Engagement is where the money goes. Every gift, every dues payment, every pledge and sponsorship lands here, separated by record type. What sits either side of it is what trips people up: designations say where the money was directed, and memberships are one of the benefits it buys.
One object for everything with an amount on it
a gift · dues paid · a promise · an event or program · goods, not cash
A straightforward gift. The one most people mean when they say "a gift". Carries the amount, the date, the appeal it came from, and how it arrived.
Dues paid, linked back to the Membership term it covers. Not a gift. Including these in fundraising totals is the most common reporting mistake here — it inflates giving with what is really subscription income.
A promise to give, paid off over time. The pledge record holds the total and the schedule; the payments against it are separate Engagements pointing back at it as their parent. Counting both the pledge and its payments double-counts the money.
Support for an event or a program, usually from an organization. Often credited to the Account rather than an individual, so look at the Organization field as well as the contact.
Goods or services rather than money — donated equipment, professional time, auction items. It carries a value so it can be acknowledged and recognized, but no cash ever arrives. Keep it out of anything measuring revenue.
An Engagement records that money arrived. A Designation records what it was for. One gift can be split across several purposes by amount or by percentage, which is exactly why fund totals cannot be taken from Engagement amounts.
One thousand dollars, three purposes. The Engagement says $1,000 arrived. Only the designations say who gets credited for what.
Status tells you where the money stands. Committed means promised; Completed means received. Everything else is a way of not happening.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Committed | Promised, not yet in the bank |
| Completed | Received and good |
| Failed | Payment was attempted and did not go through |
| Cancelled | Called off before it was paid |
| Written Off | Given up on — usually an unpaid pledge |
| Fully Refunded | Received, then returned |
Which campaign or mailing the money came in response to. This is what lets anyone measure whether an appeal was worth running, so it is worth getting right even when it feels like admin.
A flag and a date showing the record has been reconciled against the books. Once set, the Engagement has been counted somewhere outside Salesforce. Do not change amounts or dates after this point — raise it instead.
Who brought the gift in, and whether it was given in memory or in honor of somebody. Both matter enormously for the letter that goes out afterwards, and neither affects the amount.
The paper trail. Check number ties a gift to the physical check in a batch; receipt number ties it to what the donor was sent. When finance or a donor queries something, these are what resolve it.
Which reporting period the money belongs to. Not always the same cut as the engagement date, so a report grouped by calendar date and one grouped by fiscal year can legitimately disagree.
On a dues payment this points at the Membership term the money bought. It is the thread between the money and the benefit — follow it in either direction to connect what somebody paid with what they got.
Because dues, gifts, pledges and in-kind all live together, an unfiltered total is a meaningless mixture of subscription income, philanthropy, promises and donated goods. Before you quote any Engagement figure, be able to say which record types are in it.
Dues do not live on the Membership record. The Membership says what somebody is entitled to and until when; the Engagement says what they paid for it. Keeping them apart is what lets a membership be extended, adjusted or canceled without anybody rewriting financial history.
A pledge is a promise with a total on it. The payments against it are separate Engagements naming it as parent. Any report including both is double-counting — decide whether you are measuring what was promised or what has arrived, and filter accordingly.
Engagements carry a flag showing they have been posted to the accounting system, along with the date it happened. After that point the record has been reconciled against the books. Changing an amount or a date afterwards puts Salesforce and finance out of step, and somebody has to unpick it. If a posted record is wrong, raise it rather than editing it.
Designations hang off an Engagement and divide it between purposes — part to one fund, part to another. If you are asking what a fund raised, you want the designations, not the Engagement amounts, or you will credit the whole gift to whichever fund happens to be listed first.
A soft credit records that somebody influenced a gift they did not personally write the check for — a spouse, a board member who made the introduction, the person behind a family foundation. It matters enormously for stewardship and counts for nothing in revenue. Never add soft credits to hard totals.
When an employer matches a gift, the match is its own Engagement flagged as a matching gift, pointing back at the original. Both are real money and both count — but they are two records, and the donor did not personally give the combined figure. Be careful about that when writing to them.