A premium is a thank-you item a donor receives for giving at a certain level, such as a mug, tote bag, or book. Each premium uses a merchandise item from your Rhythm account’s Commerce catalog, along with the quantity to give and a fair market value. Rhythm subtracts the fair market value from the gift amount to determine what the donor can treat as tax-deductible. A giving process assigns premiums to gift-amount ranges (see Giving Form Options), so donors who give at a qualifying level are offered the matching thank-you gift and can choose to decline it.
Where to Find It
Go to Fundraising & Gifts › Setup › Premiums. The page shows every premium in your Rhythm account, including its fair market value and status.
Prerequisites
- You need Fundraising administrator access to open Setup pages.
- Set up the merchandise item you want to use as a premium in Commerce before you create the premium.
Create or Edit a Premium
- Go to Fundraising & Gifts › Setup › Premiums.
- Select Create Premium, or open an existing premium to update it.
- Choose a Merchandise: item. Rhythm fills in the premium’s Name, description, image, and Fair Market Value from the merchandise record, and you can adjust any of them afterward.
- Enter how many of the item a donor receives under Quantity to Give:.
- Leave Status: on to make the premium available, or switch it off to retire it.
- Select Save Changes.
Result
The premium is saved and can now be assigned to gift-amount ranges on any giving process.
Tip
The fair market value matters for tax purposes. If a donor gives $100 and receives a $5 premium, only $95 of the gift is treated as tax-deductible. Set this value carefully, and update it if the merchandise item’s own price changes after you create the premium. If you choose the merchandise item again, Rhythm overwrites whatever value you entered.
Assign Premiums to Gift Amounts
On a giving process, turn on Premiums, then add one or more rules. Each rule needs a starting amount, an ending amount, and the premium a gift in that range earns. Choose the shipping method to use for premiums, because a rule cannot be saved without one. Ranges include both the starting and ending amounts. Fundraising does not check whether ranges are in order or overlap, so review them carefully before saving.
Deactivate or Delete a Premium
Switching a premium’s Status: off stops it from being offered in new premium rules, but any existing giving process rule that already names the premium keeps offering it to donors. To stop a premium from being offered where it is already assigned, remove or change the rule on each giving process that uses it.
Deleting a premium is not blocked when a giving process rule still names it. Instead, the rule is left pointing to a premium that no longer exists, which can cause the thank-you-gift chooser to fail for a donor who reaches that rule. Before you delete a premium, check every giving process’s premium rules and remove or replace any that use it. Gifts that already recorded a premium keep its identifier and fair market value after the premium is deleted.
Premiums and Portal Access
Staff manage premiums entirely in the Console. Portal members cannot browse, read, or change the premium catalog directly. Donors only see the premiums presented by the giving process rules during giving.
Permissions
Viewing, creating, editing, and deleting premiums all require Fundraising administrator access to Setup.
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 merchandise, quantity, or fair market value | One of these required fields is missing | Choose merchandise and fill in the rest |
| A premium rule can't be saved without a shipping method | Premiums is on, but no shipping method is chosen | Set up a shipping configuration in Commerce, then choose a method |
| "Unable to delete Premium" | The delete request was refused for another reason | Read the message; premium deletion itself is not blocked by giving process rules |