Contents · Charity manual

Running your website

Campaigns and appeals

Adding a campaign with a target, keeping its total up to date, milestones, where the money goes, questions, recent gifts, the appeal banner and campaign updates.

On this page

A campaign is anything you're raising money for: a winter appeal, a new van, a second advice day. Each one gets its own page with the story, a progress bar, days left, milestones that tick themselves off, where the money goes, questions and answers, recent gifts and a timeline of updates. A donate panel sits beside it all.

The website never makes up a figure. You type in the total from your donation provider's dashboard, and the page says when you last did it. With no total typed in, the page says the total is to come (never £0), and percentages are rounded down so a campaign never looks funded before it is.

Features marked (Pro) need a Pro or Agency licence.

The Warm Spaces winter appeal page: the title and photo, the story, milestones, where the money goes and updates on the left, and the progress and donate card on the right

On a phone, everything stacks into one column: the title, photo and story, then milestones, where the money goes and updates. The progress and donate card comes further down the page; the Give link in the appeal strip jumps straight to it.

The Warm Spaces campaign page on a phone: the appeal strip with Give, the title, photo and story, two milestones reached and the next one £1,150 to go, and where the money goes with a bar for each cost

How to see your campaigns

  1. Go to Charity → Campaigns.
  2. The list shows each campaign's Target, Raised (with the number of gifts), Progress, when it Closes (and days left) and whether it's Open or Closed.
The Campaigns list: Warm Spaces winter appeal £16,850 of £24,000 at 70%, a refrigerated pantry van at 78%, money advice at 34%, and a glasshouse for the Growers at 100% and closed

How to add a campaign

  1. Go to Charity → Campaigns and click Add campaign.
  2. Type the title, for example "Warm Spaces winter appeal".
  3. Write the story underneath: what the money is for, who it helps and why now.
  4. Add a photo as the Featured image in the right-hand panel, and a one or two sentence Excerpt. The excerpt is the short summary on the campaign cards.
  5. Fill in the three panels on the right: Target and total, Donations, and Milestones, costs and questions. They're described below.
  6. Click Publish.
The campaign editor, with the title "Warm Spaces winter appeal" and the story on the left, and the Target and total panel open on the right

Target and total

The Target and total panel: Target £24000, Raised so far 16,850, Number of gifts 312, The total comes from Typed in here, opening and closing dates, Open or closed set to By its dates, Feature it in the appeal banner switched on, What it's for set to Warm Welcome café and a small heading
  • Target (£): the amount you're aiming for. 0 means no target and no progress bar.
  • Raised so far (£): the total from your provider's dashboard. Leave it empty until you want to show a total.
  • Number of gifts: optional. 0 means it isn't shown.
  • The total comes from: Typed in here.
  • Opens and Closes: the campaign's dates. With no closing date there's no "days left".
  • Open or closed: By its dates (funded when the target is reached) is usual. Choose Open (taking gifts) to keep it open after its date, or Closed to close it early.
  • Feature it in the appeal banner: shows this campaign in the slim strip above every page while it's open. Use it for one campaign at a time.
  • What it's for (service): links the campaign to one of your services.
  • Small heading above it: a short line such as "Warmth · Kinwell Hall".

Donations

The Donations panel: Donation provider JustGiving, this campaign's own JustGiving page, an empty monthly page, Donate panel set to Amounts then a button to the provider's page, and four gift levels from £12 to £150

Leave these empty to use your main settings under Charity → Settings → Donations. Fill them in if this campaign has its own page on your provider. See Donations, Gift Aid and supporters for each box.

Milestones, costs and questions

The Milestones, costs and questions panel, with four milestones from 6000 to 24000, five lines of where the money goes, questions and answers about Gift Aid and fees, and four recent gifts

Each box takes one item per line, with the parts separated by a straight line |:

  • Milestones: amount | what it pays for, for example 6000 | November and December evenings. They tick themselves off as the total passes them, and the page shows how much is left to the next one.
  • Where the money goes: what | detail | amount, for example Heating and lighting | 5 evenings a week for 21 weeks | 9800.
  • Questions: question | answer.
  • Recent gifts: name | amount | message | date. See below.
  • More photos: extra photos from your media library.

This is how milestones and costs look on the campaign page:

Milestones on the campaign page: £6,000 and £12,000 ticked as reached, £18,000 marked next with £1,150 to go, and £24,000 as the target, followed by where the money goes

And the questions:

The Questions section on the campaign page, with four questions you can open, starting with "Does all of my gift go to the appeal?" and "Can I add Gift Aid?"

How to update the total

Do this whenever you check your provider's dashboard: once a day during a busy appeal, or once a week.

  1. Open your provider's dashboard and note the total raised (and the number of gifts, if you show it).
  2. Go to Charity → Campaigns and click the campaign.
  3. In Target and total, change Raised so far (£) and, if you like, Number of gifts.
  4. Click Save (or Update).

The page shows "Total updated" with the time, so people know how fresh the figure is. Milestones tick themselves off and the percentage, the appeal strip and the campaign cards all update.

The progress card on the campaign page: £16,850 raised, target £24,000, 70% of target, 312 gifts, 23 days left, the next milestone and "Total updated 02:31 today"

How to show recent gifts

Only show donors who ticked "show my name" (or similar) on your provider's page.

  1. In your provider's dashboard, look at the latest gifts.
  2. Open the campaign and find Recent gifts in the Milestones, costs and questions panel.
  3. Add one line per gift: name | amount | message | date, for example Sarah | 50 | For my mum, who loved this hall. | 2026-10-06.
  4. Leave out anyone who chose to stay anonymous, or write Anonymous as the name.
  5. Click Save.
The Recent gifts box on the campaign page: Sarah £50, Anonymous £10, Hillfoot Book Club £186 and Tom and Bea £25, with "Only donors who chose to show their name appear here"

How to feature a campaign in the appeal banner

  1. Open the campaign.
  2. In Target and total, switch on Feature it in the appeal banner.
  3. Click Save.

The strip appears above every page while the campaign is open, with its live percentage, days left and a Give link. Switch it off on the old campaign when you feature a new one.

The appeal strip reading "Warm Spaces winter appeal, 70% of £24,000, 23 days left" with Give and a close cross

How to close a campaign

A campaign closes by itself after its closing date. To close it early:

  1. Open the campaign.
  2. Set Open or closed to Closed.
  3. Click Save.

Closed campaigns stay on the website with a Closed label and a See what it bought link, so supporters can see what their money did. Add a final update to say how it went.

The Campaigns page with three open campaigns and their progress bars, and the closed glasshouse campaign at 100% with a See what it bought button

How to post a campaign update

Updates appear as a dated timeline on the campaign's page.

  1. Go to Charity → Campaign updates and click Add campaign update.
  2. Give it a title, such as "£12,000 reached: January is covered", and write the update.
  3. In The update panel on the right, choose its Campaign.
  4. (Pro) To email it, switch on Email it to supporters (Pro). When you publish, it goes once to everyone who confirmed they want this campaign's updates, each with a link to stop.
  5. Click Publish.
The Campaign updates list, with four updates such as "£12,000 reached: January is covered" and "The glasshouse is up"
The update panel: Campaign set to Warm Spaces winter appeal and the Email it to supporters (Pro) switch, which sends it once to supporters who confirmed

Updates by email and the Supporters list (Pro)

With Pro, each campaign page has a Get updates by email box under the updates. A visitor types their email, ticks "Email me this campaign's updates" and clicks Send me updates. They get an email with a link to confirm it was them. Nothing is sent until they do.

The updates timeline on the campaign page, with three dated updates and the Get updates by email box with an email field, a tick box and a Send me updates button

To see who asked:

  1. Go to Charity → Supporters.
  2. The list shows each Email, its Campaign, its Status (Confirmed or Not confirmed yet) and when they Asked.
  3. To remove someone, tick them and click Delete the ticked.

Each email has a link to stop, which deletes their address. Your newsletter list is separate and stays with your mailing provider.

The Supporters screen, explaining that only people who confirmed get updates, with an empty table and "Nobody yet. The Get updates by email form is on each campaign's page."