Donation Forms

A CoolPay donation form is the setup record for a public online giving page. It controls what donors see, which options they can choose, and how successful online gifts flow back into CoolFocus.

1. Click on the Giving module icon.

2. Under the Giving menu options, scroll to the CoolPay section and select Donation Forms.

3. Click the black Create+ button in the top right corner and select Create Donation Form.

4. Check the Active box. (De-select the Active box to make any formerly used donation form Inactive.)

NAME
Enter the Name of the Donation Form. This is for your internal use only; donors will not see this name.

PATH
Enter a text value for the Path, which will be used to generate the URL (web address) for this specific donation form.

For example: If you enter "donate-now" as the Path, and the name of your organization is Giving Hearts, then the URL to be generated will be giving-hearts.donors.app/donate-now (where giving-hearts.donors.app/ is the donor portal, and the "donate-now" directs the donor or the QR code to that specific donation form).

As you type the Name of a new Donation Form, CoolFocus automatically suggests a matching Path for you (letters, numbers, and hyphens only) so the form has a valid web address by default. You can still type your own Path at any time; once you edit it, CoolFocus stops overwriting it with a suggestion based on the Name.

If the Path you enter (or the one suggested from the Name) is already used by another donation form for your organization, CoolFocus automatically appends a number (for example, "donate-now-1") to keep the web address unique. If you paste a full donor portal URL into the Path field, CoolFocus will automatically strip the domain and portal name so only the page path is saved.

SOURCE
Select a Source, which describes why a donor is giving or how they heard about this Fund (e.g. Walk-a-thon, Banquet, billboard ad). This field is optional and is not seen by the donor. Users with Administrator access can manage the Source list.

DEFAULT FUND
Select a Default Fund, which will be pre-selected for the donor. Donors can override it if additional Fund options are set up below. Users with Administrator access can manage the Funds list.

FUNDS
Optional, designate additional Fund(s) for the donor to choose from.

SPONSOR LABEL
Optional, a Sponsor is a person or organization participating in a fundraising event by engaging others to give on their behalf. Enter a label in this field that best describes the function of a Sponsor of this event. Examples are Walker, Table Host, Golf Team Leader, or Church.

SPONSOR ROLES
Select the Sponsor Role(s) that you have added to certain donor records that you want to make available for donors to select as a Sponsor FOR THIS SPECIFIC DONATION FORM.

For example, if you add the Role of "Baby Bottle Church" to five church donor records in CoolFocus, then the donor will be able to select a church from that list of five.

Note: Administrators manage the Roles list, and Roles must be added to the relevant donor records to appear in the form's dropdown menu.

GOAL
Optional numeric goal, auto-formatted in U.S. Dollars. Enable Show Goal to display it publicly.

SHOW ACH (Automated Clearing House)
Allows bank-draft payments in addition to debit/credit cards.

Review the Risks of ACH Transactions article before enabling this.

DEFAULT DONATION AMOUNT
Leave this field blank to automatically default the pre-selected giving amount to $50. Otherwise, you can enter another amount to be pre-selected when donors open the page. (The minimum amount is $2)

Donors will always be able to select Other to enter a custom amount.

DEFAULT GIFT FREQUENCY
Leave this field blank for the pre-selected payment frequency to default to "One-Time." Or, you may enter one of the other options to use as a pre-selected default.

PRESET DONATION AMOUNTS
These quick-select payment buttons will allow the donor to select the contribution amount. Leave this field blank to use the default options of $25, $50, $100, $500, and $1,000. Or, you can select +Add Amount to create your own options. Donors can always select Other to enter a custom amount.

HIDE COVER TRANSACTION FEES
Optional checkbox in the Donation Options section of the form settings. When enabled, donors will not see the "Increase My Impact" option to add processing fees on top of their gift, and the donation total will always match the amount they choose. Leave this unchecked to keep offering donors the choice to cover transaction fees.

DEFAULT ORGANIZATION COVER TRANSACTION FEES
Controls whether the "Increase My Impact" (cover transaction fees) checkbox starts checked or unchecked when a donor opens this form. This setting only matters when Hide Cover Transaction Fees is not enabled.

• Yes: the checkbox starts checked, so donors cover the transaction fees by default unless they opt out.

• No: the checkbox starts unchecked, so your organization covers the transaction fees by default unless the donor opts in.

• Unknown (the default for existing forms): keeps the original behavior, checked by default.

Unless Hide Cover Transaction Fees is enabled, donors can always change the checkbox themselves before submitting their gift.

Why this matters: Donors who give in a hurry sometimes miss unchecking the box and end up paying an amount they did not expect, which can lead to disputes or chargebacks. If that is a concern for your organization, consider setting Default Organization Cover Transaction Fees to No, or using Hide Cover Transaction Fees to remove the option entirely.

WELCOME MESSAGE
Displayed when the donor opens the donation page.

FEATURED IMAGE
Optional image URL shown at the top of this donation form, on the form page and on its thank-you page. Paste a link to an image hosted elsewhere (for example, an image URL from your website or a file-hosting service). When this field is left blank, your organization's logo is used instead. This image is also used as the preview image when the donation form link is shared on social media.

CONFIRMATION MESSAGE
Displayed after the donor completes their contribution.

QR CODE
Automatically generated for the form.

Note: If the Path of this donation form is edited or changed in any way, it will also change the QR Code. This is important to know because if you create printed materials to include the QR Code and then decide to change the Path, then the original QR Code will no longer work. The QR Code is determined by the Path you create for it.

Trouble creating a donation form? If you see an error message when clicking Create, check that the Path is unique and only contains letters, numbers, and hyphens. If a Path is left blank, CoolFocus will generate one from the form's Name automatically.

If a donor sees "Temporarily Unavailable" instead of the form

Donation form and donor portal pages briefly retry loading data behind the scenes. If a donor opens a form link and sees a "temporarily unavailable" message with an option to try again, this means CoolFocus had a short-lived problem reaching the data needed to show the form, not that the form or link is broken or missing.

• This is different from a real "page not found," which only appears when the form's Path genuinely does not exist (for example, the link was mistyped or the form was deleted).

• Donors should simply try again in a moment. No action is needed on your form's setup.

• If the message persists after a few tries, contact support.

Upload or Update Your Organization's Logo in Settings

Your logo will display on all Donation Forms that do not have their own Featured Image set, as well as in the Donor Portal, so make sure your organization's logo is current.

1. Click the Settings gear icon from the left menu panel.

2. Select Organization Settings.

3. Upload your logo (any aspect ratio; high resolution recommended; max 5MB).

4. Click Save.

Customize the Donor Portal Welcome Message

In addition to the per-form welcome message above, your Donor Portal itself (the site at your donor portal URL, such as giving-hearts.donors.app) has its own settings, including a welcome message donors see when they visit or manage their giving.

This welcome message field now uses the same rich text editor used elsewhere in CoolFocus, so you can format it with bold, italics, links, and line breaks instead of plain text only. If your organization had a plain-text welcome message saved before this change, it was converted automatically and any line breaks were preserved.

If a Donor Sees "Temporarily Unavailable" Instead of the Donation Page

A donation page now tells the difference between a broken link and a brief loading problem:

• If the donation form or the donor portal genuinely does not exist (for example, a mistyped or deleted link), the donor still sees the standard not-found page.

• If CoolFocus has a brief, transient problem loading the page's data, the donor instead sees a "temporarily unavailable" message and can try again. This prevents a short-lived hiccup from looking like a broken fundraiser link.

No setup is needed for this; it happens automatically. If a donor reports this message repeatedly on the same link, first confirm the donation form's Path and Active status are correct, since a genuinely missing or inactive form still shows as not found rather than temporarily unavailable.