Fundraising Activities

Overview

A fundraising activity record is a record designed for tracking and recording any sort of school-led activity that is working toward a financial goal. There are several different types of fundraising activities that people in a Development office should acquire an understanding of in order to grasp the hierarchy of fundraising efforts for a school. 

These activities are:

• the Comprehensive Campaign, which is a top-level, multi-phase, overarching campaign designed to span multiple years. Other fundraising activities, individual initiatives, and efforts are all a part of the comprehensive campaign.
• the Annual Fund, which is a year-long repeating campaign that is run on a year-to-year basis with the specific intention of raising money for the subsequent year's operating budget. Annual funds exist under a specific comprehensive campaign.
• the General Campaign, which is a campaign designed to raise money toward a goal that exists outside of operating budgets (e.g., building a new stadium). General campaigns exist under a specific comprehensive campaign.
• the Group Appeal, which is a small, concerted effort to target a specific group to raise money very quickly. Group appeals tend to exist under an annual fund or general campaign, but can also exist directly in a comprehensive campaign, as well.

This documentation aims to provide a bit of detail surrounding each of these fundraising activity types and provide some examples of how they work with one another.

The Comprehensive Campaign

The comprehensive campaign fundraising activity is the largest type available, and as such, encompasses all other types of fundraising activities. An example of a comprehensive campaign would be a decade-long push to raise $50m. 

Only one comprehensive campaign can be active at any given time. 

Access the active comprehensive campaign on the Comprehensive Campaign homepage.

Tabs on the Comprehensive Campaign Record

Comprehensive campaigns are comprised of many components accessed via tabs on the record.  Here is a breakdown by tab section. All show information related to the given comprehensive campaign.

• Related Activities: all other fundraising activities that are tied to the comprehensive campaign
• Giving Levels: all configured giving levels, giving, and opportunities associated with each tier
• Opportunities: all opportunities with and without giving
• Configuration: view, edit, and add solicitors, objectives, segments, giving pyramids, and roles
• Activity: view, edit, and add actions, tasks, and notes
• Gifts: gifts that are associated with fundraising activities 
• Giving Over Time: highlight the giving received or scheduled to be received over time

The Annual Fund

The annual fund fundraising activity is created automatically by Veracross and is a yearly campaign specifically designed to raise money for operating costs for the school. An example of an annual fund would be a campaign to raise money for the 2020-2021 school year's operating budget.

Only one annual fund should be active at any given time.

Access the active annual fund on the Annual Fund homepage, a comprehensive campaign record, or on the Configuration homepage.

Components

• the Related Activities section shows you all related activities, group appeals, and group events that roll up to this annual fund
• the Giving Levels section shows you a report that highlights all giving levels configured with this annual fund, as well as all giving and opportunities associated with each tier
• the Opportunities section shows you all opportunities, split into with and without giving, as well as the role configuration for opportunity creation, that is associated with this annual fund
• the Configuration section shows you all solicitors, objectives, segments, giving categories and pyramids that are associated with this annual fund
• the Activity section shows you all moves management pieces associated with this annual fund
• the Gifts section shows all gifts that are associated with this annual fund
• the Giving Over Time section shows queries that highlight the giving received or scheduled to be received over time that are associated with this annual fund

The General Campaign

The general campaign fundraising activity will sometimes be configured by Veracross but will usually be configured by schools themselves as new campaigns are launched. A general campaign is a campaign to raise money for a specific purpose outside of raising funds for the operating budget. They are almost always goal-oriented and can last multiple years if it takes that much time to raise the required funds. An example of a general campaign would be a campaign to acquire funds to build a new stadium.

Multiple general campaigns can be active at any given time, and is expected, as different fundraising efforts will likely exist concurrently. General campaigns can be accessed by clicking into the record through the associated fundraising activities or by clicking on the General Campaigns query on the Configuration homepage.

Components

• the Related Activities section shows you all related activities, group appeals, and group events that roll up to this general campaign
• the Giving Levels section shows you a report that highlights all giving levels configured with this general campaign, as well as all giving and opportunities associated with each tier
• the Opportunities section shows you all opportunities, split into with and without giving, as well as the role configuration for opportunity creation, that is associated with this general campaign
• the Configuration section shows you all solicitors, objectives, segments, giving categories and pyramids that are associated with this general campaign
• the Activity section shows you all moves management pieces associated with this general campaign
• the Gifts section shows all gifts that are associated with this general campaign
• the Giving Over Time section shows queries that highlight the giving received or scheduled to be received over time that are associated with this general campaign

The Group Appeal

The group appeal fundraising activity is a specific, targeted effort to raise a lot of money during a finite window of time for one of the other three fundraising activity types. As an example, we'll look at the general campaign that was discussed above. An example of a group appeal that would be associated with that general campaign would be a push to solicit alumnae donations from alumnae who were involved with the football program with the group appeal starting and ending with the opening and closing of the football season.

There will almost certainly be multiple group appeals active at any given time, as there will be fundraising activities happening concurrently. Group appeals can be accessed through the links on the fundraising activity records that they are associated with and also through the Find Group Appeal query on the Configuration homepage.

 Components

• the Giving Levels section shows you a report that highlights all giving levels configured with this group appeal
• the Opportunities section shows you all opportunities, split into with and without giving, as well as the role configuration for opportunity creation, that is associated with this group appeal
• the Configuration section shows you all solicitors, objectives, segments, giving categories and pyramids that are associated with this group appeal
• the Activity section shows you all moves management pieces associated with this group appeal
• the Gifts section shows all gifts that are associated with this group appeal
• the Giving Over Time section shows queries that highlight the giving received or scheduled to be received over time that are associated with this group appeal