Donor Preferences

Each donor can have their own receipting preferences: how they receive receipts, how often, in which language, and whether they should be receipted at all. Dryad Receipting reads these preferences automatically for every gift. This article explains where the preferences are stored, how each one changes what the donor receives, and when changes take effect. It is written for Salesforce administrators and the staff who maintain donor records.

Where Preferences Live

Preferences are fields on both Contacts and Accounts. A gift usually has both, so for each gift Dryad Receipting decides which record's preferences apply. The short version:

• Individuals and families (gifts from a Household Account): the preferences of the gift's primary contact are used. The Household Account's own preferences are ignored.
• Organizations (gifts from any other Account): the Account's preferences are used.

Which Account record type counts as a household is set by Household Record Type in Receipt Settings. There are some exceptions, shown in the table below.

Preference	Values	If left blank
Receipt Delivery	Email (default for new records), Mail	The receipt is printed.
Receipt Occurrence	Single (default for new records), Consolidated	Treated as Single.
Receipt Language	English, French	English.
Do Not Receipt	Checkbox	Unticked: the donor is receipted.
Do Not Receipt Reason	Depends on the record; see Do Not Receipt below	No reason recorded.

Records created before Dryad Receipting was installed have blank preferences, because defaults only apply to new records. Blank values work as shown above, but if most donors should get emailed receipts, update existing Contacts and Accounts to "Email" with a data tool.

Which Record Is Used for Each Gift

"Household" means the gift's Account is a Household Account. "Organization" means any other Account.

Preference	Opportunity receipts	Payment receipts	Recurring Donation receipts
Receipt Delivery	Household: the primary contact Organization: the Account	Same as the Payment's Opportunity	The Recurring Donation's Contact, if it has one Otherwise its Organization
Receipt Occurrence	Household: the primary contact Organization: the Account	Same as the Payment's Opportunity	The Recurring Donation's Contact, if it has one Otherwise its Organization
Receipt Language	The Opportunity's own Receipt Language Household: the primary contact. Organization: the Account English	The Payment's own Receipt Language Household: the Opportunity's primary contact. Organization: the Opportunity's Account English The Opportunity's own Receipt Language is not used.	The Recurring Donation's own Receipt Language Household: its Contact. Organization: its Organization English
Donor email address	The primary contact's email, for households and organizations alike If there is no primary contact, the email of the Account's primary contact	Same as the Payment's Opportunity	The Contact's email If there is no Contact, the email of the Organization's primary contact
Do Not Receipt	Any of: the Opportunity, its primary contact, its Account	Any of: the Payment, the Opportunity's primary contact, the Opportunity's Account. The Opportunity's own checkbox is not used.	Any of: the Recurring Donation, its Contact, its Organization
Acknowledgments Only reason	Any of: the Opportunity, its primary contact, its Account, its Recurring Donation	Same as the Payment's Opportunity. The Payment's own reason is not used.	Any of: the Recurring Donation, its Contact, its Organization

What this means in practice:

• For individual donors, edit the person, not the household. Set preferences on the Contact who is the primary contact on their gifts.
• For organizations, edit the Account for delivery, occurrence and language. But the receipt is emailed to the gift's primary contact, and ticking Do Not Receipt on that contact also stops the organization's gift.
• Do Not Receipt is checked on every record in its row, whether the donor is a household or an organization. One ticked box is enough to stop the receipt.
• Recurring donations from an organization with a Contact listed take their delivery and occurrence from the Contact, but their language from the Organization.

Checking What Applies to a Gift

Opportunities, Payments and Recurring Donations have read-only Donor Receipt Delivery, Donor Receipt Occurrence, Donor Receipt Language and Donor Email fields. They show the value that applies to that gift after these rules are applied. Payments don't have Donor Receipt Occurrence; check the Payment's Opportunity instead. Add them to page layouts or reports to check a gift without opening the donor.

Receipt Delivery

Decides whether the donor's receipts are emailed or printed and mailed.

When a receipt is created, the donor's delivery preference and email address are copied onto it (Donor Receipt Delivery, Donor Email). The receipt's Delivery Status then decides what happens next:

Delivery Status	When
To be Emailed	All of these are true: the delivery preference is "Email" the receipt has a donor email address an email template is assigned it hasn't been emailed yet
To be Printed	Any other receipt that hasn't been emailed or printed yet. This includes donors who prefer email but have no email address on file, so nobody is left without a receipt.
Emailed, Mailed, or Emailed & Mailed	The receipt has been sent.

In Batch Receipts, the Email receipts option sends receipts that are "To be Emailed", and the Merge receipts option combines receipts that are "To be Printed" into one PDF for printing; both let you choose all of them, or only those for an issue date range or for specific donors. The Print receipts option downloads the .pdfs of the receipts you select as a .zip file and sets them as printed. How emails are sent is covered in the Email Setup article.

Changing a donor's preference later doesn't change receipts that already exist, because the preference and address were copied when the receipt was created. To email an existing receipt that was set to print, update the email address on the receipt itself, or void it and issue a replacement.

Receipt Occurrence

Decides whether the donor gets a receipt for each gift or one receipt for all gifts in a period.

Occurrence	What the Donor Receives
Single	A receipt for each gift, usually soon after the gift is posted. Their gifts show the Receipt Status "Eligible".
Consolidated	One receipt covering all their gifts in the period you choose, typically the calendar year, with each gift listed. Their gifts show "Eligible for Consolidated" and wait until you create consolidated receipts in Batch Receipts.

Special Cases

• Recurring donations: gifts from a Recurring Donation are receipted together, on one consolidated receipt per recurring donation, whatever the donor's preference. If Enable Single Receipts for RDs is set to Yes in Receipt Settings, donors whose occurrence is Single get a receipt for each installment instead.
• In-kind gifts always get their own receipt, even for consolidated donors.
• Minimum receipt amount: for single receipts, each gift must reach the Minimum Receipt Amount. For consolidated receipts, the minimum applies to the total of the donor's gifts, so several small gifts can add up to a receipt. Acknowledgments are never held back by the minimum.

Receipt Language

Decides whether the donor's receipt and receipt email are in English or French. The language is worked out in this order:

1. the Receipt Language field on the gift itself (Opportunity, Payment or Recurring Donation), if you want one gift to be different
2. the donor's Receipt Language
3. English

The language selects the English or French version of the receipt template and email template. These are set on the Templates page of Settings, or on the Receipting Account. Make sure French templates are selected before you set donors to French; otherwise those gifts have no template to use.

Dates on French receipts. The "mmm dd, yyyy" date format always uses English month abbreviations. If you issue French receipts, choose a numeric date format in Receipt Settings.

Do Not Receipt and Do Not Receipt Reason

Tick Do Not Receipt to stop receipts from being issued. Use it for donors who have asked not to receive receipts, for donors such as other charities who don't need one, or for individual gifts that are not eligible for a tax receipt. Affected gifts show the Receipt Status "Ineligible - Do not receipt" and are skipped by all receipting.

Where It Can Be Set

Do Not Receipt exists on Contacts, Accounts, Opportunities, Payments and Recurring Donations. A gift is not receipted if the box is ticked on any of the records checked for it:

Receipts created from	Records checked
Opportunities	The Opportunity, its primary contact, and its Account
Payments (when receipting by payment)	The Payment, its Opportunity's primary contact, and its Opportunity's Account
Recurring Donations	The Recurring Donation, its Contact, and its Organization

Use the donor's record to stop all their receipts, and the gift's record to stop just one gift. When you receipt by payment, tick the box on the Payment: ticking it on the Opportunity doesn't stop its payments being receipted.

Reasons

Record why with Do Not Receipt Reason. The available reasons depend on the record:

Record	Reasons
Contact	Acknowledgments Only, Board Member, Donor Request, Other
Account	Acknowledgments Only, Charity, Foundation, Other
Opportunity, Payment, Recurring Donation	Acknowledgments Only, Below Minimum Receipt Amount, Philanthropy Exclusion, Pool of Funds, Questionable Donation, Sponsorship, Other

Most reasons are for your records and reports only: the gift is simply not receipted. Gifts also have a Do Not Receipt Comments field for more detail.

Acknowledgments Only

Acknowledgments Only is the one reason that changes what the donor receives. Instead of getting nothing, the donor gets a thank-you acknowledgment, not an official tax receipt:

• The gift stays eligible, and its Receipt Type becomes "Acknowledgment".
• The acknowledgment uses the "Acknowledgment" receipt and email templates from Settings or the Receipting Account, which should not include tax receipt wording.
• The Minimum Receipt Amount and the CRA address checks don't apply.
• Acknowledgments can be emailed again, unlike official receipts.

Use it for donors who should be thanked but can't receive a tax receipt, for example when a gift isn't eligible for one. The records it is read from are listed in the table under "Which Record Is Used for Each Gift". When you receipt by payment, set it on the Opportunity or the donor: the reason on the Payment itself is not used.

The reason works on its own. Setting the reason to "Acknowledgments Only" turns the donor's gifts into acknowledgments even if the Do Not Receipt box isn't ticked. Tick the box as well, so your records are consistent.

When Changes Take Effect

• Before a receipt is created: preferences are read live. Changing a donor's preference immediately changes the Receipt Status, Receipt Type and Donor Receipt … fields on all of their unreceipted gifts. For example, switching a donor to Consolidated moves their unreceipted gifts from "Eligible" to "Eligible for Consolidated".
• After a receipt is created: the receipt keeps the delivery preference, email address, language and template it was created with. To change any of these, void the receipt and issue a replacement.
• Already-receipted gifts are not affected. Ticking Do Not Receipt doesn't cancel a receipt that was already issued; void it if needed.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Check
A household donor's preference is ignored	For households, the primary contact's preferences are used, not the Household Account's. Check the gift's primary contact, and the gift's Donor Receipt … fields.
A donor who prefers email is on the print list	The receipt has no donor email address, or no email template is assigned for the donor's language and receipt type. Check the receipt's Donor Email and Email Template.
A consolidated donor has no receipt after year-end	Their gifts must be "Eligible for Consolidated" and fall in the period you selected. Check that the total of their gifts reaches the Minimum Receipt Amount.
A gift shows "Ineligible - Do not receipt" unexpectedly	Check Do Not Receipt on the gift, its primary contact and its Account (or, for recurring donations, the Recurring Donation, its Contact and Organization).
A donor received an acknowledgment instead of a tax receipt	A Do Not Receipt Reason of "Acknowledgments Only" is set on the Opportunity, its primary contact, its Account or its Recurring Donation (or, for recurring donation receipts, the Recurring Donation, its Contact or Organization), even if the checkbox isn't ticked.
A French donor received an English receipt	The gift's own Receipt Language may be set to English, or no French template is selected in Settings or on the Receipting Account. Receipts created before the change keep their original template.