This article explains how to record a donation made alongside a membership or event ticket (combined payment). It is intended for nonprofit administrators who manage memberships and accounting. There are two methods: offering a donation option directly in the form, or entering the donation in your accounting records.
- How to offer a donation alongside a membership or event ticket?
- How to set up a donation in a Membership Campaign or event ticketing form?
- How to record in accounting a donation received alongside a membership, without going through a form?
- How to group donation and membership entries?
- How to record payment for both the membership and the donation?
How to offer a donation alongside a membership or event ticket?
A donation offered through a Membership Campaign or event ticketing form is not recorded as a separate donation in the Community — it remains attached to the membership order. A single document is generated for the entire order (membership + donation), with no separate Tax Receipt for the donation. For separate accounting or tax tracking, enter the donation directly in your accounting records (see the section "How to record in accounting a donation received alongside a membership, without going through a form?").
You can give your contacts the option to make a donation when they sign up for a membership or register for an event.
How to set up a donation in a Membership Campaign or event ticketing form?
- Go to Forms > Memberships for a Membership Campaign, or Forms > Events for an event ticketing form.
- Open the relevant form.
- Go to the Pricing and membership step (Membership Campaign) or the Pricing step (event ticketing).
- Create a first plan if none exists yet — the donation option only appears after at least one plan has been created.
- Click + Plan or membership (or + Plan for an event ticketing form).
- Select One-time donation.
The donation option now appears among the plans displayed in the form.
Configurable options for a donation in a form
When setting up your donation option, you can configure the following:
- Set a fixed donation amount or let donors choose their own (Open amount);
- Show or hide the donation among the available plans — it is displayed by default;
- Automatically add donors to a group in your Community;
- Assign the donation to a specific accounting account — by default, the donation is assigned to the Donations & Collections account. If that account works for you, leave this field blank.
Documents generated for a donation made alongside a membership
If you issue invoices for your memberships or event tickets, the invoice will not include the donation. However, a Tax Receipt can still be issued for the donation.
Let's say you have invoice generation enabled and someone:
- purchases a $50 membership;
- adds a $100 donation at the same time;
- pays the full $150 immediately online.
They will receive an invoice for $50 and a Tax Receipt for $100.
Accounting records
The donation is automatically recorded in the correct accounting account — either the default one or the one you specified when configuring your form.
Current limitations
Offering a donation in a Membership Campaign or event ticketing form comes with the following limitations:
- A donation made alongside a membership is not reflected in the Community: someone who donates through a Membership Campaign will not be flagged as a donor (green heart badge) in the Community;
- If you have Tax Receipt generation enabled, the receipt covers the entire order — not just the donation portion;
- You cannot offer a donation if you have VAT enabled on your membership plans or event ticket prices;
- You can only offer one donation plan per Membership Campaign or ticketing form.
How do I record a donation received alongside a membership, outside of a form?
If the donation was not collected through a One-time donation option in the membership form, record the donation directly in your accounting books.
A member joins your nonprofit for the year through an online Membership Campaign. Their membership fee is $400, which they choose to pay by check. But here's a pleasant surprise — they generously write a check for $430 ($400 for the membership + $30 as a donation). That $30 donation wasn't processed through any form. Let's walk through how to handle this in your books.
The process has two steps: first record the donation commitment, then record the payment.
Case 1: record the donation in your accounting books, without a Donation Campaign
You haven't activated the Donations module, which lets you track donors in your database. In this case, you'll record the donation directly in your accounting books.
Under Advanced options, check Link to a person or third party and select the contact who issued the check.
Click Save.
The donation entry now appears under Accounting > Bookkeeping > Debts & Receivables, pending payment.
Case 2: record the donation from a Donation Campaign
You have the app enabled, so you can add the donation through a dedicated donation form.
To do this, open the relevant form from the Forms > Donations page and manually record the donation. You'll then be able to issue a Tax Receipt.
How do I group a donation entry and a membership entry?
You now have two Revenue entries recorded: a donation and a membership. You can find them under Accounting > Bookkeeping > Account Receivable.
Select both corresponding entries, then click Group payments.
Reminder: for grouping to be meaningful in accounting, the entries must be linked to the same third party — i.e., the same payer. That's why it was important to check "Link to a person or third party" and select the correct person beforehand.
How do I record payment for both the membership and the donation?
Once the entries are grouped, click the Detail icon, then click Add a payment to record the check for $430 ($400 membership + $30 donation).
Once the entries are grouped, click the "Detail" icon, then click "Add a payment" to record the $430 check ($400 for the membership + $30 donation).
Set the payment as an Incoming payment and fill in the remaining details. Then click Save.
Mark the payment as "Incoming payment" and fill in the remaining details. When done, click "Save":
The donation and membership payment for this person are now fully recorded:
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