Making an Online Gift

Overview

When donors open the Online Giving Form, from any area in which the school has made the link available, they will be asked the question “How much would you like to give?” This section will look different depending on whether pre-defined giving amounts have been entered during the form configuration and whether schools are allowing donors to make a pledge, a donation or either a pledge or a donation (see the Online Giving Form Configuration article to review configuration options).

If a form is configured with a gift type of either ‘Donation or Pledge’ or ‘Donation’ and donors select the ‘Donation’ option, they will then be able to select how much they would like to give based on the predefined amounts configured by the school or they can enter another amount if desired. Once the donation amount is entered, the page will display the additional Gift Information and Personal Information sections.

If a form is configured with a gift type of either ‘Donation or Pledge’ or ‘Pledge’ and donors select the ‘Pledge’ option, they will then be presented with additional pledge installment options to determine the type of pledge (single or multiple installments), the frequency and number of installments, and a table detailing the installment payment schedule based on their selections. How this information is displayed to donors is based on the Installment Calculation setting on the giving form configuration. Once the donor indicates how they will pay off their pledge, the page will display the additional Gift Information and Personal Information sections.

Required Fields

The required fields for a donor to complete on the form are dependent upon which fields the school chooses to display on the Online Giving Form using the checkboxes in the Gift and Donor section.

In general, the following can be expected for each section on the form:

Gift Information Required Fields

The only gift information required for donors to enter on the Online Giving Form, regardless of which display fields are chosen, is the pledge or donation amount. They can either enter the information through the pre-defined gift amount buttons or enter their own gift amount in the blank field.

If schools choose to display the matching organization field on their form and the donor checks the ‘My gift will be matched by an organization’ box, the donor will then also be required to enter the organization’s name and the matching amount.

Donor Information Required Fields

The first name and last name fields are the only fields that must be displayed on an online giving form and are always required for donors to complete. If displayed on the online giving form, the address, city, state, zip, email, and home phone fields are also required – in addition to the first and last name fields – by default. Schools can change the required fields from the default using the ‘required fields’ text box on the Online Giving Form configuration record.

Payment

Once the donor submits their gift amount, they will be redirected to Veracross Checkout to continue the payment process. The donor may fill out their credit card information and then confirm their payment on the following screen by selecting the “Pay $XX.XX” button. At this point the online gift has been made and a summary of their transaction will appear.

Outstanding Pledges

If the donor has been matched successfully with an existing person in Veracross, a “Continue to Pledge” link will be available on the transaction summary screen. This link will only appear to donors whose household has outstanding pledges. The donor has the option to “Apply your donation to a pledge.” Clicking this link will display a list of all the donor household’s outstanding pledges. Selecting a pledge from the list and clicking the “Apply to Donation” button will apply the recently made online gift to the pledge.

Confirmation

Confirmation of an online gift can appear in two forms: a summary of the transaction and a confirmation email. When a donor submits a payment for an online donation, they are presented with a summary of their transaction that indicates the gift was successfully made. A link to a printable receipt is also available from this screen. If the donor’s household has no outstanding pledges, a link to “Continue to Confirmation” will be available on the transaction summary screen. This confirmation screen will also appear to donors after they have selected a pledge to apply the gift to.

Donors will also receive a confirmation email upon submission of the gift. The email can be configured using the email templates Online_Donation_Confirmation and Online_Pledge_Confirmation. Contact your Account Manager if you require assistance configuring the email template.