Get Started with Online Giving for Blackbaud CRM

Blackbaud Donation Forms available through Online Giving help you increase gift size, eliminate transaction fees, and expand your donor base.

Note: If you are the organization admin, follow these steps to get started using Blackbaud Donation Forms with Blackbaud CRM!

Prerequisites

To use Blackbaud Donation Forms, your organization must:

Configure settings

From Settings in Online Giving, manage preferences for your donation forms and how gifts connect to Blackbaud CRM.

CRM connection preferences

The CRM connection lets you connect gifts from Online Giving to Blackbaud CRM so that gift information flows to Blackbaud CRM. Under CRM connection, select Preferences and set:

  • Gift connection to connect gifts from Online Giving to a batch template and add a GPC solicit code to constituent records. Optionally, you can set a maximum number of gifts per Blackbaud CRM batch. For more information, see Gift connection.

  • Cards and wallets to determine how card payments received through Blackbaud Donation Forms appear in Altru. For more information, see card and wallet settings.

  • Revenue note type for donor comments because they appear as revenue notes on payments in Blackbaud CRM.

    Tip: To manage revenue note types in Blackbaud CRM, from Administration, select Code Tables, then filter by the documentation category.

  • Reason codes for recurring gift statuses because they are tracked as revenue reason codes in Blackbaud CRM.

    Tip: To manage reason codes in Blackbaud CRM, from Revenue, select Reason codes, then select the Revenue tab. For more information, see Reason Codes in Blackbaud CRM Help.

Google Analytics

To track donor behaviors on donation forms, under Donation form settings, select Google Analytics, then enter the alphanumeric ID from your Google Analytics account. To learn more about how to collect data, see Google Analytics.

Donor cover designation

To create split gifts when donors cover transaction fees through donation forms, under Contributions, select Donor cover designation and choose a designation for the fees. If you don't set a designation,

  • For Optimized Donation Forms, the amount toward fees is allocated to the form's default fund.

  • For Standard Donation Forms, the amount toward fees is allocated to the first designation the donor selects if their gift is split between multiple designations.

For more information, see Donor Cover Designation.

Note: When you add designations in Blackbaud CRM it may take up to 15 minutes for them to appear in Online Giving.

Create donation forms

Blackbaud Donation Forms include Optimized and Standard Forms. Optimized Donation Forms provide an engaging and streamlined donor experience with continuously refined data and branding cards. While Standard Donation Forms are more customizable. To learn how to design and configure these forms, review Optimized Donation Forms and Standard Donation Forms.

Manage constituents

When donors enter their information through a form, Blackbaud CRM attempts to match the donor with existing constituent records.

  • If a match is found, Blackbaud CRM adds the gift to the existing constituent record and updates contact info as necessary

  • If no match is found, Blackbaud CRM creates a new constituent record and adds the gift

Note: You will continue to manage constituents in Blackbaud CRM. Blackbaud CRM performs several steps to identify constituent matches.

Manage gifts

Blackbaud Donation Forms operates on a daily batch schedule and uses an automated connection to add donors and gifts to Blackbaud CRM.

The process

A new batch is available only when a donation form receives a gift. When a form receives its first gift of the day, the connection creates the batch in Blackbaud CRM. The batch uses the template in your organization's gift connection setting

As donation forms receive more gifts, they are sent to the batch throughout the day. If a maximum gift limit is set in the gift connection setting, any extra gifts start a new batch. Gifts received the next day also go into a new batch.

Note: Online Giving ignores batch workflow rules in Blackbaud CRM, such ones that prevent editing or committing batches while in a certain status. The connection continues to add gifts to the batch until you commit it or the maximum gift limit is met.

To learn more about the gift workflow, see Blackbaud CRM Gift Overview.