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Overview of Add/Modify Contribution Screen

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(HELP ?) Circles provide narratives on Training, Explanations, and Hints. These can be related to the overall screen, or to specific items on the screen.

This (HELP ?) circle narrative is for the "ADD CONTRIBUTION" screen and "MODIFY CONTRIBUTION" screen and their associated Display Panel in ContributionLink.

The "ADD CONTRIBUTION" screen is used to "Add" a contribution given by a Donor or by an Anonymous Giver.

The "MODIFY CONTRIBUTION" screen is used to "Modify" or change a contribution given by a Donor or by an Anonymous Giver and previously posted in ContributionLink.

Difference between "Add" and "Modify":

The "ADD CONTRIBUTION" screen and the "MODIFY CONTRIBUTION" screen works basically in the same way when you are doing an "Add" contribution to the donations database or a "Modify" contribution to change a transaction previously posted to the database.

In the "Add" process, the screen entries will start out blank or empty.

In a "Modify" process, the data from the original post will be displayed, but you can change the previously entered data accordingly.

Definitions of "Donor" and "Anonymous Giver":

What is a Donor:
A donor is a person giving a donation and who also has a contact record in your MemberLink system. This person may have an envelope number assigned to them, or not.

When you post a contribution that you want to assign to a person, you can use the "envelope number" or the "alphabetic look-up by name" to find the correct individual.

What is an Anonymous Giver:
Anonymous Giver is a special, "system-generated" person. There is no contact record in MemberLink for Anonymous Giver.

When you post a contribution that you do not want to assign to a specific individual, you can enter "GIFT" in the envelope number. The transaction will be posted to the system-generated person, not to any MemberLink contact records (not to members, guests, prospects, etc.).

** Note: Any "GIFT" given by "Anonymous Giver" will be included in your report totals, so that your offering totals are accurate and can be balanced to your bank deposits.

Examples of "Anonymous Giver" Transactions:

Remember, all "Anonymous Giver" transactions are posted with Envelope Number = "GIFT"

Example 1 "" Offering Plate Donations:
Loose cash and change in the offering plate can be posted to Anonymous Giver. You do not know who gave it, and often the loose cash and change will have been given by several people. They understand it cannot be attributed to them, since you have no way to identify specific givers.

Example 2 "" Anonymous Donations:
Someone gives a donation but does not want the "credit" or acknowledgement for the gift, either publicly or for IRS tax purposes. This person may be outside your church and not have a contact record in your system, but this could also be someone inside your church and in your system "" who just doesn't want to be identified with this particular donation.

** Hint: You may not want to combine all cash, loose change, anonymous gifts, etc., into one transaction. Lumping all the unidentified funds into a single "anonymous" transaction may complicate the process later if a donor is identified and you need to change the posting and separate the donor's money from the rest that is still anonymous.

** Hint Example 1: If you post cash and loose change separately from anonymous gifts, and later the anonymous giver changes his or her mind, you can "Modify" that transaction and change the envelope number from "GIFT" to the actual envelope number, or blank out the envelope number and change the Anonymous Giver name to the actual name. The other posting for cash and loose change would not have to be modified.

** Hint Example 2: If you have a donation that you need to research to clarify who the giver was, perhaps due to illegible handwriting on a note, you can post it temporarily as "GIFT". Later you can change that transaction to the actual person after you conclude the research and have identified how it really should have been posted.

Specific instructions for using each of the functions and entries on the "ADD CONTRIBUTION" screen and the "MODIFY CONTRIBUTION" screen are provided in the other (HELP ?) circle narratives that are included on the "COMPREHENSIVE HELP" screen for Contribution processing. The topics covered include:
- Using the Envelope Number & Envelope Lookup
- Using the Alphabetic Lookup & Contributor Filter
- Using the Check Number
- Using the Type of Contribution
- Using Fund & Amount with Single Contributions
- Using Funds & Amounts with Split Contributions
- Using the Contribution Date & Date Lock Feature
- Using the Batch Number & Batch Lock Feature
- Using the Optional Description
- Using the Change Envelope Number for this Donation
- Using the Add or Modify Contribution Button

"CAA Product Help" from CAA Ministries at Support@CAAsoftware.com or 404-551-4230