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
1. Using Challenges (Manually Managed)
This method allows you to create a simple challenge with a title and description. It requires manual tracking and completion.
Step 1: Access Challenge Settings
Navigate to "Campaign" and select "Add a Challenge".
Step 2: Define Your Challenge
Enter a title and description for your challenge.
Use rich text features (e.g., tables, images, videos) to enhance appeal.
Step 3: Publish the Challenge
Click "Publish" and "Save Changes" to make it live.
To edit later, leave the "Publish" toggle off and save it as a draft.
How to Manage these Challenges?
Reordering Challenges – Use the three-bar icon beside a challenge to adjust its order and click "Save".
Marking Completion – Toggle "Mark challenge as completed?" to move completed challenges to the bottom of the list on the campaign page.
2. Using Campaign Hubs (Automated Tracking)
For automated tracking and challenge completion, set up your challenge within a Campaign Hub. Campaigns allow additional configuration options, including automatic matching and unlocking gifts when conditions are met.
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 for clarity.
Select the campaign type as "Matching Gift Challenge".
Set a start and end time (for time-based challenges like Power Hour).
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).
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 and name it appropriately. Add a description and an image.
Select the campaign type as "Participation Challenge".
Set a goal (either a donation amount or number of donors).
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.
Tracking and Managing Challenges
Once a challenge is published, it will appear on your donation page, showing:
Live Progress Thermometer – Tracks how much has been unlocked.
Match Impact Display – Displays real-time matching impact for donors.
Important: While matched gifts are automatically updated on the donor-facing thermometer, they must also be recorded manually in the admin panel:
Add a gift manually on the admin side.
Toggle "Mark this as a matching gift" to ensure it is not double-counted.
By following these steps, you can create engaging and seamless fundraising challenges on Almabase, maximizing donor participation and impact.