Gifts in Slate are segmented into three main categories:

• Gifts: Current transactions. These represent your institution having received something of value from a donor. Includes direct one-time gifts, pledge payments, received planned gifts, and received recurring gifts.

• Pledges: A donor’s intent to make a gift. These represent a promise from a donor to give, not an immediate payment. The donor can later make a gift or series of installments in fulfillment of a pledge. Pledges can be written off.

• Planned Gifts: A donor’s intent to make a gift as part of their legacy, often through estate planning. Because they can involve complex financial instruments like wills, trusts, life insurance policies, and retirement plan assets, they are tracked separately from pledges. Similar to pledges, however, gifts can be applied toward planned gifts, and planned gifts can be written off as necessary.

This article describes the settings that can be configured when you create a new gift of these three types.

Overview

Activity

Displays the distinct number of years a donor has given

Pledged/Planned

A total sum of gifts that have been pledged or planned, but not yet received

Soft Credits

Displays credit received for a gift by another person. This is excluded from calculations for personal giving

Lifetime Giving

The total number and amount of hard credit gifts

Last Gift

Displays the amount and date of the most recently received gift

First Gift

Displays the amount and date of the first gift received

Giving Past Year

Displays the total sum of gifts in the past 12 months (with date range)

Greatest Gift

The largest gift received, including the date

Honored By

Total amount and number of gifts given in honor of the record

Opportunities

Displays the sum of received gifts, expected gifts, and initial asks associated with a record's opportunities

Pending Payments

Displays payments currently in pending status (such as a e-check payment)

Recurring Payments

Displays number and amount of recurring payments currently configured

New Gift / Edit Gift

Type

Select the type of gift (such as cash, property, stock, in-kind services, etc.). These gift types can be created and modified by configuring prompts for Slate standard advancement fields. This field is required to save a gift.

Fulfilling

This field displays if a pledge or planned gift exists, allowing the gift to be associated with the pledge or planned gift.

Campaign

Allows for the ability to associate an individual gift with a particular fundraising campaign. Select the appropriate campaign from the list.

Fund

Select the appropriate fund from the list. These are particular accounts where people can donate. All gifts must be associated with a fund.

Appeal

This field displays only if specific appeals have been set up. These are specific outreach efforts, such as a new graduate appeal.

User

The gift officer to be associated with a solicitation or gift. This defaults to the current user but can be changed.

Date of Gift

Select the date the gift was received.

Gift Status

Select the status of the gift. Statuses for gifts, pledges, and planned gifts can be configured when setting up the Slate standard advancement fields. This field is required to record a gift.

Amount

Enter the amount of the gift. This field is required to save a gift.

Fair Market Value

Enter the taxable amount of any item given to the donor as a result of the gift (e.g., tickets to a game, t-shirt, etc.). This value defaults to $0.00.

Tax Amount

This field automatically calculates the amount reported for tax purposes (amount minus the fair market value).

Anonymous

If selected, the donor's name will not appear in external publications.

Occasion

Should the gift be made with a particular reason, such as In Honor Of or In Memorium, selecting the appropriate prompt will allow the gift to be connected to a separate existing record within Slate.

Honoring

Search for a record within Slate for which to associate the occasion reason.

Honoring Other

If honoring an individual not in Slate, enter a free-text honoree name.

Notes

This field stores custom, internal notes associated with a gift, pledge, or planned gift.

External ID

This field allows for a unique ID to be assigned to a particular gift, typically to export to other systems.

Suggested Soft Credits

This field pulls in linked relationship records to easily apply soft credits. Can be defaulted according to how the relationship records are configured.

Soft Credits

Search active records in Slate and add additional soft credits (non-relationships).

Documents

This field displays advancement materials associated with particular gifts, pledges, or planned gifts (such as copies of checks).

New Pledge / Edit Pledge

Type

Select the type of pledge (such as cash, property, stock, in-kind services, etc.). These pledge types can be created and modified by configuring prompts for Slate standard advancement fields. This field is required to save a pledge.

Campaign

Allows for the ability to associate an individual pledge with a particular fundraising campaign. Select the appropriate campaign from the list.

Fund

Select the appropriate fund from the list. These are particular accounts where people can donate. All pledges must be associated with a fund.

Opportunity

Associate the pledge with a potential gift suggested by institutional research and giving history. This will only display if there is an opportunity for the record.

Appeal

This field displays only if specific appeals have been set up. These are specific outreach efforts, such as a new graduate appeal.

Anonymous

If selected, the donor's name will not appear in external publications.

Revocable

Select whether the pledge can be reversed by the donor or if the gift is a contractual or legally binding agreement.

User

The gift officer to be associated with a solicitation or pledge. This defaults to the current user but can be changed.

Date

Select the date the pledge was made.

Status

Select the status of the pledge. Statuses for gifts, pledges, and planned gifts can be configured when setting up the Slate standard advancement fields. This field is required to record a gift.

Amount

Enter the amount of the pledge. This field is required to save a pledge.

Occasion

Should the pledge be made with a particular reason, such as In Honor Of or In Memorium, selecting the appropriate prompt will allow the pledge to be connected to a separate existing record within Slate.

Honoring

Search for a record within Slate for which to associate the occasion reason.

Honoring Other

If honoring an individual not in Slate, enter a free-text honoree name.

Notes

This field stores custom, internal notes associated with a gift, pledge, or planned gift.

External ID

This field allows for a unique ID to be assigned to a particular pledge, typically to export to other systems.

Suggested Soft Credits

This field pulls in linked relationship records to easily apply soft credits. Can be defaulted according to how the relationship records are configured.

Soft Credits

Search active records in Slate and add additional soft credits (non-relationships).

Documents

This field displays advancement materials associated with particular gifts, pledges, or planned gifts (such as copies of checks).  

Configure Installments

Select this option to set up installments.

Start Date Override

By default, the initial installment date will default to the date of the pledge. Inserting a date in this setting will override that date.

Number of Installments

Enter the total number of payments for which the pledge to be fulfilled.

Months Between Installments

Enter the monthly recurrence of the installment (e.g. every month = 1; every other month = 2; twice a year = 6; etc.).

New Planned Gift / Edit Planned Gift

Type

Select the type of gift (such as cash, property, stock, in-kind services, etc.). These gift types can be created and modified by configuring prompts for Slate standard advancement fields. This field is required to save a gift. 

Campaign

Allows for the ability to associate an individual gift with a particular fundraising campaign. Select the appropriate campaign from the list. 

Fund

Select the appropriate fund from the list. These are particular accounts where people can donate. All gifts must be associated with a fund. 

Opportunity

Associate the pledge with a potential gift suggested by institutional research and giving history. This will only display if there is an opportunity for the record.

Appeal

This field displays only if specific appeals have been set up. These are specific outreach efforts, such as a new graduate appeal. 

Anonymous

If selected, the donor's name will not appear in external publications.

Revocable

Select whether the pledge can be reversed by the donor or if the gift is a contractual or legally binding agreement.

User

The gift officer to be associated with a solicitation or gift. This defaults to the current user but can be changed.

Date

Select the date the pledge was made.

Status

Select the status of the gift. Statuses for gifts, pledges, and planned gifts can be configured when setting up the Slate standard advancement fields. This field is required to record a gift. 

Amount

Enter the amount of the gift. This field is required to save a gift. 

Amount Received 

This field displays once a planned gift has been entered. It displays the amount that has been received and applied to the planned gift.

Amount Not Received 

This field displays once a planned gift has been entered. It displays the balance (or the amount not received) remaining for the planned gift. 

Occasion

Should the gift be made with a particular reason, such as In Honor Of or In Memorium, selecting the appropriate prompt will allow the gift to be connected to a separate existing record within Slate.

Honoring

Search for a record within Slate for which to associate the occasion reason.

Honoring Other

If honoring an individual not in Slate, enter a free-text honoree name. 

Notes

This field stores custom, internal notes associated with a gift, pledge, or planned gift.

External ID

This field allows for a unique ID to be assigned to a particular gift, typically to export to other systems.

Suggested Soft Credits

This field pulls in linked relationship records to easily apply soft credits. Can be defaulted according to how the relationship records are configured. 

Soft Credits

Search active records in Slate and add additional soft credits (non-relationships).

Documents

This field displays advancement materials associated with particular gifts, pledges, or planned gifts (such as copies of checks).