Can BBIS Donation Parts (using Payment 2.0) accept finder numbers in the URL from external mail services (not directly from Direct Marketing)?

Greg Harmelink 2 · April 2013

For groups who are wanting to utilize the Finder Number from a third party email vendor, is there a way to include the Finder Number in the URL so that it is consumed automatically from a donation part? It should be noted that we must use a Payment Part 2.0 with this process.

Karen Badham · April 2013

Hey Greg,

This is the scenario I'm imagining with your question, so let me know if I'm wrong. So you email out of a third party email server a link to a NetCommunity donation form. That email server is adding extra code into the link for tracking purposes,

and you want to know if that extra code is going to mess things up.

Under that scenario I'd say you're going to have to test it and see. We wouldn't do testing with a third party email vendor so I don't think we could give you a for sure yes or no.

If you test it, it doesn't work, and you need more from us I recommend creating a support case. (http://www.blackbaud.com/support/case...) That'll give Blackbaud a change to review the scenario specifically and make sure we provide every thing we can for this.

Thanks!

Karen

Samantha McGuin · April 2013

Hi Greg,

The finder number field in the BBIS Payment Part 2.0 has functionality directly related to CRM direct marketing. Using this field for external 3rd party services is going to attempt to write this matched to a CRM marketing effort, which may or may not exist after the gift is committed. I see a lot of risk in what may or may not happen if you use this field.

What you may be able to do is write some javascript to take the "finder number" in the URL and push it into a hidden revenue attribute field on the actual donation form, before it gets to payment part 2.0. We've done something similar in Blackbaud Services with capturing the "source" of a transaction. While in our case it wasn't unique to every constituent, depending on how the 3rd party email provider has the link coded with the unique finder number, it seems likely that this would be possible in your scenario - or at least worth a try.

Thanks,

-Samantha McGuin

Principal Consultant, Blackbaud

Greg Harmelink 2 · April 2013

In the case that I am talking about, there would be an associated Direct Marketing / Marketing Effort piece associated with the email, but the Email itself would be sent via a third party. We would be using the Marketing Effort to create an export that would include the finder number.

Does the fact that it would be tied to a marketing effort make it more viable to use in this manner?

Greg Harmelink 2 · April 2013

Karen: I just saw your reply.

At this point, I wasn't worried about extra code being added to the URL, I just wanted to know if it was possible at all.

For instance, can I just append "&efndnum=##" to a BBIS page with a donation part and assume that the finder number will be carried through (as long as the payment 2.0 part allows for finder number)?

Karen Badham · April 2013

Hey Greg,

Since we're talking about something third party I recommend testing it. Because of the third party aspect I don't think anyone is going to be able to give you a reliable "yes" or "no".

Thanks!

Karen

Samantha McGuin · April 2013

I think you're on the right track. As long as you are appending the finder number into the URL the same as donation form is expecting it, this sounds like it should work fine.

Payment 2.0 does support finder number, so you are good there.

Definitely worth a solid test beforehand as Karen mentioned, but I think it's well worth a shot.

--Samantha

Greg Harmelink 2 · April 2013

Thanks. I actually did test it and it worked as I had hoped (as far as I could tell).

Can BBIS Donation Parts (using Payment 2.0) accept finder numbers in the URL from external mail services (not directly from Direct Marketing)?

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