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About donation appeals

An appeal is an online donation form created within GiftTool which can be placed as a link on your website or in an email. The system allows your organization to tailor the appeal form to your strategic needs and the interests of your supporters.

Create as many appeal forms as required. Most organizations create at least one appeal form for their main "Donate Now" page.  Additionally, create extra appeal forms for:

  • "Make a donation In Tribute & In Memory"
  • "Join our Monthly Giving program"
  • Capital campaings 
  • Seasonal campaigns
  • Special promotional campaigns, that require separate tracking, reports and thank you / confirmation messages.

The appeal wizard helps you create an appeal by taking you step-by-step through the creation process. Navigating the wizard is easy. You will see a series of light blue tabs which are the main navigation sections, with subsections displayed as grey tabs. You can preview your appeal form at any time.

Navigation when creating an appeal for the first time:

  • Click Update & Next after completing a page to continue building the appeal.
  • When finished, click Save as Draft to save the appeal in the Draft folder, to complete the profile later or to activate the appeal. Or, click Save as Active, if the appeal is already in your active folder.


Navigation when updating an appeal that has already been saved:

  • Use the navigation tabs at the top of the wizard to go directly to the page you would like to modify.
  • Once you have made a change to a page, click Update & Next to continue building the appeal.
  • If you do not click on Update & Next, using the tabs to immediately proceed to another page, you will loose your changes to the previous page.
  • When finished, click Save as Draft to save the appeal in the Draft folder, to complete the form later or to activate the appeal. Or, click Save as Active, if the appeal is already in your active folder.


Do you already have a similar appeal setup?

  • Use the Copy button to create a new appeal.
  • Never reuse an old appeal, as all the donor data from the previous appeal will still be associated with the appeal setup. Instead create a copy to start with a fresh database.



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