How to Work with Memorial Gifts
Memorial gifts are donations made in memory of someone who has passed, as a way for donors to honor a loved one while supporting your organization’s mission. In MonkeyPod, you can record and track these gifts so that every tribute is recognized and acknowledged appropriately.
This article walks you through how to enter a memorial gift, link it to the person being honored, and send acknowledgment letters to both the donor and the family. It’s a simple way to keep these meaningful contributions organized and ensure every gift in someone’s memory is celebrated with care.
How do I enable memorial gifts in my MonkeyPod?
By default, the option to submit a memorial gift is turned off. To enable this feature, choose My MonkeyPod from the main menu, and select Organization Settings. Once there, select the Relationships tab. Look for the Fundraising section and select Gift Dedications. Select the option there to track memorial gifts.
That setting turns on the option for donors to give in memory of someone when they donate through your fundraising pages (or embeds). You can also enter that memorial information yourself when recording donations manually into your MonkeyPod.
How do donors submit memorial gifts?
When submitting a donation through a MonkeyPod fundraising page or embed, donors can enter the name of the person to memorialize and include information about the donation—such as where to send an note to let a family member know about the gift.
Once the donation is submitted, the dedication is recorded with the donation and a new relationship is created for the memorialized person.
NOTE: When the donor enters a name into the "Give in memory of" field, your MonkeyPod creates a new relationship for that person. It does not match against existing relationships, so it is possible for a donor to generate a duplicate relationship in your MonkeyPod this way. Remember to periodically run the duplicate checker to have MonkeyPod identify duplicates and you can choose if they should be merged. See How to Use the Duplicates Manager for details.
How can I view the details about a memorial donation?
When viewing a donation, you'll see the dedication listed right below the donor name.
Hover over the note icon to preview the note, or click the note icon to view the complete note submitted by the donor.
How do I know that a memorial donation has been made?
An important part of managing memorial gifts is sharing the news of the gift with the deceased's loved ones. Often, memorial gifts are highlighted separately in donor acknowledgement lists as well.
When the donation is made, MonkeyPod sends an email and/or notification alerting you to the new donation, and that notification will include the name of the memorialized person and the note. See also the following section about using the Contribution Details report to find all donations made as memorial gifts.
Tip! If you're not receiving emails or notifications about donations, and you'd like to, check out your Notification Preferences settings (available under the profile menu at the top right of your MonkeyPod). Choose the option there to receive notifications when donations are received or recorded.
Where can I see all memorial donations?
The best way to see which donations were made in memory of someone is to view the Contribution Details report available in your Reports menu.
When viewing the report, select the option to show the In Memory Of column in the report.
If you click Download Excel to download a copy of the report, the names of the memorialized will be listed in that Excel file as well.
How can I find all donations for a particular person?
To find all the donations made in the name of a particular person, search for that person in your MonkeyPod by choosing Relationships from the main menu and use the search option in that menu.
On the relationship page, select the Interactions tab and you'll see donations made in their name listed there. Keep in mind that memorial gifts made through fundraising pages or embeds will create a new relationship for the person memorialized, so be sure to merge those duplicates.
You could also use the Contribution Details report described above to find all donations in memory of a particular person. You can peruse the details report there on screen, or it can be exported using the Download Excel and then filter the transactions in Excel to find the ones you're looking for.
How can I manually record a memorial gift?
If you're manually entering a donation into your MonkeyPod (by choosing Fundraising > Record a Donation), you'll see a link to record the donation in memory of someone in the list of optional actions at the end of the donation form.
Select In memory of and then begin typing the name to select the person's name from a list of your relationships. If the person is not already in your MonkeyPod, select Create new to create a new relationship for them.
Save the donation when you're done and the tribute will be recorded with the donation.
FAQ
Can I add the memorial tribute to a donation that has already been recorded?
Yes! Just locate the donation, select Edit donation from the action menu, and add the memorial information as described above.