Giving Tab Settings
  • 06 Mar 2026
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Giving Tab Settings

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Article summary

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.

Frequently Used Calculated Gift Attributes

This article describes the attributes or properties of giving activity that can be calculated when you create a new gift of three types above.

Years with Giving Activity

The distinct number of years a donor has given

Pledged/Planned

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

Soft Credits

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

Lifetime Giving

The total number and amount of hard credit gifts

Last Gift

The amount and date of the most recently received gift

First Gift

The amount and date of the first gift received

Giving Past Year

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

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

Pending Payments

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

Recurring Payments

The details on the number and amount of recurring payments currently configured


New Gift / Edit Gift

Amount

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

Fair Market Value (optional)

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.

Payment

Slate can be configured to accept MO/TO (mail order/telephone order) payments. Learn more here: https://knowledge.technolutions.net/docs/in-person-payments-with-payment-terminal

Fulfilling

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

Fund

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

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.

Date of Gift

Select the date the gift was received.

Opportunity

This field displays if an opportunity exists for this constituent, allowing this gift to be associated with the selected gift opportunity.

Campaign

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

Appeal

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

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).

Amount Override

This field captures the credit amount should it differ from the total planned gift amount.

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.

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.

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.

Tributes

  • Occasion

This field allows you to associate an occasion type.

  • Honoring

Search for a record within Slate for which to associate the occasion reason. If honoring an individual not in Slate, enter a free-text honoree name.

User

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

Notes

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

Anonymous

This field captures the donor’s intent to remain anonymous in any public-facing lists.

External ID

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

Peer-to-Peer Advocate

This field can be configured to capture who inspired or solicited the gift, typically a specific volunteer, student, or campaign ‘champion’ for example.

New Pledge / Edit Pledge

Amount

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

Amount Unreceived

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

Amount Received

This field displays once a pledge has been entered. It displays the total amount received associated to the pledge.

Fund

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

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.

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.

Date

Select the date the pledge was made.

Opportunity

Associate the pledge with an opportunity that has been created in advance for this constituent.

Campaign

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

Appeal

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

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).

Amount Override

This field captures the credit amount should it differ from the total planned gift amount.

Tributes

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

User

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

Notes

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

Anonymous

This field captures the donor’s intent to remain anonymous in any public-facing lists.

Revocable

This field will reflect the donor’s intent to reserve the right to alter or cancel the pledge.  

External ID

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

Peer-to-Peer Advocate

This field can be configured to capture who inspired or solicited the gift, typically a specific volunteer, student, or campaign ‘champion’ for example.

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

Amount

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

Amount Unreceived

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

Amount Received

This field displays once a planned gift has been entered. It displays the total amount received associated to the planned gift.

Fund

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

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. 

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. 

Date

Select the date the planned gift was made.

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.

Campaign

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

Appeal

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

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).

Amount Override

This field captures the credit amount should it differ from the total planned gift amount.

Tributes

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

User

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

Notes

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

Anonymous

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

Revocable

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

External ID

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


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