A fund tells Rhythm where a gift can go, such as a scholarship fund, general operating fund, or building campaign fund. Every gift, pledge, and recurring gift must name a fund, so create your funds before you start taking donations.
Each fund belongs to one business unit, where the money is booked, and to one fund category. You can also mark a fund as restricted, set an annual limit per donor, hide it from the Portal while staff still use it, and turn it off or back on without changing its history.
Where to Find It
Go to Fundraising & Gifts › Setup › Funds. The page lists every fund in your account, including whether it is restricted and whether it is active.
Prerequisites
- You need Fundraising administrator access to open Setup pages.
- Have at least one active fund category ready, because every fund must belong to one.
- Know which business unit should receive the fund’s money before you start, because you can’t change it after you save the fund.
Create or Edit a Fund
- Go to Fundraising & Gifts › Setup › Funds.
- Select Create Fund, or open an existing fund to update it.
- Choose a Business Unit:. This sets the prefix on the fund’s identifier, and you can’t change it after you save the fund.
- Choose a Category: from your active fund categories.
- Enter a Name:. Rhythm suggests an ID: from the name and shows it with your business unit’s prefix already in place.
- Turn on This is a restricted fund if the money may only be used for a restricted purpose.
- Turn on This fund has an annual contribution limit to cap how much one donor may give to this fund in a year, then enter the Annual Contribution Limit: in dollars.
- Turn on Hide this fund from the portal? to keep the fund off public giving forms while staff can still select it in the Console.
- Leave Status: on to keep the fund available, or switch it off to retire it.
- Select Save Changes.
Result
The fund is saved. For a brand-new fund, Fundraising also creates a matching fundraising product with the same identifier and the name “Fund Name Donation” — see Fundraising Products — so the fund can accept donations right away. If that product fails to create, you won’t see an on-screen message. If a later donation can’t find a product for the fund, Rhythm creates one at that point.
Tip
Choosing a business unit on a new fund also changes your own working business unit for the rest of your Console session. If you work across several business units, choose the fund’s business unit last, right before you save.
Hiding, Restricting, and Limiting a Fund
- Hide this fund from the portal? keeps an active fund off public giving forms while staff can still use it to process gifts in the Console. If a donor already had a giving form open when you made the change, they can still submit a gift to the fund because Rhythm does not re-check the setting at that point.
- Restricted is a bookkeeping label that notes the money may only be used for a specific purpose. It does not change what donors can do.
- Annual Contribution Limit caps how much one donor can give to the fund through a giving form over the last twelve months, using a rolling year instead of a calendar or fiscal year. Gifts that staff record another way are not checked against the limit. Rhythm shows the limit in US dollars regardless of your account’s currency.
- Switching a fund’s Status: off retires it for new gifts without changing gifts already recorded against it. An inactive fund is left out of every fund picker in both the Portal and the Console.
Reorder Funds
Drag a fund’s handle to move it within the list. Fundraising saves the new order as soon as you drop it.
Delete a Fund
Fundraising will not delete a fund while a campaign, appeal, recurring gift, giving process, or your account’s Fundraising settings still name it. Deleting an unused fund also removes its matching fundraising product. If the fund is still referenced somewhere, the delete is refused and the fund stays in place, but the matching product was deleted first and is not restored. If this happens, recreate the fund’s fundraising product from Fundraising Products, or switch the fund off instead of deleting it.
You can’t undo a deletion from the Console. After you delete a fund’s identifier, you may not be able to reuse that exact identifier for a new fund for up to an hour while Rhythm clears internal locks.
Permissions
You need Fundraising administrator access to Setup to view, create, edit, reorder, and delete funds.
Validation and Errors
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Access Denied dialog | Your role doesn’t have Fundraising administrator access to Setup | Ask an administrator for access |
| The save is refused about the name, business unit, or category | One of these fields is missing | Fill in all three |
| The save is refused about the ID | The identifier does not start with the chosen business unit, or it contains a character other than letters, digits, and _ : | - | Let Rhythm build the ID from the business unit and name |
| The save is refused for a missing amount | The annual limit switch is on but no amount was entered, or the amount is negative | Enter zero or a positive amount, or switch the limit off |
| "Unable to delete Fund" | A campaign, appeal, recurring gift, giving process, or your account’s Fundraising settings still name this fund | Remove the reference, or switch the fund off instead of deleting it |