When we started rolling out CMS websites back in 2007, many of our academic departments wanted some sort of Giving Opportunities webpage on their shiny new website.
Some departments were able to hone in on a few key priorities. Some departments struggled to chose specific priorities, so they kept things very vague. And some departments listed everything fund they had and the kitchen sink.
These pages generally looked the same: an image slideshow, some headings and bullets, and some “Give Now” buttons.
Fast forward to 2017, and we have a new widget available in our new CMS template. Called “Gift Boxes”, this widget has a more modern look and feel and allows you to:
- show a representative fund/priority image
- show a fundraising goal for the particular fund/priority
- show a progress bar indicating how close we are to the goal
- The progress bar automatically updates overnight
- provide a short description of the fund/priority
- provide a link to a longer webpage all about the fund. The full webpage can include:
- A point of contact
- Additional descriptions
- Additional photos
- Social media sharing icons
- The ability to comment on the fund via the Facebook commenting platform
You can view a great example of how to use these new gift boxes on the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science website.
This new widget can help you create a more engaging, powerful, and attractive Giving Opportunities webpage that showcases your priorities.
You can use these boxes to highlight your key priorities and follow them up with more general descriptions, bulleted lists, and/or sliders for your additional opportunities. You can also change the funds/priorities that you feature with these boxes through out the year.
Creating Gift Boxes
In order to create a gift box, you must first have an account number registered with the Michigan Tech Fund. Once you have your account number, you can follow our online documentation and create your own gift boxes on your CMS website.
We happy to provide this new feature to our CMS liaisons. If you have questions, please contact us at cmshelp@mtu.edu.
Joel Vertin
Director of Digital Services