Every donation must be associated with an iMIS distribution, which is a predefined combination of a fundraising appeal, campaign, and fund. The distribution is credited with the donations you receive. It also controls the description displayed in the iPart (if the configuration option Display the gift distribution description is enabled), and it controls which gift options are displayed, such as an array of gift amounts from which the user can select, a single Gift Amount field that is empty, or a pre-populated Gift Amount field.
Distributions are defined in Desktop from Fundraising > Set up tables > Distributions and premiums (see Defining distributions and premiums). For information about how to customize the Gift Amount display for iMIS distribution codes, see GIFT_AMOUNT (Lookup only).
To associate the donation with a distribution, you have two Distribution options available in configuration:
•Set the distribution by an ItemId URL parameter – Indicates that the Donation Creator iPart will be dynamically populated with a distribution based on the value of an ItemId parameter in the URL (described below).
•Select a distribution code – Specifies a single distribution code to be used for any donations made from the iPart. If selected, this option overrides the value of an ItemId parameter in the URL.
How to pass a URL parameter value to the Donation Creator
Using a URL parameter allows you to set up a single donation page that is dynamically populated based on the distribution you pass to it. For example, let’s say you want to provide a list of all of your current fundraising campaigns on your homepage, each of which links to a donation page for the cause. Instead of creating a custom donation page for each campaign, you can set up a single content record that contains the Donation Creator configured to Set the distribution by an ItemId URL parameter. Then you only have to add the URL parameter and distribution code to each of the links. When clicked, your content record displays the description and gift amount options associated the distribution code.
The link to your Donation Creator page can be built using relative links, absolute links, or navigation items.
■ Relative link: To assign the URL parameter from a relative link pointing to a content record published to your website, use the Content Link iPart. For example, if you have a content record with a Publish File Name of DonateNow in the @/iMIS/Fundraising content folder, and you want the link to populate the Donation Creator with the BLDG distribution, then enter the following relative URL in the Content Link iPart’s URL for link field: ~/iMIS/Fundraising/DonateNow.aspx?ItemId=BLDG.
■ Absolute link: To assign the URL parameter through an absolute link to the page, add the URL parameter to the link's URL. For example, if you want to create a link to a donation page for the BLDG distribution, set the URL to http://mywebsite.com/donationpage.aspx?ItemId=BLDG.
■ Navigation item: To assign the URL parameter from a navigation item, enter ItemId=DistributionCode in the URL Parameters field of the navigation item pointing to your content record. For example, ItemId=BLDG.