Understanding Joint Acknowledgements and Spousal Relationships
The Joint Letter Generator follows specific rules about spousal relationships when generating acknowledgements and receipts. You must be careful when defining defaults for gift recognition splits between spouses to ensure that gifts are properly acknowledged.
Note:
To make spouses jointly acknowledged, you must establish a joint record and set up salutations and a joint address using the Relationships component.
On the Contributor Relations Installation page you can define default split percentages between a donor and spouse for various credit types.
Use the following example to determine how default splits affect joint receipting and acknowledgements.
Example
A donor gives a gift of 1,000 USD:
If a joint relationship exists between a donor and spouse and you set the following defaults:
| Donor | Spouse | |
|---|---|---|
|
Hard Credit |
50 percent |
50 percent |
|
Soft Credit |
50 percent |
50 percent |
The donor and spouse receive a joint receipt for 1,000 USD. Depending on how you set up acknowledgement rules, they may also receive a joint acknowledgement for 1,000 USD.
If a joint relationship does not exist between a donor and spouse and you set the following defaults:
| Donor | Spouse | |
|---|---|---|
|
Hard Credit |
50 percent |
50 percent |
|
Soft Credit |
50 percent |
50 percent |
The donor and spouse each receive separate receipts for 500 USD. Depending on how you set up acknowledgement rules they may also receive separate acknowledgement letters for 500 USD each. No joint communications are created.
If a joint relationship exists between a donor and spouse and you set the following defaults:
| Donor | Spouse | |
|---|---|---|
|
Hard Credit |
100 percent |
0 percent |
|
Soft Credit |
0 percent |
100 percent |
The donor and spouse receive a joint receipt for 1,000 USD. Depending on the acknowledgement rules you set up and whether the Acknowledge Soft Credit check box is selected on the Institution Installation 2 page, they may also receive a joint acknowledgement for 1,000 USD.
Note:
We recommend that you use this configuration to ensure sending the appropriate acknowledgement letter for the highest hard credit recognized. The system adds hard credits for joint records together, but the letter code for the acknowledgement is selected based on an individual's hard credit rather than the joint hard credit calculation.
If a joint relationship does not exist between a donor and spouse and you set the following defaults:
| Donor | Spouse | |
|---|---|---|
|
Hard Credit |
100 percent |
0 percent |
|
Soft Credit |
0 percent |
100 percent |
The donor receives a receipt for 1,000 USD. The donor may also receive an acknowledgement letter for 1,000 USD. Depending on the acknowledgement rules you set up and whether the Acknowledge Soft Credit check box is selected on the Institution Installation 2 page, the spouse may receive an acknowledgement for 1,000 USD indicating zero charitable amount. No joint communications are created.