There are two special Donor records in MinistryPlatform that should not be edited. The two Donor records are:

• Default Contact: This is used to temporarily assign a Donation to a record until your team can reassign the Donation to the correct Donor record via the Assign Donor Tool.
• Unassigned Contact: This is used to indicate that a Donation cannot be assigned to a Donor record for some reason, but there is a small possibility that the person might later claim the donation (e.g., perhaps a starter check was used; perhaps cash was in an envelope, but insufficient data was on the envelope to create a record).

Both the Default Contact and Unassigned Contact records have an image indicating they shouldn't be edited, as well as a note on the Donor record expressing that it should not be edited. Anyone with rights to edit Donor records should be aware that it is highly unusual to change the Contact record field to which any Donor record is assigned. However, It is not unusual that you would change the Donor to which a Donation is assigned.

The Default Contact Contact record and the Default Contact Donor record need to be linked together.  Likewise, the Unassigned Contact Contact record and the Unassigned Contact Donor record need to be linked together.

Those who are trusted with rights to edit these pages in the Platform must be aware of which type of record they are editing. Many reports and tools rely on these two special Donor records being configured in a specific manner. Editing these records could adversely affect these tools/reports.

Many of our churches have additional special records imported from their prior Church Management System:

• Loose Cash:  This record is used to track loose plate offerings (cash) which cannot be credited to any specific Donor. The name of this record varies from church to church.
• Children's Offerings: This record is used to track anonymous donations that came from children's ministry classes and events.
• Poorbox Offerings: This record is credited with anonymous donations that are to be given to the poor. Said Donations are often distributed to a benevolence Program as well.

Many of our churches have created additional special records to facilitate MinistryPlatform processes:

• General Trip Participant: This record is used when Donations to a mission trip are accepted without a specific trip participant identified.  This Donor record rarely makes donations. Instead, it is used as a placeholder for Pledge Records that are part of Mission Trip Pledge Campaigns.