There are some great customization and tracking opportunities when using Virtuous Giving and Virtuous CRM as a paired solution. This means you can use a single Giving Form and a single web page to track giving associated with any number of Projects of Segments in Virtuous. It's even possible to pass specific donation amounts or Media Outlets to a Giving Form. Using this feature will make it much easier to manage your Giving Forms and eliminates the need to continually create new web pages to embed those Forms. This will allow for greater customization of the overall donor experience. This article will outline how to utilize custom URLs to track these various details.
Table of Contents
Important Formatting Requirement
To make sure your custom URLs function properly, all formatting must reflect as shown below. Formatting is CASE SENSITIVE.
-
- "segmentCode="
- "projectCode="
- "projectCodes="
- "amount="
- "mediaOutlet="
Segment Codes
As a reminder, Segment Codes are used to track/target specific audiences or groups of Contacts. Being able to set a Segment Code to pass through a URL to a Giving Form means you can have many different Segments you are targeting all being tracked through one Form.
As an example, you may have a Virtuous Giving Form embedded on the following page: www.example.org/give
When you send out an email appeal for the current Campaign, you'll also have a Campaign Communication and Segment Codes. For this example the Segment Code assigned is "EX0718EM". When building your email and adding the link for the Donate button, you can use the custom URL to track all of the gifts received as a result of this specific email to the correct Segment.
When building the email, the URL for your donate button will reflect as:
When a recipient clicks on the button in the email and fill out the subsequent Giving Form, any Gifts processed will have that Segment Code populated automatically.
To learn more about creating Segment Codes, check out this Support Article.
Project Codes
This same technique can be used to specify a Project Code. For example, you may have a donation page that lists different Projects for donors to support.
Each image links directly to the same Giving Form, but with a different custom URL. If the Project Code to sponsor the child on the left in the above photo is CH12345, you would set up the URL associated with the photo as:
www.example.org/give?projectCode=CH12345
It's also possible to list multiple Projects in a single URL, to create a limited drop-down of Projects for a donor to choose from. Just specify projectCodes (plural) and include multiple codes, separated by a pipe:
If desired, both the Segment and Project can be combined into a single URL:
www.example.org/give?segmentCode=EX0718EM&projectCode=CH12345
If your project code has a space in it, the space should be indicated as %20,
Any Gifts processed through the Giving Form linked will be automatically designated to the specified Project(s).
Project Setting Requirements
In order to specify a Project via the URL, the Project must have the following settings enabled:
- Active
- Available Online
- Public
If any one of these three settings is not selected on the Project, then Virtuous Giving will use either the Default Project associated with your Giving Form or a Project Designation selected by the donor, if applicable.
Gift Amount
To pass a specific donation amount via a custom URL, use "amount" in the URL, whether combined with custom Projects or Segments, or just on its own. For example, if sponsoring the child in the example above should always mean a $45 gift amount, then you could combine amount and Project in your URL as:
Media Outlets
If you will be tracking placements with different Media Outlets, a Media Outlet code can also be embedded in a donation URL, as:
The Media Outlet must exist for it to successfully populate in the Giving Form.