Recording a Donation in Salesforce depends on whether your org runs NPSP (Donations as Opportunities) or Nonprofit Cloud (Donations as Gift Transactions). The fields are similar; the navigation path differs.
- Identify the donor record
In Salesforce, search for the donor by name or email. If the donor exists, open their Contact (NPSP individual donor model) or Account (organizational donor or NPSP Account model). If new, create the contact first; donations link to donors, not the other way around.
- Create the Donation
On the donor''s record, find the related Donations list (Opportunities in NPSP; Gift Transactions in Nonprofit Cloud) and click New. Pick the appropriate record type (Donation, Major Gift, Grant, Pledge, Matching Gift) at the prompt.
- Fill the core fields
Amount, Close Date (the gift date), Stage (typically Posted or Paid), Type (Donation, In-Kind, Matching Gift), Payment Method (Check, Credit Card, ACH), and Campaign (the campaign that drove the gift).
- Set Designation and Allocation
If the donor restricted the gift to a specific fund or program, link to the GAU (General Accounting Unit in NPSP) or Gift Designation (in Nonprofit Cloud). Multi-fund splits go in the Allocations related list.
- Save the Donation
Salesforce validates required fields and saves. NPSP runs trigger logic to update Account totals; Nonprofit Cloud''s Gift Transaction triggers update the Gift Commitment and donor summary fields.
- Send an acknowledgement
Trigger the donor acknowledgement letter or email through your acknowledgement workflow. NPSP includes acknowledgement templates; Nonprofit Cloud uses Marketing Cloud Engagement or Email Studio for sends. The receipt should reach the donor within 24-48 hours for IRS compliance and stewardship.
The dollar value of the donation. Required for IRS-compliant receipting.
The gift date. Drives fiscal-year and campaign reporting.
The donation lifecycle stage. Posted and Paid are typical end states for recognized revenue.
The legal donor. Required for tax receipting and donor history.
- Stage names matter. NPSP-built reports filter on stage Posted or Paid; changing stage labels without updating reports breaks the dashboards.
- Soft credit junctions are not auto-created. Always check the Contact Roles or Gift Contributor Roles after entering a donation to confirm everyone who deserves credit gets it.
- Recurring donation child records create on a schedule, not immediately. Spinning up a 25-per-month commitment does not produce the first donation until the schedule runs.
- Salesforce does not generate IRS-compliant receipts automatically. Configure acknowledgement workflows to include the required IRS language (your organization is a 501(c)(3), the gift is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law).