A giving process’s donation form controls what donors can do when they give. You choose suggested amounts, fund selection, pledges, recurring gifts, and the messages donors see before they submit. This article covers those donor-facing options. For the giving process name, default fund, campaign credit, and payment settings, see Create and Manage Giving Processes.
You configure these options on the giving process’s Create Giving Process form, which you open from Fundraising & Gifts › Setup › Giving Processes. These settings apply to the Portal donation form and to the gift and pledge processing screens staff use in the Console.
Prerequisites
- You need Fundraising administrator access to open Setup pages.
- Create or open a giving process before you configure these options. See Create and Manage Giving Processes.
Suggested Gift Amounts
Turn on Suggest Gift Amounts to show donors preset amount buttons instead of starting with a blank amount field. Under Enter up to 5 Gift Amounts:, enter the amounts you want to offer. Despite the label, Rhythm accepts one to ten amounts, and each amount must be at least $1. You can also set a Suggested Gift/Pledge Amount:, which appears preselected on the form and does not have to match one of the preset buttons.
Let Donors Choose Where They Give
The question Should donors be able to designate where they would like their funds to go? has three choices:
- No — every gift goes to the giving process’s default fund, and donors do not choose.
- Single Fund — donors choose one fund or leave the selection at “where it is needed most,” which sends the gift to the default fund.
- Multiple Fund — donors split one gift across more than one fund. If they leave the main destination at “where it is needed most,” that portion goes to the default fund, the same as in Single Fund.
When fund choice is on, you can limit the funds donors see by turning on Restrict to specific fund categories, Restrict to specific types of funds (restricted or unrestricted), or Restrict to specific funds. Then choose the categories, types, or funds you want to allow. These restrictions work together, so each one you turn on narrows the list further. Rhythm does not require the giving process’s default fund to meet those restrictions, so choose the default fund with that in mind.
For one landing page, you can send gifts to a particular campaign or appeal instead of the giving process’s own default. Add ?campaignId=[Campaign ID] or ?appealId=[Appeal ID] to the page’s address, or set those values as attributes on the Portal giving control in the microsite designer. Either method overrides the giving process’s configured values for that page only. The giving process editor’s tip also names a similar fundId override, but the public donation form does not currently use a fund passed this way; only the campaign and appeal overrides take effect.
Because a page’s campaign and appeal can always be changed by editing its address, the Give Gift component does not reliably restrict a donation page to one campaign. That can make it hard to build a separate page for giving by campaign. If donors should choose their own fund and amount, send them to your overall giving page instead of trying to lock down a campaign page. If you need a page for one predetermined amount, such as a $50 “sponsor a meal” link, consider using an Online Store product instead. A custom Portal page with links, buttons, or tiles to fixed-amount store products gives donors a focused choice, can link back to your regular giving flow, and lets you assign the store products to the same GL accounts as your regular giving.
Recurring Gifts
Turn on Recurring Gifts, then choose the frequencies you want to allow: monthly, quarterly, and annually. The Portal donation form offers monthly recurring gifts only, while staff can use quarterly and annual options when they process a gift in the Console. Once recurring gifts are on, at least one frequency must be checked. You can also turn on Allow donors to specify an end date for their recurring gifts if donors should be able to set an end date.
Pledges and Installment Plans
Turn on Pledges to let donors commit to giving over time. Add one or more installment plans, which are active payment schedules from your account’s billing setup. Give each plan a friendly name so donors understand what they are choosing on the form. While pledges are on, at least one plan is required. The first plan you add becomes the default on the Console’s pledge-processing screen. Turning on pledges also turns on pledge receipts automatically. See Gift and Pledge Receipts.
Pledges should generate pro forma (not real) invoices controls whether a pledge’s scheduled installments create pro forma statements of what is due or real invoices. This setting affects pledge orders only; one-time gift orders are not affected.
Tributes and Anonymous Giving
Turn on Allow donors to make tribute gifts in memory or in honor of someone else to show a tribute panel on the form. Choose a Tribute Honoree Notification: setting — Disabled, Email Only, Postal Mail Only, or Email or Postal Mail — to control whether and how the honoree can be notified. When you choose an email option, Rhythm shows a Tribute Notification Email Template card. Write and preview that email as described in Gift and Pledge Receipts.
Allow donors to make anonymous gifts shows a checkbox that lets donors hide their name from public acknowledgement of the gift.
New Donor Contact Details
Under New Donor Creation, choose which contact fields a donor who is not signed in must complete before giving. These are a fixed, built-in set of fields, including name, email address, phone numbers, address, job title, organization, and a few others. You decide which ones to show and require, but you cannot edit the fields themselves or add one that is not already offered. For example, if Home Address is not one of the offered fields, you cannot make it required. Keep the list short so donating stays easy.
When someone who is not signed in gives, Rhythm automatically creates a new contact record and tries to match the gift to an existing contact using the email address they enter. If you turn off the email address field, Rhythm shows a warning on the form because the new donor’s gift cannot be matched this way.
Warning
Leave the email address field on unless you have a strong reason to turn it off. Without it, Rhythm has no way to match a new donor’s gift to an existing contact, so you will end up with a duplicate record instead.
New Donor Creation also lets you turn on Organization as a donor type, so a visitor can register as an organization rather than an individual. Portal fundraising does not currently support organization giving, though. When Organization appears among the New Donor Options on the public giving form, the page can show an initializing message and never finish loading that field. As an interim workaround, leave the Organization donor type off and rely on the plain organization field instead, which still lets an individual donor record an organization’s name on their gift.
Donors who are signed in to the Portal do not see these fields because Rhythm uses their linked contact instead. See Create or Edit a Contact for general information about contact records.
Donor Acknowledgement and Instructions
Turn on Require Donor Acknowledgements to require donors to check a box before they submit their gift. You provide the checkbox text, and you can add HTML above it for a longer explanation or formatted terms. The donation form shows that HTML with a checkbox tied to your checkbox text, and donors cannot submit until they tick it. Use Donor Instructions to show custom HTML while donors complete the form, such as an explanation of a fund, a campaign, or a special instruction before they give.
Showing Campaign Progress
Show campaign progress to donors in the portal shows a campaign progress panel on the donation form when the process has a campaign attached. The campaign can be set on the giving process itself or supplied by the page where the form is embedded. If the campaign has its own currency, the panel uses that currency; otherwise, it uses the default currency.
What Stays Fixed on the Donation Page
The settings on this page control what a giving process offers, but some parts of the donation page sit outside them:
- There is currently no setting to hide the donation page’s Other Payment Options section.
- The text next to the saved-card checkbox and the placement of certain buttons near the top of the page are fixed in the page’s design. You cannot edit or reposition them from a giving process.
- Anything on the page beyond the settings described in this article and Create and Manage Giving Processes is hard-coded rather than account-configurable. Changing it takes an engineering change, and because the same page serves every Rhythm account, a change made for one account would affect all of them.
Tip
If a donor checks out on the donation page without signing in, Rhythm shows no saved billing addresses for them to choose from. The page still prompts them to select an address or use another one, but address suggestions do not appear until they click through to add a different address.
Permissions
To change any of these options, you need Fundraising administrator access to Setup. This is the same access required to create or edit the giving process.
Validation and Errors
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Access Denied dialog | Your role does not have Fundraising administrator access to Setup | Ask an administrator for access |
| "You must allow at least one type of recurring frequency." | Recurring Gifts is on, but no frequency is checked | Check at least one frequency |
| "Please specify at least one installment plan to make available to donors." | Pledges is on, but no installment plan has been added | Add a plan with a name |
| The save is refused about tribute or acknowledgement fields | Tributes or acknowledgements are on, but a required template or text is missing | Fill in the template or checkbox text |
| Categories: or Funds: shows as required | A fund restriction is on, but no categories or funds are chosen | Choose at least one, or turn the restriction off |