Decide the restriction before you code the gift

Do not create a new gift designation from a donor note alone. Preserve the donor's exact wording, check it against the purposes your organization has agreed to accept, and map an accepted restriction to one active designation, finance code, and owner before you acknowledge it. That is the practical way to track restricted donations without losing the donor's instruction between fundraising and finance.

The key distinction is simple: a donor's words are evidence, not a completed setup. Your team still needs an acceptance decision and a record that can survive the handoff.

Start with the source language

A purpose can arrive through a donation form, check memo, email, letter, agreement, or conversation. Save the original artifact or a dated note of the conversation. Do not replace it with a shorter interpretation such as `programs`, `youth`, or `annual fund` before someone reviews what the donor actually said.

The National Council of Nonprofits explains that a contribution for a specific purpose is a restricted gift, that donor intent matters, and that saying no to some restrictions can be the wiser response. It also recommends written agreements to define how a gift will be used and manage expectations. Your policy and qualified advisers should determine what that means for a particular gift; the intake record should preserve the facts they need.

Open a restriction-review record with:

• the donor and gift identifier;
• the exact purpose language and its source;
• the gift date, amount, and payment status;
• any time limit, reporting request, or condition stated by the donor;
• the proposed designation, if one already exists; and
• the reviewer, next action, and due date.

This is an extension of a reliable gift-intake packet, not a separate shadow process.

Offer a controlled designation list

Use a short active list of purposes your organization can identify, report, and hand to finance consistently. A current Salesforce nonprofit operations guide recommends aligning leadership, programs, and finance before setting up designations. Its example separates an unrestricted default, major program areas, campaigns, and time-bound initiatives.

That does not mean every campaign, appeal, and designation should become the same field. A fund, campaign, and appeal answer different questions. The designation here answers where the donor asked the gift to be used and which approved internal record carries that instruction.

For each active designation, keep:

• a public label and a precise internal name;
• the approved purpose description;
• an active or inactive status;
• the fundraising-system identifier and finance code;
• the program or finance owner; and
• the date the designation should be reviewed.

Do not create `School supplies`, `Student supplies`, and `Classroom materials` because three donors used different phrases. Keep their original wording in the evidence, then map accepted gifts to the approved designation only when the purpose truly matches.

Record the acceptance decision

Use three outcomes: accepted, clarification needed, or escalated. `Accepted` means the organization has an active purpose it can honor and track. `Clarification needed` means the donor's words are incomplete or could point to more than one purpose. `Escalated` means the request falls outside the approved list, creates a new obligation, conflicts with the solicitation, or needs legal or accounting judgment.

Do not let the deposit deadline force an acceptance decision. You can record that money arrived while keeping the designation review open. The gift record, payment status, and restriction status are related, but they are not interchangeable.

A current nonprofit-operator discussion about limits on designated donations describes the administrative cost of narrow designations and the role of a gift-acceptance policy. Another recent discussion shows development, operations, and finance dividing gift entry and reconciliation in different ways. These are qualitative examples, not universal rules. They reinforce the need to name the decision owner instead of assuming one department handled it.

Map the accepted purpose to both systems

Once accepted, assign one stable designation identifier. Put it on the fundraising gift record and in the finance handoff with the source evidence attached or linked. If the two systems use different codes, maintain one approved crosswalk rather than translating the purpose from memory each time.

Before the gift leaves intake, verify:

1. The donor's exact wording is still available.
2. The acceptance outcome and reviewer are recorded.
3. The active designation and finance code point to the same approved purpose.
4. The acknowledgment wording matches the decision without adding a promise.
5. Any reporting date or follow-up has an owner.

Then include the gift in the normal batch close. The batch should carry the accepted code, while the source artifact remains available when someone needs to explain why it was used.

Hold mismatches in an owned queue

Keep a gift open when the donation form, donor note, acknowledgment draft, fundraising code, and finance code do not agree. Name the missing proof and one owner. Do not solve the mismatch by picking the nearest program name or by deleting the donor's wording.

Close the exception only when three points agree: the source language, the organization's acceptance decision, and the system mapping. If they cannot agree, follow the approved return, clarification, or escalation procedure. The goal is not to accept every requested purpose. It is to make every accepted purpose traceable.