Progress bar, donor alerts, and a smoother editing experience

Feb 27, 2019 by

Diane Kern

What we're excited about: Progress Bar module for campaigns

Available for eCatholic Payments customers, the new Progress Bar module creates a clear animation that displays the amount of current funds raised toward an overall goal. (Think of it as a virtual "campaign thermometer.")

Once the monetary figures are entered into the module’s settings, the diagram translates fundraising progress automatically (and attractively). And an optional "Share on Facebook" button allows visitors to share and promote the campaign via social media. 

This new tool allows you to communicate your fundraising campaign progress on your website, encourage visitors to make a donation, and celebrate the faithful stewardship of your community together.

eCatholic Product Update: 3 things to know

These features are now available in the eCatholic CMS! Keep an eye out the next time you log into your website.

1

Get alerted when donors update a recurring gift

Moving forward, if an eCatholic Payments donor makes a change to their recurring gift, their contribution increase or decrease will no longer be overlooked. As a donor changes, or even cancels, a recurring gift, an email notification will be sent to the alert email address(es) attached to your donation form.

This means your team will instantly be made aware of the change so you can follow up as necessary. With this feature, you can take the guesswork out of determining the reason for fluctuations in your total collections. Now your staff is even more aware of giving activity in real-time.

2

Add daily Lent reflections to your website

Bishop Robert Barron's daily Lent Reflections module is now available for the Lenten season! The video below provides a step-by-step guide to adding the Lent Reflections module to your website. It's incredibly simple!.

The Lent Reflections module will update daily during the Lenten season with reflections from Bishop Robert Barron via his Word on Fire ministry. Go ahead and add the module to your website – it won't appear publicly on the page until Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent). 

3

Smoother transition from edit to preview...and back again!

Sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference! The eCatholic Design Studio serves as a one-stop shop for easily changing your site's homepage layout, theme, colors, and more. However, it also serves as a perfect “testing” environment where you can preview the appearance of your content on different devices/screen sizes (without having to log out of your admin account or publish your changes).

In the past, when you click "Edit Website" to switch back to Edit Mode, you've always  been taken back to the homepage. Not anymore!

With this update, whenever you exit the Design Studio and return to Edit Mode, you'll be brought back to the page you were previously editing. This may save just a few extra mouse clicks, but it stops you from having to re-navigate menu options and possibly breaking your creative drive at work! 

Developer's Roundup

Here are a few improvements we've made to existing eCatholic features and functionality.

1

Cleaning up multi-day events

We recently squashed a bug that affected multi-day events spanning two separate months. As you gear up for your Lent and spring activities, now is a great time to explore our Calendar and Events modules!

Use these modules to add events to your website: The Calendar module will display events in the traditional calendar format; the Events module displays events in a list format. Once you use the module, you can take advantage of the following features:

1. Site-wide aggregate calendar - All your site's events will automatically display in one spot (e.g., yoursite.com/calendar or yoursite.com/events).
2. Printable PDF calendar - Visitors can export your calendar as a printable PDF calendar or list of events.
3. Event tagging - Add an event to your site just once, then simply tag it to appear on multiple pages. 
4. Custom event URLs - Assign custom event aliases to make it easy to market upcoming events (e.g., myparish.com/events/potluck).
5. Recurring events - Easily create an event that repeats on a weekly or monthly basis. 

Learn more: See all of the calendar module's capabilities

2

Parish & School Finder optimized for mobile devices

The Parish & School Finder is one of the most comprehensive tools used by visitors of diocesan websites. Since the feature is especially helpful for those on-the-go, we made some updates to optimize the appearance of the Parish & School Finder on mobile devices. Finding nearby Mass times and parish/school locations is easier than ever!

The Parish & School Finder is a hassle-free tool that organizes important data for a diocese's parishes, schools, and ministries.

Locations, contact info, and other helpful details are beautifully displayed in an interactive database using Google Maps. When a visitor selects a parish, the tool instantly shares contact details, an address, and a link to directions. Even better, if a diocese has created a diocesan network of eCatholic websites, all the data in the Parish and School Finder is automatically updated whenever a school or parish updates its Mass times or other details. What was once a maintenance nightmare now takes care of itself!

Inside eCatholic

At eCatholic, we are authentically passionate about what we do. In a recent Team Summit meeting, our staff shared stories about why we work at eCatholic. These mini-witnesses were truly inspiring. Here you’ll find a team that is inspired to serve the Catholic Church. We're blessed to serve you, and we enjoy every minute of it!

Additionally, we learned that many members of our team have previously worked in ministry. We have been "in the trenches” of working at parishes, Catholic schools, dioceses, or even leading our own ministry organizations on the side. We pray together, support each other spiritually, and are always looking for new ways to use our talents to serve the Catholic Church.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to put our gifts to work!