What are Designations?
Designations are designated funds that a donor can choose to contribute to when making a donation on your checkout page. These funds allow organizations to allocate donations to specific programs, campaigns, or projects. Donors can select a fund from a list of designations or have their donation go to a general or undesignated fund, providing flexibility for the organization.
Key Terminology:
- Designated Funds: Donors choose a specific fund to donate to.
- Undesignated Funds: Donors do not specify a fund, and the organization can use the donation where it's most needed.
How to Access Designations
- Go to the Payments tab in your dashboard.
- Select Designations from the navigation menu.
- You will see a table listing your active and archived designations.
Designation List Overview
A Designation List is a collection of designated funds that you can associate with your checkout page. This simplifies the management and display of multiple designations.
Creating a Designation List:
- Navigate to the Payments tab and select Designation Lists.
- Click to create a new list, then name it and select the designated funds to include.
The designation list will display all included designations, and you can view information such as:
- Total amount raised
- Year-to-date contributions
- Integration status (error, processed, pending, etc.)
Managing Designations
From the Designations table, you can manage and interact with your designations in the following ways:
- Archive a designation.
- Add designations to a list with a quick click.
- Tag supporters associated with a specific designation.
- Re-sync designations to your CRM.
- Export data for a selected designation.
- Create New designations by selecting the "Create New" option.
When creating a new designation, you will need to:
- Name the designation.
- Assign a designation code for tracking purposes (optional).
- Choose if the designation is tax-deductible.
- If tax-deductible, all donations to this fund will be marked as tax-deductible.
- If not, the donations are marked as service revenue.
- If tax-deductible, all donations to this fund will be marked as tax-deductible.
- Optionally, add a fair market value for the designation to include in year-end tax statements.
- Add any internal notes for reference.
- Add a thank you video using a YouTube embed link, which can be overridden if you want a unique thank-you video for each designation.
Customizing Designation Settings for Checkout
To set up designations on the checkout page, follow these steps:
- Go to the Checkout Element in your dashboard.
- Click on the Designation tab.
- Choose from several options:
- Allow donors to choose from any of your created designations.
- Set a fixed designation so donors do not have a choice.
- Allow donors to select from a predefined designation list that you have already set up.
- Do not allow any designation to be chosen.
- Require a designation to be selected before completing the donation.
- Allow donors to choose from any of your created designations.
Customization Options:
- Always show the designation input field on the checkout page.
- Customize the label for the designation input.
- Change the display style from a minimal drop-down list to a more prominent select input.
Once set up, donors will see the designated funds available for donation during checkout, or the default fund will be pre-selected.
Conclusion
Designations in WeGive provide a flexible and organized way to manage donor contributions to specific funds. By setting up designation lists, customizing checkout options, and allowing donors to select their preferred funds, organizations can offer a personalized donation experience while keeping track of contributions for tax and reporting purposes.