Appeals

Appeals are the solicitations used to bring in gifts, such as direct mailings, phonathons, auctions, or gala events. To specify how you use gifts received in response to an appeal, you can associate an appeal with a fund and use multiple appeals to support a specific campaign. For example, you may use a direct mailing, phonathon, and ribbon-cutting event to request giving for specific funds of a New Building Campaign.

An appeal can contain multiple packages, which are the different versions of content and items it can include. To increase the likelihood of a gift, use different packages to target recipients with specific content and items, such as:

  • An introductory letter for new constituents

  • A promotional keychain for existing donors

  • A higher quality glossy brochure for prospective major donors

Tip: To help motivate fundraisers, your organization may set goal amounts to raise through specific appeals. Under Overview in Work center, you can view how much your personal fundraising efforts raised through active appeals under Goals. For more information, see Work Center Overview.

To determine which solicitation a donor responds to, you can view the appeal and package used to ask for a gift under Fundraising details on its record. For details about an appeal, select its name to open its record. For more information, see Appeal Records.

Note: For a gift given in response to multiple appeals, a breakdown of the splits appears, including how much — as both the amount and percentage — applies to each related campaign and fund.

Tip: In the database view, you can manage the gift's appeal and package on the Gift tab of its record.

On a constituent's record, you can view which solicitations they received under Appeals. For each appeal, you can view details such as its name, date, and package.

Note: You can manage appeal categories for your organization in Tables. For more information, see Tables.

Tip: In the database view, you can manage an appeal’s category on the General tab of its record.

Tip: To add or manage appeals, select Appeals from Records in the database view.