A giving process is a named set of giving rules. It sets the default fund, the campaign and appeal that receive credit, and — as covered in Giving Form Options — the amounts, fund choices, pledge and recurring options, and receipts donors see. You can use several giving processes, such as one for your annual appeal and another for a scholarship drive, with different settings for each one.
This article explains how to create, copy, deactivate, and delete a giving process. It also explains how to credit gifts to a campaign and appeal, and how to use payment settings for one specific process. To manage what donors see on the form, see Giving Form Options. To manage receipt emails, see Gift and Pledge Receipts.
Where to Find It
Go to Fundraising & Gifts › Setup › Giving Processes. The page lists every giving process in your Rhythm account.
Prerequisites
- You need Fundraising administrator access to open Setup pages.
- Have at least one active fund ready to use as the process's default fund.
Create a Giving Process
- Go to Fundraising & Gifts › Setup › Giving Processes.
- Select Create Giving Process.
- Enter a Name:. Rhythm suggests an ID: from the name, and Portal pages use that identifier to load this exact process.
- Under Process Options, choose a Default Fund:. Rhythm uses this fund when a donor does not choose one, including gifts marked for where they are needed most.
- Optionally choose a Campaign: and, after you choose a campaign, an Appeal: to credit every gift made through this process.
- Configure the rest of the form as described in Giving Form Options and Gift and Pledge Receipts.
- Select Save Changes.
Result
The giving process is saved and available right away for a Portal donation form or for Console gift and pledge processing.
Tip
To send donors to this specific giving process with a dedicated link, use /fundraising/[GIVING-PAGE]?givingProcessId=[GIVING-PROCESS-CODE] instead of a fund identifier parameter. The query parameter must be givingProcessId; if the link uses processId, Rhythm ignores it and records the donation against your Rhythm account's default giving process.
After you configure a giving process, staff can select it in the Giving Process field when they process a gift, pledge, or other fundraising activity in the Console.
Copy an Existing Giving Process
Use a giving process's Clone option to open a new create form that already contains the source process's settings, except for its identifier. This is the fastest way to create a similar giving process because you can change only what is different, give it its own name, and save it without re-entering every setting.
Credit Gifts to a Campaign and Appeal
When you choose a Campaign: on a giving process, every gift made through that process is credited to the campaign. After you choose a campaign, the Appeal: selector appears and shows only appeals that belong to that campaign. If you change the campaign, Rhythm clears any appeal that belonged to the previous campaign. Both fields are optional, so a giving process with neither field set does not count its gifts toward a campaign or appeal.
Give a Giving Process Its Own Payment Settings
By default, every giving process uses your Rhythm account's default checkout settings, which you set on Fundraising Settings. To use different settings for one giving process, such as a different merchant account, turn on Override Checkout Settings on the giving process and complete its checkout fields. If you turn the override off later, Rhythm erases the checkout settings you entered for this process and uses your Rhythm account's defaults again.
Deactivate or Delete a Giving Process
When you turn off a giving process's Status:, Rhythm stops offering it in Console record pickers. Direct giving still works, so a Portal page or link that names the process directly can still accept gifts while the process is inactive. If you are retiring a giving process completely, first make sure nothing still links to it directly.
Deleting a giving process removes it completely. Fundraising does not currently block you from deleting a giving process that is still your Rhythm account's default or still linked from a live Portal page, so double-check before you delete one that is in active use. You cannot undo a deletion from the Console.
Look Up Your Giving Processes
The Giving Processes list shows every process in your Rhythm account, along with its status and when it last changed. Use the filter box to find a process by name or identifier.
Permissions
You need Fundraising administrator access to Setup to view, create, edit, copy, or delete giving processes. See How the Console Decides What You Can See for how Rhythm shows or hides Setup pages based on your role.
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 |
| The save is refused about the name, default fund, or fund-choice option | One of these required fields is missing | Fill in all three |
| The save is refused about the ID | The identifier contains a character other than letters, digits, _, -, and | | Let Rhythm suggest the ID from the name |
| The Appeal: selector doesn't offer the appeal you want | The appeal belongs to a different campaign than the selected campaign | Choose the matching campaign first |
| "Unable to save Giving Process" | The service refused the save, and the message names the reason | Correct the named field and save again |
| "Unable to delete Giving Process" | The service refused the delete | Read the message for the reason, then try again or leave the process in place |