Documentation Overview - Virtuous API Docs

These Virtuous API Docs document the three Virtuous APIs - CRM+, Raise, and Volunteer - plus a platform-wide Virtuous tab that covers content cutting across all three. The docs are designed for partners and engineers building integrations, but they’re also useful for anyone evaluating or working with the Virtuous platform. This page is your orientation: what’s where, how the content is organized, and how to find what you need.

The Four Tabs

The top-level navigation has four tabs:

Tab	What’s there	Who it’s for
CRM+	The donor data platform API — Contacts, Gifts, Transactions, Pledges, Recurring Gifts, Designations, Webhooks	Partners building integrations against the donor data platform
Raise	The donation platform API — Donors, Gifts, Donation Forms, Campaigns, Recurring Gifts, Webhooks	Partners building integrations against the giving/donation platform
Volunteer	The volunteer management API (VOMO) — Users, Projects, Groups, Forms, Certificates, Polling patterns	Partners building integrations against volunteer management
Virtuous	Platform-wide content — Partners program, MCP server, this Docs Guide	Anyone using the docs; partners across all products

Each product tab is self-contained for its API. The Virtuous tab is for content that applies to the platform as a whole.

The group structure within each product tab

Each of the three product tabs (CRM+, Raise, Volunteer) follows the same group structure, so once you learn one, you can navigate the others. The groups, in the order they appear:

Group	What’s there	When to read
Get Started	Authentication, base URLs, your first API call, error handling, rate limits, pagination	Starting a new integration; coming back to refresh basics
Core Concepts	The data model, major resources, and how they relate	Designing an integration; understanding what data looks like before you write code
Common Workflows	Task-oriented walkthroughs (create a contact, sync donations, manage groups, etc.)	When you have a specific task to accomplish
Webhooks (CRM+, Raise) or Polling and Sync (Volunteer)	Change detection — webhooks where supported, polling patterns where webhooks aren’t available	When you need to react to data changes, not just read snapshots
Integration Recipes	End-to-end opinionated implementations of common partner integrations	When you’re building something that maps to a recognized pattern
Best Practices	Cross-cutting patterns — data modeling, performance, error recovery, sync architecture, security, versioning	When you’re operationalizing — turning a working integration into a production-grade one

The progression matters: Get Started → Concepts → Workflows → Webhooks/Polling → Recipes → Best Practices is also roughly the order in which you’ll need them as you build.

The Virtuous tab

The Virtuous tab holds content that applies platform-wide:

Group	What’s there
Partners	The Virtuous Partner Program — program overview, partner types and tiers, becoming a partner, the integration pathway, partner resources
MCP	The Model Context Protocol server for the docs — connect AI tools (Claude, Cursor, etc.) to query these docs in real time
Docs Guide	This group — orientation, navigation, AI assistant, contextual menu, the playground

If you’re new to Virtuous and building integrations, the Integration Pathway in the Partners group is the canonical workflow for technology partners.

How to find what you need

The right starting point depends on what you’re trying to do:

“I’m starting fresh — what do I need to know?”

Start with Becoming a Partner if you’re not yet in the program
Pick the relevant product tab (CRM+, Raise, or Volunteer)
Read the Get Started group in order — it gives you the foundational concepts
Move to Core Concepts to understand the data model before writing code

”I know what I’m building — show me the pattern”

Go directly to the relevant product’s Integration Recipes group
Find the recipe closest to what you’re building
Use the recipe as your reference; cross-link into Workflows and Concepts as needed

”I have a specific task to accomplish”

Go to the relevant product’s Common Workflows group
Find the workflow that matches your task
Each workflow is self-contained with code examples

”Something specific isn’t working”

Use Search (Cmd+K) to find the relevant page
Or ask the AI Assistant — it can pull from across the docs
The Best Practices pages cover most production-grade concerns

”I’m working in an AI tool while I build”

The AI Assistant is built into the docs site — open it with Cmd+I
For your external AI tools (Cursor, Claude Code, VS Code, etc.), connect them to the MCP server so they can query these docs as you work

”I just want to read”

The product tab Overview pages and the Get Started groups are the natural front doors. The docs are also navigable linearly within each group — every page ends with a CardGroup pointing to natural next reads.

Conventions across the docs

A few things you’ll see consistently:

Convention	What it means
Decision tables at the top (“When to use this”)	Helps you confirm a page applies to your situation before reading further
Code in `CodeGroup` blocks with cURL + JavaScript	The two languages partners use most
Mermaid diagrams for architecture, decision trees, and data flows	Visual reference for things that are hard to convey in prose
`<Warning>`, `<Note>`, `<Tip>`, `<Info>` callouts	Highlight important context — read these
”Things to watch for” sections at the end	Common pitfalls and edge cases
CardGroup at the bottom of every page	Four suggested next-read pages — follow these to navigate by topic

How the docs evolve

The docs are continuously updated. Things to know:

Practice	Detail
Continuous publishing	New content and updates appear on the live site as they’re published — no version waits
Recent additions	Partner program documentation, MCP server, and these Docs Guide pages are recent additions to the platform tab
API evolution	As CRM+, Raise, and Volunteer evolve, the docs evolve with them. The Best Practices pages cover Versioning and Backward Compatibility — patterns for keeping integrations resilient through API changes
Audit-driven cleanup	A continuous audit pass surfaces and fixes spec gaps, naming inconsistencies, and documentation completeness issues

Where to go next

Search and Navigation

Finding what you need fast — the search bar, keyboard shortcuts, and cross-link patterns.

AI Assistant

The in-docs AI chat — ask questions, get cited answers, and skip the hunt-and-peck.

Contextual Menu

Copy pages, open them in ChatGPT or Claude, and pull docs into your AI tool of choice.

API Playground

Test endpoints directly in the browser and copy the resulting code into your project.

​The Four Tabs

​The group structure within each product tab

​The Virtuous tab

​How to find what you need

​“I’m starting fresh — what do I need to know?”

​”I know what I’m building — show me the pattern”

​”I have a specific task to accomplish”

​”Something specific isn’t working”

​”I’m working in an AI tool while I build”

​”I just want to read”

​Conventions across the docs

​How the docs evolve

​Where to go next