From Batch to Opportunity: Understanding Salesforce's NPC Gift Entry Workflow
- Ohana Focus Team
- Jan 21
- 9 min read
By Ohana Focus Team | January 9, 2025 | 16 min read
If you're coming from Raiser's Edge, one of the biggest adjustments isn't the interface or the terminology—it's the fundamental shift in how you think about entering gifts. In Raiser's Edge, you entered gifts in batches. You'd open a batch, enter multiple gifts, balance it, and commit it. In Salesforce, there are no batches. Each gift is an Opportunity that exists the moment you save it. This isn't just a workflow change—it's a paradigm shift that, once understood, makes gift processing faster, more flexible, and more powerful.
This guide will demystify Salesforce gift entry, explain the Opportunity-Payment-Allocation structure, walk through common gift scenarios, help your team transition from batch thinking to opportunity thinking and gain a deeper understanding of Salesforce's NPC Gift Entry Workflow.
The Mental Model Shift: Batches vs. Opportunities
Before diving into mechanics, let's address the conceptual difference that trips up most organizations during migration.
How Raiser's Edge Handles Gifts
In Raiser's Edge, gift entry follows a batch-based workflow:
1. Create a batch and specify the batch type
2. Enter multiple gifts into that batch
3. Balance the batch against your deposit
4. Commit the batch to permanently save all gifts
Until committed, gifts exist in a temporary state. This batch approach made sense for matching paper deposit slips and manual reconciliation processes from the pre-digital era.
How Salesforce Handles Gifts
Salesforce NPC takes a record-centric approach. Each gift is an Opportunity record—a discrete database entry that saves immediately when you click Save. There's no intermediary batch holding gifts temporarily. There's no commit step. The gift exists in your database the moment you save it.
What you gain:
• Real-time data visibility
• Individual gift flexibility
• Simplified reconciliation
• Faster processing times
• No batch cleanup or stuck batches
The Opportunity: Salesforce's Gift Record
Let's break down what an Opportunity actually is and how it functions as your gift record.
What Is an Opportunity?
In Salesforce NPC, Opportunities are repurposed to track donations and fundraising revenue. Each Opportunity represents a single gift, pledge, grant, or other contribution. It connects to a Contact (individual donor) or Account (organization), contains the gift amount and date, tracks the stage (Pledged, Posted, Closed Won), links to Campaigns for attribution, and can split to multiple programs via GAU Allocations.
Key Opportunity Fields
Understanding these core fields is essential for proper gift entry:
Opportunity Name: Auto-generated by NPC, typically 'Donor Name $Amount MM/DD/YYYY'. You can customize this naming convention.
Amount: The total gift amount. For split gifts, this is the full amount before program allocations.
Close Date: The date the gift was received. This drives reporting and fiscal year calculations.
Stage: The gift's status. Key stages include Pledged (commitment made but not yet paid), Posted (payment received), and Closed Won (completed gift).
Record Type: Categorizes the gift type—Donation, Grant, Matching Gift, In-Kind, etc.
Primary Campaign Source: Links to the Campaign that should receive credit for this gift.
Creating a Basic Gift Opportunity
The most common gift entry scenario: a one-time donation received by mail or online.
5. Navigate to the donor's Contact record
6. Click 'New Opportunity' or 'Quick Create Donation'
7. Enter the Amount
8. Set the Close Date to when the gift was received
9. Select the Stage (Posted for received gifts, Pledged for commitments)
10. Add Campaign attribution if applicable
11. Click Save
That's it. The gift is recorded. NPC automatically creates a Payment record and updates donor totals and statistics.
Payments: Connecting Opportunities to Transactions
One Opportunity can have multiple Payments. Understanding this relationship is crucial for managing pledges and recurring gifts properly.
What Are Payment Records?
Payment records in NPC represent the actual financial transactions. For a one-time gift, there's typically one Payment matching the Opportunity amount. For a pledge, there can be multiple Payments as the pledge is paid down over time.
Each Payment record tracks:
• Payment date
• Amount
• Method (check, credit card, cash, etc.)
• Check/reference number
• Status (Paid, Pending, Failed, etc.)
Opportunity vs. Payment Concept
Think of it this way: the Opportunity is the commitment, the Payment is the transaction. For most one-time gifts, these are essentially the same thing. But for pledges, grants with payment schedules, or recurring gifts, you need both: one Opportunity representing the total commitment, and multiple Payments tracking each transaction as it occurs.
Handling Pledges: Multiple Payments
Pledges require understanding the Opportunity-Payment relationship because you're creating one Opportunity for the total pledge, then tracking payments against it over time.
12. Create the Opportunity with the total pledge amount (e.g., $10,000 for a 10-month pledge)
13. Set the Stage to 'Pledged' to indicate a commitment but not yet fully paid
14. Set the Close Date to when the pledge was made
15. Use the Payment Schedule to auto-generate Payment records (e.g., 10 Payments of $1,000 each)
16. As payments arrive, mark them Paid, add the payment method and check number
17. NPC automatically updates the Opportunity's Amount Outstanding and Stage
GAU Allocations: Splitting Gifts to Programs
GAU Allocations are how Salesforce handles gifts designated to specific programs, funds, or purposes—what Raiser's Edge calls 'gift attributes' or 'split gifts.'
GAU stands for General Accounting Unit. In NPC, GAUs represent programs, funds, departments, or any other way you categorize how donations are used. Common GAUs might include Annual Fund, Capital Campaign, Scholarship Fund, Program Services, Emergency Relief, or Endowment. Each GAU Allocation links an Opportunity to a GAU and specifies what amount or percentage goes to that GAU. A single Opportunity can have multiple GAU Allocations, enabling split gifts.
Allocating a Gift to Programs
18. Create or open the Opportunity and enter the total gift amount
19. Save the Opportunity (you must save before adding Allocations)
20. Scroll to the GAU Allocations related list and click 'New'
21. Select the GAU (which program or fund receives this allocation)
22. Enter Amount or Percent (NPC calculates the other value automatically)
23. Repeat for additional allocations to split the gift across multiple programs
24. Verify the total (NPC warns if allocations don't sum to 100%)
Example: A $5,000 gift allocated 60% ($3,000) to an Annual Fund and 40% ($2,000) to a Capital Campaign requires two GAU Allocation records.
Campaign Attribution: Tracking Gift Sources
While GAU Allocations track where money goes, Campaign attribution tracks why the gift came in—what marketing effort, appeal, or fundraising activity generated the donation.
Linking Opportunities to Campaigns
Every Opportunity can link to a Campaign via the 'Primary Campaign Source' field. This creates reporting on which appeals, events, or marketing efforts generate the most revenue. You might have Campaigns for:
• Annual Appeal 2025
• Spring Gala
• Email Campaign - Monthly Donors
• Direct Mail - Lapsed Donors
• Social Media - Giving Tuesday
Campaign vs. GAU: Understanding the Difference
This confuses many organizations during migration because both involve 'where the gift is tracked,' but they serve different purposes:
Campaign: Why did the gift come in? What marketing, appeal, or solicitation generated it? (Source/Attribution)
GAU: Where does the money go? Which program or fund will spend it? (Designation/Allocation)
Example: A donor gives $1,000 in response to your Annual Appeal (Campaign) and designates it to the Scholarship Fund (GAU). The Campaign tracks that your Annual Appeal generated $1,000 in revenue. The GAU tracks that $1,000 is available for scholarships.
Special Gift Scenarios
Once you understand the basic Opportunity-Payment-Allocation framework, you can handle more complex gift scenarios.
Recurring Gifts
NPC includes a Recurring Donation object specifically for ongoing monthly/annual gifts. When you create a Recurring Donation, NPC automatically generates individual Opportunity records on the schedule you specify. This automation eliminates manual entry for recurring donors while maintaining accurate per-gift records for reporting and acknowledgment.
Matching Gifts
Matching gifts involve two Opportunities: the original donor's gift (primary Opportunity) and the matching organization's gift (matching Opportunity). NPC provides fields to link these. Create the primary Opportunity first, then create the matching Opportunity and use the 'Matching Gift' field to link them.
Soft credits allow attributing recognition to people who didn't make the financial gift. Common scenarios include one spouse getting hard credit while the other receives soft credit, a board member getting soft credit for a corporate gift from their company, or a fundraiser receiving soft credit for gifts they solicited.
NPC has built-in soft credit functionality through Partial Soft Credits. You can add multiple soft credits to an Opportunity, specifying the Contact, role (Solicitor, Household Member, Honorary, etc.), and optionally an amount if splitting soft credit.
In-Kind Donations
In-kind gifts (goods or services instead of cash) use the same Opportunity structure with a few adjustments. Use an In-Kind Record Type to distinguish from cash gifts, enter the fair market value as the Amount, and use a special Stage like 'In-Kind Received.' The Payment record might have a method 'In-Kind' and include a description of what was donated.
Common Challenges and Solutions in Salesforce's Gift Entry Workflow
'I Entered a Gift Wrong and Already Saved It'
Solution: Simply edit the Opportunity — unlike batch systems, where you may need to delete from a batch and re-enter, Salesforce lets you edit saved records. Salesforce maintains an edit history, so there's an audit trail of changes.
'How Do I Reconcile Gifts Without a Batch?'
Solution: Create reconciliation reports by Close Date. Run a report showing all Opportunities with Close Date = today, group by Payment Method, sum the amounts and so on. This gives you the same information as a batch provided for reconciliation against deposits.
'What About Data Validation?'
Solution: Salesforce offers robust validation rules that prevent saving records with errors. You can require certain fields, enforce data formats, or validate that amounts meet minimum thresholds. These validation rules prevent errors before saving.
'Can Multiple People Enter Gifts Simultaneously?'
Solution: Yes, and this is actually an advantage over batch systems. In Raiser's Edge, only one person could work in a batch at a time. In Salesforce, unlimited users can enter gifts simultaneously without conflicts.
Training Your Team on the Salesforce Gift Entry Workflow
Transitioning from batch entry to Opportunity entry requires more than technical training—it requires a mental model shift.
Start with the Why
Don't just teach the new steps; explain why Salesforce works differently. Help staff understand that the lack of batches isn't a missing feature—it's a fundamentally different (and more flexible) approach. When they understand the reasoning, the new workflow makes more sense.
Use Real Scenarios
Training on generic examples doesn't stick as well as training with your organization's actual gift types. Use real donors (anonymized), actual gift amounts, your GAUs, and your Campaigns. This makes training immediately applicable to daily work.
Create Quick Reference Guides
Provide one-page guides for common scenarios: entering a single gift, creating a pledge, adding a soft credit, allocating to multiple programs, etc. Staff will reference these repeatedly during the first few months as new muscle memory forms.
Plan for the Transition Period
During the first weeks after go-live, gift entry will take longer than it did in Raiser's Edge simply because it's new. Budget extra time for gift processing and plan accordingly. Most organizations find that after 2-4 weeks, staff are entering gifts as fast or faster than before.
Advanced Gift Entry: Automation and Efficiency
Once your team is comfortable with basic gift entry, you can implement automations that make Salesforce far more efficient than any batch-based system.
Process Builder and Flow
Salesforce's automation tools can handle repetitive gift entry tasks:
• Automatically set the Record Type based on amount thresholds
• Create tasks for development officers when gifts exceed certain amounts
• Send automated thank-you emails based on gift size or designation
• Populate GAU Allocations based on Campaign associations
Online Giving Integration
Most online donation platforms integrate directly with Salesforce, creating Opportunities automatically as donations are made. This eliminates manual gift entry for online gifts entirely—they flow into Salesforce in real-time, properly associated with existing donors or creating new Contact records as needed.
Partner with Ohana Focus
Master Salesforce gift entry with expert guidance. Schedule your free consultation today.
Ohana Focus specializes in helping nonprofits configure gift entry workflows that work for their team, their processes, and their unique requirements. We provide:
• Comprehensive configuration of Opportunity, Payment, and GAU structures
• Customized gift entry workflows matching your organization's needs
• Validation rules and automation to ensure data quality
• Staff training tailored to different roles and skill levels
• Ongoing support as your gift processing needs evolve
We've trained hundreds of nonprofit staff on Salesforce gift entry. We know the questions that arise, the pain points that emerge, and the configurations that make gift processing smooth and efficient.
About Ohana Focus
Ohana Focus is a certified Salesforce consulting partner dedicated to helping nonprofits master their CRM and fundraising workflows. We understand that gift entry is the heartbeat of your fundraising operation—it needs to be accurate, efficient, and reliable.
Our consultants have configured gift entry for organizations processing dozens to tens of thousands of gifts annually. We know how to structure Opportunities, Payments, and Allocations to support your reporting needs, ensure compliance, and make your team's daily work easier.
When you partner with Ohana Focus for gift entry configuration, you get workflows designed around your processes, not generic implementations that force you to adapt to the system.
Topics: Gift Entry, Salesforce NPC, Opportunities, Payments, GAU Allocations, Donation Processing, Raiser's Edge Migration
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