Designation Management: Setting Display, Requirement, and Order of Designations

In October 2025, we introduced updated designation management with simpler and more intuitive options to feature, highlight, and have designations pre-selected on your campaigns and giving forms. 

First make sure your designations are added to your form or campaign, then start here:

 

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Designation Requirement

Make designations required by visiting the 'Form Builder' and making the designation field as required for donors. 

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Pinned Designations

Featured designations let you pin up to 25 important funds at the top of the dropdown for quick donor access. Simply check the 'Pin to Top' box to add a fund to move the designation to the top of your designation dropdown. Pinned designations are not impacted by bulk sort actions.

 

Clicking the pinned icon moves the designation to the 'Pinned Designations' section. You can then reorder them using the arrows on the left, which changes their display order in the form's top designation field.

 

Settings:

Form:

 

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Feature Above Dropdown Designations

Featuring a designation above the dropdown makes it stand out on the form. To do this, toggle the appropriate setting. Donors still need to select it, but it’s easier for them to find without browsing the whole dropdown.

Settings:

Form:

 

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Pre-Selected Designations

The pre-selected designation automatically appears on the donor's form, speeding up checkout and increasing the chance they'll choose it. Donors can still change or remove this designation if they want. To enable, simply toggle on the respective settings.

Settings:

Form:

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Visible in Dropdown

Designations by default are set to be visible in the designation dropdown. However, you can also set designations to not be visible in the dropdown. This will make those designations hidden in the dropdown, but searchable by the donor. Non-visible designations can also be auto-filled for the select donors who may be looking for specific funds.

You can set the visibility in bulk. This will impact all designations on the level you are currently on. If you are setting the visibility within a group, it will only impact the visibility within that group.

Hidden-but-searchable designations: how the search box works

Setting a designation to not visible in dropdown removes it from the list without disabling its functionality. Donors can still find and select these funds:

• Search finds hidden funds: Hidden designations remain searchable. As donors type in the search box, matching funds will appear.
• Selectable after search: Donors can choose a hidden designation from the search results, even though it doesn’t appear in the dropdown.
• What “hidden but searchable” means: The fund won’t show when opening the dropdown, but it will be listed when searched by name.

 

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Designation Order & Sorting Designations

You can set a custom order for pinned designations using the arrow icons next to each pinned fund.
All other designations that are visible in the dropdown will display in the order they were added to the form.

 

There are now up and down arrows available for all designations to move them up and down in your designation list (including across pages!) to further customize your order. If you use a "CNTL + Click" keyboard shortcut you can move a designation to the bottom of the list. This is super handy for designations like 'other' that you want to list on your form but not display so prominently!

 

 

 

To automatically alphabetize all visible designations (excluding pinned ones), use the Sort A–Z button. Sorting applies to the level or group you’re currently viewing.

 

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Frequently Asked Questions? 

• When is the new designation management functionality coming to the school level. 
  Soon! We are hoping to expand the designation management functionality to the process for managing school level groups in the first half of 2026. 

 

Questions? Contact support@givecampus.com 

 

 

Making Designations Optional with Default Selection

Setting a Default Designation Without Requiring Selection

You can have a designation pre-selected for donors while still allowing them to change it:

1. Go to your campaign's Designation Management settings

2. Find the designation you want as the default

3. Select 'Pre-selected' for that designation

4. In your Form Builder, ensure the designation field is not marked as required

This approach:

• Shows donors a helpful starting point
• Reduces clicks for donors who want the default option
• Still allows donors to choose different designations if desired
• Avoids forcing donors to make a selection

Common variations of this question

• How do I set a default designation without making it required?
• Can I pre-select a fund without forcing donors to pick one?
• How to reduce clicks while keeping designations optional?

Setting a Default Without Requiring Selection

To have a designation automatically selected for donors while still allowing them to change or remove it:

1. Go to your campaign or form's Designation Management setting at Giving Experience> Designation Configuration
2. Find the designation you want as the default
3. Toggle on 'Pre-selected' for that designation
4. In Form Builder, ensure the designation field is NOT marked as required

This approach:

• Shows donors a helpful starting point
• Reduces clicks for donors who want the default option
• Still allows donors to choose different designations if desired
• Keeps the full designation dropdown visible and functional

Important: 'Pin to Top' moves designations to the top of the dropdown for visibility, but does NOT pre-select them. Use 'Pre-selected' specifically for default selection.

Troubleshooting the "Designation required" setting

If donors can complete checkout without selecting a designation even though the field is required, follow these steps:

How the campaign-level "Require designation" setting depends on Form Builder

The campaign-level requirement and pre-selection controls work together through the campaign's Designation Configuration and the designation field on the giving form. Use this checklist if a required or pre-selected designation isn’t working as expected.

1. Enable designation functionality at the campaign level

   • In your campaign settings, confirm that campaign-level designation controls are enabled (for example, a pre‑selected fund is chosen or visibility/pinned options are toggled in Designation Configuration).

2. Confirm the form includes the designation field

   • The designation field must be added in Form Builder for any campaign-level requirement or pre-selection to take effect. Verify the field exists on the pre‑payment (checkout) form.

3. Enable required validation in Form Builder

   • The designation field’s Required toggle in Form Builder enforces donor selection. Open the field’s settings and enable this toggle if you want the designation to be mandatory.

4. Pre-selected designations behavior

   • A pre‑selected designation will appear as the default choice only if the designation is attached to the form and the form includes the designation field. To make the pre‑selected fund mandatory, also enable the Required toggle in Form Builder.

5. Server-side error when the designation field is missing

   • If you require designations at the campaign level but the form is missing the designation field, the system shows: "Designation field must be added to all your forms through a form builder before requiring designations at the campaign level." Use this message to diagnose the issue by adding the field in Form Builder and saving your settings.

6. Troubleshooting checklist

   • Confirm the campaign's Designation Configuration includes the desired designation(s).
   • Verify the designation field is present on every form used by the campaign in Form Builder.
   • Enable the Required toggle on the designation field in Form Builder if the designation should be mandatory.
   • For a default selection without forcing donor choice, set the fund to pre‑selected in Designation Configuration and ensure the field in Form Builder is not marked Required.
   • If you see the error about a missing designation field, add the field and retest.

7. Example scenario

   • A pre‑selected fund may appear non-functional if you cloned or changed the form without adding the designation field. Donors will see no pre-selection, and reporting may lack the intended designation. The fix is to add the designation field in Form Builder and verify that Designation Configuration still lists the pre‑selected fund.

8. Notes and gotchas

   • Hiding a designation from the dropdown (hidden-but-searchable) does not prevent its selection via search. Remove the designation entirely if you want to block selection.
   • Pinned designations move funds visually to the top of the dropdown but do not pre-select them.
   • Both client and server validations are in place. If client-side validation is bypassed, server validation will still block submissions when the field is Required.

Following these steps will ensure that campaign-level requirement and pre-selection settings work as intended by confirming that the underlying form field and its validation are properly configured.

1. Verify the required setting in Form Builder

   • Open the form in Form Builder and confirm the designation field's Required toggle is enabled.

2. Ensure designations are added to the form

   • A form without any designations cannot enforce the requirement. Confirm that at least one designation is added to the form or its group.

3. Check validation behavior

   • Validation runs both on the client (donor's browser) and server. When the requirement is enforced, attempting submission without a designation displays the error: "Designation field is required."

4. Run a reproduction test

   • Open your giving form in an incognito/private window, complete the form without selecting a designation, and attempt checkout. The client-side validation should block submission. If it doesn’t, the server should return the error message.

5. Review common gotchas

   • Hidden-but-searchable designations: Hiding a designation from the dropdown doesn't prevent its selection if a donor uses the search box. To restrict selection, remove the designation from the form.
   • Pre-selected default: To have a fund automatically chosen without forcing a donor's selection, use the Pre-selected setting and ensure the designation field is not marked required.

6. If the issue persists

   • Confirm at least one designation is attached to the form.
   • Toggle the Required setting off and on again in Form Builder, then save and retest.
   • Look for the exact server error message: "Designation field is required."