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Funds, campaigns and appeals
The three labels a gift can carry, what each is for, and how to set them up so reports answer the questions you actually have.
2 min read · Updated November 2, 2026
Every gift can carry three labels. They answer different questions, so don't make one do the job of another.
| Label | Question it answers | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Fund | Where may the money be spent? | General Fund, Building Fund, Food Pantry |
| Campaign | Which fundraising effort, with what goal, over what dates? | Spring Gala 2026, Year-end 2026 |
| Appeal | Which specific ask produced this gift? | March mailer, Giving Tuesday email, reply card code GALA26-B |
A fund is accounting; a campaign is a goal; an appeal is a channel. A gala gift might be Building Fund / Spring Gala 2026 / Table sponsorship.
Creating or changing any of these needs the Admin or Owner role. Everyone who can record gifts can pick them on a gift.
Funds
Giving → Funds. Each fund has a name, an optional description, a Restricted tick (money the donor earmarked for a purpose; shown on the Fund summary report) and Accepting gifts (untick to stop offering it on forms while keeping history). Exactly one fund is the Default fund: gifts land there when nothing else is chosen. Funds you no longer use can be archived; past gifts keep their designation.
Donors choose a fund on the donation form only if you turn on the fund picker (Customize your donation form); otherwise the form's default fund applies. Links can pre-select a fund too (Hosted donation page links).
Campaigns
Giving → Campaigns. A campaign has a name, an optional Goal, Starts and Ends dates, an optional default fund, and a description. The list shows Progress toward the goal; the campaign page shows Raised, Gifts and Donors, recent gifts, and the appeals inside it. Archive campaign hides a finished one; its gifts keep the label.
A donation form can attribute every gift it takes to a campaign (the Campaign setting under Basics). Recurring plans keep the campaign they started with. The Campaign progress report shows active or all campaigns side by side.
Appeals
Giving → Campaigns → New appeal. An appeal has a name, a short Code you can print on reply cards or put in a subject line, the campaign it belongs to (or none), and an optional Cost, so you can compare what an appeal cost with what it raised. Appeals not tied to a campaign are listed separately.
Appeals are set when a gift is recorded by hand or imported (map an Appeal column); online forms carry a campaign but not an appeal, so make a separate form per channel if you need to tell channels apart online.
In reports
Gift detail filters by fund and campaign; Fund summary totals by fund; Campaign progress compares campaigns; the custom report builder can group by fund, campaign or appeal. See Reports overview.