ApproveThis manages your Community Funded Integration approvals.

Two Platforms, One Mission

Community Funded helps organizations raise money through crowdfunding campaigns, while ApproveThis brings structure to decision-making. Together through Zapier, they create an ironclad system for managing donations, allocating funds, and maintaining donor trust through transparent processes.

Why This Integration Matters

Nonprofits, universities, and community organizations using Community Funded often struggle with post-donation workflows. ApproveThis adds critical guardrails:

• Prevent financial mismanagement with mandatory approvals before spending donated funds
• Maintain audit trails for grant reporting and donor communications
• Accelerate fund deployment through automated routing to responsible parties

Real-World Applications

Use Case 1: Restricted Donation Compliance

A university receives $50,000 through Community Funded for a scholarship fund. The finance team automatically routes the donation through ApproveThis to:

1. Verify donor intent matches the scholarship's criteria
2. Obtain VP of Academic Affairs sign-off
3. Trigger fund transfer only after both approvals

Use Case 2: Emergency Response Coordination

During disaster relief campaigns, a nonprofit uses ApproveThis thresholds to:

• Auto-approve small purchases under $500 for immediate needs
• Route larger expenditures to board members via sequential approval
• Document every decision for FEMA reimbursement claims

Department-Level Benefits

Fundraising Teams

Development directors use approval logs from ApproveThis to show donors exactly how their contributions were used, strengthening relationships and encouraging repeat gifts.

Finance Departments

Controllers configure calculated fields to automatically flag donations requiring extra documentation based on amount or donor type, reducing compliance risks.

Program Managers

Field staff request fund releases through Community Funded triggers that route to ApproveThis, with automatic delegation when approvers are in the field themselves.

Advanced Features in Action

ApproveThis enhances Community Funded workflows through:

Approval Thresholds: Set automatic approvals for small recurring donations while requiring committee reviews for major gifts.

Vacation Delegation: Ensure year-end donation processing continues uninterrupted when key staff are out of office.

Email Approvals: Board members can review and approve large expenditures directly from their inbox without needing access to Community Funded.

Implementation Made Simple

Setting up the integration takes under 30 minutes:

1. Create a Zapier account
2. Connect your Community Funded account
3. Choose "New Donation" as the trigger
4. Select ApproveThis as the action app
5. Map donation data to approval request fields
6. Test with a live donation

Why This Works for External Partners

ApproveThis eliminates licensing barriers for infrequent approvers. Development committee members only need email access to review requests, not full Community Funded seats. This keeps costs low while maintaining security.

Beyond Basic Approvals

Combine both platforms' capabilities for advanced scenarios:

Matching Gift Automation: Use calculated fields to trigger employer match requests when donations reach specific thresholds.

Capital Campaign Tracking: Create approval groups for multi-phase projects where architectural plans must be approved before construction donations are released.

Getting Started

Organizations using Community Funded can deploy ApproveThis in three phases:

1. Pilot: Implement donation approval for a single scholarship fund

2. Expand: Add conditional logic for different campaign types

3. Optimize: Integrate with accounting software through additional Zaps

The Bottom Line

Combining Community Funded's donation management with ApproveThis' structured approvals creates:

- 47% faster fund deployment (based on internal customer surveys)

- 92% reduction in documentation errors for audits

- 360-degree visibility from donation to expenditure

Ready to transform how you manage donated funds? Start your free ApproveThis trial or schedule a custom demo to see the integration live.