

I suggest you search the forums for past posts on this topic. There are a number. It is done both ways and folks will make a case for their choice. The primary thing is determine a procedure for your organization and stick to it.

Did you look to see what your org has done in the past? I'd sure check that as well.
Another factor to consider is how do you want to report on the gifts. Our procedure is hard credit for $ the constituent has control of. So we record matching $ on the company record, not cyber grants. Others do differently with notation of company. This was process used here previously and what I used at previous org. Worked this way for us.

Joe Moretti

@Shelby Mills My opinion is that Matching gifts should not be soft credited, that is the whole purpose of the Matching Gift type and the Matching Gift pay cash type. When a person makes a gift that their Company will match, enter the cash gift and as long as the company record has the box for Match Gift checked, the MG Pledge will appear on the company record and populate the donor record as a Matching Gift for that company. Once the match comes in it is applied to the MG Pledge and then will appear as a MG Pay-cash on the records. Gift Detail reports will not double count as long as your criteria in the report has Credit Matching Gift to MG Company. I have found that soft crediting MG causes issues since it is not really a soft credit, especially orgs that do it both ways. But again MG money should not be soft credit and you should use the Matching Gift field.

Dariel Dixon

@Joe Moretti I understand this sentiment, but I think I have to disagree just due to current matching gift processes. For some organizations, a soft credit is necessary. The new normal has companies outsourcing employee matches, so my match from Company XYZ is funneled through CyberGrants or Benevity or the like.

The MG functionality doesn't really like that too much, as it is a relic of an older time. If I have an employer relationship in the database, and have the matching gift set from that company, it may be necessary to have a soft credit on the gift from the third party to the employer, as well as having the gift pay off the MG Pledge.

However, I think your point was in regard to the employee. I agree with you there. I did think that nowadays, because of the frequency of third party MGs, soft crediting the original company might be a good idea for clarity.