Key Concepts
DonorPoint uses some naming conventions that differ from everyday language, and some that evolved historically. This page clears up the most common sources of confusion.
Forms and Campaigns
DonorPoint’s donor-facing forms are called Campaigns in the system. This is a legacy name. In the admin interface, the label shown depends on your account configuration — you may see “Page”, “Form”, “Campaign”, or “Fundraiser”. Throughout this documentation, Form and Campaign are used interchangeably.
Items and OrderableItems
Items (OrderableItems in the data model) are the giving options, event registrations, raffle tickets, and other selectable choices on a form. They are reusable — the same item can appear on many forms. When a donor selects an item, a line item (Order Item) is created in their transaction.
Think of Items as SKUs: a template that defines what is being offered and at what price. The transaction records what was actually purchased.
Transactions and PurchaseOrders
Every form submission creates a Transaction (called a PurchaseOrder in the system). A transaction records the contact, the form it came from, all the items selected, the payment, and any custom field values collected.
The Naming Map
When writing scripts or reading API responses, you use system names. This table maps display labels to system names:
| What You See | System Name |
|---|---|
| Form / Page / Campaign | campaign |
| Transaction | purchaseOrder |
| Item (template) | orderableItem |
| Line Item | orderItem |
| Recurring Donation | recurringDonationInstance |
| Volunteer Record | volunteerInstance |
| Segment / List | contactGroup |
| Employer Record | organization |
Everything Is HTML
All content in DonorPoint — confirmation pages, emails, form descriptions, document templates — is HTML evaluated against live data at render time. The same merge tag system (#{CONTACTFIRSTNAME}, #{purchaseOrder.amount}, custom field values) works everywhere. Write it once; it personalises itself for every recipient.
Before and After
At every significant event in the system — a form rendering, a donor selecting an item, a transaction saving, a record updating, a schedule firing — DonorPoint provides scripting hooks. Your business rules live in these hooks, not in manual workarounds. See Your Rules for the complete reference.