Collection tins are synonymous with in-person fundraising, and with something as vital as collection tins, you bet Beacon has a way to store everything you need!
Enabled as part of the Fundraising element, you'll see two record types to use for this purpose - Collection tins and Collection tin placements.
Not too sure how these work? No worries at all, we'll run into these in more detail now. Let's dive into it!
The Collection tin record type
Out of the box, you'll see your Collection tin record created with default fields to log data about the tin itself - like the Description, Photo, Notes and Retirement Reason fields. These ones are pretty self explanatory, where you can use these as required to gain more of an image of what the tin looks like but also if it is still in use.
Noteworthy default fields also involve the following - which are worth having more of a look into!
Tin ID - This is an auto-number field which will automatically assign a unique ID for the collection tin. If you're needing more information on how this field type works, you'll be able to find this more information on this here
Status - A rules-based smart field to let you know what the status of the tin is based on certain criteria. We would recommend heading into the customisation mode to check the rules that are set, and add your own as required!
Description - An area to log more detail around the tin itself to help identify it, perhaps what colour or size we might be working with
Current placement - A roll-up field to display the relevant Collection tin placement record for the current location of the tin, where the stage on the collection tin placement record is "Checked out"
Next placement - A roll-up field to display the relevant Collection tin placement record for the next placement of the tin, where the stage on the related record is "Requested"
Label - This is a smart field merging the Collection tin ID and the Status of the tin. Feel free to customise this to what you'd like to see, as this will be the title of your record 🙌
Perfect, hopefully you've gone ahead and created a record - where we can go ahead and allocate where that tin is going. To the placements!
The Collection tin placements record type
This record type would be used to log information about the placement of the collection tin - such as the Fundraiser (whether that be a Person, or an Organisation), the Stage, Checkout date and Return date and of course a link to the Collection Tin record you created earlier!
With other fields like the Location - you'll be able to mark where the tin is - and whether you're expecting this to be at a particular Event or Campaign and finally who the Primary Contact is in case you need to ask for more specifics.
You've even got an Attachments field available for a picture of the tin out and about - and a Notes field for extra jotting of information.
As with the Collection Tin record, your Label field is also a smart field here - merging the Tin ID, the Fundraiser and the Stage of your placement record 👍
Just like any other records in Beacon, you're free to add more custom fields if you need more information - and can edit the existing fields to better suits your requirements as well 🙌
Note: You'll want to link this record to an existing Collection Tin record, where the Stage will affect the Current placement and Next Placement fields on the attached Collection Tin record depending on what stage is within the field 👀
Tracking funds within the tins
Having the records for collecting information about the tins and their locations is great and all, but what about the money donated to the tins? Great question!
On your Payment record type, you'll see the Collection Tin placement field which will allow you to link the donations to the placement.
This will then allow the system to link the funds and the tin together, where you'll see the total donated within your "Total income" card on the right hand side of your Collection Tin placement record 🙌
Fabulous! All that's left to do now is to get your collection tin information into Beacon, and get those tins out in the wild with your newly created records to help with the data 🙌
Happy fundraising 🎉
Can't see Collection Tins or Collection Tin Placements?
First port of call is to check if you have the Fundraising element enabled as part of your Beacon set up.
If you do, and still can't see these, please do pop into the support team who will be able to help further 😊 Thanks!