Designating your donation

Content

• Common Examples
  • Giving to a school
  • Donation to Fundraising Campaigns
  • Directing you gift through a 'parent nonprofit' or conduit

Designations allow you (the donor) to let the nonprofit know how to use or where to direct your donation. When Bright Funds sends your gift to the nonprofit, we include the designation in their donor report.

How to add a note

1. On your donation checkout page, before you finish submitting your donation or matching gift, check the "include a designation" box, right below your donation amount:

2. Enter in your note or URL (as space permits).

3. Submit your donation.

Common Examples

Giving to a school

When giving to a school, many donors want to support a specific department, research group or program area. This is exactly the information you can include in your designation.

For example, if you were to donate to Boston University on Bright Funds, you can use the designation to note that the donation is for the Department of Computer Science. When the University receives your gift, they will see the note and know where to allocate the funds.

Donation to Fundraising Campaigns

If you or someone you know is raising funds for a cause or nonprofit, you can use the designation to pledge your support.

Example: your friend is raising funds for St. Jude through a marathon. When you are donating to St. Jude on Bright Funds, you can use the designation space to note your friend's name or participant information (as space allows). Once the funds are sent to St. Jude, they can then apply the funds to your friend's fundraiser.

Please note: If your company offers outside matching, you may want to make the original donation directly to the fundraiser, particularly if there is a fundraising deadline. Just make sure you receive an official donation receipt from the eligible nonprofit sponsoring or benefiting from the fundraiser to be able to request a match for your donation.

Directing you gift through a 'parent nonprofit' or conduit

There are many situations where tax-deductible donations might be directed through a parent nonprofit - donations to a church or religious school, to a local branch of a larger nonprofit (ex: American Cancer Society, MS Society, etc.) or through a conduit platform like GiveWell or DonorsChoose.org.

In all of these cases, you can use the designation space to specify which school, church, project or nonprofit branch your gift should be directed. Be sure to verify that a parent nonprofit or conduit is able to direct your gift to the right place before making the donation.

We have mentioned a few of the most common uses, but you can also use the designation space to note that your gift is in honor of someone or simply include a special note to the nonprofit.