Practice with BrightPath
BrightPath Community Alliance is a fictional organization used only in our staging training environment. Alex and Blair are fictional supporters, and tutorial gifts are not payments. Use the walkthrough to learn the sequence; enter real supporter data only in your authorized organization. Start with one record that you can verify before importing a complete address book. Your role needs access to donor records; importing, recording gifts, managing follow-ups and sending email are separate permissions.
Start with the supporter, not a payment
Open Donor CRM, then Add supporter. Choose individual, organization or household and enter the name your colleagues will recognize. An email address is optional: a prospect, volunteer or check donor still belongs in the relationship workspace. Add an owner and only useful, appropriate notes. Save and reopen the record. Opening another supporter closes the first card, while an unsaved draft stays available in the current page session. Save before signing out or changing devices.
Bring in existing contacts carefully
Use Import CSV to map the source columns, then review the preview and duplicate candidates. Match an existing supporter deliberately; a similar name alone is not proof of identity. Review each row with an error or ambiguous match before applying it. Replaying the same approved import does not create another copy of an already applied row. If older payment donors are missing from the new list, use Connect existing donor records until the remaining count reaches zero. Do not create a second record to work around a missing payment link.
Record what was actually received
In Giving, record a cash, check, bank or historical gift with its date, currency, source reference and purpose. Saving an offline record does not charge a card. Confirm the deposit or supporting record before verifying the gift: a recorded but unverified amount remains separate from received giving. Keep the source reference consistent to avoid importing the same gift twice. Historical gifts retain their original date and do not raise a current campaign progress bar by default. Reopen the history and compare the amount and source with your evidence.
Keep commitments and recognition separate
A pledge is a promise with an installment schedule. Link an actual received gift to an installment when you reconcile it; do not enter the pledge as another donation. A partial payment leaves an outstanding balance, and a returned or reversed gift can reopen that balance. Recognition credit records another supporter or household contribution to a gift without creating more revenue. For example, a 100-dollar check and a 100-dollar recognition credit still represent 100 dollars received. Never combine different currencies into one total without an explicit conversion policy.
Plan a useful next conversation
Open Activity and follow-ups to log a call, meeting, letter or received email. Choose the actual date and a short factual summary. Create a task with an owner, due time and appropriate checklist. Welcome, thank-you and renewal checklists help a small team share repeatable work; they do not send a message automatically. Use My follow-ups for your assigned open work and Team follow-ups to coordinate. Complete a task after doing the work, and record the result so a colleague can understand what happened.
Reconcile before scaling up
Review the supporter header, Giving, and Giving and retention report. Received totals include settled online gifts, verified offline gifts and recognized alternative gifts after current reversals. Unverified records, pledges and recognition have different meanings. If the report says payment records are not linked yet, connect those records and rerun it before comparing with the payment ledger. If a duplicate remains, use the merge preview and inspect which contact facts and consents survive; merging a relationship is not permission to erase a financial history.