Add Calculated Element

With the Calculated capability of GiveSmart Fundraise forms, you can create forms for things like membership payments and much more. Through the use of custom and calculated fields, the form possibilities are endless.

Calculations allow you to assign any custom field as a variable to add, subtract, multiply, or divide by any other custom field, in any quantity. You may also use multiple calculations per field, as well as make the calculated result the form's donation amount. 

How to Create a Calculated Formula

Finish designing your form exactly as you would like, with all of the custom fields you want. Don't worry about any special placement for the calculations fields yet.

To create a calculated formula, click on Manage Sections, then add a Custom Section and name it, click +Add Form Element, and then Calculated. 

Next, set the Reporting Label for the calculated field. Please note that the name will NOT appear on the form. The name is only what you will see on reports and the online form setup page. The Show Results on Form checkbox is an option to display the result directly on your form for the donor to see. This could be helpful if the form is long and you want to move a donation total up to the top of a form. You can also choose to Show Results as Amount to show the number with a $ and decimal.  Alternatively, the Make this calculation the final donation amount checkbox will replace the donation amount at the bottom with the result of the formula. This option will also remove the suggested donation amount buttons.

All custom fields on your form will appear in the Select an available numeric custom field to insert into calculation dropdown menu. To create a formula, use any combination of the custom fields, numbers, and mathematical expressions below. The Delete button is like a backspace as it will remove only the last added field.

Calculation Examples

Sponsorships

Often when an organization is growing or building new facilities, they offer ways to sponsor the capital fundraising effort. In this example, we are going to build a form that offers different levels of sponsorship as well as an "other donation amount" textbox for those who do not wish to sponsor or wish to donate more than their sponsorship.

1. Preferably in the "Suggested Amounts" section, we will first create the dropdown field for the different levels of sponsorship. When writing your options, be sure to include the dollar amount in the Menu Item so that donors can see the price. Also make sure that the Item Value field is only numbers, no commas or symbols.
2. Next, create the textbox for the optional donation amount. Again, check the Number selection box.
3. Lastly, create the calculated field and add the sponsorship dropdown to the donation textbox. Your formula should look something like this:

Impact Metrics

Best practices show that wording your Call to Action in "impact metric" form, or the dollar value to help whomever or whatever you are raising awareness for, leads to larger donations and more satisfied donors. In this form, we'll make a form that lets you select the number of sponsors you'd like to help.

1. Preferably in the Suggested Amounts section, first create a dropdown field for the different amounts of people/things we wish to donate to help. In the Menu Item field you will list the different amounts of people help, and in the Item Value field you will put the corresponding number of people you are helping. Alternately, you can use a textbox field so that donors can enter any custom amount of people they would like to help.
2. Next, you'll need to create a hidden field with the value of how much it costs to help one (1) of whomever/whatever you are raising money for.
3. Lastly, create the formula to multiply the number of people you are helping by the cost to help one person. Your formula should look something like this: