Deposits & Donations
Understanding the two core concepts in Chariot — Deposits and Donations — and how they work together.
The Deposits page and the Donations page are the two primary views in Chariot's Gift Processing platform. Together, they give your team a complete picture of every payment and individual gift that flows to your organization.
This article explains what each view shows, how they relate to each other through the Deposit ID, and how to navigate them day to day.
What is a deposit?
A deposit represents a payment settlement from a specific payment source — similar to a line item or you’d see on a bank statement.
When Daffy, Fidelity Charitable, Benevity, or any other connected payment source sends funds to your Chariot Deposit Account, that payment appears as a deposit.
Each deposit includes the default fields shown below. You can also add custom fields (properties) as needed within your dashboard.
Payer
The payment source (i.e., Fidelity Charitable, Benevity, PayPal Grant Payments)
Amount
The total amount received in the deposit.
Transfer Type
Electronic Account Transfer, Inbound ACH, or Check Deposit
Status
Completed (Settled)
Pending (In Progress)
Settled at
The date the deposit settled in your Chariot account.
Donation Count
How many donation line items are associated with the deposit. A deposit can include multiple individual donations grouped into a single payment. For example, a $10,000 deposit may consist of 10 separate $1,000 donations from different donors.
Deposit ID
A unique identifier assigned to each deposit by Chariot. This ID is critical for reconciliation and is applied to all associated donations, allowing you to track which donations belong to a given deposit.
For Accounting Teams - Add a custom property like “Added to ERP” to your Deposits view to track which deposits have been posted to your ERP. This keeps your queue clean and provides visibility into what’s been booked.
Navigating your deposits
The deposits table shows all payment settlements received in your Chariot Deposit Account. Each row represents a single deposit from a linked payment source.
From this view you can:
Filter by payer, status, type, date range, etc.
Sort by settled at date
Add properties to keep track of ERP workflows (i.e., recording journal entries)
Click into any deposit to view its the individual donations line items
What is a donation?
A donation is an individual gift within a deposit. While a deposit represents a single payment settlement, it may include multiple donations from different donors.
Each donation contains detailed information about the donor and the gift. You can choose from nearly 50 donation-related fields to display across your Donation page views. Below are the most essential fields:
Created On
Date of donation initiation (this can be earlier than Deposit settled at which communicates when funds have arrived)
Payer
Entity that deposited funds into your Chariot Account (i.e., Linked Payment Source)
DAF Organization
Name of the Donor Advised Fund provider
Company
Name of the Company (for workplace giving and matching gifts)
Donor Fund Name
The donor's fund name at the DAF (i.e., Jane Giving Fund)
Donor Name
Primary donor's first and last name
Purpose
The donor's stated purpose or designation
Note
The donor's provided special note or message
Deposit ID
A unique identifier assigned to each deposit by Chariot. This ID is critical for reconciliation and is applied to all associated donations, allowing you to track which donations belong to a given deposit.
Deposit Settled At
The date the associated deposit settled in your Chariot account.
Gross Amount
The full donation amount before any fees
Match Amount
The match amount associated with this donation. To be attributed to the Company
Fee Amount
Any platform fee deducted by the payment source (e.g., Benevity processing fee).
Net Amount
The amount actually deposited — gross minus fee.
Custom Properties
Any additional columns your team has created (i.e., text, select dropdown, checkbox, date, person, relation).
Additional fields can be displayed on any donations table view
Donor first name
Donor last name
Donor email
Donor phone
Donor address line 1
Donor address line 2
Donor address city
Donor address state
Donor address zipcode
DAF Program
Match Program
External ID
Last Updated At
Canceled At
DAFpay URL
DAFpay Tracking ID
DAFpay Metadata
The donation detail panel
Click any donation to open its detail panel. The panel is organized into the following sections:
Summary (Key Details)
Donor Information
Deposit Information
DAFpay Information
Custom Properties
Artifacts — Associated documents (e.g., grant letters, csv files, PDF images).
Activity Log — A timeline of all updates made to a donation (i.e., CRM status updated to Sycned on Januay 14th, 2027 by Jane Doe)
Policy Execution
How are deposits and donations connected?
Every donation that is received in your Chariot account carries a Deposit ID that links it to its parent deposit. This is the key connection between the Deposits and Donations views.
The Deposit ID is the most important field for reconciliation. When your gift entry team enters records in the CRM and your accounting team posts journal entries to the ERP, both should reference the same Deposit ID and Deposit Settled Date.This ensures accurate, consistent reconciliation at month-end. Deposit IDs can also be found on your monthly Chariot Bank Statement.
Relationship structure
One deposit → many donations
A single deposit (e.g., from Fidelity Charitable) may include many individual donor gifts
One donation → one deposit
Each received donation belongs to exactly one deposit
Where to find the Deposit ID
Deposits page — Displayed as the primary identifier for each deposit
Donations page — Available as a column you can display, filter, and group by
How to navigate between views
From Deposits → Donations — Open a deposit to view all included donations
From Donations → Deposits — Use the Deposit ID to link back to the parent deposit
Filter donations by Deposit ID — Useful when reconciling or reviewing a specific deposit
Frequently asked questions
Why does the deposit amount differ from the sum of individual donations?
If a payer deducts a platform fee (e.g., Benevity), the deposit reflects the net amount received. Each donation shows the gross amount, fee, and net amount separately, giving you full visibility into the breakdown. As a result, the total gross amount of all donations may be higher than the deposit total, which reflects the net.
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