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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.