Every donor has running totals for gift count, total given, largest gift, last gift date, and open pledge balance. You do not enter these totals yourself. Rhythm calculates them from the donor’s gifts and pledges, then keeps them current automatically. This article explains how Rhythm calculates each total and what happens when a gift changes donors or is removed.
Totals Are Recalculated, Not Entered
When you create, change, or delete a gift or pledge for a donor, Rhythm recalculates that donor’s figures in the background. You do not need to start this process during normal gift or pledge entry because it runs when you save the record.
Because the recalculation runs in the background, the donor’s totals can lag briefly after you save a change. If the totals do not include the gift or pledge you just entered, wait a moment and check again before assuming something is wrong.
If you need every donor’s figures updated at once, instead of waiting for each donor’s next change, you can run an account-wide recalculation. That recalculation also drives the club placement described in Donor Clubs and Automatic Placement Explained.
What Each Figure Counts
- Number of gifts. The number of gifts the donor has made. Soft credits recognize someone other than the actual giver, so they never count here, regardless of the rules that govern them.
- Total given. The total amount of the donor’s gifts. Soft credits never count toward this total.
- Largest gift. The amount of the donor’s largest single gift. If the donor has no gifts, Rhythm clears this amount instead of leaving an old value in place.
- Date of last gift. The date of the donor’s most recent gift. If a future-dated gift is the most recent gift on file, it becomes the donor’s last gift date, so a planned or forward-dated gift can make this date appear later than today.
- Pledge balance still owed. The total outstanding amount across the donor’s pledges.
A query can use the Total Amount of Gifts and Date of Last Gift output fields to show one row for a donor instead of listing every individual transaction. Filtering Date of Last Gift to a range only approximates giving for that period, though. It does not total every gift the donor made during that period, so use it as a rough filter rather than a true yearly total.
Warning
The pledge balance includes every pledge’s outstanding amount, regardless of the pledge’s status, including pledges that have been cancelled or written off. If a donor’s outstanding balance looks higher than expected, check whether a cancelled or written-off pledge is still contributing to it. The total does not automatically exclude a pledge just because it is no longer active.
Warning
When a donor has given in more than one currency, the total-given figure adds each gift amount together without converting currencies first. For a donor who has given in more than one currency, this is not a true single-currency total, so read it with that in mind.
Warning
Canceling an unpaid order that combined a donation with another item, such as a membership, and was set to be billed later, can leave the donor's amount given showing a negative value instead of cleanly removing the donation's effect. If you see a negative amount given after canceling a combined order like this, do not try to correct it by hand. Review the order and gift history together, then contact Support with the order and donor details.
When the Last Gift or Pledge Is Removed
If you delete the last gift or pledge behind a donor’s totals, those totals return to zero instead of keeping their previous values. The gift count, total given, and pledge balance go back to zero, and Rhythm clears the largest gift amount and last gift date. The donor record itself is not deleted; an empty donor with zero totals is a normal state.
Moving a Gift to a Different Donor
If you move a gift or pledge from one donor to another, Rhythm recalculates the donor it now belongs to right away. The donor it used to belong to keeps counting that gift or pledge until something else causes that donor to be recalculated.
Right after you move a gift, both donors can briefly show it in their totals. The new donor shows it because Rhythm just recalculated that donor, and the old donor still shows it because they have not been recalculated since it moved. If you move gifts between donors while correcting a record, recalculate the donor you moved the gift away from as well, so their totals catch up.
Related
See the related articles to learn what a donor record is, how a donor’s club follows the same underlying totals, which rules govern gifts and soft credits, how to review a donor’s giving on their page, and how to recalculate every donor at once.