This guide explains how to create a custom field – a tailored field that is not part of the standard fields on a contact, payment, or agreement.
A custom field can be used for many things: storing information about a campaign, a greeting from a donor, extra details about region, interests, or similar. If you need advice on this, please reach out to our support team.
| Note: When you create a custom field, it is stored in the DataSet. This means it will appear in the form data, but it will not be included in a contact export. Do you have a CRM integration? Then ask your integrator how the field should be named to make sure it is included in the integration. |
Create your new field in the form
Start by creating your field in the form (using Form builder). Give the field a descriptive name and, if possible, add a tooltip – the short text that appears when the donor hovers the mouse over the field.
The field must be saved as a Custom field. You must also add a reference.
The reference serves two purposes:
If you want to insert the answer into the receipt message, you need the reference = your merge tag.
If the data is to be transferred to your CRM system, the reference must exist in your existing integration. match. E.g. for Donorfy, it is often written as “Donorfy_FieldName”. Contact your integrator to ensure it transfers correctly.
Insert the answer into your receipt message
In some cases, it makes sense to insert the donor’s answer into the receipt message – either on the screen after a completed payment and/or in the transactional email.
The field will not appear in the usual list of merge tags, since it is not a standard field. Therefore, you need to type it manually, using the syntax {{reference}}. That means two curly brackets, the reference as written in the form, and then two closing curly brackets.
Example:
Here, the answer to “Favourite animal” is inserted into the receipt message.
Tip: You can find the curly bracket symbols on the 7 and 0 keys on your keyboard.