Salsa Scoop> tag: ”blog:donation“

Salsa Highlight: Now capturing more recurring donations data

Greetings!

It's the "Salsa Weekly Highlight," your quick hit on what's new in Salsa to help get the most out of your online program. As always, you can find plenty more news, updates, and conversation throughout the week on SalsaCommons.org.

We've recently tweaked the database to capture more information when your donors submit recurring donations -- those all-important automated, ongoing donations.

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Merchant gateways in the news

by Jason Z.

Users of the popular merchant gateway Payflow Pro may be contacted by PayPal to advise of changes to the processor's API.

Those changes are slated to take effect in September, and they will affect the way Salsa interacts with PayPal -- but if you run your own Payflow Pro gateway, there's nothing to sweat about.  We're on the case, and already have the initial coding done; we should be set for a seamless transition well before September.  DemocracyInAction.org's default merchant processor -- the one used by the majority of its member organizations -- is also Payflow Pro, so we're thoroughly incentivized.

In a completely unrelated merchant gateway bulletin, the product formerly known as Linkpoint or YourPay is now First Data Global Solutions. (Both Linkpoint.com and YourPay.com loudly banner this confusing development.)

We're going to need a playbill just to keep track of the dramatis personae.  Fortunately, you probably don't use Linkpoint, YourPay, and/or First Data Global Solutions:  while it is a supported merchant gateway in Salsa, it's the least frequently chosen.

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Customizing a donation page with summed totals

by Jason Z.

This is a question we get a lot:  how can I customize a donation page to behave in a storefront-like fashion -- choosing multiple gift types that result in a single automatically calculated sum?

Mike Heavers of Maverick Digital came up with a nifty solution you can see in action on this donation page.

It's just a bit of script in the page's Custom Donation HTML field, and can easily be tweaked for your own page.

<script language="JavaScript"><!--
function getTotal() {
      document.donation_data.amount.value = parseInt(document.donation_data.memberdues.value) + parseInt(document.donation_data.regamount.value);

    document.donation_data.VARCHAR0.value = document.donation_data.RADIO0.value;
    document.donation_data.VARCHAR1.value = document.donation_data.memberdues.value;
    document.donation_data.VARCHAR2.value = document.donation_data.regamount.value;

}



//--></script>

<br/>

<div class="formRow">

<label for="fc4">Join or renew your membership here: </label>

<select id="fc4" class="blockInput" name="memberdues" onchange="getTotal()">
<option value="0">I do not need to renew my membership</option>
<option value="50">Voting & Assoc Members- Budget under $1m: $50 dues</option>
<option value="100">Voting & Assoc Members- Budget over $1m: $100 dues</option>
<option value="20">Individuals: $20 dues</option>
<option value="10">Students & Seniors: $10 dues</option>
</select>

</div>



<div class="formRow">
<label for="fc34">Registration Fee <span class="required">*</span>: </label>


<select id="fc34" class="blockInput" name="regamount" onchange="getTotal()">
<option selected="">SELECT ONE:</option>
<option value="150">MEMBER-Early Bird Registration Package Only (before 4/17): $150</option>
<option value="225">MEMBER-Early Bird Registration Package w / Gala Ticket (before 4/17): $225</option>
<option value="250">MEMBER-Regular Convention Registration Package Only: $250</option>
<option value="325">MEMBER-Regular Convention Registration Package w/Gala Ticket: $325</option>
<option value="250">NONMEMBER – Early Bird Registration Package ONLY (before 4/17): $250</option>
<option value="450">NONMEMBER – Early Bird Registration Package w/Gala Ticket (before 4/17): $450</option>
<option value="350">NONMEMBER – Regular Convention Registration Package ONLY: $350</option>
<option value="550">NONMEMBER – Regular Convention Registration Package w/Gala Ticket: $550</option>
<option value="200">Gala Only Ticket - $200</option>
</select>
</div>
<br/>

<div class="formRow">
<label for="amount">Total Amount: </label>
<input type="text" name="amount" readonly="readonly">
</div>



<input type="hidden" name="VARCHAR0" >
<input type="hidden" name="VARCHAR1" >
<input type="hidden" name="VARCHAR2" >

<input type="hidden" value="Email,RADIO0,First_Name,Last_Name,Street,City,State,Zip,regamount,amount" name="required"/>

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Spotlight on CIVIC's perseverance through wintry economic times

by Jason Z.

The Washington Times ran an illuminating piece today on CIVIC, the Campaign for Innocent Victims In Conflict and one of our favorite Salsa users.  It's not only a heart-gladdening story to see CIVIC keep on keeping on, but underscores the perilous situation many small nonprofits are or soon may be facing.

CIVIC had nothing to do with crooked financier Bernard Madoff, but the relief organization was supported by the JEHT Foundation, a strongly progressive funder whose donor unfortunately fell prey to the Madoff Ponzi scheme.

That blow ultimately fell on CIVIC (and scores of other progressive nonprofits), and "illustrates how devastating the Madoff case has been for smaller charities" and has already resulted in one layoff on its four-person staff and the closure of its office.

CIVIC relies totally on grants from foundations and private donations, and that $50,000 grant [from the JEHT Foundation] was the only guaranteed money it had coming in for 2009. ...

The organization has a $350,000 budget. Compounding the problems is that donations are down about 40 percent, according to [Executive Director Sarah] Holewinski. She said CIVIC still needs about $200,000. Until a supporter in Europe gave a large donation last month, Ms. Holewinski said there was a real prospect that the organization would have to close entirely.

What a relief that CIVIC didn't close.

In this case, the Madoff-to-layoff chain is visibly apparent.  But the systematic pressure of depressed donations, an implacable statistical inevitability fed by a thousand minute tributaries -- that's the thing to watch out for.

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Be a DIA Guru

Have you met Chelsea? She writes a monthly column, Be a DIA Guru. This month, she's looking at donation reports in Salsa. Collect them all! Templates Merge fields Listservs

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