ThankFirst
Start free trial
All docs
Fundraising

Campaigns

Goal-driven fundraising campaigns broken into a gift pyramid and tracked against pledges and gifts in real time.

Find it: Left nav → Fundraising → Campaigns · Who can use it: Org Admin / CDO and Development Associates can create and edit; other roles can view.

What you'll see

The Campaigns page lists each campaign as a card showing money raised of goal, any amount pledged, a progress bar, and the percent complete with donor count. Open a campaign to see its full detail: a headline progress bar, the Gift pyramid & donors needed card, a Recognition tiers card, and a Pledges manager.

How to create a campaign

  1. Click New campaign (top right).
  2. Enter a Campaign name (for example, "2026 Annual Fund").
  3. Set the Goal (USD). The default is 1,500,000 — change it to your target.
  4. Click Create campaign. ThankFirst builds a default gift pyramid (60% major / 20% upgraded / 20% base) and a set of recognition tiers you can edit, then opens the campaign.

How to read the gift pyramid

MajorUpgradedBase60% of goal · 10% of donors20% · 20%20% · 70%

Your goal is split into three bands, each shown with its own progress bar:

  • Major gifts — ~60% of the goal from your largest donors.
  • Upgraded gifts — ~20% of the goal.
  • Base gifts — ~20% of the goal from the broad base.

Each band shows the gift-size range, how much is raised of that band's target, the gift count, and the donors needed to hit it — plus the prospects to cultivate at that band's prospect-to-donor ratio (4:1 for major, 3:1 mid, 2:1 base). This tells you exactly how many donors and prospects each band still needs. A band's bar turns green when it reaches 100%.

How to add and track pledges

  1. In the Pledges card, type a name in Search donor… and pick the donor.
  2. Enter the Amount and a Date.
  3. Click Add pledge. It's recorded with a "pledged" status and counts toward the matching pyramid band automatically.
  4. As commitments come in, use the status dropdown on each pledge to mark it fulfilled (or cancelled). Fulfilled pledges count as raised dollars.

Good to know

  • The pyramid percentages and recognition tiers are defaults you can edit per campaign — nothing is locked in.
  • "Raised" reflects fulfilled gifts; "pledged" is money committed but not yet in.
  • Recognition tiers (for example, Website Listing, Program Sponsor, Room Naming, Founding Partner) each list a minimum gift amount and the benefit at that level.
  • Only Org Admins and Development Associates see the add/edit controls; viewers see the numbers without the forms.
Back to all docs