How To Setup & Use Contribution Source Codes

What are Source Codes?

Source Codes can be used to track the of a gift. You can track online gifts and apply them to a Check or Cash gift when you are entering gift batches with Source Codes. Source Codes are session-based, so once a user clicks through from your marketing material to the website, the source code will be applied if a gift is made.

How Do I Configure Source Codes?

Follow these steps to correctly setup Source Codes within your SiteStacker Installation:

1. Open the Contributions component in Admin.
2. Click on the Source Codes link on the left-side navigation menu of the Contributions component.
3. Make sure you have at least one Source Code category. You can add, delete, or manage Source Code categories by clicking the disk next to the Source Code Category drop-down at the top.
4. Once you've added at least one Category, you now need to add at least one Source Code. You do this by clicking Add at the top. You'll need to select the category the Source Code belongs to, give it a Name (the way you would like to refer to this Source Code), and a Code (short and all one word). For instance, you could name it Summer Campaign 2018 and give it the code sc2018. Don't forget to save!
5. Now that you have created a Source Code, you are ready to use it!

Using Source Codes is easy! Here's what you do:

• Source codes can easily be applied to a Check or Cash gift when you are entering your gift batches. If you would like to apply a source code to the overall transaction (eg. check), then add it when you add the check gift to the batch record. Optionally, if you would like to apply different source codes to each campaign designation, you can do that too.
• If you would like to track online gifts by Source Code, you can do that by appending a small variable to the end of the link you use to refer clicks to your Site Stacker website. Source Codes are session-based, so once a user clicks through from your marketing material to the website, if their session leads to a gift the source code will be applied. Here's how you do it:
  • To apply a source code at the overall Transaction level, do the following:
    • Our Source Code is sc2018.
    • We want to apply the source code to the Transaction of any gift given, so we will add ?t=sc2018 to the end of our URL.
      • In this case, t stands for transaction.
      • A full URL example: https://www.example.com/projects/details/project-one?t=sc2018
    • We want to apply the source code to any Designations made in any gift given, so we will add ?c=sc2018 to the end of our URL
    • If we want to apply the source code to both the Transaction and the Designation, we will add ?t=sc2018 & c=sc2018 to the end of our URL
• Once a Source Code has been applied to a gift, you can search for gifts in the Contributions filters by source code. You can add the Source Code column to both the Transactions and Campaigns (Designations) grids as well to see which source codes have been applied to which gifts.

And there you have it! You should now have a fully configured and working Source Code on your SiteStacker Installation!

If you have any questions on this topic or need assistance with setting up dynamic Source Codes, then please contact us. We are always glad to help!