Q1: Can a Donor remain anonymous with respect to the trip participant knowing who made the donation?
Yes, edit the donation record in MinistryPlatform and set the Anonymous to Yes.  However, please note that this capability does not YET exist on the Mission Trip Donations portal page. Therefore, if that portal page is the source of the donation the anonymous bit field will have to be applied by a MinistryPlatform user after the fact. The delay in applying that bit field may lead to a gap in time where the trip participant might see the donor's name on the My Mission Trips page if church policy allows them to see that list.
 
Q2: What if one person exceeds their "total pledge" goal?
Pat them on the back!  Consider lowering the "total pledge" goal of other mission trip participants.
 
Q3: What if a bunch of trip participants raise money together?
Consider having a fake pledge to a "General Trip Participant" donor with a $0 Total Pledge. When that record is credited with donations, then you can lower the total pledge of the trip participants who had a hand in the team-based fundraising event.
 
Q4: Can we track trip expenses in MinistryPlatform?
You can track trip expenses only if you create a custom page for this purpose and connect it to the Pledge Campaign record. Currently tracking trip expenses is outside of the scope of the standard MinistryPlatform implementation.
 
Q5: Is there any way to take a mission trip registration via the portal without requiring a deposit?
Yes, simply leave the Registration Deposit field on the Pledge Campaign record blank or with $0. See this KB for details.
 
Q6: Is the Mission Trip Registration form setup in the system automatically or do I need to set that up myself?
The Mission Trip Registration does not need a Custom Form to function. But you can incorporate a Custom Form to collect additional data.
 
Q7: How do I add a company record "Mission Team Support" to the pledge campaign so that donors can select it from the drop down menu of mission trip participants and make a donation?
First create a contact with the Add A Company tool called something like General Trip Support, this tool also creates the donor record. Add a pledge assigned to that contact for your trip. Then edit the beneficiary text in the pledge to control what shows on Portal.
 
Q8: I do not want a certain mission trip to be visible on the mission trip giving page. How can I do that?
If your intent is to take gifts online later, make the start date of the Pledge Campaign for that trip a future start date. If the trip is no longer taking online donations, make the end date of the Pledge Campaign for that trip a past end date. If you have a mission trip that you do not want to ever show, even though it is currently accepting donations, then you may need to create a new Pledge Campaign Type. You may choose to use something like Internal Trip/Project, as only the existing "Mission Trip" pledge campaign type will show online.
 
Q9: My mission trip shows in the list as open, but people cannot register. It tells the user: This Mission Trip does not currently allow online registration. Why is that?
Make sure you have a value set for Maximum Registrants in the Pledge Campaign. You also need to set a value for the Registration Deposit field. If you don't want a deposit, it's fine to set this field value to 0 (zero).
 
Q10: What should I put into the Pledge record for Installment Amount and Installments Planned when creating a Mission Trip fundraising Pledge?
$0 for the amount and 0 for the installments.  These values are more important for pledges that are part of a capital campaign.
 
Q11: How do I remove the Mission Trip from the Mission Trip Registration page?
Make sure that the Mission Trip registration End Date is in the past.
 
Q12: How do I remove the Mission Trip from the Mission Trip Giving page?
Make sure that the End Date is in the past.

Q13: Does a person need to log in to register for a Mission Trip?
By default, the Missions Trip registration page does not require authentication (sign in) to sign up. However, it can be configured to require a login, if desired.  When someone signs up for the Missions Trip they will be added to the Event automatically as Registered Participants. They will also have a Pending Pledge created in the Pledge Campaign.

Q14: Is there a way a staff member can see the progress of mission trip participants if they themselves are not participating in the trip?
Yes, there are a couple ways this could be accomplished:

• Give the needed staff members rights to the Impersonate Portal User Tool. Then, they can impersonate the Trip Leader and see the overall progress and details for the trip.
• Set the needed staff members up as Trip Leaders by creating a Pledge, setting their Pledge to $0 and Complete, and marking them as the leader. Then, they can log into the Portal as themselves and see the overall progress and details for the trip.

Q15: Is there a way to give specific users access to mission trip balances in the Platform without giving them access to Stewardship?
Yes, there a couple ways this could be accomplished:

• Create a filtered page that only allows access to pledge campaigns or pledges of the mission trip type.
• Create a security role that grants rights to the mission trip reports on the Events page.

1. Go to the Mission Trip Pledge Campaign > Pledges sub-page > New > Add leader/staff member Pledge with their fundraising total adjusted as appropriate
2. Go to the Mission Trip Event > Participants sub-page > New > Add leader/staff member Event Part
3. Send the leader/staff members link to the stand alone version of the registration Form (if applicable)
4. Once the Form Response is received, Open > Edit > Add the Pledge > Add the Event > click Save