We just received a chunk of money from a Foundation but the foundation manages a bunch of funds.  I need to be able to somehow track the total money but at the same time be able to separate this amount into (3) different funds.  I know I can use a soft-credit from the foundation's gift but I don't want the foundation to receive credit.  Can anyone direct me as to how to handle this?

My supervisor wants to be able to see the connection between the total amount and which fund the pieces came from.

Not everyone does it this way but it is my preference to create separate records for each fund.  I do this for a few reasons:

• This way I can tell easily which gifts came from that fund.  
• I can set up an auto soft credit to the Foundation and to the donor advisors if appropriate.
• I can set up relationships to the record which correspond directly to that fund.

These are things you can not do if you manage all gifts under one record. 

We already have the funds broken out into separate records.  Back to your scenario, do you soft-credit the Foundation for the entire amount?  Or do you just set up a $0 gift on the Foundation’s record in which you soft-credit the different funds?  I don't want it to appear as if it was the Foundation who gave the grant.

We hard credit the fund and soft credit the foundation for the total amount and the donor advisor for the total amount.  It sounds like you do not want the foundation to get any credit which is your choice - then just don't soft credit them.  But technically it was the foundation who gave the grant - therefore we do give them credit (as well as the fund and the individuals).  Credit all around! 

Soft credits allow for multiple things from simply being able to see the full picture of the Foundation's (and Individual's) giving to allowing you to recognize people other than the legal donor.  Recognition is something that your organization can do (or not do) at will and need not technically be tied to a legal gift.  There are no steadfast rules except that you honor any policies you set up and promises you make.  You can never over recognize. 

If the foundation wished to remain anonymous we would still give them the soft credit for the full amount but code their record as gives anonymously so in recognition reports they get pulled out but when my boss wants a report of all gifts made through the XYZ foundation I can run a report including soft credits and the gift will be included.

We hard credit the Foundation (they cut the check) and soft credit the funds and or responsible donors for their portion of the gift. We also link in relationships and hook in on bio tab 2 -- parent corp.

Thanks for your replies.  I appreciate the feedback.  We are indeed going to record the gift on the Foundation record and then soft-credit each fund.  I just have to make sure that the people who are running the reports/queries are familiar with how to process soft-credits.

Thanks again!

FYI: If you choose to hard credit the foundation you will not have the ability to add auto soft credits.  This is one of the most attractive features about putting them on the fund (as if it was a sub record of the foundation) then no one needs to remember that the Smith Family Fund gifts are soft credited to John and Mary Johnson - the database knows it and does it for you.

We do this same thing with subsidiaries of corporations and bank branches to best manage exact relationships at each branch - gifts from each branch, etc.