Can someone point me in the right direction on a fundraising store?

[BWhite]

Hi All,

 

First of all, let me say that I’m definitely NOT a PHP expert. I’m more of a designer than a developer, and probably bit off more than I could chew with this project…

 

Ok, here’s my problem – I’m making a store for a fundraising company. Basically, my client sends products to fundraisers and everything (that’s the easy part), then supporters of the fundraisers are supposed to be able to go to my client’s store and order more product, with a percentage of the proceeds going to the fundraiser of their choice.

 

Well, here’s my problem – how would I identify who they are wanting to support when they are buying the products? I initially thought that I could just make a “category” for each fundraiser, then copy-and-paste the products into each category, giving them different SKUs. The main problem with that is that I (or my client) would have to manually do that for each fundraiser, and since we are expected to get at least 20 different fundraisers at launch, this system would be extremely painful and bloated…

 

So, my client wants a sort of list of the different fundraisers. They are willing to do it one of two ways-

1. A list on the home page of the store. When you click a link on the list, the store will then “know” that you are supporting that fundraiser, and that will somehow be listed on the invoice that we receive so that we know where to send the funds.

or

2. Somewhere in the checkout phase there is a list to select your fundraiser – whether it be a drop-down, actual list, or even a regional map (though I think that would be pretty difficult to do).

 

The only problem is, I have no idea how to do either of those things.

 

Now, just in case those two above are extremely difficult to do (at least for me to do them), the other (and less-preferred) idea was that there is simply a box somewhere in the checkout where you can actually type in the fundraiser’s name (or maybe a code, though a name is easier for the supporters to remember I think), and this will then show up on the invoice so we know who to give the funds to. I was thinking that this could be based off of the coupon code system, but, again, I’m not quite sure how to do it…

 

Any help is much appreciated! Thank you!

[burt]

This could definitely be based off a coupon code module. I did something similar for a shop who wanted to give away a choice of free product with each order.

 

I recoded a portion of the coupon system to allow zero discount (so no money off). Then the buyer gets to the shopping cart page and is able to type in an input box the name (coupon code) of the free product that he wants. This is then carried through the order and is detailed on the invoice, order history etc. Works well.

 

It would not be much harder to make the "coupon codes" into a selectable list.

[chooch]

Benjamin, this is not that much of a problem. You are already on the right track as you have indicated you need to link the fundraisers to the donors.

 

As you do not know how to add contributions and merge files I would suggest you create categories for each fundraiser. When that category is clicked it has items or sub-categories, each can begin with the fundraiser name or initial so you can link it together with who to pay donations to.

 

There are contributions out there that get very close to do what you want it to do but I would advise you to make full use of something you know you can do yourself (create categories) rather than make partial use of something you can only use with asking for help (add contributions).