Create designation plans and donor commitments from an opportunity

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Designation Plans are used in Fundraising and Engagement to specify how funds from a gift will be allocated once payment is received. You can create a designation plan as you work through the process, in preparation for converting the opportunity into a donor commitment.

A designation plan can be created via the Designation Plan tab on an opportunity record. The Expected Amount of the donation will appear here, and you can build the designation plan by allocating either a % or value of the expected amount across one or more designations. You can also specify the expected payment date.

Screenshot of Fundraising and Engagement with an opportunity open to the Designation Plan tab.

In the example shown below, the opportunity has an expected amount of $25,000. An amount of $5,000 has been entered and allocated to the General Unrestricted designation. In turn, the % column has automatically updated based on the portion of $5,000 from $25,000. The Save icon should be selected to save the designation plan line item.

Screenshot of the Designation Plan tab with Expected Amount and Amount entries highlighted.

When adding an entry to the designation plan, you can instead enter a value in the % column, which will update the amount. The +, - and arrow buttons can be used to add, remove, and reorder the entries respectively.

Screenshot of the Designation Plan tab with the add, remove, and reorder buttons highlighted, and with the percent column highlighted.

Let's say that the opportunity is now ready to be closed and converted into a donor commitment of $25,000. Select the Set Committed button in the task bar at the top of the opportunity record.

Screenshot of Fundraising and Engagement with an opportunity open and the Set Committed button highlighted.

You'll now see a Create Donor Commitment button in the task bar at the top of the opportunity record. Clicking this will create a related donor commitment (pledge) from the opportunity, with all the details linked.

Screenshot of Fundraising and Engagement with an opportunity open and the Create Donor Commitment button highlighted.

The pledge can be viewed from the Donor Commitments tab of the opportunity record.

Screenshot of Fundraising and Engagement with an opportunity open to the Donor Commitments tab.

Once you reach the Close stage and the donor commitment has been received, you can select the Close as Won button found in the task bar at the top of the record. If the solicitation was unsuccessful, you can select Close as Lost.

The donor commitment created from the opportunity now sits with other donor commitments, ready to be tracked and processed. You can view the full details from the Donor Commitments area of Fundraising and Engagement, and see that the details from the opportunity have transferred over to the pledge.

Screenshot of the Fundraising and Engagement Donor Commitments page.

The Designation Plans tab of the donor commitment record will display each entry of the designation plan as a line item attached to the pledge.

Screenshot of Fundraising and Engagement donor commitments open to the Designation Plans tab.