Reclassify a Donation

Goal: Move a gift from one entity to another — for example, from one campaign to a different campaign, or to a fundraising event — when it was recorded against the wrong place. No money moves.

When to reclassify

Reclassifying is the right tool whenever the attribution of a gift is wrong but the money itself is fine:

• A gift was applied to the wrong campaign
• A donation belongs with a fundraising event instead of the general campaign it landed in
• A gift should be tied to a specific construction project or a particular fund
• A donation was left unassigned and now needs to be credited to an appeal
• You need to un-assign a gift back to General / Unassigned

If money actually needs to come back to the donor, that's a refund, not a reclassification. If the gift's own details are wrong — amount, date, or payment method — that's a correction.

What you can move a donation to

A donation can be reclassified to any of these:

Target	What it means
Campaign	Credit the gift to a specific campaign and its goal
Fundraising Event	Credit the gift to an event and its goal
Project	Tie the gift to a construction project
Fund	Attribute the gift directly to an accounting fund
General / Unassigned	Remove any campaign/event/project and let the gift land in your affiliate's default fund

How to reclassify a gift

You can reclassify from two places:

• A campaign's donation list — open the campaign, switch to the manage view, and use the Reclassify action on the gift's row.
• A donor's profile — open the person, find the gift in Donation History, and use the Reclassify action.

Then:

1. Click Reclassify on the donation.
2. Choose what to move it to (Campaign, Fundraising Event, Project, Fund, or General / Unassigned).
3. Pick the specific target — the campaign, event, project, or fund.
4. Enter a reason. This is required and is stored in the audit trail.
5. Click Review Change, read the confirmation, then confirm.

The reason should be enough for a future reader to understand the move — e.g. "Donor confirmed this was for the Spring Gala, not the Annual Fund."

What updates automatically

• The donation's campaign / event / project / fund attribution
• The fund the gift lands in (it follows the new target's default fund, or your affiliate default)
• Fundraising totals on both the old and the new campaign or event — the amount leaves the old entity's raised total and joins the new one
• The gift's appearance in campaign and event donation lists and in donor giving history

Accounting is not adjusted automatically

warning

Reclassifying only changes how the gift is attributed. It does not touch accounting. Any journal entry already posted for the donation keeps its original accounts.

If the gift had already generated a journal entry, that entry still points at the accounts chosen for the original designation. Reclassifying will not void it, will not create a reversing entry, and will not re-post it to the new designation's accounts. When the new classification maps to different GL income, fund, or class accounts, your accounting team needs to reconcile the difference manually in your books (or in your connected accounting system).

The confirmation step spells this out every time so it's never a surprise. If keeping the books perfectly aligned matters for a particular gift, coordinate the reclassification with whoever owns your general ledger.

Audit trail

Every reclassification is recorded permanently, capturing:

• Who moved the gift
• When
• The from classification and the to classification
• The reason entered

This history is available per donation as its reclassification history, so a move can always be traced and explained later. Reclassifying never erases the prior attribution — it records the change on top of it.

Who can reclassify

Reclassifying a donation requires the same permission as editing a donation (donations.donations.update). Staff who can record and edit gifts can reclassify them; view-only users cannot. Because moving money between campaigns and funds affects fundraising totals, grant this deliberately.

Reclassify vs. refund

	Reclassify	Refund
Money moves?	No	Yes — returns funds to the donor
Changes attribution?	Yes	No
Adjusts the general ledger?	No — reconcile manually	Yes — posts a reversing entry
Use when	The gift is on the wrong campaign/event/fund	The donor should get their money back

Use Reclassify to fix where a gift is credited. Use Refund only when money needs to come back.