Launch a giving campaign

Most churches run a few campaigns a year: building fund, missions, end-of-year, holiday outreach. This recipe shows the full lifecycle in GCM.

What you'll achieve

By the end you'll have:

• A dedicated fund tracking just this campaign's donations
• A public donation page at a memorable URL
• A workflow that thanks every donor within 60 seconds
• A dashboard showing real-time progress toward your goal

Prerequisites

• Online giving enabled — your church needs a payment gateway connected (see Donation form).
• Branding configured (logo, primary color) so the campaign page matches your church's identity.

Step 1 — Create the campaign fund

1. Go to Giving → Funds → New fund.
2. Name it: e.g. Easter Outreach 2026.
3. Description: a sentence donors will see on the donation form.
4. Goal amount: $20,000 (or whatever you're raising).
5. Sort order: put it at the top so it appears first.
6. Save.

Step 2 — Set up the donation page

1. Go to Giving → Donation form.
2. Click + Add fund to form, pick your new fund.
3. Optional: set suggested amounts ($25, $100, $500) to nudge donors.
4. Copy the public URL — something like https://give.yourchurch.org/easter-outreach-2026.

TIP

Set a custom slug for memorable sharing. URLs like /easter outperform /fund-id-7e3a in email and bulletin shares.

Step 3 — Build the thank-you workflow

A timely thank-you doubles the chance someone gives again next year.

1. Go to Workflows → New.
2. Trigger: donation.recorded.
3. Add a condition: fund.name = "Easter Outreach 2026" so this workflow only fires for campaign donations.
4. Action: Send message — WhatsApp + email both. Template: a warm thank-you with a Bible verse, the donation amount, and the next service info.
5. Publish.

Step 4 — Promote the campaign

Inside GCM:

• Public site — add a hero banner pointing to the donation page (Website builder → Pages).
• Bulletins / announcements — paste the URL into your weekly bulletin export.
• Targeted message — bulk-WhatsApp anyone who gave to last year's campaign.

Outside GCM:

• Add a "donate" button to your church website.
• Share the URL in social posts.
• Print the QR code (Giving → Donation form → QR) on bulletin inserts.

Step 5 — Track progress

The Giving dashboard updates in real time. The campaign fund shows:

• Total raised this period
• Number of unique donors
• Average gift size
• Progress bar toward goal

Set up a TV in your lobby running the dashboard for Sunday-service energy. (Settings → Public dashboard URL → enable.)

Step 6 — Close out

When the campaign ends:

1. Go to the campaign fund and set its status to closed. New donations bounce to the General fund instead.
2. Run a report — Giving → Reports → "By fund" → filter to your campaign dates. Export CSV for your board.
3. Send a closing message to every donor announcing the final total (workflow trigger: manual, filtered to donors of this fund).

What's next

• Schedule the campaign one year out — most churches run them annually. Duplicate the fund + workflow for next year.
• Set up recurring donations so this year's donors can split their pledge over 12 months.
• See statements to make sure the campaign donations show up correctly on year-end tax receipts.