Create a Donation Campaign for Your Nonprofit

With Springly, you can set up your Donation Campaign in minutes and grow your nonprofit's funding. This article covers:

• Benefits of managing donations in Springly
• Where to find, configure, and manage your Donation Campaigns
• How to set up your Donation Campaign
• How to save and publish your Donation Campaign

Benefits of managing donations in Springly

Managing your donations in Springly lets you take full advantage of the platform's built-in automations.

When a donation is recorded on your Donation Campaign — whether by an Administrator or the Donor themselves — here's what happens automatically:

• journal entries for the donation and its payment are recorded automatically in your books;
• the Donor and their information are saved in your Community (if the contact already exists, the donation is simply added to their profile);
• Tax Receipts are generated and sent to the Member automatically;
• you can offer Online Payment by credit card.

All of this saves you a significant amount of time.

Where to find, configure, and manage a Donation Campaign

Your Donation Campaigns are accessible from Forms > Donations in the left sidebar menu.

If it doesn't appear, go to Settings > Feature Selection and enable "Donations".

How to set up your Donation Campaign

To create a Donation Campaign, go to Forms > Donations, then click the "+ Create a Donation Campaign" button.

Step 1. General Information

This is the core information that will be visible on your Donation Campaign.

Enter the name of your campaign in this section (required).

A description and image are optional, but we strongly recommend them — they make a great first impression on potential Donors. You can also add terms, general conditions, or attachments (e.g., your latest activity report).

Use this section to introduce your nonprofit, highlight ongoing projects you need funding for, and more. Think of it as your nonprofit's storefront for potential Donors.

Don't worry — you can update this information at any time.

👉 Note: Check out how to customize the appearance of your campaigns to make them visually appealing.

Step 2. Donations

Create your donation options by clicking "+ Create an option".

You can choose between two types of donations:

• One-time donation: A single amount is charged to the Donor once.
• Recurring donation: The Donor commits to giving a chosen amount on a regular basis, either by credit card or SEPA Direct Debit.

For each option, enter a name and an amount. For the amount, you can choose to:

• Allow a free-choice amount (with a minimum);
• Or offer several preset amounts of your choosing.

Clicking the + More options button gives you access to more advanced settings. These can be enabled from Settings > Forms and ticketing. Everything is explained in the Advanced online form settings section of the Help Center.

👉 Note: The ability to offer recurring donations via SEPA Direct Debit is included in the Expert plan.

Step 3. Form

This section lets you collect information about your Donors when they sign up.

Here you'll find:

• the general information fields set by default in the platform;
• the Custom Fields you've configured for your nonprofit under Community > Settings (also accessible from Settings > Community). For more information, see the dedicated article.

The information entered by the Donor will populate their profile in the Community.

Fields can be set as required, hidden, or optional at Sign-up.

Please note:

• If you don't make the email field required in the general information, Members won't be able to log in to their account;
• A mailing address is required if you enable the Tax Receipt option, as it must appear on the receipt. Read here how to issue a Tax Receipt

Information displayed upon re-registration

When a returning Donor already has a profile in your Community, Springly only displays fields that haven't been filled in yet — reducing the number of fields to complete and streamlining the process.

Step 4. Payment and Confirmation

Select the Payment Methods you want to accept for donations.

For a one-time donation, you can accept Online Payment (credit card), cash, Check, or other methods.

The Donor will receive a confirmation email (which can be included with a payment sent by mail), and the Tax Receipt will be generated once their payment has been recorded on the platform.

Confirmation email and advanced options

In this section, you can also customize the message in the confirmation email — a great opportunity to add a personal thank-you note!

Additional advanced options are available, such as receiving an email notification for every donation.

Step 5. Publication

The first question to ask yourself is: do you want people to be able to donate on their own through your campaign (whether they pay online or not)?

If the answer is "yes" (which we recommend), choose one of the first 2 options:

• Via a link;
• Published on your Website.

This won't prevent you from adding people manually.

If the answer is "no", select "No online donations". Just save and you're done.

This article explains the difference between an online and an offline campaign.

Let's assume you've opted for online donations — here's the final configuration step.

Publishing via a link

Specify who can access the page:

• anyone with the link you've shared;
• or specific people based on custom rules (Community, Members, etc.). In this case, they must be logged in to their account on your Springly platform.

You can also set availability dates for your Donation Campaign. Outside of those dates, people won't be able to donate through it. Administrators can update the dates at any time (for example, to extend the campaign).

Publishing on your Website

The On the Website option lets you publish your Donation Campaign on a Page of your Springly Website. For the campaign to be visible, the Page hosting it must be added to a Menu from Website > Menu and Pages.

As mentioned above, you can set availability dates for your campaign.

To access the campaign via this link, your Website must be active (not in maintenance mode). You can manage this from Settings > Website.

Save and publish your campaign

Once all sections are configured, click Save.

The campaign status will then show as Published. You can later change this status by switching the campaign to Draft, Suspended, or Archived.

If saving fails, the section causing the issue will be highlighted in red. Fill in the missing information and save again.

If you saved your campaign as a draft just to preview it, remember to go back to the Configuration tab, change the status from "Draft" to "Published", and save again.

Now it's time to share your campaign link so people can donate! You'll find it in the Distribution tab. This is also where you can embed the campaign on an external website using an iframe.

Go further:

• Understanding the difference between online and offline campaigns
• Customizing the appearance of your campaigns (memberships, donations, ticketing, shops)
• Choosing the general settings for your campaigns and ticketing