eCards on the EOY Donation Form?

Rachael Ahrens

Great idea! Here's how...

First, you'll want to create a dedicated donation form for this. You don't want to clutter up your main EOY donation form. You want your donors to quickly and easily make their one-time gift without being distracted by fields and options they don't need. Make a copy of your main EOY donation form as a starting point.

Next, make a stationery and select Donation eCard in step 3 on the first page of the stationery creation process. You can even re-purpose the eCard we build for you as part of the Go! EOY Fundraising campaign by making a copy, unselecting Email Campaigns and Quick Email, and then selecting Donation eCard. You will also want to remove the unsubscribe links and TAF links from the footer of the Go! eCard stationery because those don't work in donation eCards. Customize the design as you like and then publish. Be sure to select a nice thumbnail image. This will be important later on. Create another if you like using the same steps.

Now let's go back to the donation form you created just a second ago. You'll want to add the fields for eCards to your form wherever you'd like them. Play around with what fields you actually do want (you might not need ALL the eCard fields). Also, go through each of the fields and customize as necessary. One field you'll need to pay close attention to is the eCard - Selections field. This is where you'll select the eCards you want to offer on this donation form. Select the stationery you created for donation forms. If you have more than one you want to offer, add them all. The thumbnail you chose when you created the stationery is what will show on your donation form.

You may also want to add hon/mem fields. Make sure you think strategically about what fields you are including and ask a co-worker to check it to make sure the fields and the flow make sense.Test your form thoroughly and publish.

Promote it as an additional giving options but be careful that you don't distract your donors from your main goal: getting them to make a gift! Hon/mem eCards are ANOTHER way your donors might want to give. Complimentary, but not your main fundraising push this time of year. Most of your donors just want to make a regular gift and call it a day. Make sure you let them. :-)

Here's an example of a form that I think does a nice job with eCards:  https://secure2.convio.net/cintl/site/Donation2?idb=2123855512&df_id=1681&1681.donation=form1&JServSessionIdr004=39o8c1om41.app202b

Meredith Fay

Thanks Rachael.

I tried adding the eCard Selections field but it won't let me because it says "no ecard stationeries have been selected for display." I'm not sure what step I would do that at, if not after adding the Selections field and hitting "save order and edit selected," which I can't get to.

Taylor Shanklin

Meredith Fay:

Thanks Rachael.

I tried adding the eCard Selections field but it won't let me because it says "no ecard stationeries have been selected for display." I'm not sure what step I would do that at, if not after adding the Selections field and hitting "save order and edit selected," which I can't get to.

Hey Meredith,

Try unpublishing the donation form while you make these edits.  If the form is unpublished, you should be able to add the eCard selections, save and then just re-publish the form.

Taylor

Meredith Fay

Taylor Shanklin:

Hey Meredith,

Try unpublishing the donation form while you make these edits.  If the form is unpublished, you should be able to add the eCard selections, save and then just re-publish the form.

Taylor

Thanks that worked!

Now, though, when I go to test it, the card preview doesn't display the default text I set when I initially created the eCard, only whatever the constituent types in as the message body. This could be a good thing in the sense that it would avoid the problem with adding lines to the default text (one of my support cases), but how would I get the default text to show up? Or does that not work when the eCard is being generated thru a donation form?

Taylor Shanklin

Meredith Fay:

Thanks that worked!

Now, though, when I go to test it, the card preview doesn't display the default text I set when I initially created the eCard, only whatever the constituent types in as the message body. This could be a good thing in the sense that it would avoid the problem with adding lines to the default text (one of my support cases), but how would I get the default text to show up? Or does that not work when the eCard is being generated thru a donation form?

You're correct - it works just a bit differently when the eCard is being sent as part of the process of making a donation.  The eCard on the donation form will pull in the text that the receipient fills into the eCard message field on the donation form instead of the default text like when sending from the eCard or Tell A Friend page.

Meredith Fay

Taylor Shanklin:

You're correct - it works just a bit differently when the eCard is being sent as part of the process of making a donation.  The eCard on the donation form will pull in the text that the receipient fills into the eCard message field on the donation form instead of the default text like when sending from the eCard or Tell A Friend page.

Ok, now there's a new problem. I think we have entered the EOY twilight zone!

Even though I have 4 holiday eCard stationeries published, the eCard Selections data element now will only let me choose the "basic eCard" stationery. This was working fine just a few minutes before I went in and resized the images on the stationeries. I saved and published them in Stationery and in the eCard campaign, exactly as before, and now I can't choose them to display in the EOY tribute donation form anymore.

Taylor Shanklin

Meredith Fay:

Ok, now there's a new problem. I think we have entered the EOY twilight zone!

Even though I have 4 holiday eCard stationeries published, the eCard Selections data element now will only let me choose the "basic eCard" stationery. This was working fine just a few minutes before I went in and resized the images on the stationeries. I saved and published them in Stationery and in the eCard campaign, exactly as before, and now I can't choose them to display in the EOY tribute donation form anymore.

It looks like the stationeries for your eCards were edited to no longer be available for use on donation forms.  This is very simple to fix, though.

If you edit your stationery, one of the first steps you'll see is an option to select where you want to be able to use that particular stationery. Be sure that it is checked for both eCard and donation eCard. (see screenshot).  Just make sure this is updated for all of your holiday eCard stationeries and then you should be able to select them again on your donation form.

Meredith Fay

Taylor Shanklin:

It looks like the stationeries for your eCards were edited to no longer be available for use on donation forms.  This is very simple to fix, though.

If you edit your stationery, one of the first steps you'll see is an option to select where you want to be able to use that particular stationery. Be sure that it is checked for both eCard and donation eCard. (see screenshot).  Just make sure this is updated for all of your holiday eCard stationeries and then you should be able to select them again on your donation form.

That was the first thing I tried but for some reason the option for "donation eCard" is no longer available. I would insert a screenshot here, but now Community's saying I'm unauthorized to do that. I will email it to you, Taylor.