The Soft Credit feature in WeGive allows your organization to acknowledge supporters who influenced a donation without being the direct donor themselves. These credits are visible internally from the dashboard and can be viewed in a donor’s profile under Tax Statements & History, but they do not impact financial totals, tax documents, or donor receipts.
What Is a Soft Credit?
A soft credit is a way to recognize someone for their role in securing a donation, even though they were not the direct donor. Examples include:
- A board member who encouraged a major gift
- A spouse or employee who helped facilitate a corporate donation
Soft credits are informational only and are visible in the WeGive dashboard. They do not affect tax-deductible amounts, receipts, or donor totals in the Donor Portal.
Where to Find the Soft Credits Feature
You can access soft credits in your dashboard by navigating to:
- Payments
- Click on Soft Credits
This will open the full soft credit table showing all credits assigned to supporters.
Creating a Soft Credit Manually
Soft credits can be manually assigned to any supporter for a specific payment.
To create a soft credit:
- Go to Payments > Soft Credits
- Click the + (plus) icon in the top-right
- Search for a transaction to credit
- Search for a supporter who should receive the soft credit
- Enter the amount to credit to the supporter (can be full or partial)
- Click Create Soft Credit
Viewing Soft Credits
After creation, soft credits appear in the Soft Credits Table, which shows:
- ID
- Amount
- Linked Payment
- Credited Supporter
- Date created
You can filter, search, and click into any record to see more detail.
Viewing Soft Credits on the Payment Record
Each payment that has one or more soft credits will display them in the Soft Credits section at the bottom of the payment detail view.
This section includes:
- Credited Supporter
- Amount credited
- Date created
Supporter View: Tax Statements & History
When a supporter has been assigned a soft credit, they will see a section labeled Soft Credits under the Tax Statements & History tab in their Donor Portal.
However:
- Soft credits are not included in official tax receipts
- They do not contribute to donor giving totals
- They are only visible as a reference/acknowledgment
Syncing Soft Credits from Salesforce
If you're using WeGive’s Salesforce integration:
- Soft credits can be synced automatically based on mappings in your CRM.
- These will appear in the Soft Credits table and on the related payment record, just like manually created ones.
Use Cases and Best Practices
Common use cases include:
- Recognizing fundraisers who brought in donations
- Credit to influencers or board members
- Acknowledging family members in joint gifts
Best practices:
- Use partial credits when multiple people contributed
- Avoid assigning soft credit unless the person had a direct role
- Monitor credits in the dashboard to evaluate relationship-building and engagement