Conservation & Fieldwork·Guide
Fundraising for field sites
Someone sees a public observation (a species, a place story) and wants to fund more of that work. That moment should not require leaving your site, re-uploading the same frames into GoFundMe, or rewriting the science for a second brand. The path is observation → public story → donate → campaign → Impact Record → allocated toward survey(s) on one spine.
What a field fundraising path needs
Five checks before you wire a donate button to a map
Same story, same asset
The campaign should inherit the observation and portfolio narrative you already publish, not a parallel photo dump in a third-party fundraiser.
Map honesty
Donors respond to maps; adversaries respond to precision. A fundraising Impact Map that switches to exact GPS to “look more real” is a specific failure mode.
Gift vs campaign
A donation product collects money. A campaign adds goal, story, and progress. Know which surface you are placing on the page.
Campaign raised is not survey spend
Linking a campaign to a survey for framing is helpful. It is not proof that every dollar funded that survey. Impact Records and allocation lines are the claim you can show.
Money mechanics elsewhere
Stripe Connect and checkout behavior live in the Business guides. This page owns the conservation bridge, not payment plumbing.
The donor journey you actually want
A visitor lands on a program page or photo detail, recognizes the work (species, habitat story, redacted map), and chooses to give. That path should stay on your domain: Impact Map or gallery context, campaign progress if you use it, and a donation product that settles through Connect.
What you avoid is the four-system rewrite: science in one tool, website in another, and fundraising as a third brand that never inherits the observation identity of what was seen.
How the pieces connect on ArtInStack
Donation products live under Products; optional campaigns hold goal and story and link those products. On a program page you place donation or campaign blocks, and/or an Impact Map with a donate call to action, beside the portfolio that carries the field media. A Conservation Story block can hold proof and the ask in one composition.
The conservation bridge is that those surfaces can sit next to the same media and observations you already tagged. For click-path setup, use Fundraising campaigns for conservation and the general Donations and fundraising campaigns docs.
After someone gives: Attribute
When a paid gift includes your campaign, ArtInStack creates an Impact Record for the attributed amount. Under Settings → Campaigns → Impact you confirm or split allocation toward one or more surveys. The receipt email can include a private donor Impact page.
Say “allocated toward [survey]” only when an allocation line says so. Do not treat campaign raised totals, or a campaign’s default survey link, as proof of survey spend. Status on the record (Allocated, In progress, Completed) is allocation progress, not a conservation outcome claim.
For the full honesty ladder (Raised vs Allocated vs Completed vs Verified outcome), read From support to evidence: designing honest attribution. Click-path detail: Impact Records.
Privacy while asking for money
Fundraising pages are high-traffic. Prefer redacted public maps on those albums. Do not loosen location policy because a campaign needs “urgency.” Enable public observations only when species disclosure is intentional, and keep elevated IUCN judgment from Publishing sensitive species.
Partner Camtrap exports may carry fuller station detail for trusted recipients. That package is not interchangeable with the public CDN path donors see.
Where money mechanics live
How Connect payouts, currencies, and invoicing behave is covered in Financial mechanics for studios and Automated invoicing & checkout. Come back here when the question is how a field observation becomes a campaign ask, and then attributable support, without a second stack.
For the architecture of Survey versus Portfolio, start at Field conservation’s two stacks. For how to make the public story credible under donor skepticism before you place the ask, read Evidence storytelling for skeptical donors. For volunteer days that may feed the same archive, continue to Events & volunteers for field programs.
Fund the sighting, attribute the gift
Wire donate beside the story you already publish. Soften pins on fundraising pages. After payment, allocate Impact Records toward surveys you can substantiate.
Also in Guides: From support to evidence: designing honest attribution · Evidence storytelling for skeptical donors · Events & volunteers for field programs