ApproveThis manages your GiveForms Integration approvals.

When Donations Move Faster Than Your Paperwork

Here's the thing about fundraising: urgency and compliance are constantly arm-wrestling. A major donor wants to fund a new initiative yesterday. Your events team needs to launch a Giving Tuesday campaign before coffee gets cold. Meanwhile, three department heads are stuck debating whether to approve a $50k donation via email thread. This is where ApproveThis and GiveForms turn "hurry up and wait" into "get sh*t done."

GiveForms handles the donor-facing heavy lifting – slick forms, real-time dashboards, campaign management. ApproveThis does the behind-the-scenes work – routing decisions to the right people, enforcing rules, keeping everyone honest. Connect them through Zapier, and you've got a system where donations trigger approvals, approvals trigger actions, and nobody has to chase down signatures.

Why This Combo Doesn’t Just Work – It Wins

Most approval tools treat every request like a generic to-do. ApproveThis treats them like the legal/financial/operational landmines they actually are. When paired with GiveForms' donation data, you get workflows that adapt to your rules, not the other way around.

Where Other Tools Tap Out

GiveForms isn’t built to handle complex approval chains. ApproveThis doesn’t care about form design. Together? The GiveForms → Zapier → ApproveThis handoff means:

• No more approval black holes: That $10k donation from a new corporate sponsor doesn’t get stuck because your ED is at a conference.
• Fewer "Oops, Didn’t See That" moments: Conditional routing sends high-risk donations to legal, recurring gifts to finance, memorial funds to program leads.
• Approvals that actually scale: Handle 10 donations or 10,000 without hiring a coordinator to play middleman.

The License Hack Nonprofits Love

Here’s the kicker: approvers don’t need a GiveForms login. Board members review donation reports in ApproveThis via email. Corporate partners sign off on matching gifts without getting access to your CRM. You control who sees what, without the SaaS license sprawl.

Real-World Uses That Go Beyond “Nice in Theory”

Let’s break down how mid-sized nonprofits, universities, and political campaigns are using this integration to stop being bottlenecks and start being…well, functional.

Use Case 1: Campaign Launches That Don’t Require a Committee

Scenario: Your marketing team creates a new GiveForms campaign for disaster relief. Normally, this needs sign-off from programs (is this aligned with our mission?), finance (do we have bandwidth?), and legal (any liability risks?).

With the integration:

1. GiveForms detects the new campaign
2. Zapier fires the details to ApproveThis
3. ApproveThis routes it to the right trio, in order: legal first (they’re slow), then programs, then finance

Who benefits: International NGOs rolling out crisis response funds. Conditional logic auto-approves campaigns under $20k if they match predefined criteria, only escalating exceptions.

Use Case 2: Donations That Don’t Require a Detective

Scenario: A $50k donation comes in via GiveForms. Is it from a sanctioned entity? Does it push the donor over annual limits? Does it require a gift agreement?

Automation path:

1. New GiveForms donation triggers ApproveThis
2. Calculated fields check amount against donor history
3. Over $25k? Auto-add general counsel as approver
4. Includes a restricted gift? Loop in program director

Who benefits: University foundations processing large alumni gifts. Approval thresholds auto-approve sub-$5k donations, freeing up 60% of review workload.

Use Case 3: Donor Updates That Don’t Require a Paper Trail

Scenario: A major donor’s contact info changes in GiveForms. Development associate needs to update records but org policy requires manager approval for VIPs.

How it plays out:

1. GiveForms donor profile edit detected
2. Zapier checks if donor is in "Major" category
3. If yes, ApproveThis pings the associate’s manager
4. If no, update happens without human intervention

Who benefits: Political campaigns managing rapid donor influxes during election cycles. Prevents junior staff from accidentally altering top donor records.

Setting This Up Without Losing Your Mind

Zapier does the heavy lifting here. Basic flow:

1. Pick your trigger: New donation? Campaign edit? Donor update? (GiveForms has 20+ triggers)
2. Filter if needed: Only route donations over $10k? Campaigns tagged "Emergency"?
3. Map to ApproveThis: Zapier passes key data (amount, donor ID, campaign details) into an approval request
4. Set and forget: ApproveThis handles routing, reminders, escalations per your rules

Pro tip: Use ApproveThis’ calculated fields to auto-flag gifts that need extra scrutiny. Example: If [Donation Amount] / [Donor’s Prior Total] > 0.5, require CFO approval.

What Each Team Actually Gains

Fundraising/Development Teams

Stop being the messenger between donors and finance. When a donor asks "Did you get my wire transfer?" you’re not scrambling to check Slack threads. ApproveThis shows real-time status: "Awaiting bank confirmation (Est. 24hrs)."

Finance & Legal

Audit trails that don’t suck. Every approved/denied request in ApproveThis includes who decided what, when, and why. No more deciphering email chains from that offsite in Breckenridge.

Program Directors

Approve restricted gifts without 17 check-ins. Set rules like: "If donation is for [Clean Water] and under $25k, auto-approve. If over, notify me via SMS."

The Unsexy Stuff That Actually Matters

We’re contractually obligated to mention features like:

Vacation Delegation: CFO out paragliding? Approval authority temporarily shifts to Deputy CFO without missing SLAs.

Approval Groups: Require 3/5 board members to sign off on endowment changes. Sequential approvals for multi-department gifts (legal → finance → ED).

Email-Based Actions: Approvers can reject/approve via email without logging in. Critical for external partners who think "password reset" is a personal attack.

Bottom Line: This Isn’t About Tools – It’s About Trust

Donors bail when you seem disorganized. Auditors write you up when trails go cold. Staff quit when approvals take longer than planning the actual work. ApproveThis + GiveForms via Zapier fixes the invisible stuff that tanks reputations.

It takes 8 minutes to set up a demo. Less time than you’ll waste this week chasing down signatures.