Skip to main content

Enter Donations

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

  • Enter donations and track payments.
  • Explain how contact roles on opportunities give your supporters the hard and soft credit they deserve.
  • Create a Gift Entry form to enter multiple donations.
  • Create open-ended recurring donations.
Note

Note
The quizzes in this module ask questions based on the content of the videos included in each unit. Be sure to watch the videos to get the information you need to answer the questions.

Gift Entry in NPSP

Tracking and managing donations is essential for financial health at most nonprofit organizations. Because NPSP specifically supports nonprofit work, it has built-in automations to track the various aspects of donations you receive. 

NPSP also supports three methods of gift entry: single gift entry, batch gift entry, and recurring donations. In this unit we provide step-by-step demonstrations of all of these gift entry scenarios. 

Let’s get started!

Single Gift Entry

When you’re entering a single gift, the first step is identifying an opportunity type for your donation. NPSP comes preconfigured with six opportunity record types to track your fundraising revenue.

  • Donations
  • Grants (more on this record type in unit 2!)
  • In-Kind Gifts
  • Major Gifts
  • Matching Gifts
  • Memberships

For a more detailed explanation of opportunities in NPSP, along with a guided tour of single gift entry, watch this video.

Entering Multiple Gifts

Single gift entry worked perfectly for the one-time donation from a donor you saw in the video above. But what about those times when you have a stack of donations to enter after an event? Or what if that one-time donor decides they’d like to start contributing on a monthly basis? When you have multiple entries to make, NPSP supports you with batch gift entry and recurring donations. 

Because NPSP is tailored to nonprofits, the process for entering multiple gifts is streamlined and efficient. In this video, you can follow along as a gift entry form is created to enter a batch of donations. After that, watch as a recurring donation record is created.

While donations are a key aspect of revenue for nonprofits, they aren’t the only form of money that needs to be managed. Meet us in the next unit to learn how to track grants and manage the grant opportunity lifecycle.

Resources 

Keep learning for
free!
Sign up for an account to continue.
What’s in it for you?
  • Get personalized recommendations for your career goals
  • Practice your skills with hands-on challenges and quizzes
  • Track and share your progress with employers
  • Connect to mentorship and career opportunities