As part of using Virtuous Giving, your donors have access to their Donor Portal where they can log in, view their Gifts, manage their stored payment methods, and even update Recurring Donations. This article will outline the process of initially inviting donors to create accounts in your Donor Portal and how to manage donors without email addresses.
Inviting Donors to Register
Any donor making a Gift via a Virtuous Giving donation form will automatically be invited to register on your Donor Portal site. The confirmation email sent to each donor will include a link for donors to claim their account. Donors may also choose to register from the main home screen of your Donor Portal page by clicking on the Register as a new user link. You may also choose to add this link to your webpage or send it to your givers and encourage them to register their account on the online portal. The registration URL for your donor portal will be structured as:
https://yoursubdomain.givevirtuous.org/Account/Register
Once a donor fills out the registration information, they will be sent a confirmation email, which will have a link to confirm their account. Once they have confirmed their email address, they will be given access to their portal account, where they can:
- Update Phone Number and Address
- See their online donation history
- View any past or current online recurring gifts
- Make a new donation
- Make a new Recurring Gift
- Modify or cancel their active Recurring Gifts
- Manage saved payment methods
- Modify existing Pledges
- Send in Pledge Payments
- Cancel Pledges
Click here to learn more about the actions a donor can take in the Donor Portal.
Once a user is registered, they may log in to their account at any time from the main Donor Portal screen.
Understanding User Accounts
Each Virtuous Giving user account is tied to a specific email address since email addresses are required for online processing. If a donor were to use two separate email addresses to make two separate online gifts, they would then have two separate Virtuous Giving accounts, each of which can be linked to the same Contact record in Virtuous CRM+. In this way, it's best to think of Virtuous Giving as a separate entity from Virtuous CRM+, albeit one that is seamlessly connected to the CRM.
Virtuous Giving accounts will be connected to Contact records in Virtuous CRM+ as part of the Gift Import process. When a gift is matched to a Contact and then imported to that Contact record, a link, or reference, between the Virtuous Giving account and the selected Contact record in Virtuous CRM+. It's possible to see these connections when viewing a Contact record; just look for the small External References box in the lower left corner of the Contact Overview screen.
If a gift made via a separate Virtuous Giving account is made but matched to the same Contact record as the previous gift, then both Virtuous Giving accounts will be connected to the same Contact record in Virtuous CRM+.
This means that gift entry staff must be well-trained so that connections can be made correctly during Gift Processing.
Donors Without an Email Address
If a donor does not have an email address to use it is crucial, you do NOT use the same generic email address. This has the potential to append giving data to the wrong donor. A suggested naming convention that you can follow when donors truly do not have an email addresses is outlined below.
LastName+NoEmailProvided+Zipcode+CardLast4@Organizationsdomain.org
This format will ensure the email address is unique per donor.
Keep in mind the email can not be changed at a later time and the donor will not be able to manage their Recurring Gifts submitted through a false email in the donor portal. This leaves the responsibility on the organization to manage the recurring gift on behalf of the donor.