Gift challenges are an effective way for schools and organizations to boost fundraising efforts by incentivizing donors with matching contributions or unlocking additional funds based on participation milestones.
Some common types of gift challenges:
Dollar-for-Dollar Match – A donor pledges to match every dollar given, up to a total of $20,000.
Double Your Impact – Every donation is doubled until a total of $15,000 is matched.
Alumni Class Challenge – If 50 alumni from a specific class year donate, a $5,000 gift is unlocked.
Power Hour Challenge – If 100 people give between 7 PM - 8 PM, an extra $10,000 is unlocked.
Almabase streamlines the setup and tracking of such challenges, making fundraising campaigns more engaging and efficient.
How to Set Up Challenges on Almabase
Using Campaign Hubs
Set up your challenges within a Campaign Hub. Campaign Hubs keep all your challenges in one place and offer configuration options including automated matching, participation tracking, start/end dates, and card preview.
Tip: You can change a campaign's type after creating it, as long as no gift has been received yet. Once a gift lands, the type is permanently locked.
Matching Gift Challenges
These challenges match donations based on predefined rules.
Examples:
Dollar-for-Dollar Match – Up to $20,000.
Double Your Impact – Every donation is doubled, up to $15,000.
Early Bird Match – First 50 donations matched 2:1, up to $5,000.
Steps to Set Up a Matching Gift Challenge:
Go to Campaign Hubs. If a hub does not exist, create one.
Add a campaign within the hub and name it based on your challenge.
Add a description and an image or choose a card icon.
Optionally set a start and end date/time (for time-based challenges like Power Hour). If set, donors see an "Ends in…" or "Starts in…" chip on the card.
Select the campaign type as "Matching gift challenge".
Configure amount for the challenge
Define the total amount available for matching under "Total amount for gift matching".
Set the maximum matched per donation (e.g., $100 per donation).
Choose the match ratio (e.g., 1:1 for dollar-for-dollar matching, 1:2 for doubling donations).
Optionally, set a Goal Amount — a total fundraising goal beyond the matching amount. For example, a sponsor may provide $4,000 in matching funds, but you want the campaign to raise $10,000 overall. When a Goal Amount is set, the card shows progress toward both the matching goal and the overall fundraising goal. The thermometer keeps progressing even after the sponsor's matching gift money has been fully utilized. If no Goal Amount is set, the card looks exactly as it does today.
Define the donors to be considered for the challenge
Fund Eligibility – Select specific funds that should count toward the challenge. Only donations made to these funds will contribute towards the challenge goal.
Donor Eligibility – Define conditions for which donors will be included in the challenge. For example, you can set criteria based on form responses, donor types, or other attributes.
Show Donor Names – Enable this toggle if you want the names of donors contributing to the challenge to be displayed publicly. If disabled, donor names will remain hidden.
Publish the campaign to make it visible on the page.
Participation Challenges
Encourage donor engagement by setting a participation-based challenge.
Examples:
If 100 donors contribute, a $10,000 gift is unlocked.
When $10,000 is raised, a special video from a faculty member is released.
Steps to Set Up a Participation Challenge:
Go to Campaign Hubs and create a new hub if needed.
Add a campaign within the hub, name it appropriately, and add a description.
Add an image or choose a card icon. Optionally set a start and end date/time (for time-based challenges like Power Hour). If set, donors see an "Ends in…" or "Starts in…" chip on the card.
Select the campaign type as "Participation challenge".
Set a goal (either a donation amount or number of donors or number of gifts).
Define the donors to be considered for the challenge
Fund Eligibility – Select specific funds that should count toward the challenge. Only donations made to these funds will contribute towards the challenge goal.
Donor Eligibility – Define conditions for which donors will be included in the challenge. For example, you can set criteria based on form responses, donor types, or other attributes.
Define the prize amount that will be unlocked upon completion. (A gift of this amount will be added to the campaign once the challenge goal is met)
Show Donor Names – Enable this toggle if you want the names of donors contributing to the challenge to be displayed publicly. If disabled, donor names will remain hidden.
Publish the campaign to activate it.
Custom Challenges
Custom challenges are free-form challenges that don't require a fund, goal, or automated tracking. They're ideal for engagement-driven goals that the other types don't cover.
Examples:
"Share your favorite campus memory on social media"
"100 Parent donors will unlock a video of our Dean playing his favourite song on Guitar"
Steps to Set Up a Custom Challenge:
Go to Campaign Hubs and create a new hub if needed.
Add a campaign within the hub. Enter a name and description for the challenge.
Add an image or choose a card icon. Optionally set a start and end date/time (for time-based challenges like Power Hour). If set, donors see an "Ends in…" or "Starts in…" chip on the card.
Select the campaign type as "Custom challenge".
Under Campaign settings, write a Summary (Card preview) — 1-2 sentences that grab attention (e.g., "Help first-generation students achieve their dreams"). This text appears on the donor-facing card.
Publish the campaign.
Managing Custom Challenges:
Custom challenges have no automated tracking. When the goal is met, toggle "Mark this challenge as completed" — the public page will show that the challenge has been completed.
Tracking and Managing Challenges
Once a challenge is published within a Campaign Hub, it appears on your donation page. For Matching Gift and Participation challenges, the card shows:
Live Progress Thermometer – Tracks how much has been unlocked.
Match Impact Display – Displays real-time matching impact for donors.
Important: The matched gifts are automatically updated on the donor-facing thermometer, but they are not added as a gift on the admin side. You may notice a discrepancy in the gift total. This is expected. If you want to match the numbers, then these matched challenge gifts must be recorded manually.
Add a gift manually on the admin side.
Toggle "Mark this as a matching gift".
This will ensure the gift is not added to the thermometer.
What donors see when a goal is reached
When a matching gift or participation goal is met, the card displays a "Goal reached" pill. Donors who give after the goal is reached still appear in the donor list, as long as the challenge is still active.
For matching gift challenges with a Goal Amount, the card can show both "Match unlocked" and "Goal reached" once both thresholds are met.
Previewing the challenge card
Use the "Preview card" button in the top-right corner of the campaign drawer to see exactly what the card looks like on the donor side.
The preview shows three states:
Before any gifts — What donors see before the challenge starts receiving gifts
In progress — What donors see while the challenge is active and progressing
Goal reached — What donors see after the goal is met
This preview doesn't save or publish anything — it's a safe way to check your card before going live.
Creating challenges directly on the page
You can also create simple challenges directly on the campaign page, outside of Campaign Hubs. These challenges have a title and description but no automated tracking — you manage and mark them complete manually.
For more flexibility — including card icons, start/end dates, goal tracking, and card preview — we recommend creating challenges in Campaign Hub instead.
Navigate to Campaign Page Settings and select "Add a Challenge".
Enter a title and description. Use the rich text editor to add tables, images, or videos.
Click "Publish" and "Save Changes" to make it live. To save as a draft, leave the "Publish" toggle off.
Managing page-level challenges:
Reorder — Use the three-bar icon beside a challenge to drag it into a new position, then click "Save".
Mark complete — Toggle "Mark challenge as completed?" to move the challenge to the bottom of the list on the campaign page.
By following these steps, you can create engaging and seamless fundraising challenges on Almabase, maximizing donor participation and impact.