Relationship data model
Keep the giver, household, gift, recognition, and program relationship distinct.
Gratona connects fundraising and program records without collapsing them into one total. That distinction matters when a gift arrives through a DAF, employer, church, business, household, or another relationship that deserves recognition without replacing the donor on the received gift.
Core records
Person
An individual constituent with contact, giving, engagement, relationship, assignment, and permission-aware history.
Household
A group of individual records with a primary contact and household membership. Each person keeps an individual record.
Organization
A company, foundation, church, institution, or other organizational constituent with contacts and relationship history.
Gift and pledge
A financial record tied to the legal donor, date, amount, campaign or designation, payment state, and related program context.
Soft credit
Recognition assigned to another donor record while the original gift and donor remain identifiable. Soft-credit amount and type are stored separately from the gift.
Relationship role
A directional connection between person or organization records, including employer and employee, church and member, partner, director, sponsor, beneficiary, friend, and family roles.
Program relationship
Sponsorship, event, trip, campaign, recipient, task, communication, or other program context connected to the constituent record.
Common attribution scenarios
The operational question is rarely only “who gave?” Development also needs to know who influenced the gift, what amount should be recognized, and which relationship should receive follow-up.
A donor recommends a gift through a DAF
- Received gift
- The DAF sponsoring organization remains the donor on the received gift.
- Relationship recognition
- The recommending donor record—or the appropriate donor record within a household—receives a Donor Advised Fund soft credit for the selected amount.
- Stewardship result
- Finance can trace the received gift while development can steward the relationship that influenced it.
A business matches an employee’s gift
- Received gift
- The employee’s direct gift and the business’s matching payment remain separate donation records.
- Relationship recognition
- A Matching Gift soft credit connects the appropriate recognition amount to the employee.
- Stewardship result
- The employee’s influence is visible without moving the business payment or treating recognition as new revenue.
A church or partner sends a combined gift
- Received gift
- The church or partner can be represented as an organization record that owns the received gift.
- Relationship recognition
- Several leaders or points of contact can remain connected to the organization. One can be designated as the primary contact, while Church Member, Director, Partner, and other directional roles preserve how each person is related. A soft credit can recognize a specific person who influenced the gift.
- Stewardship result
- The church’s received-gift history stays accurate, and each person keeps an individual engagement and recognition history for stewardship.
Several members of one household give
- Received gift
- Each direct gift stays on the individual record that made it.
- Relationship recognition
- The household groups its members and can identify a primary contact; household-member soft credit can record shared recognition.
- Stewardship result
- Individual history remains intact while household summaries can use the member records together.
Soft-credit attribution
A soft credit points to both the credited donor and the underlying donation. The amount, recognition type, and notes can be recorded without replacing the original donor on the gift.
Current types cover household member, matching gift, donor-advised fund, tribute, and solicitor recognition. The selected recognition amount remains separate from the received amount. For split gifts, the attribution can follow the selected designations.
Household rollups
Individual donors can belong to a household, and the household can identify a primary contact. Household contribution fields aggregate gifts from donors assigned to that household while individual gift records retain their original donor.
Household tax-summary workflows use the included donation records for household members. Soft credits remain recognition records and do not become contribution rows in that summary.
The stewardship fields stay tied to the right record
Attribution changes more than one total. It determines whether a fundraiser can trust the dates, amounts, interaction history, and relationship context used to decide the next stewardship step.
| View | Fields staff can use | Why the value stays accurate |
|---|---|---|
| Received giving | First gift date, last gift date and amount, largest gift amount, and year-to-date, prior-year, and lifetime contributions | These fields stay with the person or organization that owns the direct gift. Adding a relationship or soft credit does not rewrite that received-gift history. |
| Relationship recognition | Year-to-date, prior-year, and lifetime soft credits, plus the influenced total | Development can see the amount attributed to a recommending donor, member, solicitor, or other relationship without reporting it as another received gift. |
| Household giving | Year-to-date, prior-year, and lifetime household contributions | A household view can use the direct gifts of its member records while each person’s own giving totals remain intact. |
| Engagement | First and last interaction dates, email and SMS interaction dates, and the staff member involved | Calls, messages, notes, and other activity remain on the person or organization record where staff logged them. Related-contact roles make the surrounding relationship visible without inventing a shared interaction date. |
Gratona exposes largest gift as an amount. Staff can open the corresponding gift to verify its date and full transaction context; the product does not currently present a separate largest-gift-date rollup field.
How Gratona reports the amounts
Direct gifts
Payments remain attached to the original donor and donation record used for transaction and contribution reporting.
Soft credits
Recognition totals can be viewed by donor, type, program, and period, with the original gift still traceable.
Influenced total
A donor’s direct and soft-credit totals can be shown together for stewardship while remaining labeled as influence rather than additional received revenue.
The report catalog includes a soft-credit influencer view and a transaction view with the original donor, recognition type, amount, and underlying donation. Reports should state whether they use direct gifts, soft credits, household rollups, or an influenced total.
Questions to test with your own data
- Can two people share a household without losing their individual contact, giving, and consent history?
- Does a soft credit preserve the original gift, donor, recognition amount, type, and notes?
- Can your finance and development reports state whether totals include gifts, household rollups, soft credits, refunds, pledges, or payments?
- Can organization contacts, relationship roles, sponsorships, event activity, and tasks remain connected through migration?