What is a Joint Gift?
A joint gift is one donation credited to more than one person — a couple writing a check together, a family giving in memory of a parent, two partners who should both appear on the donor wall.
The money counts once. Each donor counts individually. That's the whole idea.
Example: Mary Anderson writes a $500 check to your food bank's annual appeal and asks that her husband Robert be credited alongside her. Instead of recording two $250 gifts, or only Mary's name, you record one $500 gift and add Robert as a joint donor.
How to Add Joint Donors
Joint donors are added by admins, on the gift itself. You'll find a Joint donors section when you create or edit:
A one-time gift
A recurring gift (subscription)
A pledge
For each joint donor you'll enter a name (required) and an email (optional). If the email matches an existing constituent, they're linked automatically. The same email can't be used twice on the same gift.
For recurring gifts and pledges, you set joint donors once on the subscription or pledge itself, and they apply to every future installment.
Example: When Mary's $500 gift arrives, you open it in the admin area, click + Add donor in the Joint donors section, and enter Robert's name and email. Done — no second transaction, no duplicate record.
On one-time gifts, you can edit a joint donor's name or email in place. On recurring gifts and pledges, you can add or remove — to change a name or email, remove the entry, and add it again.
How Joint Gifts Behave on Your Pages
Once joint donors are saved, the platform handles the rest:
Leaderboards, tickers, giving pages — joint donors appear next to the primary donor on the same line: "Mary & Robert Anderson — $500".
Campaign dollar total — the gift counts once. Mary and Robert's $500 joint gift adds $500 to the campaign, not $1,000.
Donor count — each joint donor counts as an individual donor. That same $500 gift adds 2 donors to the campaign count.
Anonymous gifts — if Mary chose to give anonymously, Robert would also be hidden from public pages. Anonymity carries across.
Joint Gifts in Matching & Challenge Campaigns
The behavior depends on what your match or challenge is based on:
Dollar-for-dollar match — based on gift amount only. Mary and Robert's $500 joint gift unlocks $500 in matching funds, the same as a $500 single-donor gift.
Participation challenge (donor goal) — each joint donor counts toward the goal. That same $500 gift counts as 2 donors toward a 500-donor target.
Gift-count challenge — a joint gift is still one gift, no matter how many joint donors are on it.
Example: Your institution's foundation is running a Day of Giving with two challenges:
"Every dollar matched up to $25,000" and
"If 500 donors give, our trustees unlock an additional $50,000."
When the Andersons' $500 joint gift comes in, it adds $500 to the matched total and counts as 2 donors toward the 500-donor goal. A family of four giving together would count as 4.
Participation challenges are where joint gifts have the most impact — couples and families finally count for what they are.
How Joint Gifts Sync to Your CRM
In a CRM like Raiser's Edge NXT, the primary donor receives the main gift and each joint donor is sent as a soft credit at the full gift amount — the standard pattern fundraising CRMs use for this kind of recognition.
Example: When the Andersons' $500 gift syncs, Mary is recorded as the main gift recipient (the $500 hard credit), and Robert appears on the gift as a $500 soft credit. Robert needs to be linked to a constituent record (either on Almabase or RE NXT/BBCRM) that already exists in your CRM for the soft credit to make it across.
A few details worth knowing:
A joint donor needs to be matched to a constituent that already exists in your CRM in order to sync. Unmatched joint donors still appear on giving pages and in donor counts, just not in the CRM until they're linked.
Adding explicit joint donors turns off the CRM's automatic spouse/household soft-credit defaults for that gift. The donors you specified are used instead.
For recurring gifts and pledges, each installment payment carries the joint donors forward when it syncs. If you change joint donors on a pledge that's already synced, the pledge is flagged for re-sync.
What Joint Gifts Don't Do (Yet)
Donors can't add joint donors themselves on the donation form — admins add them in the admin area. If a donor wants their spouse, family member, or business partner credited, your team adds it on their behalf.
Excel Imports do not yet support joint gifts.
If there's a workflow you'd like to see — donor-driven joint gifting at checkout, for example — let your customer success contact know.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does adding a joint donor double the gift amount?
No. The gift amount stays the same. Mary and Robert's $500 joint gift is still $500 toward your campaign total. Joint donors increase your donor count, not your dollar total.
Do joint donors count toward donor counts in campaigns?
Yes — each joint donor is counted as an individual donor. On campaign totals, the platform de-duplicates: if Robert later makes his own separate gift, he's still counted once across the campaign, not twice.
How are joint donors shown on leaderboards?
All joint donors appear together with the primary donor — for example, "Mary & Robert Anderson — $500". If the gift is anonymous, none of them are shown publicly.
How do joint gifts work with matching campaigns?
Dollar-for-dollar matches are based on the gift amount only. Participation challenges count each joint donor individually toward the donor goal. So a $500 joint gift from a couple unlocks $500 in matching dollars and contributes 2 donors to a participation goal.
Can donors add joint donors themselves at checkout?
Not at this time. Admins add joint donors from the admin area after the gift has been recorded. Most teams capture the request on a follow-up call or thank-you email and add it then.
Can I remove or change a joint donor after adding one?
On one-time gifts, yes — edit or remove from the same screen. On recurring gifts and pledges, you can add or remove; to change a name or email, remove the entry and add it again.
Does this work for recurring gifts and pledges?
Yes. You add joint donors once on the recurring gift or pledge itself, and they apply to every future installment. So if the Andersons set up a $50/month recurring gift, you only need to add Robert as a joint donor once — every monthly payment going forward will credit them both.
What if a joint donor doesn't have an email?
You can still add them by name. They'll appear on giving pages and leaderboards, but won't sync to your CRM until they're mapped to a constituent record on Almabase or RE NXT/BBCRM).
Is there a limit on how many joint donors I can add?
No hard limit. If the Bennett family wants all four siblings credited on a memorial gift for their father, you can add all four. The only restriction: the same email can't be used twice on the same gift.