An Objective that can be added as a top level objective in another plan is an Existing (or Linked) Objective. They are shared across plans and contribute to the plan's success.
An Objective that can be added below another objective in another plan or focus area so as to impact the success of a plan is a Contributing Objective.
How to add an Existing objective?
- In the Planner page: click the + icon under the Focus Area, and click Existing objective.
- Type in the name of the objective and select it from the dropdown.
Note that, when an objective is linked, the associated success criteria are also shared and available in the plans that they're part of. Existing Objectives can only be added as top level goals
How to add a Contributing objective?
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In the Planner page: click the + icon under the top level goal and click on "Contribution".
Type in the name of the objective and select it from the dropdown.
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Relationships tab of the Objective's sidebar: click + Add relationship, and select Contributor relationship with the relevant objective.
- From the Sidebar of the Objective, in the Contributes to section, click +Add
Search for the objective in which you wish to add the contribution and click Save.
Once contributing objectives are added, their progress will impact the progress and health of the parent objective and they will be displayed in the Planner, the "Contributes to" section of the sidebar and in the "Relationships" tab.
Visual representation of the added contributing objective:
In the Planner, you'll see a link icon next to the objective icon to depict that its a contributing objective. Also, the plan to which the objective contributes to is displayed beneath the objective title. When you click the plan name, it'll take you to the relevant plan's Planner page.
In the Sidebar, the contribution will show at the bottom in the "Contributes To" section:
In the Relationships tab, this objective will also be displayed as a "contributor". 
In the Alignment page, you'll see the contributing objectives displayed as child nodes to the parent objective.
See Add Objectives to the Focus Areas to know more on managing objectives.
How does progress and health transfer to the parent objective?
When you add a nested objective, there's the usual flow of progress and health to the parent objective, i.e., average of all the success criteria - actions, measures, projects, nested and contributing objectives.
You can customize the progress calculation with the custom weighting option in the Success criteria tab of the parent objective's sidebar.
See Add Weights to define the Progress of your Objectives for more information.
How to delete a contributing objective:
You can unlink this contributing objective from the parent objective at any point of time. To do so,
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From the Planner page, click the three dots against the contributing objective, and click Remove.
- From the "Contributes To" section of the Sidebar, click on the three dots against the relevant objective, click Remove.
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From the Objective Sidebar, in the Relationships tab, click the three dots against the relevant objective, and click Delete.
FAQs
How do contributions work with privacy?
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If you wish to add a contributing objective that resides in a plan that's set to private, i.e., no access, then you'll not see it in the objective list.
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If you've added a contributing objective from a plan that's set to private later, then it'll no longer be available in the Planner or Sidebar. However, it'll be listed as Private objective in the Alignment page view.
Who can add these contributing or contributor objectives?
Admins and anyone with edit permissions can add these contributions for objectives.