Why it matters
Hard credit keeps your numbers honest. Each gift counts once, on one donor, so your totals match the bank and your accountant. A gift from a family foundation or a donor-advised fund is hard credited to that fund, even when a person you know recommended it.
Getting this right protects your receipts. A tax receipt belongs to the hard credit donor, and anyone else connected to the gift gets a soft credit and a thank-you instead.
How Steward shows it
Steward counts every gift once, on the person or organization whose money it was. The donor profile shows their own giving apart from any soft credit, and a household shows hard credit, soft credit and the household combined.
Related terms
- Soft credit A soft credit recognizes a person who influenced or arranged a gift that someone else legally made, such as a spouse, a peer-to-peer fundraiser, or the donor who recommended a donor-advised fund grant.
- Donor-advised fund (DAF) A donor-advised fund (DAF) is a giving account held at a sponsoring charity. The donor puts money in, takes the tax deduction then, and later recommends grants from the fund to charities like yours.
- Tax receipt Tax receipt is the name for the written confirmation a nonprofit gives a donor so they can deduct a gift. A US donor needs one to deduct any single contribution of $250 or more.
The free Lost & Found audit reads a giving export in your browser and shows your lapsing donors and what they used to give. Nothing is uploaded. Then bring the same file to a 20-minute demo.