Terms & Definitions

Several terms have product-specific meanings which are explained below

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Campaign

A grouping of fundraising or programmatic efforts. CRM+: top-level grouping of Communications and Segments, read-only via API. Raise: surfaces on Donations as the Motivation Code. Volunteer: called Initiative in the UI; API field is campaign.

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Channel Type

The medium for a Communication in CRM+ (Email, Direct Mail, Event, etc.). Required when creating a Communication via the API.

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Communication

A specific outreach event in CRM+ tied to a Campaign. Has a Channel Type and one or more Segments. Communications can be created via the API even though their parent Campaigns cannot.

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Contact

The top-level person or organization record in CRM+. Contains one or more Contact Individuals; every Gift, Pledge, and most other CRM+ records hang off a Contact.

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Contact Individual

An individual person within a Contact record. A Contact can have multiple Contact Individuals (e.g. a household with two spouses); one is marked isPrimary.

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Contact Method

A communication channel (email address, phone number, mailing address) attached to a Contact Individual.

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Custom Collection

A user-defined data table in CRM+ for tracking non-donation transactions (purchases, services, ticketed events). Collections must be created in the UI; records inside an existing collection can be managed via the API.

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Custom Field

A user-defined field that extends a CRM+ record type (Contact, Gift, etc.). Each Custom Field has a type: text, number, date, dropdown, multi-select, or currency.

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Donation

Raise’s term for a financial gift recorded against a Donor. The Raise equivalent of a CRM+ Gift.

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Donor

Raise’s term for a person or organization that has made a Donation. The Raise equivalent of a CRM+ Contact.

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Gift

CRM+‘s term for a financial gift recorded against a Contact. Includes one-time gifts, recurring gift instances, pledge payments, and reversing transactions.

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Gift Transaction

The endpoint and pattern for bulk-importing Gifts into CRM+. Handles Contact matching via Reference Source/ID and is the recommended path over direct Gift creation for any external integration.

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Gift Type

The classification of a Gift — Cash, EFT, Credit, Stock, In-Kind, Pledge Payment, Recurring Gift Payment, Reversing Transaction, etc.

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Initiative

Volunteer’s UI label for what the API calls a campaign. See Campaign.

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Motivation Code

In Raise, a code that surfaces on Donations to identify the campaign or appeal that generated the gift. Maps to Campaign in the integration with CRM+.

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Opportunity

Volunteer’s UI label for what the API calls a project. See Project.

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Passthrough Gift

A Gift where one Contact is the legal donor and another receives soft credit. Common pattern for peer-to-peer fundraising and donor-advised funds.

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Pledge

A commitment to give a specific amount over time in CRM+. Paid down by Pledge Payments; pledge write-offs are irreversible.

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Premium

A good or service given to a donor in exchange for a gift, with an associated fair-market value that affects the gift’s tax-deductible amount.

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Project

Has product-specific meanings. CRM+: a designation that gifts can be allocated to via projectCode. Raise: a fund or destination for donations; gifts can be split across multiple Projects. Volunteer: called Opportunity in the UI; API field is project. The three are separate concepts in separate systems even though they share the term.

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Receipt Segment

A Segment Code applied to gifts for receipting purposes. Can be set at gift time via the segmentCode URL parameter on a CRM+ giving form.

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Recurring Gift

A scheduled, repeating Gift in CRM+. Created by including a frequency value on the first Gift in the schedule.

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Reference ID

A string identifying a record in your external system. Combined with Reference Source, lets you look up the corresponding Virtuous record without storing the Virtuous ID locally. See Using Reference Source & Reference ID.

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Reference Source

A string identifying the external system that created or sourced a record. Combined with Reference ID, identifies the record uniquely.

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Reversing Transaction

A Gift Type used to reverse a previously recorded Gift. Refunds from Virtuous Payments appear in CRM+ as Reversing Transactions.

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Segment

A subdivision of a Communication in CRM+. Identified by Segment Code; used to track which appeal variation a gift came from.

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Segment Code

The string code for a Segment. Used as a URL parameter on giving forms (segmentCode=...) and on Gift records to attribute the gift to a specific Segment.

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Webhook

An HTTP callback delivered when an event occurs. All three Virtuous APIs support webhooks with product-specific event catalogs (CRM+, Raise, Volunteer).