Classy Resources
Classy is The Salvation Army’s platform for all things digital fundraising. When you need to raise funds online, start at Classy.org.
Donation Pages
Divisions can determine when new fundraising pages are needed and create them for any localized fundraising need. This can include giving to a specific program/initiative, giving to a specific location (including specific units within major Metropolitan areas), or both. We also have the ability to track revenue tied to specific marketing initiatives. THQ has supplied a template for donation pages within Classy (campaign name includes “DUPLICATE ONLY”) that incorporates our brand standards and best practices, to minimize the amount of time it takes for a division to spin up a local donation page, while maintaining their ability to customize a campaign’s content.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding includes both a donation page and a mobile-responsive web page that offers the ability to tell donors more about the location or program before they give. This could be useful when no page exists on our website for a fundraising initiative, or we want to leverage the page layouts available through Classy. In crowdfunding, divisions also gain that ability to recommend giving levels, as tied to specific giving levels or program outcomes (example: $20 feeds a family of four or $5,000 makes you a platinum-level donor). To differentiate it from peer-to-peer fundraising (below), the only call-to-action on a crowdfunding campaign is to donate. Crowdfunding campaigns do not ask donors to become fundraisers.
Event Registration (w/ or w/o tickets or fundraising)
Divisions can run several different event campaigns ranging from traditional ticketed events like galas or dinners, to events where participants need to both register and fundraise, like The Most Amazing Race.
Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
A peer-to-peer campaign allows the user to become a fundraiser for The Salvation Army. Peer-to-peer campaigns empower supporters to create personal fundraising pages and then ask their friends and family to donate, all to benefit us. In peer-to-peer fundraising, people are giving to people vs. us asking them to support a location or initiative. Our national peer-to-peer website is called FundraiseForGood.org. We should always direct users here when we are asking them to become fundraisers. Within the Classy tool, there is the ability to create localized peer-to-peer events. Official guidance is to use the national site for all fundraising promotions, except when there is a localized event where fundraising is a component of registration/participation AND there is a corporate sponsor underwriting it.
Download this quick-start guide and keep it close. It covers everything you need to know about using the fully-branded and best practice-optimized Salvation Army donation form template to save you time when setting up new campaigns. It also covers why certain settings were selected for your account and how to add users.
Getting Started Trainings
Classy Platform Overview and Reporting (Central Territory-specific)
Learn the basics of the Classy system, including the types of fundraising it offers and how to extract data from the system.
NOTE: The new Classy Manager was introduced in June 2018 with advanced reporting, so please take that additional reporting training below.
Classy Donation Pages and Crowdfunding (Central Territory-specific)
Learn the difference between donation pages and crowdfunding campaigns, including when to use each. Then see how to create both. See where to indicate fund designation (program/service, location, or both) and track a marketing source during form set up to effectively provide details to your finance/marketing teams and honor donor intent.
NOTE: A new way to track marketing source codes was released in August 2018, so please take that additional source code training below.
Classy Peer-to-Peer and Event Registration (Central Territory-specific)
See live examples of peer-to-peer fundraising and event registration. Learn the capabilities available for each and see step-by-step guidance for set up.
Advanced / Refresher Trainings
New Classy Manager: Advanced Reporting and Recurring Gift Management
The new Classy Manager was released to all Classy clients in June 2018. Learn about how to access the new Classy Manager, where advanced reports can be created, and all the capabilities now available, including advanced recurring gift management. Find additional online resources for getting started with Classy Manager linked below. (Video starts at the 12-minute mark.)
New Feature: Tracking Marketing Sources
With Classy’s release of this new feature, we can now add a simple query strings to any donation form to track multiple marketing efforts pointing to the same form or campaign. This works on any campaign type (must use full Classy URL vs. creating a short URL in Classy). Learn how.
NOTE: This is the new recommended method for tracking marketing sources versus creating a new, duplicate of the form with a unique designation for each marketing source you wish to track.
Holiday Fundraising Tool Refresher & National Peer-to-Peer Overview (Central Territory-specific)
Heading into the holidays, watch this video for a refresher on how to use the Classy suite of tools to increase digital revenue. Plus, learn how our new nation peer-to-peer tool fits into the holiday strategy and beyond. Find the new, year-round peer-to-peer site at FundraiseforGood.org.
Program Designation Overview
The program designation field in Classy is intended to designate where the funds should go. It should be customized for each donation form (or other fundraising effort) that you set up in Classy. New program designations must first be added in your account settings (Settings – Program Designations) and should follow the format outlined below. Then, you select the correct designation as part of the campaign set up (Edit the Campaign – Details tab – Program Designations).
Standard Format: Program Designations
We have a national business rule for formatting the program designation field to standardize fields for nationwide reporting. All program designations must begin with TER-DIV-CORPS. For efforts that represent more than one local unit, start with TER-DIV. Then follow this format to add additional details about the campaign and any program designations that funds are to be used for: TER-DIV-CORPS + {appeal}
For example: USC-EMI-ANN ARBOR-YOUTH. This example indicates that the Eastern Michigan Division used this campaign to ask donors to support youth programs at their Ann Arbor location. Finance will then know to send the funds to Ann Arbor and flag them for use in youth programs. If your division utilizes alphanumeric codes in finance to identify programs, you can use alphanumeric codes for the appeal.
CHANGE EFFECTIVE SEPTEMBER 2018: Initially, we had to include the marketing source in our program designations and created a new campaign tied to that designation for each marketing source. But, then Classy released a new source code feature that allows us to assign a singular designation to a campaign, and track the marketing sources separately with source codes that are appended to the URL (see details below and a training video under “Links to Video Tutorials”).
Source Codes Overview
Using source codes will allow us to see which digital platforms are driving the most revenue to our Classy campaigns. Source codes allow us to create a singular campaign in Classy with a shared program designation (above), and still track revenue to each of our different digital marketing sources.
Using source codes is as simple as appending a some additional information to the donation or landing page URL – in your browser’s URL bar after the campaign is created. These are not created or added in the backend of Classy.
Anytime we promote a Classy campaign online, we should append source code information to the URL we share. This creates a unique URL with tracking for each digital platform (website, email, social, paid digital, website modal [lightbox], etc.). Before using source codes, please view the short training video under “Links to Video Tutorials.” There is also a Classy support guide with step-by-step instructions.
Standard Format: Source Codes
Source codes must follow a standard format defined by Classy. You can use either one level or two levels of source code tracking. At a minimum, the first source code should include your three letter DIV code and the marketing platform. Use the secondary level for additional details, such as distinguishing clicks from two possible donation avenues on the same platform. Click the external link icon at right to view the Classy set up guide for source codes, which includes the format.
Examples:
- Website: https://www.classy.org/campaign/giving-tuesday-join-the-fight-for-good/c254318?c_src=WebsiteMET20201201&c_src2=HomePageHero
- Social: https://www.classy.org/campaign/giving-tuesday-join-the-fight-for-good/c254318?c_src=SocialMET20201201&c_src2=FacebookPromotedPost
- Email: https://www.classy.org/campaign/giving-tuesday-join-the-fight-for-good/c254318?c_src=EmailMET20201201 (c_src2 is automatically appended by Marketing Cloud, so do not append to the base URL)
- Paid Digital: https://www.classy.org/campaign/giving-tuesday-join-the-fight-for-good/c254318?c_src=PaidDigitalMET20201201&c_src2=GooglePaidSearch
- Modal/Lightbox: https://www.classy.org/campaign/giving-tuesday-join-the-fight-for-good/c254318?c_src=WebsiteModalMET20201201&c_src2=GivingTuesdayHomePage
Note: Update only the digital platform, DIV code and date in source code 1 to follow our standard format. For territory-wide use, skip the DIV code. Use the date as shown – YYYYMMDD. Use source code 2 at your discretion to identify the location of a click and other details. Each source code is limited by Classy to 30 or fewer characters. Source codes work on ALL Classy campaign types, even those with landing pages (ex: crowdfunding).
Overview
In simple terms, pass-through parameters are special strings of text that you can add to the end of a website address to change the experience when someone lands on that page. With Classy, you can add pass-through parameters to the end of the URL to preselect variables such as: the four suggested donation amounts that display, whether one-time or recurring giving is selected by default, the donation button amount that’s highlighted and more. This is helpful in campaigns where you are suggesting that donors take a particular action, as you can reflect that on the form when they arrive. The donor can still make changes to the options you preselect, but it has the potential to save them steps in completing their gift.
The State of Modern Philanthropy Report
Follow along as Classy takes you through the complex variables of the supporter journey, providing you with a deeper understanding of donor behavior that will help you accelerate change and meet modern donor expectations.
Classy Blog: Tips and Best Practices
Articles and tips specific to fundraising on Classy, including special guides for important fundraising days like Giving Tuesday.
Classy Help & Support Guide
Resources and guides for any action you need help with in Classy, organized and searchable by topic.
Intro to Classy Manager and Advanced Reporting
With the release of the new Classy Manager, Classy released these online resources to help guide users. Use these resources in coordination with the video training found above.
Classy Support
Chat Feature on Classy.org
Classy customer care form (For any technical issues, divisions should create a support ticket directly with Classy using this form.)
Strategy & Planning Help
For help building strategies that maximize use of the Classy platform, please email Nicole Nicklin.
