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Author: Joel Kristenson
Last Updated: 2016-08-12
Overview
Trail Blazer’s donation iFrame is hosted on a secure domain (https://www.trailblz.info/YourDatabaseName/donations.aspx) but many donors don’t realize the form is secure unless your website has an SSL certificate (which will display the lock in the upper-left). This article shows how to add the security disclosure section to your donation form as well as how to customize it so it with html & css styling.
You’ll also notice that words don’t wrap within the security/disclosure box on your online donation form by default so many customers will add their own ‘hard returns’ <br /> into the text in order to make it read more clearly.
Tip: Use the Ctrl+F hot key to jump to different sections of this article (example: “#1”, “#2” or “Related Resources”.
Outline
#1 Turn on the Security Disclosure Section for your Online Donation Form
#2 Customize/Style the Text with html & CSS
#3 Related Resources
#1 – Turn on the Security Disclosure Section for your Online Donation Form
Navigate to Website Configuration under the Application Menu. Requires appropriate security clearance.
Navigate to Donations > Page Setup, check the box for ‘Include Disclaimer’ (this is what turns the disclaimer option on for your donation form(s)), click [Save], and then click the blue link in the upper-right to refresh your website settings.
You’ll get notifications when both saving, and refreshing your website settings, click [OK] through all of these. Screenshots below.
Img 1 of 2 – After Clicking [Save] Click [OK]
Img 2 of 2 – After Refreshing your Website Settings Click [OK]
By default the security text will use Trail Blazer’s default text (which gets updated as FEC laws change), you can overwrite the text in that box (covered in Section #2), and you also have the ability to add ‘Security Text’ by checking that box as shown below.
Once you’ve made your changes, saved, and refreshed your website settings you can view what the changes look like by navigating to https://www.trailblz.info/YourDatabaseName/Donations.aspx?ver=2 (my example is below).
The full (default disclosure and security text) will read like this:
Disclaimer:
· The Federal Election Commission requires that all of these statements are true for anyone contributing to the campaign.
I am a US Citizen or Permanent Resident
I am donating my own money
I am not under contract to the Federal Government
I am not making this contribution in the name of another person
I am 18 years of age or older
· If there is an occupation/employer: Federal law requires political committees to use their best efforts to obtain and report the name, mailing address, occupation, and employer for each individual whose contributions aggregate in excess of $200 in an election cycle.
· Contributions to Demo Campaign Database - Joel are not deductible as charitable donations for federal income tax purposes. Federal law limits contributions to $5,400 per person ($2,700 for the primary election + $2,700 for the general election). Contributions can be drawn individually or jointly from personal funds only. Joint contributions are attributed to each contributor equally. Corporate checks are prohibited. Cash contributions cannot be accepted. Contributions from foreign nationals are prohibited.
For the security conscious - You may notice this page does not display the padlock or https in the address bar. However, the portion of the page above that captures your name and credit card information is connected by secure server to our database provider (Trail Blazer). Their server IS securing your credit card transaction. Depending on your browser, you can verify this by right mouse clicking on the white space inside the the gray borders near your name and address. From the menu select Properties. This will display the URL: https://www.trailblz.info/DemoCampaign_Joel/contribute.aspx and a button that allows you to display Trail Blazer's secure certificate information.
As of the time this article was written it *requires that the contributor scrolls through this section to read all of the text. The next section will show how to customize the text with html/css and add your own custom text.
You Security Disclaimer will now look something like this:
#2 – Customize/Style the Text with html & CSS
To style or customize your security/disclosure section you can simply replace the text that’s currently in Website Configuration with your own:
To style this section further you’ll need to add your own custom css and html styling.
---
Here’s my example you could use as a starting point:
<p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">By clicking "Make Donation" below, you </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">certify that the following statements are<br />
true:<br />
<br />
1. I am a United States citizen or lawfully<br />
admitted permanent resident (a "Green<br />
Card holder").<br />
2. I am at least 18 years old.<br />
3. I am not a party to a contract with the<br />
federal government or any of its agencies.<br />
4. I am making this contribution using my<br />
own debit/credit card, which I have the</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">legal obligation to fund/repay, not<br />
someone else's card or the card of an<br />
incorporated entity. For eCheck<br />
contributions, I am making this<br />
contribution using a check drawn from<br />
my own account containing my</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">personal funds, not someone else's<br />
account or the account of an<br />
incorporated entity.<br />
5. No one has provided me with funds for<br />
the purpose of making this contribution,<br />
and no one will reimburse me for it.<br />
<br />
Contributions to Friends of Dave Brat,<br />
Inc. are not deductible as charitable<br />
contributions for federal income tax<br />
purposes. All contributions are subject<br />
to the following limits: from an individual<br />
or non-multicandidate political committee,<br />
$2,700 per election; from a multicandidate<br />
PAC, $5,000 per election; from a married<br />
couple, out of joint funds and with each<br />
spouse's signature, $5,400 per election.<br />
For purposes of these per election<br />
limits, the primary and general elections<br />
are deemed to be separate elections. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Contributions from corporations, labor<br />
organizations, federal government<br />
contractors, foreign nationals<br />
(non-U.S. citizens, not lawfully admitted<br />
for permanent resident status), and<br />
contributions made using another person's<br />
or entity's funds, are prohibited. Federal<br />
law requires us to use best efforts to<br />
collect and report the name, address,<br />
occupation and employer of each<br />
individual whose aggregate contributions<br />
exceed $200 per two-year federal election<br />
cycle.</span></span></p>
---
Simply copy-and-paste the text/code above into your disclaimer text box inside of web configuration, save, and refresh your website settings:
Here’s what this example looks like online:
Feel free to call our live support for assistance with any of this. You can also take a look at the related resources below for links to a variety of similar articles & videos.
Related Resources
Article: HTTPS Suggested Text to Include on Donation Page
Article: Donation Money Bomb Ticker
Article: How to Put your Trail Blazer Donation Form on your Facebook Page
Article: How to Add and Remove Allocation Funds to your Online Donation Form, and to the Drop-Down Menus in your Database
Article: How to Configure Recurring Donation Options for your Trail Blazer Donation Form (must be using either Vanco or Authorize.Net as your Merchant Gateway)
Article: Custom Donation Amounts for Non Primary Donation Pages
Article: How to Enable ACH (E-Check) Payments with the Vanco Merchant Gateway on Trail Blazer’s Donation Form
Article: How to Change your Current, Previous, and Next Cycle or Fiscal Year, and How to Mass Update Donations to a Specific Cycle or Fiscal Year En Masse – Nonprofit Only
Article: Custom javascript donation thank you page with url ?da=example
Video: Attributes – Add To Donation Page
Video: Donation Auto Responders with Merge Fields
Video: Contributions Online – Change Default $ Donation Amounts
Video: Iframes
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