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Creating a Donations Page

Donations Pages

Gathering online donations can be one of the most important steps for an organization doing advocacy on the web. Salsa gives you the ability to create and edit donation pages easily.

To create a donation page, click "Create a Donation Page" in the donation pages menu, under the Donation Management tab. Once you've initiated a donations page under the tab, the process has three steps:

1. edit the page.
2. page options.
3. establishing thank-you and follow-up paths for your supporters who've donated.

Step 1 - Edit the Page

The first step allows you to create content for your page, and brand it with a template, is shown below:

The first step in creating a donation page asks you to provide content for your page by filling out the following fields:

Secure Page Link

Once you go through step one and save your work, a url will be created where folks can make live donations. This url won't appear until something is saved.

Reference Name

This field is a reference that will appear internally within your Salsa headquarters for identification purposes, and will not be shown to your supporters.

Template

To brand your page appropriately, you can choose by clicking on the appropriate thumbnail one of the web templates you've created, which will then act as a wrapper for the page's entire content. If you don't choose a specific template, your Default Template will be used.

Header

This text appears in the page the end user will see, and should explain to your supporters what the page is for and why they should take action. The text shows up above the form containing the actual campaign letter in the live page, but below the title.

You can lay out this text bloc very simply, or quite elaborately.  If you wish to, you can add images, text styling, hyperlinks and other design features using either code or the embedded WYSIWYG editor.

Request/Required Fields

This section allows you to set the fields that end-user supporters will be asked to fill out, and (via the "Required" checkboxes beside each field) require that some or all of the requested information be provided before the submission is accepted by Salsa (users will see an error message like "Please provide the following information," when they try to submit an incomplete form).

To add an additional field, click the " add another field" link, and choose the field from the pull-down menu.  To eliminate a field you've already selected, click the "" button next to that field.  These fields are presented on the user page according to Salsa's own default sequence, which cannot be customized through the Salsa interface.  Custom fields are presented according to the "order" settings of each field, which Salsa campaign managers can customize in the custom fields section. 

Pre Donation Text

This content will appear just before the form that takes donation information.

Comma Delimited Amounts

To set specific donation amounts, enter them here as comma separate values, like "5,10,20,50,100", and they will be added to your donation form as radio buttons. The amount of "other" is automatically added to the list. Note that you can enter only numbers here - any text (e.g., "Gold membership level") or styling (e.g., bolding or coloring a certain gift amount) requires that the entire gift string instead be created using Custom Donation HTML (below)

Pre-Custom Text

This appears above the form that takes donation information.

Custom Donation HTML

This space allows you insert code for custom donation options. Entering text with your comma-delimited Amounts on a donation page will yield errors if listed as "10 Tomato, 15 Cilantro, 20 Salsa," but these error messages can be avoided by instead entering Custom Donation HTML in your donation page.

To build a stylized page using Custom Donation HTML, first set up your donation page using only numerical values for the comma delimited amounts. Then, view the source of your live page and copy out the amount information, optionally eliminating the td/table tags from the source. You can then include the label with the listed amount, like:

$35 Garlic

$10 Cilantro

$60 Vinegar

$120 Con queso!

$240 Guacamole

$1000 Tortilla

For the other field, you'll want to also include:

 Other:  $ (Do not enter '$')

If you would like one of the amounts to be pre-checked, add checked = "checked" like:

<td nowrap><input type='radio' class='radio' value='25'
id='amount25' name='amount' CHECKED ><span
class='dia_field_name'>$25</span></td>

Paste your end result into the Custom Donation HTML field in your Donation page template, and test your page to make sure it works.

       
This is a one-time donation.

        

                   I want to make a recurring donation. 

        

                Every Month           Every Week           Every 3 months           Every 6 months           Every Year

                              

Confirm Box Text

Text entered here will display before a required checkbox, which allows you to enter, for instance "I certify that I am qualified to give money to a political organization inside the United States."

PreSubmit Footer

The page footer text displays below the form fields requested of end users visiting the page, and is generally used for either additional explanatory text about the page or identity information about your organization.

This footer appears within the form on the page -- that is, before the "submit" button -- and campaign managers comfortable with HTML coding can therefore also use it to add code further customizing the form.

Footer

The page footer text displays below the form fields requested of end users visiting the page, and is generally used for either additional explanatory text about the page or identity information about your organization.

This footer appears outside the form on the page -- that is, after the "submit" button -- so although it can be used to add custom HTML coding, it cannot place additional fields that will be submitted by the form.

Default Tracking Code

This optional field populates the field Tracking_Code on the donations table (but not the field Donation_Tracking_Code). If filled, any donation given through this page will default to the tracking code value entered here, unless another value is indicated by the donation itself (for instance, by the link that brought the supporter to the donation page).

Step 2 - Page Options

In step two, you'll choose options for your donation page.

Number of Columns

You can choose the number of columns you would like your donation page content to appear in, according to how you want your page to display within your template.

Include Recurring Payments

This option adds recurring payment options to your page. With these, your supporters can set up donations that will charge them monthly, quarterly, semi-yearly, or yearly. Please note that this option should only be enabled if your merchant account gateway allows recurring donations!  Check with your merchant gateway provider for details of their services.

Include ONLY Recurring Payments

If checked, your supporters will be presented only with the option to submit a recurring payment. 

Include In Honor Of

This option will allow your supporters to enter In Honor Of information into their donations, so that you have an address and name to publish, or to send follow up communications to (thank you letter, etc.)

Include In Memory Of

If checked, this will allow your supporters to enter an "In Memory" designation for their donations.  Because this type of field is intended to indicate a donation in memory of a deceased individual, there is no address or email field to correspond with the In Memory name. 

Allow Anonymous Donations

This option allows anonymous donations--the supporter's information is passed to the merchant account gateway, but their personal information is not retained in the supporter database. If you manage your own merchant gateway, of course, you will still be able to access their information in that interface.

Tax Status

You can choose your organization's tax status here.

Event Key

If this donation page is associated with a particular event, you can choose the event from the Event Key menu.

Email Trigger Keys

This box lists all auto-responses (also called triggers) created in your Salsa headquarters. Choosing one or several auto-responses here will cause those responses to send every time the page is completed. Use this section to associate thank-you messages and/or internal notifications when actions are completed. See the Auto-Responses section for more on how to configure these messages. With donations, you'll want to send an email response "reply" to the person making a donation. You also might want to send an "individual" response to someone at your organization letting them know a donation has been made.

Groups Keys

This box lists all groups created in your Salsa headquarters. Choosing one or several groups here will automatically add your supporters to the corresponding groups when they submit a transaction. See theGroupsdocumentation for how you might add or manage groups.

Merchant Gateway

To use your own Merchant Gateway Accounts - Full, or to choose between different merchant gateways available to you, select the merchant gateway you wish to use from the Merchant Gateway drop down list.  Note: if have not configured any additional gateways, no drop-down menu will appear, and your pages will default to processing by our default gateway. 

Step 3 - Thank You and Follow Up

Thank You Page Text

The content you enter into this field will appear inside the thank you page that your supporter is redirected to after completing the page.  A hard-coded redirect path will override the use of this thank-you text.

Redirect Path

You can enter a URL here where your supporters will be taken after completing the page. This could be your homepage, or another action page, or any location you choose.

This is how you make a paragraph: