Knowledge Base: Unified Child Sponsorship Automation (SiteStacker)

Overview

This project standardizes and simplifies Child Sponsorship automations, covering sponsor-child relationships, web publishing, and back-office management. By utilizing a modular approach within SiteStacker, we have consolidated content types and streamlined workflows to reduce technical debt and duplicate events.

Methodology

The core philosophy of this update is the Separation of Concerns. We have grouped all automations into three distinct categories to improve readability and simplify debugging:

1. Publishing: Manages the visibility and location of child profiles on the web.
2. Sponsoring: Handles the creation and termination of donor-child relationships.
3. Goal Status: Triggers status updates based on financial benchmarks or recurring gift changes.

[!TIP]Key Improvement: All content types are now consolidated into the Child type alone, significantly reducing "event noise" and outcome conflicts.

Technical Breakdown: New Child Sponsorship

Automations are powered by Spark and follow a standardized logic:

[Event Trigger] + "Condition" → Outcome.

1. Publishing Automations

Publishing logic is driven primarily by Person Type Assignment.

2. Sponsor Automations

These sparks manage the CRM relationships between Donors and Children.

• New Sponsorship (No Soft Credit):
• • Adds Sponsor of and Affiliated Sponsor of relationships.
  • Assigns Sponsor record type to Donor.
  • Notifies the "Child Sponsorship Notifications" channel.
• Canceled Sponsorship:
• • Converts active relationships to Previous Sponsor of.
  • Removes active Sponsor of links.
• Cart Behavior:
• • Add to Cart: Set to Unsearchable immediately to prevent double-sponsorship.
  • Remove from Cart: Revert to Searchable.

3. Goal Status & Financial Triggers

• Post-Secondary Full Sponsorship: If a recurring gift in the (PS) Available folder is > $200.00, the child is marked as Post-Secondary - Sponsored.
• Standard CDP Sponsorship: Any new recurring gift in the (CDP) Available folder triggers the CDP - Sponsoredstatus.
• Sponsorship Lapses: If a recurring gift is canceled, children are moved to the respective Hold folders (CDP or PS) to await reassessment.

Site Planner: Folder Structure & Defaults

To maintain data integrity, specific folders carry inherited defaults:

• 11 CDP (Root Folder): Defaults to Accounting Code SP; items are Unpublished/Unsearchable by default.
• CDP Sub-folder: Default Goal: $90. Fixed amounts: $40, $50.
• Post Secondary Sub-folder: Default Goal: $200. Fixed amounts: $50, $100, $150, $200.

Legacy Processes (Carried Forward)

The following essential automations remain active from the previous system:

• Delinquency: After 3 failed contributions, the Donor is tagged as Delinquent Sponsor and notified via email.
• Reminders: Automatic notifications sent 15 days before Yearly/Monthly renewals.
• Birthdays: Notification sent to Donor 60 days prior to the child's birthday.
• Correspondence: Creation of a "New Child Letter" task when a Sponsor of relationship is linked.

Troubleshooting & UI Tips

Resolving Discrepancies

Publishing issues are usually the result of Record Type mismatches.

• Verify Record Types: All publishing is controlled by Record Type assignment. Check the CRM to see which type is currently active on the Child's record.
• Scope Check: Remember that Goal Status sparks only listen to their specific assigned folders and sub-folders.

UI Power User Tips

• Content Mapping: In the CRM Record Details tab, click the Clipboard Icon (top right) to see exactly where a child's content is published.
• Precise ID Matching: In the Site Planner Content Explorer, click the column headers to enable the ID Column. This is essential for verifying that External IDs match between the CRM and the web content item.

Need further assistance? Contact the SiteStacker Admin team or review the Spark Audit & Detailed Technical Specifications document.

Updated on: 01/05/2026