How giving works

The short version

1. You create funds. A fund is where the money goes, such as the General Fund.
2. You can create campaigns. A campaign is the appeal a gift answers, such as a year-end appeal.
3. You create a giving page, point it at a fund and a campaign, and publish it.
4. A donor opens the page, chooses an amount, and gives one time or on a schedule.
5. Bless emails the donor a receipt and tells your admins.
6. Members can also give from their account, without a giving page.
7. You record cash and checks yourself. You see every gift in Finance › Generosity.

Fund, campaign, giving page

	Fund	Campaign	Giving page
What it is	Where the money goes	Why the donor gave	Where the donor gives
Example	Building Fund	Spring Building Drive	/give/building
Has a goal	No	No	Yes, optional
Who sees it	Donors choose it on the page	Your team, in reports	The public

A gift always shows its fund and, if it has one, its campaign. Use them to filter Finance › Generosity and your export.

Four ways a gift comes in

Way	Who starts it	Receipt
Giving page	A donor, from your public page	Emailed by Bless
Portal gift	A member, from Give in their account	Emailed by Bless
Offline gift	Your team, for cash or a check	None. Give your own if you need to
Paddle raise	A guest at an auction	See Auctions

Words you will see

Giving page. Your public donation form, at an address such as /give/youth. It is a draft, active or archived.

Fund. Where a gift’s money goes. A fund can have a GL code for your bookkeeper.

Campaign. The appeal a gift answers. It can have an appeal code, such as the code on your envelopes.

One-time gift. Charged once, now.

Recurring gift. Charged on a schedule: weekly, every 2 weeks, monthly, or on the 1st and 15th. Each charge sends a receipt.

Cover fees. The donor adds the processing fee to the gift, so you get the full amount.

Portal gift. A gift a member makes with Give in their account. It has no giving page.

Offline gift. Cash or a check you record by hand. It counts on the day it was handed in.

Giving goal. A target a member sets for their own giving in a year. Only they see it.

Giving statement. A PDF summary of a donor’s gifts for a period, for their taxes.

Who sees what

Person	Can
Owner or admin	Everything in Generosity and Finance. Give refunds. Record offline gifts.
Accountant	Finance › Generosity only: the numbers, the list of gifts and the export. Not refunds.
Member	Their own gifts, receipts, recurring gifts and statement.