A small charity's year is a few hundred one-off gifts, a monthly base that runs itself, and two or three grants that pay in two. QuixChex charges the monthly giving on the day it falls due, keeps the funding proposals that are still out with the amount asked on them, and puts a card that stopped working in front of you with the donor's name on it.
How a visit runs
A family sets up a memorial fund at the spring reception and starts giving $50 a month toward it. The charge runs on the 12th and keeps running with nothing to re-key. In February their card is replaced and the charge fails — and the next morning it's sitting there by itself: the name, the amount, and what the gift was for. One missed month is a phone call. Three is a lapsed donor.
Monthly or annual, on a stored card, charged on the same day each cycle with nothing to re-key and nobody to remind.
The donor, the amount and what the gift was for — so a sustainer who lapsed quietly is visible while it is one month, not three.
First payment when the agreement is signed, the final one when the report is filed — and what’s still owed stays on the proposal until it lands.
Gift taken. Monthly giving running. Receipt sent.
A sustainer's card expires and nothing bounces, nobody rings, and the money is simply not there. Failed charges are listed on their own with the donor, the amount and what the gift was for, so it's a phone call while it's still one missed month.
A grant application and a corporate sponsorship packet are the same document with different letterhead, and both wait on a committee that meets when it meets. What's still out is listed with the amount asked and the day it went.
A restricted grant pays in two — something when the agreement is signed, the rest once the final report is filed and accepted. The second one is money you're owed against a document nobody has written yet, and it stays on the proposal until it lands.
A $175 gala ticket is about $60 of dinner, and above $75 the IRS wants that stated in writing before the money is taken. The wording sits on the price list line, so it prints on the receipt no matter who is at the donation desk — same for a winning bid above the item's stated value, and for a raffle ticket, which isn't a contribution at all.
A state charitable solicitation registration expires, and an expired one means you can't lawfully ask for money in that state. It sits with the determination letter, the D&O policy and the audit engagement, each one surfacing before its date rather than after.
Day one
Say you run a nonprofit fundraising business and QuixChex sets this up for you before you've typed anything. Every price is editable — they're a starting point, not a rule.
| Service | What it covers | Starting price |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Fund Gift | Unrestricted — rent, salaries and the lights | $100 |
| Sustaining Gift — Monthly | Same day each month until they say stop | $25 |
| Leadership Gift | The major-gift entry rung, usually asked face to face | $1,000 |
| Designated Gift — Named Fund | Restricted to the donor's stated purpose, which is binding | $500 |
| Tribute Gift — In Honor or In Memory | The family is told a gift was made, never the amount | $250 |
| Pledge Payment | One instalment — only the payment is income, not the pledge | $1,000 |
| Named Endowment — Minimum | Fundable over three years; only the payout is spendable | $25,000 |
| Gala Ticket | About $60 is dinner and isn't deductible — stated in writing before the money is taken | $175 |
| Gala Table of Ten | Ten seats and the table sign, same disclosure ten times over | $1,750 |
| Golf Tournament Foursome | Four players, carts and lunch — the playing value isn't deductible | $1,000 |
| Hole Sponsorship | Tee sign and a line in the programme — recognition, so deductible in full | $500 |
| Event Sponsorship — Presenting | Name on the event; raised as a proposal, not a ticket | $10,000 |
| Auction Purchase — Winning Bid | Enter the bid — only the amount above the stated value is deductible | $0 |
| Raffle Ticket | Not a contribution — the IRS treats it as a purchase, and no acknowledgment is issued | $20 |
FAQ
No. The designation is written on the gift — the line that was rung up, the description on a monthly schedule — so the record and the receipt read correctly. That is a label, not a ledger: QuixChex won’t tell you how much of the money in the bank is still spendable, and a restricted balance belongs in your accounting system. It doesn’t sync to that system either, which is a decision rather than a gap — a sync carries invoices and contacts, and the one thing that has to survive the trip is what the donor said the money was for.
No. Every payment sends a receipt, and any compliance wording you put on a price list line prints on it. The letter that carries a donor’s deduction on a gift of $250 or more is still yours to write and sign, and there is no acknowledged / not-acknowledged flag here to work a list from. If receipting is the job you were hoping to hand over, this is not the part of it that gets handed over.
Not on a schedule. Recurring giving runs monthly or annually here; quarterly and semi-annual aren’t in it yet. A monthly rigged to skip two months out of three would look right on the screen and charge wrong, so a quarterly pledge is raised as an instalment each time until the interval exists.
Not as a record of their own. The party on the money here is the donor; the person served is written on the funding proposal and its lines, which reads properly but can’t be looked up or reported on. If your work is measured in the people you serve rather than the people who give, that is worth hearing now rather than in month two.
No, deliberately. The staff list is people on payroll — a gift officer with a login and a calendar — and a volunteer who ends up on a pay control stops being a volunteer. Hours for a grant report have to come from somewhere else. A scholarship fund, a grantmaker, a church or an arts organisation is a fit; a food bank running four shifts a day needs something this doesn’t have.
No. The numbers on the dashboard are rolling windows — today, seven days, thirty days — and a fiscal year that opens in July with a third of the money arriving in December isn’t a question they can answer. What is there: the monthly giving base, what arrived in the last thirty days, new donors, what failed, and what is still out on a proposal. Pace against goal isn’t there.
Yes. The donation desk rings a ticket, a table, a raffle book or a winning bid against the donor who bought it, on the same record as everything else they have given. A merchant account and a gateway are still yours to hold — the card runs through them, and the gift lands on the donor here.
Yes, and it’s the ordinary case. A $25 monthly to the annual fund, an instalment against a three-year pledge, and a table at the gala all sit on the same donor, each charging on its own terms and each on the record when you open them.
Yes. Impact photos sit on the visit they were taken on and go out from there. One caution first: much of what a charity photographs is a person it serves, often a minor, and nobody goes in a photo that leaves the building without a signed release on file first.
A short call, on your own services and your own customers. We'll show you what the first week looks like, and talk through what it would take to get you there.