Creating Fundraising Campaigns

Follow these steps to create a fundraising campaign to track donations:

1. Open a new record from the Fundraising Campaigns service.
2. Specify the Name of the new campaign.
3. In the Product Category field, select a fundraising-related product category.
4. In the Organization field, specify the organization to which this campaign applies.

   • This organization determines the functional currency (populated in the Campaign Currency field) for the fundraising campaign. When you open a new record from the Fundraising Campaigns service, the Campaign Currency field defaults to your organization's functional currency or the system's default currency if an organizational currency is not specified. When an organization is specified in the Organization field, the Campaign Currency field is populated with the currency type associated with that organization.

     Only one organization (and thus one currency type) can be defined per the Fundraising Campaigns record. In addition, once a Pledges record is created for a fundraising campaign, the Organization field becomes disabled and can no longer be modified.

5. Enter the Start Date and End Date for the Campaign. 
   
   • These dates are for tracking purposes only and do not drive any other system functionality (in other words, a user can take a pledge for a campaign even if the current date is outside the range defined by the Start/End Date fields).
6. Select a Status for the campaign.
   • This field is for tracking purposes only (it does not drive other system functionality).
7. Enter a fundraising goal in the Target Amount field.
   • An organization can use this field in conjunction with the Total Raised field to track the campaign's progress. Total Raised is a calculated, read-only field that shows how much money has been raised for the campaign to date.
8. Configure the discount settings for the campaign's pledges.
   • These settings determine which set of pledge payments, if any, are discounted to present value for accounting purposes.
   • Contact your accounting department if you need assistance configuring these fields.
   • See Specifying Pledge Discount Options for details.
9. If donations to this campaign are tax deductible (all or in part), select the Tax Deductible option and configure the Deductible Type and Percent Deductible fields, as necessary.
   • If donations are deductible, select Percent or Amount in the Deductible Type field, and enter the amount or percentage that is deductible in the Percent Deductible field.
   • These fields are for tracking purposes only. They do not drive any system functionality.
     
     
     
     
10. On the Giving Categories tab, specify the giving categories for the campaign. See Creating Giving Categories for details.
11. On the Funds tab, add at least one Fund to the campaign.
    • A pledge in this campaign can only be applied to funds listed on this tab.
    • See Adding Funds to a Campaign for details.
      
12. Add any additional information on the Comments tab.
13. Save and close the Fundraising Campaigns record.
    • To specify Campaign Solicitors, see Adding Fundraising Campaign Solicitors.
    • To specify Campaign Match Rules, see Tracking Match Rules.

Specifying Pledge Discount Options

Pledges are often paid in installments over a year or more. In this case, an organization may be required by accounting standards to discount the number of future pledges to their present value for reporting purposes.

Contact your accounting department to determine if and how your organization complies with this requirement. For each fundraising campaign, you can configure whether or not future pledge payments are discounted to present value.

Aptify supports the following discounting options for fundraising campaigns:

• Do not discount: Clear both the Discount Revenue On First Year Payments and the Discount Revenue After First Year options.
• Discount installments after the first year only: Clear the Discount Revenue On First Year Payments option, and select the Discount Revenue After First Year option.
• Discount all future installments: Select the Discount Revenue On First Year Payments and the Discount Revenue After First Year options.

Note that when pledges are discounted (either all future payments or only those after the first year), the discount rate used to calculate the pledge's present value is specified on the Pledges record. See About Present Value and Discount Rates for more information on discounting pledge amounts.

Creating Giving Categories

Giving categories provide the ability to classify a contributor's pledge and are listed on the Giving Categories tab of the Fundraising Campaigns record. Using the information on this tab, Aptify automatically fills in the Giving Category field on a Pledges record based on the amount of the donation.

Follow these steps to specify the giving categories:

1. Open a Fundraising Categories record and click the Giving Categories tab, if not already selected.
2. Click the New icon to open a new Giving Categories record.
   
   
3. Enter the Giving Categories Name, the Range To and Range From amounts, and Comments if necessary and click OK.
   • The Range To and Range From fields are expressed in the campaign's currency type.
4. Create additional giving categories as necessary. The new categories display in the list.

Adding Funds to a Campaign

Each Fundraising Campaign record stores the set of funds to which contributors can make donations as part of this campaign in the Funds tab. A pledge taken for this campaign can only be applied to the funds listed on this tab.

Follow these steps to add one or more funds to a campaign:

1. Open the Fundraising Campaigns record and click the Funds tab.
2. Click the New icon in the toolbar to open a new Funds record.
3. Enter the fund's Products record in the Fund field.
4. Enter the standard pledge amount requested for this fund in the Request Amount field.
   • This is the suggested contribution level for the fund during this particular campaign. Note that this field does not drive any system functionality.
   • The Request Amount field is expressed in the campaign's currency type.
     
5. Enter any additional information in the Comments field.
   
   
6. Click OK.
7. Add additional funds to the campaign as necessary.