What's the difference between Campaigns vs. Designations?

Donor Management allows you to categorize donations using both Campaigns and Designations.  So, what's the difference?

Put simply, a Campaign is where the money came from, while a Designation is what the money will go toward. 

Example Campaigns: 2017 Annual Gala, 2016 Year-End Giving, Bowl for Kittens Fundraiser

Example Designations: Supplies for the Homeless Shelter, A New Van, Kitten Food Fund

How Do Campaigns and Designations Help?

Knowing where your funds are coming from and how you're spending them is crucial information for any nonprofit to have. 

By keeping track of your Campaign performance you can decide which appeals work well, and work to improve any that fall short.  Use past performance to help set meaningful goals for future appeals.

Designations can provide a window into what your donors care about. Using Designations can tip you off about programs that are performing particularly well, and show you which need an extra boost.

Personalized Communication

Using Campaigns and Designations allows you to identify donors who gave to a particular cause that's important to them.  That way you can speak directly to their experience (with the benefit of knowing they already care!) 

Just click "Contacts", "Create Filter", choose "Donated to campaign/event" or "Donated to designation", select the appropriate event/designation, and "Save". 

 Now when you create an email or direct mailing you can select this group. Who better to attend Gala 2017 than those who adored Gala 2016?

How Do I Create Campaigns and Designations?

Whenever you create a Fundraising page (whether it's an Everyday Giving page, Peer-to-Peer fundraiser, or Event) you should pat yourself on the back!  You created a Campaign!  It will automatically sync into Donor Management when the first donation is made to it.

When you set up your Everyday Giving page you'll also have the option to let your donors select a Designation - folks love giving to the specific program that means the most to them.  If they select "Wherever it is most useful" the gift will sync over to Donor Management without a Designation attached.

You can also create Campaigns and Designations directly from Donor Management by clicking the light blue "Quick Add" button in the top left corner.

And to make it easy, you can create Campaigns and Designations from the donation record! Just go to the donation, click "Edit", and either select an existing option or create a new one.

Where Do I Go to Manage My Campaigns and Designations?

It's easy to view Campaigns and Designations so that you can quickly find out how your fundraising efforts compare. Both are found by clicking "Giving" and then selecting the appropriate section from the menu below.

The list of Campaigns/Designations is automatically sorted based on most recent activity, but you can easily change the order using the drop down under "Sort By".  Filter on donations made to a Campaign or Designation by clicking the title. Edit or delete a Campaign or Designation using the buttons on the right of the list.

TIP: If you have old Campaigns and Designations that you don't use anymore, they can be deleted. The donation records won't be lost, but you won't be able to easily find them (or the associated donors) based on the deleted criteria.  Before you delete, ask yourself if you plan on segmenting your database by those donors again.  If the answer is yes, don't delete!