Recording a manual gift (check, cash, in-kind)

Use Record a gift when you receive a donation by check, cash, or in kind — anything that did not come in through the Noctern online donation page. The gift appears immediately on the patron's Giving tab and rolls up into their lifetime giving total. Recording a gift never charges a card.

Before you start

• Venue Admin with the Donor data permission (set on the Team page). The venue owner always has it; other venue admins need it ticked. Box office staff cannot record gifts.
• Your venue must be a nonprofit. If the Fundraising card on your venue page is greyed out with "Nonprofit features not enabled", ask Noctern support to turn it on.
• You don't have to pick a fund — a gift recorded without one goes to your venue's default fund. To set up more funds, see the Funds & Appeals topic.

Steps

1. 1

   Go to AdminVenuesFundraising and click Record a gift.

   The Record a gift dialog opens.

   

   1Donor search

   2Amount

   3Payment method

   4Gift date

   5Fund

2. 2

   In the Donor (search by last name) field, type at least two characters — the start of the patron's last name works best, and the start of their full name or email also matches — then select them from the results. If they don't have a patron record yet, click + Add a new donor and fill in their first name, last name (required), email, phone, and zip inline.

3. 3

   Enter the Amount ($) (required), pick the Method — Check, Cash, In-kind, or Other — and choose the Fund. The fund starts on your venue's default fund.

   • There is no separate check-number field. Put the check number in Notes (optional), for example "Check #1042, spring gala".
   • For in-kind gifts, enter the fair-market value as the amount.
4. 4

   Set the Gift date — the date the gift was received. It starts on today's date, so change it for a gift that arrived earlier. Using the correct date keeps your receipt numbers and year-end statements in the right tax year.

5. 5

   Optionally, select an Appeal (optional) if you're tracking which campaign prompted the gift. The Appeal field only appears once your venue has at least one active appeal — see the Funds and Appeals topic.

6. 6

   Check Anonymous (hidden from public-facing lists) if the donor has asked not to be named publicly.

7. 7

   Click Record gift. A receipt number is assigned automatically and shown in the "Gift recorded" confirmation message. The gift appears immediately on the patron's Giving tab, and the confirmation offers a View in Gifts ledger → link.

Adding soft credits

Soft credits give another patron recognition for helping bring in a gift — a board member who solicited it, a household partner, or a donor-advised fund. Soft credits do not add to the credited patron's lifetime giving total; they appear separately on their record labeled "not counted in totals."

1. 1

   Find the Soft credits (optional) section near the bottom of the dialog — it is always visible, there is nothing to expand.

   

   1Soft credits section

   2Patron to credit

   3Reason

   4"Not counted in totals"

2. 2

   Search for the patron to credit (the box says "Search patron by last name") and select them. They must already have a patron record at your venue.

3. 3

   Enter the soft-credit amount. It can't be more than the gift amount.

4. 4

   Choose a reason from the dropdown: household, matching, solicitor, daf (donor-advised fund), or other.

5. 5

   Click Add to add the soft credit row. You can add more than one, and Remove a row before you save.

Tips

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