Run a dharma event
Tiered sponsorship from setting up the offering to printing the tablets.
Set up a dharma event campaign, take registrations from donors as they sponsor a tablet, and generate the print-ready pages once the names are in.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- Dharma event mode is a setting DonorCARE turns on per organization. If you don’t see it when creating a campaign, ask DonorCARE to enable it for you.
- Decide your sponsorship packages and prices before you start — each one becomes an offering with one or more price tiers.
- Have at least one tablet template ready, or plan to design one — see Design a tablet template.
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Create the campaign in dharma event mode. When creating a new campaign, choose the dharma event option at the mode step instead of a regular campaign.
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Add an offering for each sponsorship package. Give it a name (for example, “Ancestral Tablet” or “Blessing Lamp”). Turn on Bundle if one purchase gives several tablets (for example, a package with both a memorial and a blessing tablet). Then select Add Tier to add one or more price levels. For each tier, set:
- Price Type — Fixed Amount or Flexible (donor names their own amount)
- Output Type — Memorial (for the deceased), Blessing (for the living), Listing (a name list with no tablet), Manual (nothing printed), or — on a Bundle only — Hybrid (both memorial and blessing tablets in one tier)
- Names per Entry — Single, Couple, or Family, which caps how many names one tablet can carry
- Tablet Template — the design used when you generate this tier’s tablets
- On a Bundle, Included Items and Extra Options instead of Names per Entry and Tablet Template
Every setting is explained in Set up offerings for a dharma event, and beside each one in the editor.
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Publish the campaign. See Publish a campaign — donors can only register once it’s live.
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Let donors register, or key in registrations yourself. A donor picks a tier during checkout and fills in the names, dedications and relationships the tier asks for. For a walk-in donor or a paper form, open Record an offline donation, select the offering and tier, and add each name as its own entry — the same screen shows Entries Total and Adjustment, which must add up to the Amount on the receipt.
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Check what’s still incomplete. Before you print, review Unfilled offerings for any registration that’s missing a name.
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Generate and print the tablets. Once registrations are in, go to Generate tablets to produce the pages.
If something goes wrong
Section titled “If something goes wrong”| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Receipt total doesn’t match the names printed on it | Amount is entries total plus Adjustment — removing a name row after typing an amount can silently turn that money into an Adjustment instead of lowering the total | Select Apply to Summary after adding or removing rows, and check the Adjustment field reads what you expect before saving |
| A blank or unnamed row disappears on save but the total doesn’t change | An empty row on a Bundle tier can be priced and then dropped when you save, leaving an Adjustment with no name behind it | Fill in every row you mean to keep, and delete any row you don’t want, rather than leaving it blank |
| Two registrations both show “Entry 1” | Entry numbers restart at 1 inside every offering — the number alone does not identify a specific name | When checking a name against a receipt or a donor query, note the offering it belongs to as well as the entry number |