Overview 

Understanding the difference between these fields can help ensure donors are recognized appropriately while receipts and other correspondence are addressed correctly.

What is the Donor Recognition field?

The Donor Recognition field records the name a donor would like your organization to use when publicly recognizing their contribution.

For example, a donation may be associated with the Contact John Doe, while the Donor Recognition field contains:

• The Doe Family
• John and Jane Doe
• Anonymous

This keeps the donation associated with the correct Contact while giving your organization flexibility in how it acknowledges the gift.

The Donor Recognition field can be particularly useful for donor recognition activities and reporting, such as preparing an annual donor roll.

Important: Donor Recognition does not determine the recipient name or salutation that appears on a tax receipt or thank-you letter.

What determines the name on a receipt or thank-you letter?

The information displayed on a receipt or thank-you letter depends on the mail merge codes included in the template.

For example:

• <<c_letter_salutation>> displays the Contact's Letter Salutation.
• <<c_Virtual_Letter_Salutation>> displays the Letter Salutation when one has been entered. If it is blank, Sumac generates an appropriate salutation based on the Contact's information.
• <<c_mail_address>> generates the mailing address using the information stored on the Contact's Address tab, including the Recipient field when populated.
• Merge codes that reference the donor or Contact name use the Contact's actual name fields.

Because of this, changing the Donor Recognition value will not change the name or salutation displayed on a receipt.

i) Recognizing a couple or household

Organizations may want to recognize a donation as coming from a couple or household while still maintaining the donation under an individual Contact.

For example:

Contact: John Doe
Donor Recognition: The Doe Family

If the receipt or thank-you letter should be addressed to both spouses, configure the appropriate Contact fields rather than relying on Donor Recognition.

ii) Mailing address

To have both spouses' names appear in the mailing address block:

1. Open the Contact record.
2. Go to the Address tab.
3. Enter the desired recipient name, such as John and Jane Doe, in the Recipient field.
4. Use <<c_mail_address>> in the receipt or letter template.

iii) Salutation

If you want a particular greeting to appear in correspondence, enter the desired wording in the Contact's Letter Salutation field and use the appropriate salutation merge code in your template.

For example:

Letter Salutation: John and Jane

With <<c_letter_salutation>>, the template will use that value.

When using <<c_Virtual_Letter_Salutation>>, Sumac will use the Letter Salutation if one has been entered. Otherwise, it will generate a salutation based on the Contact information.

Troubleshooting an unexpected recipient name

If a receipt or thank-you letter is displaying an unexpected name, changing the Donor Recognition field is unlikely to resolve the issue.

Instead, check:

1. The merge codes in the template: Determine which Contact fields are being used to generate the recipient name, salutation, and mailing address.
2. The Letter Salutation: Confirm that it contains the wording you want to appear in the greeting.
3. The Address Recipient field: If a couple, household, or organization should appear in the mailing address, confirm that the Recipient field is populated correctly.
4. The Contact's name fields: Templates that use Contact name merge codes will generate their output from these fields.

Example

Suppose a donation is associated with the following Contact:

Contact Name: John Doe
Donor Recognition: The Doe Family
Letter Salutation: John and Jane
Address Recipient: John and Jane Doe

The resulting output depends on the merge code:

Key takeaway

Use Donor Recognition to record how a donor wants their contribution acknowledged or publicly recognized.

For receipts, thank-you letters, and other correspondence, use the appropriate Contact fields and mail merge codes to control how the recipient's name, salutation, and mailing address appear.

When names vary between individuals, couples, households, and organizations, reviewing the Letter Salutation, Address Recipient, and template merge codes will help ensure communications are addressed as intended.