Campaigns, Appeals, and Funds
Campaigns, Appeals, and Funds are separate tracking tools in DonorDock that help your organization organize fundraising activity and understand how gifts were generated and designated.
The simplest way to think about them is:
Tracking Option | Think of It As | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
Campaign | What | The larger fundraising goal or initiative your organization is raising money for. |
Appeal | How | The specific method or effort used to solicit the donation. |
Fund | Where | The intended use or accounting designation for the donation. |
Campaigns: What Are You Raising Money For?
Campaigns represent the larger fundraising initiative or goal.
Examples may include:
2026 Annual Campaign
Capital Campaign
Spring Gala
Emergency Relief Campaign
Community Arts Grant
Appeals can be connected directly to a Campaign, allowing multiple solicitation efforts to contribute toward the same larger fundraising goal.
💡 A Campaign can have as many Appeals as needed. Campaigns cannot be linked to other Campaigns.
Appeals: How Are You Soliciting the Gift?
Appeals represent the specific fundraising effort or communication method used to ask for a donation.
Examples may include:
Email
Direct Mail
Event
Social Media
Phone Calls
Website
For example, your 2026 Annual Campaign might include separate Appeals for a Spring Direct Mail letter, Giving Day email, and Year-End Email.
Using Appeals helps you compare which solicitation methods are generating gifts within a larger Campaign.
Funds: Where Is the Donation Going?
Funds identify how a donation is intended to be used.
Examples may include:
General Fund
Scholarship Fund
Building Fund
Youth Programs
Emergency Assistance
Funds are especially helpful for organizations that use fund accounting or need to track donor-designated purposes.
They can also support accounting integrations by allowing Gifts to carry the appropriate Fund designation into your reporting and accounting workflows.
Using Them Together
Campaigns, Appeals, and Funds can be used independently or together on the same Gift.
For example:
Campaign: 2026 Annual Campaign
Appeal: Spring Direct Mail
Fund: Scholarship Fund
In this example, the gift tells you:
What the organization was raising money for: the 2026 Annual Campaign
How the donor was solicited: Spring Direct Mail
Where the donor intended the money to go: the Scholarship Fund
Using these fields consistently can make Gift Reports much easier to filter, group, and compare across your fundraising efforts.