Federated Campaigns and iGuide

DonorPoint supports federated fundraising — campaigns where donors designate gifts to agencies or funds managed by member organizations rather than (or in addition to) your own organization. This is common in United Way campaigns and similar community foundations.

How Federated Giving Works

  1. Donor selects a designated agency or fund from a list on the form
  2. The designation is stored on the donation order item as a fund owned by the designated organization
  3. Your organization collects all payments
  4. The Payout engine calculates and tracks the net amount owed to each agency after fees
  5. Funds are disbursed via the Payout Batch process

See Designations and Payouts for the full payout process.

iGuide Integration

iGuide is the industry standard designation directory used by many United Ways. DonorPoint can sync fund and agency data from iGuide to populate designation lists on your forms.

Setting Up iGuide

iGuide integration is configured per account. Contact help@donorpoint.com to connect your DonorPoint account to your iGuide instance. Once connected:

  1. Fund records in DonorPoint are linked to their corresponding iGuide entries
  2. iGuide content (agency names, descriptions, impact statements) is synced to fund records
  3. Donor-facing designation lists on forms are populated from the synced fund records

Annual iGuide Updates

iGuide data is typically refreshed annually when agencies update their information for the new campaign year. When iGuide data is updated:

  • Agency names and descriptions are updated in your fund records
  • New agencies added to iGuide can be imported to create new fund records
  • Removed agencies are flagged for review before being archived

Local Fund Codes

Local fund codes are DonorPoint fund records that correspond to your own internal GL accounts or local agencies. These are managed directly in DonorPoint and do not sync from iGuide. You can mix iGuide-sourced and locally managed funds on the same designation form.

Fund Groups for Designation Selection

Funds are organized into Fund Groups for presentation on forms. A Fund Group defines a set of funds that appear in a designation picker. Multiple Fund Groups can appear on the same form, organized by sector, geography, or other criteria.

To configure Fund Groups:

  1. Go to the Organization record that owns the funds.
  2. Click the Fund Groups tab.
  3. Create a Fund Group and add funds to it.
  4. On your donation form, use the Fund Group designation item to present this selection to donors.

ZIP-Based Designation Filtering

For large federated campaigns, designation lists can be filtered by the donor’s ZIP code to show relevant local agencies. This is configured via a designated “Local” fund group that filters by ZIP code prefix.

Contact help@donorpoint.com for assistance setting up ZIP-based designation filtering.

Write-In Designations

Write-in designations allow donors to type in a free-text agency name or designation that is not in your standard fund list. Write-in designations are:

  • Stored with a null fund reference
  • Held by the Payout engine (not disbursed automatically)
  • Flagged in the payout detail export as “Write-In” with the held reason noted
  • Reviewed and manually processed by staff

To enable write-in designations on a donation form, configure the donation item to allow undesignated or write-in input.

Federation Accounting

When your organization acts as a federation (distributing to agencies that are themselves federated to sub-agencies), the Payout engine tracks:

  • Processing fee — charged by your organization for handling the campaign
  • Fundraising fee — charged to agencies for the fundraising service
  • Pass-through — amounts where the donor paid the agency directly (no fee, no DonorPoint hold)

These calculations are fully handled by the Payout Batch. See Designations and Payouts for details.