Want to learn more about the closure of GoFundMe Charity and what it means for your organization? Join our free webinar on March 4 where we’ll discuss how to manage the transition and what to look for when selecting the right crowdfunding technology for your nonprofit or charity.
If your organization is using GoFundMe Charity to crowdfund, you were likely quite concerned about the recent announcement that the program would be shutting down this year with all nonprofit fundraising being rolled into the regular GoFundMe platform, which is designed for personal crowdfunding campaigns.
Whether you are currently using GoFundMe Charity or you are completely new to crowdfunding and have yet to set up your first campaign, we know that choosing a platform with tools specifically designed for nonprofits is of utmost importance. In this article we round up the top 5 things you should be looking for in a crowdfunding platform in order to select the right crowdfunding technology that fits the 2021 fundraising landscape.
1. The financial stuff: Tax receipting and payment processing
Using a crowdfunding platform that easily automates your administrative work is key to ensuring you can spend your time on crafting a compelling campaign and reaching your donors. One key tool you should always look for is the ability to automatically generate tax receipts. When you enable this feature on CharityVillage Crowdfunding, you can choose the platform to automatically generate a tax receipt using the details you already entered into the organizational fields. You can also upload a custom template, with options to help categorize tax receipts in the most appropriate way. The platform will automatically generate the tax receipt and send to your donors within 15-30 minutes of when the payment was processed by PayPal or Stripe.
And that brings us to another key feature you shouldn’t overlook: payment processing. Our crowdfunding platform has one set solution for all payments, meaning the donation processing flow is always the same, no matter how you’ve laid out your campaign. Whether donations are occurring from a Donate Now button, form, or peer-to-peer events, the actual method of payment stays the same so that it can stick in the mind and become trusted by your recurring donors. Familiarity with the donation process and interface helps your donor feel comfortable giving more often.
It’s important to note that all payments are processed by PayPal or Stripe and the money moves directly from the donor to your payment processing account. Depending on how you set up your payment processing account, your collected payments are deposited to your bank on a regular daily, weekly, or monthly schedule.
2. Donor reports and real-time campaign analytics
Remember, crowdfunding isn’t just about getting a one-time donation. Like all fundraising, donor retention is important as well. Once those donations come rolling in, you’ll want to be able to access your donor data and maybe even integrate it with your current donor management software. While not all crowdfunding platforms offer this ability, through CharityVillage Crowdfunding, you can pull donor reports to put the data to use in a variety of ways: generating tax receipts (if you aren’t using the platform to automatically generate them), reporting, or communication. You can select what type of information you want to collect with our easily customizable donor forms and download reports into files that can be imported into donor management software such as Raiser’s Edge, CRM software like Salesforce, or communications platforms such as Mail Chimp.
Remember, success isn’t linear so you’ll also want to have access to analytics about your campaign, to see what is working well and what isn’t. With our crowdfunding platform, you have access to an advanced analytics dashboard so you can monitor all of your campaigns’ traffic, contributions, payments, and more. Sometimes we need to make pivots and changes in our approach, so having access to this kind of real-time information is vital for keeping your campaign on track for success.
3. Powerful storytelling and social sharing that require no special tech skills
Setting up a crowdfunding campaign might feel intimidating if you’ve never done it before, but our users tell us that CharityVillage Crowdfunding is one of the most easy-to-use fundraising platforms they’ve discovered. You can get a campaign started within 20 minutes and you can use our pre-built themes and widgets to quicky create a visually appealing campaign. Adding graphics, video, and other elements to your campaign is an easy way to customize it for your audience and tell your story in a way that will help it stand out.
Once set up, you’ll need to get the word out about your fundraising campaign. If you want donors to stay directly on your website, you can use our embedding feature to have the campaign open in a lightbox on top of your website. When the user has completed their donation they’ll be right back where they started on your website. Leveraging your existing donor base is also important for a successful campaign, so you’ll want a platform that allows you to import your donor lists. Our crowdfunding platform allows you to do this and more – you can email your entire list about the campaign or you can upload specific groups to hit them with different messages.
One of the most common features of crowdfunding platforms is the ability to share campaigns on social media. With our platform, easy sharing is the norm, making it simple for you and your contributors to share across a wide array of social media channels, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. However, we also have tools for more private and targeted sharing via Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and text message.
4. Scalability to support busy nonprofit and charitable teams.
Whether you work as a one-person fundraising department, manage a team of volunteer fundraisers, or work in an organization with multiple fundraisers or even multiple branches and offices, scalability is incredibly important when looking at crowdfunding technologies.
Are you planning to run multiple campaigns throughout the year? To save yourself some time, with our platform you can create a template campaign, already partially filled with information inherited by each and every campaign you create with it. This way of working is especially convenient for those who run a series of sports events, fundraise for animal shelters, or host multiple programs and performances throughout the year.
You may also want to duplicate existing campaigns, so look for this time-saving option. With CharityVillage Crowdfunding you can transfer the media gallery items that were already added to your previous campaign as well as your existing registration settings. Tools like these prevent you from spending valuable time duplicating your work over and over.
Another important tool for scalability is being able to assign different user roles so you can work cooperatively with your team. On our platform, we have four team roles to help you invite the right candidates to manage specific sections of your campaign:
- Member – shares and promotes the content of the page
- Promoter – shares and promotes updates on your behalf
- Manager – helps you edit and runs, manages and deals with transactions
- Owner – the person in charge who can do everything above but also withdraw funds
Remember, you can go fast alone but you can’t achieve success in a timely manner on your own and without burning out!
5. Hands-on, personal support and crowdfunding coaching sessions
We’ve saved perhaps the most powerful tool for last! To get the most out of your crowdfunding campaign, especially if it is new to you or your team, you will benefit from connecting with experts who can answer your questions and help you pinpoint how you might best tell your nonprofit’s unique story. While this is unusual in the crowdfunding marketplace, at CharityVillage we want to help set you up for success with your campaign. We offer free, 15-minute coaching sessions to help you finalize your campaign, offer feedback, and brainstorm marketing strategies. We ask that you get your campaign started (it doesn’t have to be live) and then fill out this form to book a 15-minute coaching session to review your campaign and answer any questions.
These are some of the most important tools you’ll need to look for when choosing your next crowdfunding technology. Remember, not all crowdfunding platforms are created with the unique needs of nonprofits and charities in mind.
Get started with CharityVillage Crowdfunding today – click here to start fundraising for free.
