Designation Descriptions

We know how important transparency is to donors – especially younger ones. They want to know where their dollars are going and why their gifts matter. Adding designation descriptions can help build trust between donors and your organization, and educate donors about what their dollars will support – making them more likely to actually follow through with the gift they began. 

Designations can be added to individual designations and to designation groups.

Designation visibility and selection options

Designations may not appear in dropdown menus for several configuration reasons. Reviewing these settings can help troubleshoot when a designation is missing.

Visibility setting

• A hidden designation will not be selectable by donors.

Synced group restrictions

• In synced designation groups, individual designations are managed at the school level and cannot be modified on a campaign form.

Group versus individual designation structure

• Designation groups act as containers. The group itself may not be selectable, but the designations within should appear as options.

How to make a designation appear in the dropdown

1. Confirm the designation’s visibility setting in your campaign’s management area.
2. Ensure the designation isn’t hidden at the school level when using synced groups.
3. Verify that the designation is correctly added to the campaign or form.

Preselection vs. dropdown visibility

• Preselected designations are automatically chosen but remain changeable by donors.
• Featured designations display above the dropdown for prominence.
• Hidden designations do not appear as selectable options.

If a designation is missing from a dropdown, review these settings in your designation management interface to confirm it is set to be visible and selectable.

Designation descriptions are limited to 255 characters. 
🧐 Pro-Tip: Have descriptions that are longer than 255 characters? Use ChatGPT to help you make them shorter and more concise.

 

School may choose whether or not to display designation descriptions on each campaign or form. 

Toggling designation descriptions on a campaign or giving form

1. Open the campaign or form in the admin area.
2. Click the Form Settings tab in the admin navigation.
3. Scroll to the Designation Settings panel.
4. Locate the Display designation descriptions checkbox and check it to enable or uncheck it to disable the descriptions.

What this setting does

• When enabled, the designation description appears beneath each fund name in the dropdown during the checkout flow.
• When disabled, the descriptions are hidden from view but remain searchable by keywords during checkout.
• This setting is applied on a per-campaign or per-form basis and does not affect the school-level descriptions.

Entering designation descriptions at the school level

• Designation descriptions are managed at the school level under Content and Settings > Designations. You can edit them inline in the descriptions column or via a CSV upload using the provided sample.
• Descriptions set at the school level appear on any campaign or form that uses the designation, but whether donors see them is controlled by the form’s specific toggle.

Additional tips

• Character limit: 255 characters per designation description.
• Search optimization: Include abbreviated names or keywords in the description (for example, a common abbreviation for a fund) to help donors find the fund in the checkout search.
• Synced groups: For designations in synced groups, edit the description under Content and Settings > Designations as they cannot be modified in the campaign editor.
• Display note: Descriptions only appear in the giving-form designation dropdown when enabled; other areas (such as the payment page or email confirmations) are not affected.

If enabled, designations will display: 

Designation descriptions are searchable within the checkout flow even if you choose not to display the descriptions to donors. You can use these strategically to optimize your designation search. 

For example: You may have the College of Arts & Sciences General Fund as the formal name of the designation, but your donors commonly use A&S as short hand. Use A&S within your designation description to help more donors find the fund they are looking for.