Designations

Designations let donors choose which fund, program, or initiative their gift supports — a capital campaign, a department, a year-end push, a specific cause. They give donors agency over where their money goes within your organization, and they give you per-fund attribution in reporting.

Enable designations

Designations are off by default. To turn them on:

1. In the donation page editor, click the Form Features tab in the left sidebar.
2. Toggle Designations on, or click Edit to open the configuration panel directly.

A "Designate this donation to" dropdown appears on the form preview, between the donation amount and the dedication section.

Configure designations

Two things to set up in the Designations panel:

Label

The text donors see above the dropdown. Defaults to "Designate this donation to:" — customize to match your campaign's voice ("Choose where your gift goes," "Which program would you like to support?" or similar).

Designations list

The options that appear in the dropdown. Each row in the panel is a designation:

• Add Option — adds a new designation at the bottom of the list.
• Edit a label — click into a row to rename.
• Set as default — designate one option as the default; a DEFAULT tag appears next to it. The default is what's pre-selected when the form loads.
• Remove — deletes a designation from the list.

Most organizations set "General Fund" or "Greatest Need" as the default. Gives donors permission to give without overthinking, while still leaving the door open for designating to something specific.

How donors see it

On the live form, the designations dropdown sits between the donation amount and the dedication section. Donors click the dropdown, pick an option, and the selected designation is recorded with the donation. Designations are filterable in the Activity Dashboard, so you can report donations by fund.

Choosing what to offer

A few patterns that work:

• Keep the list short. 3–5 options usually outperforms 10+. Too many choices creates decision paralysis; donors who can't decide give to the default or close the form.
• Use plain language. "Scholarship Fund" beats "Educational Initiatives Program (2024)." Donors should recognize the option without needing internal context.
• Lead with a general-fund default. Most donors don't want to think about routing — they want to give. A general-fund default keeps the form frictionless while still offering designation as an option.

Designations vs. campaigns

Designations route money to internal categories within a single campaign. They don't replace having separate campaigns when the audiences or messaging are genuinely different.

If you're running a year-end appeal and a Giving Tuesday push to different audiences with different copy and emails, those should be separate campaigns. If you're running one fundraising effort where donors might want to direct their gifts to specific programs within your organization, designations on a single campaign is the right tool. See What is a campaign? for more on when to create separate campaigns.