Start a campaign
A campaign is one appeal with its own goal, dates and donation page — a building fund, a Purim appeal, a dinner. Every gift and pledge you tag with it adds up in one place.
Before you start
- You need to be an Owner or Admin — only they see "Start a campaign".
- If the money should go to a special processor (for example a separate bank account), connect it first under Settings → Payment processors.
- 1
Open Campaigns
Click "Campaigns" in the top bar. You see every campaign as a card with what it raised, the goal and how many days are left. Archived campaigns are at the bottom.
The Campaigns page lists every campaign with its totals. - 2
Open the form
Click "Start a campaign" near the top. A form opens under it.
"Start a campaign" opens the form right on the page. - 3
Name it
Type the "Campaign name" (what your staff will see, e.g. "Building Campaign 2026"). If donors should see something warmer, fill in "Friendly name (shown to donors)", e.g. "Our New Home". Leave "Page link (slug)" empty — Yahiv makes one from the name.
The friendly name is what donors see on the page. - 4
Goal and dates
Type the "Goal $" (just the number, e.g. 50000). Pick "Starts" and "Ends (countdown)". The end date drives the countdown clock on the donation page.
Goal and dates. - 5
Make it a sub-campaign (optional)
If this campaign is part of a bigger one — for example "Expansion" under "Building Fund", or "Dinner 2026" under "Annual Appeal" — pick the bigger one in "Part of (makes this a sub-campaign)". Leave it on "Not part of another campaign" otherwise. You can change it later on the campaign's page; a campaign can't be put under one of its own sub-campaigns.
"Part of" makes it a sub-campaign. - 6
Amounts and description
"Suggested amounts" are the buttons on the donation page — type them with commas, e.g. 18, 36, 100, 180 (up to 8). In "Description" write a few lines about the cause; it shows on the donation page.
- 7
Where the money goes
"Money for this campaign goes to" is usually "Organization default processor". Pick another processor only if this campaign's money must go somewhere else.
Leave it on the default unless this campaign has its own account. - 8
Tick what the page shows
Leave "Active" and "Public donation page" ticked. "Show donor wall" lists recent donors on the page; "Show countdown" shows the clock. Untick anything you don't want.
- 9
Create it
Click "Create campaign". The new campaign appears in the list. Click it to open its page — there you find "Night mode", "Donation page ↗", teams, and "What it cost".
A campaign's own page: totals, Night mode, the donation page and teams.
Tips
- Tag gifts with the campaign when you record them (the "Campaign" box on Record → Gift) so they count here.
- Sub-campaigns: in the Campaigns list a sub-campaign is shown indented under its parent (the ▾ arrow hides or shows them). The parent's Raised, Pledged, Givers and % include its sub-campaigns ("incl. sub-campaigns"); under the amount you also see what was given to the parent itself ("own").
- A parent campaign's page lists its sub-campaigns with their totals, and its public giving page shows the combined total.
- Filtering gifts, pledges, people or reports by a campaign includes its sub-campaigns. To see just the campaign itself, set the filter "Only the campaign itself (not its sub-campaigns)" (or "Its own payments" on the campaign's page). In Reports grouped by campaign, tick "Count sub-campaigns under their parent" to see them added into the parent.
- Imported campaigns keep Donary's "Friendly Name": it's shown, with the short name in small letters next to it. Donary's Campaign list "Parent" column makes the sub-campaigns for you.
- To stop a campaign without losing anything, open it, untick "Active" and save. It moves to "Archived".
- Your main giving page (no campaign) is always at /give/your-org. "Public giving page" on the Campaigns page opens it.
If something isn't working
A main campaign shows $0 but its sub-campaign has the money.
Open the sub-campaign, set "Part of" to the main campaign and save — the main campaign's totals then include it. After a Donary import, also check "Gifts without a campaign" on the import's page (Donary's payment export has no campaign column).
I don't see "Start a campaign".
Only Owners and Admins can start or change campaigns. Ask an Owner to change your role in Settings → Team & roles.
"Zeffy link must start with https://www.zeffy.com/"
Paste the full Zeffy form address, starting with https://www.zeffy.com/ — or leave the Zeffy box empty.
"Image URL must be https"
The header picture must be a web address that starts with https://. Upload the picture somewhere secure first, or leave it empty.
My page link has extra letters at the end.
Another campaign already uses that link, so Yahiv added a few letters to keep them apart. Type a different "Page link (slug)" if you want a cleaner one.