Introduction
Reciprocal campaigns allows registrants to send items to others and reciprocate if they wish. Types include Purim Baskets (Mishaloch Manot), Rosh Hashanah Greeting Cards, Shavout Flowers, and Other Reciprocal. Reciprocal campaigns are a great way to build community and to raise money!
All reciprocal campaigns work basically the same way. This article uses a Purim Basket campaign to illustrate how to use this feature.
NOTE: There is a $200 per campaign fee unless you subscribe to our Premium or Enterprise plan (which include unlimited campaigns). If you have any questions or wish to upgrade, please contact us.
Basic Terminology
A registrant is someone who registers for the campaign, e.g. choose to send and/or reciprocate to others.
A recipient is someone selected by at least one registrant to receive a Purim Basket, holiday card, etc.
Create a New Reciprocal Campaign
To set up a campaign, select Campaigns from the admin drop down menu, then click the New Campaign button on the top right of the page.
TIP: Already have a campaign from a prior year? use the Clone action on the Campaigns list page and then just update things that have changed, like registration period, etc.
Configure Your New Reciprocal Campaign
You next proceed to the campaign settings page where you enter (or edit if you cloned a campaign) the settings that control how your campaign looks and works.
Type - Choose the type of campaign you want to make. Here we want Purim Baskets / Mishaloch Manot.
Name - Give your campaign a name. This will appear on a number of campaign-related pages, including the registration page used by your registrants. Example: Beth El Purim 2022
Registration - Specify the timeframe during which participants can select their recipients.
Note: As an admin you can edit registrations beyond the date specified and can add new registrants until you permanently close the campaign.
Participating Account Types - Choose the account types permitted to participate (send/receive) in this campaign.
Field template for listing recipients - Choose how you want names listed in your communications to participants about the campaign
Field template for sorting recipients - Choose how you want names sorted in your communications to participants about the campaign
Suppose you have three participants (emphasis added for this illustration only):
Abraham Cohen
Zev Aaronson
David Rosen
Sorting by the [account-name] field template yields:
Aaronson, Zev
Cohen, Abraham
Rosen, David
Applying the listing field template, your communications would list the participants like this:
Zev Aaronson
Abraham Cohen
David Rosen
The combination of these settings let you order your participants alphabetically while displaying them in emails and letters in a more readable format.
Minimum Charge - The minimum charge for a registrant to participate in the campaign. In the example above, a registrant sending to just one recipient would still pay $10, not $5.
Maximum Charge - The maximum amount a registrant can spend on the campaign. Also the amount charged when a registrant opts to send to all possible recipients.
Recipients included in Minimum Charge - The number of recipients included for the minimum charge. In the example above, the registrant would start paying more after choosing two recipients.
Charge Per Recipient - The additional charge for each recipient not included in the minimum charge.
Reciprocation Mode - Choose how reciprocation is done for the campaign. Most choose Automatic and have the system, on the close of the campaign, add reciprocations to registrations in accordance with campaign and individual registration settings (see the next setting).
Note: while Manual is more work (you have to do all of the charges, payments, and registration edits manually), you can mail or email recipients a list of people to whom they have not yet reciprocated.
Reciprocate to People who send to all - This setting governs how those giving to all are handled when determining reciprocation of the recipients
- Never Include - A registrant who elects to reciprocate only reciprocates to those who chose to send to the registrant directly; such a registrant will not reciprocate to those sending to everyone.
- Always Include - A registrant who elects to reciprocate reciprocates to everyone, including those sending to everyone.
- Ask while registering - Ask each registrant how to handle those sending to everyone (not available in Manual Mode).
Charge Type - Select the charge type to use when creating charges for the campaign.
Payment Options - Choose what options will be available to registrants.
- Allow registrant to Bill to Account - When enabled, charges can be added to registrant's account when submitting a registration (no payment upfront required); when not enabled, the registrant must make a payment in order to submit the registration.
- Allow registrant to split payment - When enabled, a registrant can create a recurring payment to pay the registration charges; when not enabled, the registrant.
- Allow registrant to defer billing to account until admin closes the campaign - When enabled, the registrant can opt, when first submitting a registration for the campaign, to be billed after the campaign officially ends (a registrant cannot chance this choice after submission).
Charge Convenience Fees - Choose whether or not to charge registrants online convenience fees on their payments.
This next section controls content of your campaign's registration page, the page viewed by registrants.
Top banner image - An optional image that displays on the top left of the registration page.
Description - The text that appears on the upper right area of the registration page (required).
Show basic campaign details after Description - When enabled, pricing and registration dates/status are shown
Show Global Sidebar - When enabled, the page includes your site's global sidebar
The end result looks something like this:
Like the image? Right-click the image below, save it to your computer. Then upload it to your your site's files and select it in your campaign settings as your top banner image.
Hurray! We are almost done.
Admin Tags - People assigned the tags you optionally select here will have access to the Control Panel and registration page (you will need to supply the web addresses to them).
Admin Email - Enter the email address to receive email confirmations of registrations. To send to more than one address, separate by commas.
Confirmation Email - The email address to use as the sender of the confirmation email.
Confirmation Email Name - The name to show as the sender of the confirmation email.
Confirmation Email Footer - The content to show in the confirmation email, below the registration information.
Member Confirmation Email Footer - Edit the Confirmation email.
Attach Form - Optionally select a form to include on your registration page to gather additional information (such as volunteers to deliver the baskets!).
Save and Activate Your Campaign
Once you are done completing the above, it's time save!
- For a new campaign, you will click Add Campaign
- For a clone of a campaign, you will click Clone Campaign
- If you are editing your previously saved settings, you will click Save Changes
Any of these actions takes you back to the campaign where, where you see a list of campaigns. At the top you will see your new campaign. Click Activate to kick off your campaign.
NOTE: There is a $200 per campaign fee unless you subscribe to our Premium or Enterprise plan (which include unlimited campaigns). Your payment method on file will be used to charge you for the campaign, if applicable, upon activation.
Other actions you can take:
- Edit Settings
- Delete Draft
- Clone
After you activate your campaign, you will be brought to the campaign's control panel.
Here you can
- Add registrations
- Edit campaign settings
- Close the Campaign (after which reciprocations are added if automatic)
- Download various files you can use for things like mail merge (in addition to what is offered via Mail)
Once you add or receive registrations, you will see them listed on the control panel:
Here is how to interpret the above sample registrations
- The Cohens selected 2 recipients and will reciprocate to anyone who sends to them directly; in this case, they would NOT reciprocate to Reut Singer; their initial charge is $10; after the campaign is closed, additional charges may be added because they have elected to reciprocate to anyone choosing them; after the close, "Not Closed" will be replaced with a dollar amount.
- The Kahns selected 3 recipients and will reciprocate to everyone; in this case, that includes Reut Singer; after the campaign is closed, the reciprocal charges will be shown.
- Reut Singer is sending to everyone; the charge is the campaign maximum, there is no reciprocal amount because she is by definition sending to everyone.