Designations in WeGive (Dashboard v2)

Last updated: June 1, 2026

Designations (sometimes called funds) let you tell WeGive where a gift should go — your general fund, a specific program, a scholarship, a building campaign, and so on. This guide walks through creating a designation, building designation lists, and adding designations to a checkout, with best practices along the way.

What is a designation?

A designation is a destination for a gift. Every donation in WeGive is attributed to a designation, which controls how the gift is reported, whether it's treated as tax-deductible, and how it syncs to your CRM or accounting system. You can let donors choose their designation at checkout, pre-set one for them, or hide the choice entirely.

Creating a designation

Go to Designations → Create Designation and complete the fields below. Only the designation name is required; everything else is optional and can be edited later.

Name of designation (required)

This is the display name donors see on your checkout pages and the name your team sees in the dashboard. Use clear, donor-friendly language.

Best practice: Name designations the way a donor would recognize them ("Annual Fund," "Future Scholars Scholarship") rather than internal shorthand. Keep names short enough to read cleanly in a dropdown.

Designation code

An optional internal identifier used for tracking and for syncing to CRM or accounting systems. Donors never see this.

Best practice: If you sync to a CRM or general ledger, match this code to the fund/account code in that system so reconciliation is clean. Keep codes consistent across designations.

Tax deductible

When on (the default), gifts to this designation are treated as tax-deductible donations and are included in receipts and year-end tax statements. When off, transactions are classified as service revenue, excluded from tax receipts and year-end statements, and reported separately as service revenue totals.

Best practice: Turn this off only for non-charitable transactions — event tickets, merchandise, dues, or other goods and services where the payment isn't a deductible gift. When in doubt, confirm with your finance team, since this directly affects what donors can claim.

Add a fair market value

Turn this on when a donor receives something of value in exchange for their gift (a gala dinner, a tote bag, an auction item). The fair market value (FMV) is the value of what they received, and it's used in tax statement calculations so the deductible portion is reported correctly.

Best practice: Set FMV for any designation tied to a benefit the donor receives. The deductible amount is the gift minus the FMV, so getting this right keeps your receipts compliant.

Fair market value

The dollar amount of the benefit received, shown only when "Add a fair market value" is on. Enter the value of the goods or services, not the gift amount.

Undesignated

Marks this fund as your general/default fund. This is the bucket a gift falls into when a donor doesn't pick a specific designation.

Best practice: Have exactly one undesignated fund (commonly "General Fund" or "Where Needed Most"). It's the safety net that ensures no gift is left unattributed.

Designation notes (internal use only)

A free-text field for your team. Donors never see these notes. Useful for context like accounting treatment, restrictions, or the program owner.

Override thank you video

When on, gifts to this designation can show a custom thank-you video instead of your checkout's default. Paste a YouTube or Vimeo embed link in the field that appears.

Best practice: Use a designation-specific video for high-touch or campaign-specific funds to make the thank-you feel personal. Make sure you paste the embed link, not the regular share URL.

Thank you video (YouTube or Vimeo embed link)

The embed URL for the custom thank-you video, shown only when "Override thank you video" is on.

Active

Controls whether the designation is available for new donations. Active designations appear in your checkout dropdowns and lists; inactive ones are hidden from new gifts.

Best practice: Rather than deleting a designation that's no longer in use, set it inactive (or archive it). That preserves the historical reporting on past gifts while keeping it out of donors' choices going forward.

Siebel ID

An integration field — a 7-digit designation code used to map this designation to a Siebel CRM record. Leave blank unless you sync with Siebel.

When you're done, click Review details to confirm and save.

Note on syncing: When a designation is sent to a connected CRM, WeGive matches on the most specific identifier available — Siebel ID first, then the designation code, then the name. Filling in a code or Siebel ID makes that matching more reliable than relying on the name alone.

Designation lists

A designation list is a reusable group of designations you can attach to a checkout in one step, instead of selecting funds individually each time.

To create one, go to Designation Lists → Create Designation List:

  1. Name of list (required) — an internal name to identify the list.

  2. List notes (internal use only) — optional context for your team.

  3. Designations — search and add the designations that belong in this list.

When to use a list: If you run multiple checkouts that should all offer the same set of funds (for example, your three active campaign funds), build the set once as a list and reuse it. Update the list in one place and every checkout using it stays in sync.

Best practice: Name lists by purpose ("2026 Campaign Funds," "Program Designations") so it's obvious which checkouts should use them. Keep lists focused — a short, relevant set converts better than a long menu of every fund you have.

Adding designations to a checkout

Open the checkout, go to Settings → Designations, and configure how designations behave for that form.

Designation Options

Require a designation to be selected — forces the donor to pick a designation before completing their gift. This only applies when the donor actually has a choice (it's skipped for fixed and "no choice" setups).

Designation Input Options

Show designation input regardless of the designation settings — always displays the designation field, even in cases where it would normally be hidden.

Allow supporters to select multiple designations — lets a donor split a single gift across multiple funds (fund allocation). This requires fund allocation to be enabled on your organization account; if you don't see it working, your account may not have the feature turned on.

Available Designations

This dropdown is the core setting — it controls what the donor can choose:

  • Let donors choose any designation — shows all of your active designations.

  • Let donors choose from a set of designations — shows only the specific designations you hand-pick for this checkout.

  • Set a fixed designation — locks the gift to one designation that the donor can't change.

  • Let donors choose from a predefined designation list — uses a designation list you created (see above).

  • Do not let donors choose their designation — hides the designation choice entirely.

Best practice: For focused campaigns, use Set a fixed designation or a tightly scoped set/list so donors aren't distracted by unrelated funds. Reserve "Let donors choose any designation" for general giving pages where flexibility matters.

Designation Display Style

Choose how the field appears on the page:

  • Minimal dropdown list — a compact dropdown.

  • Prominent select input — a larger, more visually prominent selector.

Best practice: Use the prominent style when the designation choice is central to the campaign and you want donors to engage with it; use the minimal dropdown when designation is secondary to the gift amount.

Optional Settings

Designation label — customize the text label above the field (e.g., change "Designation" to "Choose a program").

Select Default Designation — pre-selects a designation when the page loads. You can also pre-select a designation by adding ?designation={designationId} to the checkout URL, which is handy for targeted email or ad links.

When finished, click Save Changes.

Quick best-practices checklist

  • Use donor-friendly designation names; keep internal detail in codes and notes.

  • Keep tax-deductible on for true gifts; turn it off only for goods/services revenue.

  • Set a fair market value whenever the donor receives something in return.

  • Maintain exactly one undesignated (general) fund.

  • Set unused designations inactive instead of deleting them, to protect historical reporting.

  • Fill in codes/Siebel IDs if you sync to a CRM, so matching is reliable.

  • Reuse designation lists across checkouts to stay consistent.

  • Match the checkout's Available Designations mode to the campaign: fixed/scoped for focused asks, "any" for general giving.