Funds, fundraisers, and receiving donations

This article is for people and organizations who receive money on Homeward. It covers the records that define where money goes, how to open and describe them, and how to read the Receiving donations page that controls whether money can flow at all.

The three records

Homeward separates ministry work from giving destinations, and both from campaign presentation:

• A program describes work you do — reach, description, ministry focus, and the people and campuses involved. Programs enroll people; they do not receive money directly.
• A fund is where money goes. It has its own name, currency, status, and public page.
• A fundraiser is a campaign around a fund, with a goal, a deadline, and a progress bar. It reuses the fund’s destination rather than defining a new one.

Enrolling a person in a program does not make them a member of your organization, and creating a fund does not by itself let money flow.

Creating a fund

Find funds under Programs & funds → Funds in an organization dashboard, and select Add fund.

• Fund name — required, up to 160 characters.
• Slug — 4–8 lowercase letters, numbers, or internal hyphens, used in the public fund URL. It is fixed after creation, so choose it with care.
• Summary (one-liner) — up to 4,000 characters, shown on fund cards.
• Cover image — a 16:9 image, resized to 1600 px wide on upload.
• Description — the full text shown on the fund page, up to 4,000 characters.
• Currency — a three-letter code, set at creation and not editable afterwards. It defaults to USD.
• Status — Active or Closed. A closed fund keeps its page and history but cannot take new gifts.
• Public visibility — Listed or Unlisted (link only). An unlisted fund is reachable by anyone who has the link but does not appear on your public funds page, and the fund page is marked noindex so search engines skip it.

The funds table shows each fund’s slug, status, and total raised, with links to open the public page, Edit, and Archive.

The general fund

Every organization has a general fund. It is always present, always listed, and cannot be archived. Its slug is fixed as /general, and its status and visibility are read-only.

Fundraisers

Select Launch fundraiser on the Fundraisers tab. A fundraiser carries a campaign title, slug, description, summary, cover image, goal, deadline, and status, and reports Raised as a read-only figure with a percentage capped at 100.

Caution

Creating a fundraiser currently uses two browser prompts, and the goal is entered in cents — a $500 goal is entered as 50000. The same is true of the Goal (cents) field in the editor afterwards. The auto-created name, “New fundraiser”, is yours to rename.

Fundraisers appear on your public funds tab under Active fundraisers with their deadline and progress, and each has a standalone page at /orgs/<slug>/funds/<fund-slug> showing the goal progress and a give button.

Receiving donations

The Receiving donations page is where the controls that actually let money flow live. At the top:

• Receiving donations — a badge reading Enabled or Paused.
• External donation link — a fallback URL used when Homeward’s own giving flow is unavailable. Editable only while donations are enabled.
• Payout configuration — read-only: the processor, routing mode, status, and processor account reference.

Caution

Only Homeward administrators can enable or pause donations for a profile. You cannot change this from the dashboard. If the badge reads Paused, a notice explains: existing recurring gifts keep processing and funds are held, while new donations and payouts stop until Homeward re-enables it.

Why a public fund does not mean money can flow

Four separate controls stand between a donor and a completed gift:

1. Recipient eligibility — whether the profile can receive donations at all.
2. Fund status — the fund must be active.
3. Receiving configuration — donations must be enabled, not paused.
4. A verified legal entity — required before an organization can accept money.

This is why a published fundraiser or a public profile is not evidence that a gift will process, and why a recipient can look perfectly normal in search and still appear dimmed in the donate window as “Not yet able to receive donations”.

What donors see

Donors meet your funds in two places: the Funds tab on your public profile, listing active fundraisers first and then your funds, and each fund’s own standalone page with its description, progress, and a Give to this fund button — which appears only when the organization can receive donations.

Related

Balance and payouts covers the money after it arrives. Organizations: campuses, staff, people, and programs covers programs in full. Making a gift shows the donor’s side of the same flow.