Appeals Overview 💜

Appeals in DonorDock help your organization track how donations were solicited. An Appeal can represent a specific fundraising effort such as an email campaign, direct mail piece, event, social media push, phone campaign, or website promotion.

Appeals can be connected to Campaigns, Gifts, and Activities so your team can measure how individual solicitation efforts contribute to broader fundraising goals.

Appeals are available under Transactions > Appeals.

A simple way to think about Campaigns, Appeals, and Funds is:

For example, your organization might have a 2026 Annual Campaign with separate Appeals for a Spring Direct Mail piece, Giving Day email, and Year-End Letter.

Primary Promotional Channels

Each Appeal can include a Primary Promotional Channel to identify the main method used to solicit donations.

Available channels include:

• Email

• Direct Mail

• Event

• Social Media

• Phone Calls

• Website

💡 Event is available as both a Campaign Type and an Appeal Promotional Channel. You might create an Event Campaign for an entire gala, while using Appeals to track the different solicitation methods that support that event.

Appeal Fields

When creating or editing an Appeal, the following fields are available:

Create an Appeal

Appeals can be created from the Transactions menu or the Quick Add menu.

Create an Appeal from Transactions

1. Navigate to Transactions > Appeals.

2. Click + Add Appeal.

3. Enter the Appeal Name.

4. Select the applicable Primary Promotional Channel.

5. Select a Campaign if the Appeal belongs to a larger Campaign.

6. Enter the Goal and Solicitation Goal when applicable.

7. Add the Start Date, End Date, and Description if needed.

8. Click Create and Save.

Create an Appeal from Quick Add

1. From any page in DonorDock, click the blue + in the top right.

2. Select Add Appeal.

3. Enter the Appeal information.

4. Click Create and Save.

Viewing an Appeal

To open an Appeal:

1. Navigate to Transactions > Appeals.

2. Search for the Appeal.

3. Click the Appeal Name.

The Appeal Overview includes several sections to help your team review performance and related activity.

Buttons within these sections may also allow you to add Gifts or Activities directly to the Appeal.

Edit an Appeal

1. Open the Appeal.

2. Click the Appeal Action Menu represented by the three vertical dots in the top right.

3. Select Edit.

4. Update the applicable Appeal information.

5. Click Save.

Connect an Appeal to a Campaign

Appeals can optionally be connected to a Campaign.

This is useful when several different solicitation efforts contribute toward the same larger fundraising initiative.

For example:

Campaign: 2026 Annual Campaign

Appeals:

• Spring Direct Mail

• Summer Email Series

• Giving Day Social Media

• Year-End Letter

A Campaign can have as many Appeals as your organization needs.

Add Gifts to an Appeal

An Appeal can be selected as a designation when creating or editing a Gift.

This allows your organization to track which solicitation effort generated the donation.

Gifts associated with an Appeal appear in the Appeal Gifts section and can also be filtered or grouped by Appeal in Gift Reports.

Add Activities to an Appeal

Activities can also be associated with Appeals to help track the work surrounding a solicitation effort.

Depending on your workflow, this may include:

• Tasks

• Emails

• Phone Calls

• Meetings

• Asks

• Notes

• Other Activities

This can be helpful when an Appeal involves multiple outreach steps or team members.

Import Appeals

Appeals can be created through the DonorDock Import tool.

Appeal names can also be included when importing Gifts or Activities.

When importing a Gift with an Appeal value:

• If the Appeal Name matches an existing Appeal in DonorDock, the Gift will be associated with that Appeal.

• If no matching Appeal is found, DonorDock can create a new Appeal using the name from the import.

💡 Appeal matching is based on the Appeal Name. Make sure spelling and spacing in the import file match the existing Appeal Name when you intend to connect records to an existing Appeal.

Archive an Appeal

When an Appeal has ended, you can archive it rather than delete it.

Archiving removes the Appeal from active use so new Gifts and Activities cannot be associated with it, while preserving the historical information already connected to the Appeal.

To archive an Appeal:

1. Navigate to Transactions > Appeals.

2. Open the Appeal.

3. Click the Appeal Action Menu.

4. Select Archive.

View Archived Appeals

1. Navigate to Transactions > Appeals.

2. Open the View dropdown in the top left.

3. Select Archived.

4. Search for and open the Appeal.

Reactivate an Archived Appeal

If an Appeal was archived by mistake or becomes active again:

1. Navigate to Transactions > Appeals.

2. Select Archived from the View dropdown.

3. Open the Appeal.

4. Click the Appeal Action Menu.

5. Select Reactivate.

The Appeal will become available for active tracking again.

Delete an Appeal

Administrators can permanently delete an Appeal when it is no longer needed.

1. Navigate to Transactions > Appeals.

2. Open the Appeal.

3. Click the Appeal Action Menu.

4. Select Delete Appeal.

5. Confirm the deletion.

⚠️ Deleting an Appeal cannot be undone. Whenever possible, consider archiving the Appeal instead when you want to preserve historical information.

💡 Before deleting an Appeal, review your DonorDock Online Giving Pages and verify that the Appeal is not currently assigned to a Giving Page.

Merge Duplicate Appeals

If duplicate Appeals are created, they can be merged from the Appeal table.

1. Navigate to Transactions > Appeals.

2. Select the checkboxes next to the two Appeals you want to merge.

3. Click the Merge action.

4. Select which Appeal you want to keep.

5. Confirm the merge.

The Gifts and Activities associated with the Appeal that is not retained will be transferred to the Appeal you choose to keep. The other Appeal will be archived.

💡 Appeals can only be merged while viewing either the Active or Archived table. The Merge option is not available from the All view because that view can contain a mixture of active and archived Appeals.

Create a Gift Report for an Appeal

1. Navigate to Reporting > Reports.

2. Click + Create.

3. Select Gift Report.

4. Enter the applicable date range.

5. Add the Appeal as a report filter.

6. Add any additional filters you need.

7. Click Run Report.

You can then customize the columns, apply column filters, or group the results.

Compare Multiple Appeals

Gift Reports can also be used to compare donors or gifts across multiple Appeals.

1. Create a Gift Report with a date range that includes the Appeals you want to compare.

2. Add the applicable Appeals to the Appeal filter.

3. Click Run Report.

4. Add or locate the Display Name column.

5. Drag Display Name into the grouping area.

Grouping by Display Name allows you to review each donor's gifts together and identify who contributed through one or multiple Appeals.

Select Save As if you want to reuse the report later.

Report on Appeals Within a Campaign

If several Appeals are connected to the same Campaign, you can compare their performance in a Gift Report.

1. Navigate to Reporting > Reports.

2. Create a Gift Report.

3. Enter the applicable date range.

4. Select the Campaign.

5. Select the Appeals you want to include.

6. Click Run Report.

7. Drag the Appeal column into the grouping area.

This can help your organization compare how different solicitation methods performed within the same larger Campaign.

Appeals and Online Giving

Appeals can be assigned to DonorDock Online Giving Pages so Gifts received through a page are automatically associated with the selected Appeal.

This is useful when a Giving Page supports a specific solicitation effort, such as a Giving Day email campaign or event promotion.

Appeals are also fully reportable, making it possible to compare Online Giving activity by Appeal, Campaign, Fund, Giving Page, or other Gift fields.

When to Use an Appeal

Appeals are most useful when you want to track a specific solicitation method or fundraising effort.

Examples may include:

• Spring direct mail

• Year-end email

• Giving Day social media

• Gala invitation

• Phone-a-thon

• Website campaign

• Newsletter appeal

If the effort is part of a larger fundraising goal, connect the Appeal to the applicable Campaign.

For example:

Campaign: 2026 Annual Campaign
Appeal: Year-End Direct Mail

This keeps your overall fundraising initiative organized while still allowing you to measure the performance of the individual solicitation method.