ApproveThis manages your Overflow Integration approvals.

Let’s be real: managing donations shouldn’t require more paperwork than a government grant application. Between tracking contributions, getting sign-offs, and making sure every dollar is accounted for, nonprofit teams waste hours chasing approvals instead of focusing on their mission. That’s where ApproveThis and Overflow come in – like peanut butter and jelly for your donation workflows, minus the sticky fingers.

Why This Combo Works (Besides Saving Your Sanity)

Overflow handles the money moves. ApproveThis handles the red tape. Connect them via Zapier, and you’ve got an automated system that:

• Kills spreadsheet tracking for good
• Stops approval requests from dying in inboxes
• Gives auditors a clear paper trail without the filing cabinet

The Secret Sauce: No Extra Licenses for Your Donors

Here’s the kicker: your board members, external partners, or that busy pastor don’t need an Overflow login to approve requests. ApproveThis sends approvals via email – they click, review, approve/reject. Done. No software training, no forgotten passwords, no “I never got the link” excuses.

Real-World Wins for Teams Who Hate Busywork

Use Case 1: The Church That Dodged a Donation Disaster

Imagine a $50k building fund donation hits Overflow. Normally, this triggers a 3-person approval chain: finance director, senior pastor, board chair. Problem? The pastor’s on a mission trip with spotty email. With ApproveThis:

- Overflow auto-triggers an approval request via Zapier
- Vacation delegation reroutes the pastor’s approval to the associate pastor
- Approval thresholds auto-approve the request once two sign-offs happen
- The whole process wraps up in 12 hours instead of 2 weeks

Use Case 2: The Nonprofit That Stopped Fraud Before It Started

A youth org using Overflow noticed irregular donation amounts. They set up ApproveThis with calculated fields to flag any contribution over $5k for immediate CFO review. Now:

- Overflow feeds donation data into ApproveThis
- Conditional logic checks amount against historical donor patterns
- Unusual activity gets routed with “Review Urgently” tags
- Their finance team caught 3 potential issues last quarter before payments cleared

Setting This Up Without an IT Degree

Step 1: Create a Zapier account (free tier works)
Step 2: Connect Overflow as your trigger app (“New Confirmed Contribution”)
Step 3: Connect ApproveThis as your action app (“Create Approval Request”)
Step 4: Map Overflow fields to your ApproveThis template (amount, donor info, dates)
Step 5: Test with a $1 donation. Pop champagne when it works.

Features You’ll Actually Use (No Bloat Here)

While we’re proud of our approval thresholds and real-time dashboards, here’s what teams really care about:

Email Approvals That Don’t Suck: Approvers get a clean, mobile-friendly email with all key details. One click approves; rejections require a quick reason. No login, no fuss.

Escalation Protocols for Slackers: If your treasurer ignores the request for 48 hours, ApproveThis auto-pings their boss. Or their boss’s boss. However deep you need to go.

Audit Trails That Make Annual Reviews Easy: Every comment, approval delay, and changed decision gets logged. Export CSV reports with one click when auditors come knocking.

Who Benefits Most? (Spoiler: Everyone)

Finance Teams

Stop playing detective with donation records. See real-time status of high-value contribution approvals. Set conditional rules like “Auto-approve recurring donors under $1k” to cut workload by 60%.

Operations Teams

Ditch the manual data entry between Overflow and your accounting software. Once ApproveThis greenlights a donation, automatically push it to QuickBooks or Salesforce with… you guessed it, another Zap.

Leadership

Get a dashboard view of approval bottlenecks. Spot that board member who takes 9 days to approve anything. Use data to streamline your processes (or gently nudge slowpokes).

The Elephant in the Room: “But Our Process Is Special!”

Cool. We handle “special” every day. Some examples:

- Require 4 approvals for capital campaigns but only 2 for annual fund? Set different workflows per donation type.
- Need the finance committee to vote as a group? Use consensus-based approval groups.
- Have complex matching gift rules? Add calculated fields to auto-verify employer matches before routing.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Don’t: Clone your existing broken process. If paper forms took 7 sign-offs, use this as a chance to trim fat.
Do: Start with 2-3 critical workflows (major gifts, grants) before expanding.
Don’t: Skip the vacation delegate setup. July approvals shouldn’t wait for someone’s Costa Rica return.
Do: Name your workflows clearly. “2024 Capital Campaign - Over $10k” beats “Workflow #3”.

Bottom Line: This Isn’t Just Software

It’s 18 hours per month given back to your team. It’s avoiding that one embarrassing audit finding. It’s proving to major donors you’re serious about stewardship.

ApproveThis + Overflow via Zapier works because it’s not another tool – it’s the glue between tools you already use. Less admin, more impact. Fewer meetings, more mission.

Ready to stop herding approval cats? Book a 15-minute demo or start a free trial. No donor data required – we’ll mock up your exact workflow so you see the time savings before committing.