Campaigns - Admin Operations Guide

Published by Give.Gives · Updated April 2, 2026

Campaigns - Admin Operations Guide

1. Purpose and Business Context

Recommended review frequency: Review this page whenever a new campaign needs to be launched, updated, ended, or checked for routing impact.

What is a Campaign in Give.Gives?
A Campaign is an admin-managed fundraising destination that can be attached to one or more selected venues for a defined period or until a fundraising cap is reached.

Campaigns are important because they do not only affect page content or public storytelling. They also affect where the charitable portion of sales is routed.

Important platform rule: Campaigns are not open for user application

Give.Gives does not provide a public self-serve campaign application flow for regular users.

The correct operational model is:

1. A person, brand, or organization contacts the platform directly.

2. The Give.Gives team reviews the request offline.

3. An admin creates the campaign manually in the admin system if approved.

This is an important policy point. Do not describe Campaigns as something users can apply for inside the product.

Why is this page important?

• Campaign creation is controlled by admin: Campaigns are curated by the platform rather than opened as a general submission flow.

• Venue-based routing depends on Campaigns: A selected venue can temporarily route impact funds to a Campaign instead of the fallback NGO.

• Campaign end rules matter financially: When the Campaign is no longer active, routing automatically falls back to the merchant's NGO configuration.

2. Access and Permissions

In the admin sidebar, go to Campaigns.

Current platform behavior should be understood as:

• Admins manage Campaigns

• Regular users cannot apply for Campaigns through the platform

• Managers should not be treated as the primary owners of campaign creation workflow

From an operations perspective, Campaign creation and routing control should be handled as an admin-managed process.

[Placeholder: Screenshot of the Campaign Management page showing the campaign list and Create Campaign button]

3. What This Page Is Used For

The Campaigns area is used to:

• create a new campaign

• assign one or more venues to that campaign

• connect the campaign to one or more organization partners for campaign presentation

• define when the campaign is active

• enable or disable the campaign

• edit existing campaign details

The page is not only for content management. It is also part of the platform's donation-routing and finance logic.

4. The Most Important Routing Rule

This is the most important rule in the Campaign workflow:

If a venue is selected in an active Campaign, the charitable share for that venue goes to the Campaign and ignores the NGO during the Campaign's valid period.

When the Campaign is no longer active, the routing automatically falls back to the merchant's default NGO.

This is not optional behavior and it is not based on manual interpretation. It is the platform's canonical routing logic.

In practical terms

For a selected venue, the system checks:

1. whether there is a valid Campaign for that venue right now

2. whether the Campaign is enabled

3. whether the current date is inside the Campaign date window

4. whether the Campaign has not already reached its target amount, if a target amount is set

If all of those conditions are met:

• the charitable portion is routed to the Campaign

• the NGO is ignored for that period

If the Campaign is no longer valid:

• routing automatically returns to the merchant's default NGO

• if no default NGO exists, the system can fall back to reserve/platform charity funds

[Placeholder: Diagram or screenshot area showing venue -> Campaign during active period, then fallback to NGO after campaign end]

5. Why Venue Selection Matters So Much

Campaign routing is venue-based, not just merchant-based.

That means:

• selecting a venue in a Campaign has financial routing consequences

• a Campaign does not automatically apply to every venue under the same merchant

• if a venue is not selected, that venue should not route funds to the Campaign

Operations should always think of Campaign applicability in this way:

“For this specific venue, at this specific time, is there an active Campaign assigned?”

Do not assume a Campaign applies just because it belongs to the same brand or merchant.

6. Standard Workflow for Creating a Campaign

Step 1: Confirm the Campaign Was Approved Offline

Before creating anything in admin, confirm that:

• the Campaign request came through direct contact with the platform

• the platform team approved it offline

• the intended venues and impact destination are already clear

Do not create Campaigns as if they were self-serve user submissions.

Step 2: Create the Campaign

Click Create Campaign and complete the form.

The form is organized into these blocks:

• Content: title, status, location, images, and description

• Partner Scope: selected venues and related organizations

• Ending Rule: date range and/or fundraising target logic

[Placeholder: Screenshot of the Create Campaign form overview]

Step 3: Select the Correct Venues

This is the most sensitive part of setup.

Choose only the venues that should route charitable share to this Campaign while it is active.

If the wrong venue is attached:

• that venue may send charitable share to the wrong Campaign

• the merchant's default NGO routing for that venue will be overridden during the Campaign period

[Placeholder: Screenshot of the venue multi-select area in the Campaign form]

Step 4: Confirm the End Rule

Campaign validity depends on one or both of these controls:

• Date range

• Fundraising cap / target amount

A Campaign is only active while it remains valid under those rules.

Operationally, this matters because routing priority ends automatically when the Campaign is no longer valid.

Step 5: Enable the Campaign

Once the Campaign details, selected venues, and timing rules are correct, enable the Campaign.

At that point, selected venues may begin routing charitable share to the Campaign according to the active validity rules.

When a Campaign starts affecting a selected venue, the system automatically notifies the brand associated with that venue. The same routing-notice flow also applies when venue routing is removed or ends.

Operations do not need to send a separate manual notice just to tell the brand that Campaign routing has started for that venue.

7. How to Explain Routing to Internal Teams

When explaining Campaign behavior to operations, managers, or finance, use this simple rule:

During an active Campaign, selected venues route charitable share to the Campaign first. After the Campaign ends, routing automatically returns to the default NGO.

This is especially important because many people will otherwise assume:

• the NGO always receives the charitable share

• the Campaign is only a marketing layer

• the Campaign must be manually removed before NGO routing comes back

All of those assumptions are wrong for the current system behavior.

The correct explanation is:

• active Campaign on selected venue: Campaign wins

• Campaign expired, disabled, out of date, or fully funded: fallback NGO resumes automatically

8. Editing Existing Campaigns

When editing an existing Campaign, be especially careful with:

• venue selection

• start date / end date

• target amount

• status

Changing any of these can change live routing behavior.

For example:

• adding a venue can start Campaign routing at that venue

• removing a venue can end Campaign routing at that venue

• ending or disabling a Campaign can return future routing to the NGO

Because of this, Campaign edits should be treated as operationally meaningful changes, not simple content edits.

[Placeholder: Screenshot of the Edit Campaign page with venue scope and status highlighted]

9. Common Cases

Case 1: A partner asks to “apply for a Campaign”

The correct answer is that the platform does not provide a public in-product Campaign application flow.

They must contact Give.Gives directly, and the platform team will decide whether to create the Campaign manually in admin.

Case 2: A venue is selected in a live Campaign, but someone expects the NGO to still receive the charitable share

That expectation is incorrect.

While the Campaign is active and valid for that venue, the charitable share goes to the Campaign and ignores the NGO.

Case 3: The Campaign has ended, and someone asks whether operations must manually switch routing back to the NGO

Normally, no manual routing reset is needed for the fallback itself.

Once the Campaign is no longer valid, the system automatically falls back to the merchant's default NGO for future routing.

The system also sends the related routing notice to the affected brand-side manager flow, so this does not require a separate manual notification step in normal operations.

Case 4: A Campaign belongs to a merchant, but only some of that merchant's venues should support it

Only select those specific venues.

The routing logic is venue-based. Do not assume the Campaign applies to all merchant venues automatically.

10. Day-to-Day Operations Suggestions

• Treat Campaign creation as a controlled admin workflow, not a public intake flow.

• Double-check venue selection before enabling any Campaign.

• When teams ask “where will the charitable share go,” answer based on venue + active Campaign validity, not brand assumption.

• If a Campaign is time-sensitive, verify the date range carefully before launch.

• If a Campaign has a fundraising cap, monitor progress because reaching the cap can end Campaign routing priority.

• When communicating with brands or managers, clearly explain that Campaign routing overrides NGO routing while the Campaign is active at the selected venue.

• Do not create duplicate manual notifications for normal venue-routing start or end events, because the system already sends those notices automatically to the affected brand side.