Designations in campaigns

Each campaign uses one of two mutually exclusive designation options:

• Assigned designation
  • A single designation applies to all donations in the campaign, and supporters cannot change it during checkout.
  • You can choose to show or hide this designation from supporters during checkout.
  • By default, each new campaign has one designation preselected — the account default designation set in Settings > Campaigns > Default designation. If you want to change it, you can do so directly in the campaign. To update it for all future campaigns, change the account default designation.
• Selectable designation
  • Supporters choose one designation during checkout from the options you add to the campaign. On Campaign Pages, you can also enable the Multiple designations setting, which lets supporters select up to 5 designations in a single donation.
  • When you first switch a campaign to this mode, it automatically includes the account default designation set in Settings > Campaigns > Default designation. If you want to change it, you can add a new designation and then remove the default one. There must always be at least one designation in the list — you can’t remove the last remaining one.

By default, new campaigns use Assigned designation with the Show designation to supporter option enabled.

Use assigned designation when you want all donations in a campaign to support a specific fund or program without giving supporters a choice.

The Designation field is automatically populated with the account default designation set in Settings > Campaigns > Default designation. You can change it directly in the campaign by selecting a different designation from your available options. You can only choose individual designations, not groups of designations.

Account default designation, in this case “General Designation”

If your campaign supports two donation frequencies (for example, one-time and monthly), you can assign different designations for each frequency. Click Add designation for second frequency to set a specific designation for the second frequency option.

The Show designation to supporter checkbox determines whether supporters see the designation information during checkout. This option is enabled by default for new campaigns. When disabled, the designation is still applied to donations but remains hidden from supporters.

Two different designations assigned: daily donation to “Career & Professional Success Fund” and quarterly donation to “School of Public Policy”

You cannot remove the designation field entirely or leave it empty — every campaign must have at least one designation assigned.

Use selectable designations when you want supporters to choose from several options during checkout.

Click Add designation or Add group to build your campaign's designation options. You can:

When you add a group, its entire structure is included automatically, along with all designations and any nested groups it contains. If you later update that group in the Designations manager, the changes will be reflected in all campaigns using it.

Use the search field to find specific designations or groups. The search covers all hierarchy levels, including items within groups.

Sort your designation list alphabetically using Sort by name A–Z or manually reorder items by dragging them into your preferred sequence. You can only reorder top-level items (individual designations and parent groups). You cannot modify the contents of a group at the campaign level — all changes must be made in the Designations manager to keep them consistent across campaigns.

Search option for selecting designations or designation groups for supporters to choose from

In each campaign, you can decide how selectable designations are presented to supporters during checkout.

• You can set a default designation to guide donations toward a specific option. Supporters can change it during checkout.
• You can set different defaults for one-time and recurring donations — for example, one-time donations can default to one project, while recurring donations go to another. Supporters can change it during checkout.
• Or you can clear the default, leaving the field empty but required. This forces supporters to actively choose a designation instead of accepting a preselected one. To use this, you need at least two designations available for each frequency your campaign supports.

Designations can be set as default with Make default for all donations, Make default for one-time, or Make default for recurring.

• If a group has a frequency restriction, its designations inherit it and cannot be set as default for other frequencies. Frequency restrictions are explained in the section below.
• You can clear a default with Clear default designation to leave the field empty but required during checkout (only if at least one other designation remains for each frequency).

If a default designation inside a group is later removed from the group in the Designations manager:

• If only one designation remains for a given frequency in the campaign, it automatically becomes the default.
• If multiple remain, no default is assigned automatically.

You can control when a designation or group is shown to supporters by applying frequency restrictions from the three-dot menu next to it.

• Restrict to one-time — The designation or group appears only for one-time donations.
• Restrict to recurring — The designation or group appears only for recurring donations.
• Allow all donations — Shows the designation or group for both one-time and recurring donations.

When applied to a group, the restriction affects all designations and subgroups within it. Subgroups automatically inherit the restrictions of their parent group.

When you change your campaign's frequency settings (removing one-time or recurring options), designations with frequency restrictions will disappear from your campaign until you restore the required frequency settings.

You can switch between assigned and selectable designation approaches at any time. The system preserves all settings, so you can switch back without losing your configuration. All added designations, groups, default settings, frequency restrictions, and their order remain intact.

Consider these approaches when configuring campaign designations:

• Match supporter expectations — Use designation names and hierarchy that align with how supporters think about your programs. Avoid internal department names or complex hierarchies that might confuse supporters.
• Plan for multiple campaigns — Think of the Designations manager as your set of building blocks. Create designations and groups there once, then reuse them across multiple campaigns. A well-planned hierarchy in the manager saves time and effort and allows you to assemble each campaign without starting from scratch.
• Test the supporter experience — Use Test mode to preview how designation options appear during checkout and confirm they’re easy to navigate.
  How to test your campaign before going live
• Use frequency restrictions strategically — Apply restrictions when certain programs only accept specific donation types, but avoid overcomplicating the supporter experience with too many conditional options.

Enable multiple designations on Campaign Pages to let supporters select up to 5 designations in a single payment.

Learn about multiple designations →