Your Knowledge Base is moving on 3/25/24! Our new Help Center provides all the articles you know and love (plus so much more) in a one-stop shop. Ask your SPoC for details!

Mission Trip & Project Giving

video it-directors
 
Widgets are here! And they offer a compelling, integrated, and customized experience for your users. They're replacing the Portal, so check out Transitioning from the Portal to plan your next steps. Please note that there will not be an Online Giving Widget or Missions Trip Giving Widget, mainly because we have so many amazing online giving vendors that provide cutting edge online giving features and seamlessly integrate with MinistryPlatform. 
Basics
  • Allows individuals to give financially toward others participating in trips or projects.
  • Allows one-time donations. These donations are processed in the same manner as other online giving donations.
  • You can optionally have a “share link” functionality to allow trip/project participants to quickly create a link that is customized with their trip/project, name and suggested gift amount.
  • Recurring gifts are not available on this page. But an individual can return to the page in the future to give additional gifts. 
  • Trip or project participants can monitor fundraising progress on the My Mission Trip page of the Portal.
Initial Setup
A SPoC must place the navigation link to Mission Trip and Project Giving (mission_trip_giving.aspx) in the desired place on your Portal skin. If desired, you can also place the link on the church website.
 

A SPoC's job is never done, though, they must go to Administration > Configuration Settings and update the following Configuration Settings. Remember to use the Portal Admin page for the Configuration Settings to take effect immediately.

  • DefaultMissionTripProgramID: The Program ID of your main Mission Trips Program.
  • MissionTripCampaignTypeID: The Campaign Type ID (found in System Lookups > Campaign Types) used for Mission Trips/Projects.
  • ShowMissionTripGivingShareLink: Enables or disables visibility of the “share link” functionality.
  • ShareLinkHelpText: The text that explains what the “share link” URL is for.
  • MissionTripGivingPageTitle: The page name that best fits your church context (e.g., Missionary Support).
  • MissionTripGivingCampaignTitle: The label next to the Campaign/Trip drop-down that best fits your church context.
  • MissionTripGivingUrl: The URL to redirect users to for payment. If no URL is entered, an error message will display on the payment page directing users to the church website.

Note: Before this page may be used, the church must have an Authorize.net tax-deductible account set up and the credentials must be added to their server. Contact Support if you are unsure whether your church is set up to accept tax-deductible transactions.

Pledge Campaign & Pledge Setup

For a Mission Trip to appear on the Mission Trip or Project Giving page, create the appropriate Pledge Campaigns in MinistryPlatform. When doing so, ensure the following fields are set as desired.

  • Campaign Name: friendly name that appears in the Trip/Project drop-down.
  • Campaign Type: the Campaign Type used for Mission Trips (must be the same one indicated in the MissionTripCampaignID from above).
  • Program
  • Event
  • Start Date and End Date: today must be within these dates.

Once the Pledge Campaign is setup, add trip/project participants in the Pledges sub-page of the Pledge Campaign; when doing so, each person who should appear in the drop-down must have their Pledge Status set to Active. 

If you prefer to alias the names of trip/project participants, type a value into the Beneficiary field of the Pledge record. If populated, this text displays in lieu of the person’s name. In addition to aliasing names, the Beneficiary line is also useful for accepting general donations related to the trip/project (e.g., orphanage donation, supplies, etc.).

Giving to a Mission Trip or Project

Based on the Pledge Campaign and Pledge setup, individuals are provided with options to give toward on the Mission Trip and Project Giving page. Donors simply indicate the desired Trip/Project, Individual, Amount, Anonymous preference and (optionally) a Memo. When they click Next, they move through the typical online giving process. 

Sharing an Individual-Specific Link

If the ShowMissionTripGivingShareLink Configuration Setting is True, then trip/project participants can quickly create a link that is customized with their trip/project, name and suggested gift amount. To do so, choose the desired Trip/Project, Individual and (optionally) Amount. Then click Share Link, copy the URL provided and share it with the desired individuals.

The option to indicate a dollar amount might be useful if you want to suggest that people make a donation of various fixed amounts. For example, you could provide three links for the amounts of $25, $50, and $100.

Data Processing & Reporting in MinistryPlatform

Donations given via the Mission Trip and Project Giving page are processed in the same manner as online giving donations. 

For reporting, the Mission Trip Donations report on the Events page could be useful. Also, it is possible to run all reports on the Pledge Campaign and Pledges page in connect with a Mission Trip report. If you want to see the Memo a donor indicated, it is viewable in the Notes section of the Donation Distribution. 

Workflow Options

There are no default Processes in MinistryPlatform related to Donations or Pledges. It is possible to create an email notification to trip/project participants each time a gift is received. This notification might not contain any sensitive data, but rather direct the participant to the My Mission Trips to monitor progress.

Video Topics: Mission Trip Portal Pages 

0:34 Mission Trip Registration Page
2:44 Approving Mission Trip Registrations
3:26 Mission Trip Giving Page