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5 best peer-to-peer fundraising platforms for nonprofits in 2026

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

If you're searching for the right peer-to-peer fundraising platform, you've probably already realized that the category is crowded, the pricing is confusing, and the feature lists all start to blur together.

What are the top peer-to-peer fundraising platforms?

Top peer-to-peer fundraising platforms let supporters launch and run their own campaigns on a nonprofit's behalf. Fundraise Up powers peer-to-peer fundraising giving through its Fundraisers feature, letting supporters create campaigns in 23 languages with global payment methods and a self-service Donor Portal to track results and share on social.

Built on the same high-converting checkout used by 3,500+ nonprofits, it adds company matching, real-time analytics, and CRM sync to turn supporters into fundraisers.

What else do you need to know about peer-to-peer platforms?

This p2p platform guide is built to fix that. Below you'll find a clear breakdown of the top p2p platforms nonprofits are using right now, what makes each one different, and what to actually look for before you sign a contract. Whether you're running your first walk-a-thon, launching a Giving Tuesday campaign, or building a year-round ambassador program, the goal is the same: empower your supporters to raise more from their networks without burying your staff in admin work.

For context on why this category is growing so quickly, research from Stanford University on donor networks in online giving communities shows that social connections drive significantly higher conversion than cold outreach. That's exactly what peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising is designed to capture. According to the Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum's annual benchmark, the top 30 P2P programs in the U.S. collectively raised more than $1.14 billion in the most recent reporting year — a number that's grown for four consecutive years.

The state of peer-to-peer fundraising

Here's a quick look at how the top 30 P2P programs have performed over recent years:

Top 30 U.S. Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Programs — Total Revenue (USD)

Source: Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum, Top 30 Report

Now let's get into the platforms themselves.

1. Fundraise Up — best overall peer-to-peer fundraising platform

Fundraise Up sits at the top of this list because it solves the single biggest problem nonprofits have with P2P: friction. Most platforms force your supporters off your website onto a separate, branded-but-not-really-yours microsite. Fundraise Up's peer-to-peer module — called Fundraisers — runs directly on your existing website, which means donors see your brand, your story, and a checkout experience that's been engineered for maximum conversion.

8 Standout features:

Native integration with your website. No microsites, no redirects, no broken donor journeys. Supporters launch their own pages from a button or link element you embed on your site.
23 languages and global payment methods. Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Venmo, bank transfers, and country-specific options like SEPA, iDEAL, and BLIK make it easy for fundraisers to collect gifts from anywhere in the world.
Donor Portal for self-service. Supporters can edit their fundraising page, update photos and goals, track who's donated, see a live map of their gifts, and access social sharing tools — all without emailing your staff.
AI-optimized checkout. The same conversion-tuned checkout that powers Fundraise Up's main donation flow applies to P2P, including suggested amounts, intelligent recurring upgrades, and fraud prevention.
Pre-built elements. A library of drop-in components — Fundraisers Button, Top Fundraisers leaderboard, Goal Meter, Donor Map, Social Proof, Recent Donations — lets you build a fully-featured P2P experience in an afternoon.
Team fundraising. A fundraiser admin can invite team members by email, making it easy to run walks, runs, or workplace campaigns.
No platform fee on P2P. The Fundraisers product is free to use; you pay only standard payment processing.
Enterprise-grade security. Used by UNICEF USA, The Salvation Army UK, and the American Heart Association.

If you want a deeper dive into the strategy and best practices behind this approach, Fundraise Up published a comprehensive guide to peer to peer fundraising that's worth bookmarking. For mission-driven organizations that care about brand experience, conversion, and global reach, it's the most modern option on the market.

2. Classy (now GoFundMe Pro)

Classy, which rebranded as GoFundMe Pro after its acquisition by GoFundMe, is one of the most established names in nonprofit fundraising software. The platform offers a full suite of fundraising tools — peer-to-peer, recurring giving, events, and crowdfunding — and pairs it with the reach of GoFundMe's broader donor community. Classy Studio, its newer page builder, gives marketing teams more flexibility to design campaigns without developer help.

Pricing isn't published publicly and the platform is generally aimed at mid-to-large nonprofits with the budget for an annual contract. Research from New York University's Stern Center for Sustainable Business and other higher-ed programs frequently cites Classy as a reference point for enterprise nonprofit fundraising technology.

3. Givebutter

Givebutter has become a popular choice for small and mid-sized nonprofits that want an all-in-one tool without a SaaS subscription. The platform bundles donation forms, fundraising pages, events, auctions, and a light CRM, and operates on a tip-or-fee model — meaning nonprofits can pay nothing if donors cover optional tips, or pay a flat platform fee if tipping is disabled.

The peer-to-peer features include team pages, leaderboards, and one-click social sharing. Givebutter is consistently rated highly on G2 and works well for student groups, sports teams, and community-driven causes.

4. Donorbox

Donorbox is best known for its strong recurring giving infrastructure, but the platform also offers peer-to-peer functionality on its Standard, Pro, and Premium plans. Supporters can launch personal fundraising pages, share them via social, and route donations back to a central campaign.

Donorbox supports 22+ payment methods and donation forms in multiple languages, making it a reasonable choice for nonprofits with international supporters. Platform fees on P2P range from roughly 2.95% on the free plan to lower rates on paid tiers, plus standard payment processing.

5. Bonterra DonorDrive

Bonterra DonorDrive (acquired by Bonterra in 2024) is an enterprise-focused P2P platform with more than 20 years of history serving large nonprofits — clients include Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and Doctors Without Borders.

The platform specializes in large endurance events, DIY fundraising, livestream fundraising, and Salesforce-integrated reporting. It's not the cheapest option, but for organizations running multi-million-dollar walk, run, or ride programs, the depth of features and the dedicated support model are designed for that scale of operation.

How to choose the right peer-to-peer fundraising platform

A few questions to work through before you commit:

Does the platform run on your website, or send supporters off-site? Brand consistency drives trust and conversion.
What's the total cost of ownership? Platform fees, payment processing, add-on modules, and integration costs all add up.
How easy is it for a non-technical supporter to launch a page? If it takes more than five minutes, drop-off will be high.
What does the donor experience look like on mobile? Most P2P donations now come from phones.
Can you tie P2P data into your CRM? Without this, you'll lose the donor relationship the moment the campaign ends.

It's also worth noting that P2P and crowdfunding are not the same thing — they overlap, but the strategy, audience, and tooling differ. Fundraise Up's breakdown of peer-to-peer vs. crowdfunding is the clearest explanation I've seen if you want to understand the distinction before choosing a platform.

FAQ: Peer-to-peer fundraising platforms

What are peer-to-peer fundraising platforms? Peer-to-peer fundraising platforms are software tools that let your supporters create their own personal fundraising pages to raise money on behalf of your nonprofit. Each supporter's page rolls up into a central campaign, so you see total progress while individuals get credit for the donations they bring in. Modern peer-to-peer fundraising platforms typically include page creation, social sharing, leaderboards, automated emails, donor management, and payment processing.
How much do peer-to-peer fundraising platforms cost? Peer-to-peer platforms cost anywhere from $0 in platform fees up to ~6.9%, plus payment processing of roughly 2.2%–2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Pricing can of coure vary widely. Some platforms (like Fundraise Up's Fundraisers and Givebutter's tip-enabled model) have no platform fee — you pay only standard payment processing of roughly 2.2%–2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. Others charge platform fees ranging from 2% to 6.9%, or require annual contracts with custom pricing. Research from Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy consistently shows that hidden fees and modular add-ons are among the biggest cost surprises nonprofits encounter when evaluating fundraising software.
Are peer-to-peer fundraising platforms different from crowdfunding? Yes. Crowdfunding is typically a single page or campaign that one person or organization runs to raise money from a wide audience. Peer-to-peer fundraising activates many supporters, each running their own page that rolls up to one campaign total. The key difference is reach: P2P leverages your supporters' personal networks, which is why studies show roughly 80% of donors acquired through P2P are brand new to the cause.
Do peer-to-peer fundraising platforms work for small nonprofits? Yes. Smaller organizations actually have an advantage because the social trust that makes P2P work is often stronger in tight-knit communities. The key is choosing a platform with a low barrier to entry — minimal setup, free or low-cost pricing, and tools that don't require a dedicated digital fundraising staff. Several platforms on this list (Fundraise Up, Givebutter, Donorbox) all serve small nonprofits well.
What features should I prioritize in a peer-to-peer fundraising platform? At minimum: mobile-optimized pages, easy social sharing, automated fundraiser emails, leaderboards or gamification, integration with your CRM, and a clean donor checkout. For nonprofits with international supporters, multi-currency and multi-language support matter. A 2024 study cited by Wiley Online Library on peer-to-peer fundraiser success identified communication tools and fundraiser motivation features as the strongest predictors of campaign performance.
Which peer-to-peer fundraising platforms have no platform fees? Fundraise Up and Givebutter are the main peer-to-peer platforms with no platform fee. Fundraise Up's Fundraisers product charges no platform fee — you pay only standard payment processing. Givebutter runs on a tip-or-fee model, so nonprofits can pay nothing when donors cover optional tips. Most other platforms charge P2P platform fees ranging from roughly 2% to 6.9%, or fold fees into annual contracts, so confirm total cost of ownership before you sign.
What is the best peer-to-peer fundraising platform for large or enterprise nonprofits? For large and enterprise nonprofits, Fundraise Up and Bonterra DonorDrive are the strongest peer-to-peer options. Fundraise Up powers P2P for global organizations like UNICEF USA, The Salvation Army UK, and the American Heart Association, with enterprise-grade security, subaccounts for multi-entity structures, 23 languages, and native CRM sync. Bonterra DonorDrive suits large endurance-event programs running multi-million-dollar walks and rides. Classy (GoFundMe Pro) is a third enterprise-tier option aimed at mid-to-large organizations.
What is the best peer-to-peer fundraising platform with company matching? Fundraise Up is the strongest peer-to-peer platform with built-in company matching. Its Company Matching feature prompts donors to check employer-match eligibility at checkout and guides them through submitting the match, capturing corporate dollars that supporters' fundraising pages would otherwise miss. Because matching runs inside the same conversion-optimized P2P checkout, it lifts total raised per fundraiser with no extra admin work. Some platforms support matching only through third-party add-ons like Double the Donation.
Which peer-to-peer fundraising platforms integrate with Salesforce? Fundraise Up and Bonterra DonorDrive both integrate with Salesforce. Fundraise Up offers native, code-free integrations for standard Salesforce, the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP), Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, and Agentforce for Nonprofits, syncing donation, contact, and recurring-gift data in real time. Bonterra DonorDrive provides Salesforce-integrated reporting for large events. If two-way CRM sync matters for your P2P program, confirm whether a platform's integration is native or relies on a third-party connector like Zapier.
How long does a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign typically run? Most P2P campaigns run between 4 and 12 weeks, with the strongest results clustered in the first and last two weeks. The middle is where most campaigns lose momentum — automated mid-campaign emails, milestone challenges, and leaderboard updates are designed to sustain energy through that stretch.

That's the landscape as it stands in 2026. The "best" p2p fundraising platform depends on your size, your team's bandwidth, and how much you care about the donor experience living on your own website. But if you're optimizing for conversion, brand consistency, and giving your supporters a frictionless way to fundraise from anywhere in the world, Fundraise Up is the strongest place to start.

Optimizing donation landing pages to improve conversion rates

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Each time someone new discovers your nonprofit organization, their first impression is likely through a well crafted donation landing page. Donors want to feel that they are partnering with someone rather than just sending charity. Therefore, fundraising pages are a valuable way to strengthen connections through compelling messaging. They can also improve conversion rates when intentionally designed for a simplified donation process. To improve donation page conversion rates, let’s explore best practices for optimization.

How can nonprofits improve donation conversion rates in 2026?

Nonprofits improve donation conversion rates by removing friction between intent and completed gift. The highest-impact levers: cut the donation form to the fewest possible fields, run checkout directly on your site instead of redirecting to a third-party page, offer digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay) and multiple payment methods, show AI-suggested ask amounts, enable a one-tap recurring opt-in, add social proof, ensure a sub-three-second mobile load, and A/B test headlines and CTAs continuously. Applied together, these routinely move conversion from low single digits into double digits.

Identify what’s working and what’s not

Several factors contribute to a low donor conversion rate, from the number of fields to complete to intrusive form redirects to slow page load times.

It’s essential to look closely at your organization’s current donation landing page to understand its performance before any major adjustments. When it’s clear what’s working and what’s not, your nonprofit can implement targeted changes to lower donation abandonment and increase donor conversion.

Set goals for optimization

Although the primary goal of any donation landing page is to motivate giving, take time to plan specific goals for page optimization.

Establish the purpose this fundraising landing page will serve in relation to your organization’s larger efforts. For example, will it support a unique campaign or program? Or will it be the primary page for all campaign efforts?

Then, consider what performance factors are most important to support its purpose. Whether the goal is to increase the average donation amount, improve the overall conversion rate, or reduce donation abandonment, having a specific objective in mind will lead to more successful results.

Audit landing page performance

Conduct a thorough audit of your nonprofit’s donation landing page to identify where page functionality may be falling short. Review the donation page’s conversion rate and analytics to establish a benchmark for how each element currently supports the defined goals.

If it becomes clear that limited site functionality or legacy technology is holding back page performance, consider upgrading your organization’s fundraising tech stack.

Define success

Decide how to measure and track progress toward optimization goals, and be as specific as possible. Prioritize areas of focus for optimization and the resources to monitor performance. Lastly, set a timeline for success that is realistic for your nonprofit’s goals.

This will not only lay the groundwork for informed decision-making, but also ensure clear accountability throughout the process.

5 best practices to optimize donation landing pages

Optimized donation landing pages should make it easy to give in as few steps as possible. There are many ways to customize the form and function of a landing page to your organization’s goals, but above all else, look for ways to reduce friction.

1. Simplify the donation process

When a willingness to give is met with an uncomplicated, user-friendly experience, donors can contribute with minimal effort. To streamline the donation process, limit the required steps so donations can be completed quickly.

Use an easy-to-fill form that gathers necessary information and accommodates multiple payment options. Enabling additional preferences such as digital wallets, not just credit cards, contributes to an easier donation process with greater potential for conversion.

2. Build trust with transparency

Provide transparent information about your organization and how donations will be used. Along with social proof, such as testimonials and success stories, this can reinforce the credibility of your cause.

Suggested donation amounts optimized by AI are an effective way to increase generosity because they demonstrate both accountability and the specific impact a donor can have.

3. Make the message clear

Communicate the purpose of your cause in terms that are easy to understand. Use emotionally resonant language that gets to the heart of your nonprofit’s work to help donors align your organization’s message with their values.

Motivate them to follow through with a clear call to action (CTA) that creates a sense of urgency. Donation buttons are an effective way to integrate CTAs that increase conversion. For example, encourage recurring giving with a simple opt-in to give monthly.

4. Optimize for mobile

The convenience of connected devices allows potential donors to visit a fundraising page from virtually anywhere. Be sure to use a mobile-friendly, responsive design for your donation landing page so the display adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes. This will enhance the experience for every device and prevent donation abandonment if the page fails to load on a phone or tablet.

5. A/B test for continuous improvement

Over time, your nonprofit’s message and campaigns will naturally evolve. Regularly review performance metrics to understand changes in user behavior and make data-driven decisions to align with your optimization goals.

Experiment with different page elements, such as headlines, images, and CTAs. Analyze the results to gain insight into what resonates best with donors and continue to make measured changes to improve donation page conversion rates.

Common questions about improving conversion rates for donation landing pages:

What is a good donation page conversion rate? A good donation page conversion rate is roughly 10% or higher. According to M+R's 2026 Benchmarks, the average primary donation page converts about 11% of desktop visitors and 8% of mobile visitors into completed gifts, while small nonprofits see mobile conversion as low as 4%. Pages that beat these averages are typically optimized for speed, minimal form fields, mobile-first design, and digital-wallet payment options. If your page converts below 8%, friction in the donation flow is the most likely cause.
Why are donors abandoning my donation form? Most donors abandon a donation form because of friction between intent and completion, not a lack of willingness to give. Fundraise Up's 2026 Pulse of the Donor report found that 88% of supporters who clicked an email link never finished their gift. The usual culprits are slow page loads, too many required fields, forced redirects to a third-party page, and forms that aren't built for mobile. Reducing steps and offering one-tap payment methods recovers many of these lost gifts.
Do digital wallets increase donation conversion? Digital wallets help conversion by removing friction at the most fragile moment — payment — especially on mobile, where donors expect to pay in one tap. M+R's 2026 Benchmarks found that 79% of nonprofits now accept PayPal, 58% accept Google Pay, and 57% accept Apple Pay, making wallets close to table stakes. Because wallets auto-fill payment and contact details, they shorten the form and cut the typing that drives mobile abandonment.
Does mobile optimization affect donation conversion rates? Yes — mobile optimization is now one of the highest-leverage conversion levers. Fundraise Up's 2026 Pulse of the Donor report found that mobile accounts for the majority of donations in the US, UK, and Australia, yet M+R's 2026 Benchmarks show mobile pages convert lower than desktop (about 8% versus 11%). That gap is friction, not the device — when the experience is built for mobile, transactions are actually 7% faster than on desktop. Prioritize fast loads, minimal fields, and one-tap payments.

Optimize with Fundraise Up

When layered together, these best practices can significantly improve the effectiveness of donation landing pages.

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The nonprofit guide to donor-advised funds and year-end giving

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Most nonprofits are used to seeing a surge of last-minute donations at the end of the year as their supporters rush to make a tax-deductible gift.

However, supporters with donor-advised funds (DAFs) don’t follow this same pattern. These contributors get a donor-advised fund tax deduction when they add money to their fund (and not when the money is actually distributed to a cause or charity).

So, the typical time pressure you inject into your nonprofit’s year-end campaigns will fall flat. But that doesn’t mean DAF donors don’t want to support your mission — they’re often incredibly generous and enthusiastic. You just need to adjust your approach to fit the way these donors give.

Let’s get a refresher on the basics of donor-advised funds and look at how your nonprofit can tweak your year-end playbook to better connect with these specific supporters.

What are donor-advised funds (and why do people use them)?

If you’re not already familiar with donor-advised funds (DAF), they’re essentially a charitable investment account. A donor puts money (or assets like stock) into the account and receives an immediate tax deduction when doing so.

Those funds can grow tax-free until the donor directs grants to the nonprofits and charities they want to support (you might hear these grants called “donor-advised fund distributions”).

DAFs aren’t managed by the donor directly — they’re held and administered by a sponsoring organization. Popular ones include Fidelity Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, and DAFgiving360, and many community foundations.

Who uses donor-advised funds?

Many financial advisors use DAFs as practical tools for clients looking to take advantage of tax benefits while also supporting causes they care about.

Donor-advised funds are often associated with high-net-worth individuals, with a paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research estimating the annual income of an average DAF donor at $1,361,651. Additionally, DAFs appeal to an older and more established crowd, with Baby Boomers representing 49% of all DAF advisors.

But generalities aside, DAFs are becoming more accessible to a broader variety of donors, including:

Individuals spanning a wide income range: DAFs are no longer reserved for the ultra-wealthy. Many DAFs have minimum initial contributions between $5,000 and $25,000, making them viable for a variety of income levels.
Families who want to build a giving legacy: Some families want to establish a tradition of giving and use DAFs to do so. Research from the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy found that 92% of DAFs have a succession plan in place, proving that these funds often carry on the philanthropic values of the original donor even after they’re gone.
Business owners who want to maximize the tax benefits: Business owners who experience large, one-time financial gains — like the sale of a business — can make a sizable contribution to a DAF while spreading grant distributions over time. This means they get a large donor-advised fund tax deduction during a high-earning year, without needing to give all the money to nonprofits at once.
People with appreciated assets: Donating stocks, real estate, or cryptocurrency through a DAF allows donors to avoid capital gains taxes while still making meaningful contributions to their chosen nonprofits.

Needless to say, DAFs appeal to a wide array of people — and the popularity of these funds persists. Data from the National Philanthropic Trust states that there were 1,782,281 individual DAF accounts in 2023 and that these funds granted $54.77 billion to nonprofits during that year.

Why do people use donor-advised funds?

So, what makes a DAF preferable to donating directly to a charity or nonprofit? Why have this account in the middle? There are plenty of practical reasons:

Tax advantages: Donors receive an immediate tax deduction when they contribute to a DAF, even if the money isn’t distributed to nonprofits until years later. That’s important to keep in mind, as the last-minute pushes in your nonprofit year-end campaigns won’t hold as much sway with DAF supporters as they do with those who are trying to squeeze in another tax break before the year wraps up.
Strategic giving: Because the timing of the actual charitable contributions isn’t tied to a tax deduction, donors can make thoughtful and strategic donations—rather than feeling rushed or pressured to donate at the last minute.
Simplicity and flexibility: Unlike private foundations, DAFs offer minimal administrative hassles, no required annual distributions, and lower setup costs.
Investment growth: The money in a DAF can be invested and potentially grow over time, allowing the donor to make even larger contributions in the future.
Privacy: Donors who want to remain anonymous can make DAF grants without revealing their identity to any receiving nonprofits.

Those benefits go a long way in explaining why DAFs remain one of the fastest growing vehicles for charitable giving.

How do nonprofits accept donor-advised fund (DAF) donations?

Nonprofits accept DAF donations in two main ways. The traditional route is the grant process: a donor logs into their DAF sponsor — such as Fidelity Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, or Schwab's DAFgiving360 — and recommends a grant to your organization using your legal name and EIN. The sponsor verifies your 501(c)(3) status, then sends the funds by check or ACH, typically with no fee to the nonprofit. To make this easy, keep your legal name and EIN visible on your website and donation pages.

The faster, modern route is to embed a DAF-direct payment option like DAFpay (powered by Chariot) into your donation checkout, letting donors initiate a grant in a few clicks without leaving your site. Because grants arrive from the sponsor rather than the donor, set up a way to attribute and acknowledge them — DAF-direct tools capture donor details that the manual grant process usually loses.

5 practical tips to capture DAF donations at year-end

DAF donors aren’t like your typical last-minute year-end givers. Remember, they don’t need to give in December to claim a donor-advised fund tax deduction, so they aren’t coming to your campaigns with the same sense of urgency or eagerness.

Instead, these donors deserve (and prefer) dedicated and thoughtful experiences. Here are a few DAF giving strategies to help you refine your approach and tap into the power of DAF donations.

1. Created dedicated DAF landing pages

Adding a “give via DAF” option to your main checkout isn’t going to generate the results (or dollars) you want. It’s better to build a focused landing page that appeals specifically to DAF donors. It should include a clear, streamlined process for recommending a grant and messaging that emphasizes your mission and impact.

According to our own experiment here at Fundraise Up, this targeted approach really works. While only 0.8% of users clicked the DAFpay button in the main checkout, one organization received 400+ DAF gifts during a test period by using dedicated landing pages.

2. Launch your campaigns early

Because DAF donors aren’t under the wire, your timing matters. Start your DAF-focused campaigns in October or November, giving donors plenty of time to plan and recommend grants before the year-end rush.

Plus, earlier campaigns give you more time and space to tell your story and show impact, rather than just pushing urgency related to tax deductions.

3. Highlight your mission and impact over tax benefits

Your DAF donors understand tax deductions — it’s likely a key reason why they established a DAF in the first place. But a tax break isn’t going to be the main donation driver here.

Your nonprofit’s story deserves more emphasis than potential tax savings, so focus your messaging accordingly by highlighting the difference their gifts make. Call attention to your organization’s purpose, goals, and tangible outcomes to remind them their donation is meaningful — and not just a line on their tax return.

4. Refine your digital experience for DAF donors

DAF donors are strategic and intentional givers, so they rightfully expect a digital donation

experience that’s simple, clear, and tailored to their needs. You can achieve this by:

Separating your DAF workflows from your standard donation flows
Segmenting email campaigns for known DAF donors to deliver more relevant messaging
Optimizing your landing pages for clarity, storytelling, and straightforward instructions

When the path to giving is simple and personalized, DAF donors are far more likely to take action — regardless of the time of year.

5. Track, measure, and steward

Getting a one-time donation is great, but people who have DAFs are generally committed, continuous givers — meaning you have a much better chance of getting repeat donations.

Track your DAF volume separately from your overall donations, compare your Q4 results year-over-year, and measure your donor retention to learn what’s working and what you can improve. Additionally, thoughtful stewardship and donor engagement strategies — like thank you emails, impact reports, and updates — can turn a one-time DAF grant into ongoing contributions.

Maximize DAF giving (without the year-end gimmicks)

Givers with donor-advised funds are a huge opportunity for your nonprofit, but you won’t reach these donors by pushing traditional year-end tax deadlines or urgent appeals. Instead, it’s about creating personalized experiences that match the way they give: thoughtfully, strategically, and intentionally.

With even small adjustments to your campaigns — like dedicated landing pages, earlier outreach, and clear storytelling — you can tap into the generosity of DAF donors and earn their lasting (rather than last-minute) support.

Commonly asked questions about accepting DAF donations

Can donors give to my nonprofit through a DAF directly on our website? Yes. With a DAF-direct payment option like DAFpay (powered by Chariot) embedded in your donation form, donors can give from their donor-advised fund without leaving your site or logging into a separate DAF portal. The donor selects DAFpay at checkout, authenticates with their DAF sponsor, and recommends the grant in a few clicks. Fundraise Up supports DAFpay in its checkout. Note that DAF grants are currently one-time gifts. Recurring DAF donations aren't supported.
What information do donors need to recommend a DAF grant? To recommend a grant from their DAF, donors typically need your nonprofit's legal name and EIN (federal tax ID), and sometimes your mailing address. Their DAF sponsor uses this information to verify your 501(c)(3) status before releasing funds. The easiest way to reduce friction is to display your legal name and EIN on your website and donation pages, or to offer a DAF-direct option like DAFpay, which lets donors search and select your organization automatically.
Are there fees to accept DAF donations? The traditional grant route, where a donor's DAF sponsor sends funds by check or ACH, typically carries no fee to the receiving nonprofit. DAF-direct tools that embed giving in your donation form do involve a processing fee. Chariot, which powers DAFpay, charges 2.9% per DAF payment, and donors can often choose to cover it. Weigh that fee against the benefit: DAF-direct giving captures donor information and reduces the manual gift-processing work that grants usually create.
How do nonprofits track and reconcile DAF donations? DAF donations are harder to track than card gifts because the money arrives from the DAF sponsor, not the donor, so the donor's identity is often missing. Track DAF volume separately from your general donations and reconcile incoming grants against expected gifts. DAF-direct tools like DAFpay help by capturing donor details at the point of giving, which the manual grant process usually loses, so you can acknowledge and steward each DAF donor properly.

Tipping doesn’t belong in the donation experience

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trust is the invisible infrastructure of fundraising.

When a donor gives, they are making more than a transaction. They are acting on belief. Belief in a cause. Belief in an organization. Belief that the experience in front of them is clear, honest, and aligned with their intent.

That trust is hard to earn and easy to weaken.

This is why I think the nonprofit sector needs to have a more honest conversation about tipping models in fundraising technology.

On the surface, tipping can sound appealing. A platform says it is “free” for nonprofits, and donors are invited to leave an optional tip to support the technology provider. For organizations under constant pressure to minimize overhead, that can feel like a gift. No platform fee. No obvious cost. More money, theoretically, going to the mission.

But “free” is rarely free.

The cost has simply moved somewhere else, often into the donor experience.

Most donors do not read every line of explanatory text in a donation flow. They respond to what is in front of them. They assume the giving experience represents the nonprofit they care about. They assume the money they are adding is helping the organization, the campaign, or the mission.

That is where the language of “tipping” becomes problematic.

In everyday life, tips are associated with service. A barista who remembers your name. A server who goes above and beyond. Someone who adds care, attention, or hospitality to the experience.

But in most — if not all — fundraising flows, the tip is not going to the nonprofit. It is going to the platform.

Do we really think a donor wants to ‘tip’ a tech company 17% of their gift?

Even when disclosed, that distinction can easily be missed. And when donors later realize what happened, the issue is not just whether the model was technically explained. The issue is whether it felt clear.

Trust is not built by being technically compliant. It is built by being unmistakable.

At Fundraise Up, we charge 4%. We are not free. We do not pretend to be free. We believe there are real costs to building modern fundraising infrastructure: conversion optimization, fraud prevention, payments, localization, accessibility, AI, uptime, security, integrations, donor experience, and continuous innovation.

Those things require investment. And nonprofits should be able to see that cost clearly, evaluate the value, and decide whether the return is worth it. That is transparency.

Transparency says: there are transaction and platform costs. We are not fooling anyone. This is how sustainable innovation happens. A tip says something different. It introduces ambiguity at the very moment when the donor should feel absolute clarity.

And ambiguity is expensive.

It may raise money for a platform in the short term, but it risks eroding confidence in the giving experience over time. Not just confidence in one vendor, but confidence in digital fundraising more broadly.

The nonprofit sector has spent decades fighting the overhead myth; the idea that the best organizations are the ones that spend the least on themselves. That mindset has delayed investment in technology, constrained growth, and forced too many teams to optimize for the appearance of efficiency rather than the reality of effectiveness.

So we should not replace one myth with another.

The answer is not pretending technology costs nothing. The answer is being honest about what great infrastructure costs and what it enables.

Nonprofits deserve fundraising platforms that are clear with them.

Donors deserve experiences that are clear with them.

And the sector deserves business models that build trust rather than borrow against it.

Trust is the foundation of every donor relationship. Every giving experience either strengthens it or weakens it. The sector does not need fundraising technology that appears free. It needs fundraising technology honest enough to be trusted.

Digital fundraising strategy: how to elevate donations in 2026 and beyond

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Direct mail campaigns and annual galas still have their place, but let's be honest — the costs and planning can be prohibitive. That's why more nonprofits like yours are turning to digital fundraising for its major advantages. Here’s your primer on how to level up using a digital fundraising platform like Fundraise Up.

Digital fundraising for nonprofits: key benefits

You can benefit from digital fundraising in several ways. Most notably, digital fundraising improves scalability and delivers these "wish list" items for your nonprofit:

Greater reach

Digital fundraising helps you reach a lot more people — without needing a massive marketing team. Most digital fundraising platforms offer user-friendly automation that makes it easy for you to create digital ads that drive people to campaign pages, connect with new followers on social media, and build out email lists to strengthen ongoing engagement.

With greater reach and software that enables global currency support, you could connect with digital donors in other parts of the world.

Lower costs

The cost of an in-person fundraising event can eat up to 75 cents of every dollar raised, and direct-mail campaigns are costly too. With digital fundraising, you won't deal with banquet facility rentals, caterers, or printing costs.

Better engagement

Using digital channels for fundraising gives you an opportunity for real-time engagement. You can share content on your social channels, immediately respond to comments and mentions, and publicly acknowledge donors.

The 4 steps in a digital fundraising campaign

Your digital fundraising for nonprofits generally follows four steps:

1. Attract

This first step is all about creating, publishing, and promoting content — whether that's digital ads, social posts, or case studies. You don't need unique content for every channel. For example, you could turn an excerpt from a case study into a social post, or use a photo from a case study as the basis for a paid ad.

2. Nurture

At the nurture stage, you'll focus on growing new relationships with the goal of driving conversions. This is where data becomes critical — you need to track how people are interacting with your content and what seems to capture their attention. For some people, emails might spur them to donate, whereas other donors may be more moved by your social posts.

3. Convert

You can't afford to wait for people to organically convert, and that's why this third step is so important. At this point, you should actively ask for donations. With AI, you can customize ask amounts and even turn one-time contributions into recurring donations.

4. Retain

The "retain" stage is easier when your donors are on a recurring donation plan. With one-time donors, retention is a matter of knowing when to ask for a subsequent donation. (This is again another great use case for AI). Retention also relies heavily on you continuing to share your stories with donors and thanking them promptly for donations.

How do nonprofits master digital fundraising?

An example of how machine learning personalizes donation requests based on location, wireless provider, device, and a large dataset on the backend.

Let’s talk about how you can boost digital conversions.

Use audience segmentation

Treating all your donors as a single entity isn't the best way to get donations. Segmenting donors by specific characteristics is a better strategy for succeeding at digital fundraising.

You can start segmentation with a review of your existing and potential donors, digging into their similarities. There are a number of ways you might want to sort your donors and donations, such as:

average annual donation amount
private or corporate donors
demographics
location
donation methods (debit card, cryptocurrency, etc.)
preferred digital channels
length of engagement (long-time donors vs. new donors)
number of touchpoints in the donor nurturing phase

By segmenting your donors, you can develop highly targeted and relevant content that appeals to each audience.

The most sophisticated digital fundraising channels now use AI to automate audience segmentation, continuously analyzing your digital donor behavior to identify patterns and preferences. This allows you or your digital fundraising agency to deliver personalized messaging at scale without manually sorting through donor data. As you implement your digital strategy for non-profits, automated segmentation ensures that each digital donor receives communications tailored to their giving history, engagement level, and preferred digital giving practices.

Personalize donation requests

When your digital fundraising incorporates AI, you can take the guesswork out of knowing whom to ask for donations and when. Using personalized requests, you'll boost first-time donations, recurring donations, and average donation amounts.

Here's how it works: advanced digital fundraising platforms look at information about each visitor — things like where they're located, what device they're using, their internet provider, and how they've donated before. The system uses this information to show each person a donation amount that makes sense for them specifically.

The technology doesn't stop after someone makes their first gift. It also figures out the best time to ask your one-time donors if they'd like to become monthly supporters. Best of all, it happens automatically, so you're building a stronger recurring donor base without adding work for your team.

Harness the power of peer-to-peer fundraising

Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising is a powerful digital tool that lets donors create, share, and manage their own fundraisers. This initiative requires almost no admin time other than the initial copying and pasting of code to set up a P2P integration.

Enable global donations

If you serve international causes, you can build your donor base by offering responsive, multilingual website experiences and enabling global currencies.

Ethar Relief updated its website to accept donations in more than 135 currencies and offer donor experiences in 20 languages.

What are the best digital fundraising platforms for nonprofits in 2026?

The best digital fundraising platforms for nonprofits in 2026 combine high-converting donation checkouts, AI optimization, modern payment methods, and real-time CRM integration.

Fundraise Up is a leading example, used by 3,500+ nonprofits including UNICEF USA and the American Heart Association. Its donation forms are built to deliver up to 3× higher conversion and 30% larger average gifts, with AI that right-sizes ask amounts, support for 135+ currencies and 25 languages, and turnkey methods like Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and cryptocurrency.

When comparing platforms, prioritize mobile-first checkout speed, recurring-giving tools, transparent pricing with no platform fees, and native integration with Salesforce or your existing CRM.

Choosing the right digital fundraising technology

Selecting the right digital fundraising solutions can make or break your success with the best digital fundraising campaigns. As you evaluate digital fundraising platforms, several key capabilities should guide your decision-making process.

Here are the essential features you'll want for modern digital fundraising for NGO and nonprofit organizations:

Cost-effective pricing models

The most innovative pricing structures in digital marketing for fundraising now include donor-covered transaction fees. Leading platforms report that 82-87% of donors cover processing costs when asked, reducing your effective platform fee to less than 1.6%. This approach transforms digital fundraising solutions from a cost center into a revenue optimizer for you.

Advanced payment flexibility

Today's digital donor expects convenience. When you run the best digital fundraising campaigns, you'll accept credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Venmo, bank transfers, and even cryptocurrency. If you're focused on digital fundraising for NGO work across borders, you'll need multi-currency support for 135+ currencies and country-specific payment methods to maximize your digital donor experience.

Enterprise-grade security and reliability

When you evaluate any digital fundraiser platform, confirm certifications including ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, and PCI DSS Level 1 compliance. Your digital fundraising agency or internal team needs infrastructure that can handle 300+ transactions per second with 99.9% uptime, especially during peak giving seasons and emergency campaigns.

Seamless integration capabilities

Your digital fundraising channels should connect effortlessly with your existing CRM, such as Salesforce, Blackbaud, and Microsoft Dynamics. Real-time data syncing of 100+ data points ensures you have immediate access to donor information across all your digital giving practices.

Mobile-first design

With the majority of online traffic now coming from mobile devices, mobile-optimized checkout experiences are non-negotiable for you. One-click donation options and self-service donor portals represent table stakes for modern digital fundraising best practices.

Speed of deployment

The best platforms allow you to launch sophisticated campaigns in minutes, not months. Whether you're responding to emergencies or capitalizing on year-end giving momentum, rapid deployment capabilities separate leading digital fundraising solutions from legacy systems.

The fastest path to digital fundraising

Digital fundraising may seem like a complex initiative, but with the right software platform, you can put your digital campaigns into motion with minimal resources.

Fundraise Up is the user-friendly online fundraising solution for nonprofits. You can count on Fundraise Up for scalability, security, and transparent contract-free pricing.

Schedule a demo now.

AI optimization for recurring giving: why we built it and how it works

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Did you know you can increase your donation revenue by up to 15% with a single click? Optimizing your donation form for recurring monthly donations can help create a sustainable revenue stream, as well as more predictable monthly income.

Recurring donors are the backbone of sustainable revenue for nonprofits. To grow this essential base, you not only need to have the recurring option ready on your donation form, but also need to ask the right audience and suggest the right amount.

That’s where AI can make all the difference.

Which fundraising platforms are best for recurring giving and monthly donors?

The best fundraising platforms for recurring giving make monthly donations effortless to start, manage, and retain. Fundraise Up uses AI to prompt one-time donors to upgrade to recurring gifts and to right-size ask amounts, while its self-service Donor Portal lets supporters update payment details, adjust amounts, or pause plans without contacting staff — reducing churn.

Combined with fee-covering prompts and conversion-optimized checkout, this helps nonprofits build predictable monthly revenue.

At Fundraise Up, we use AI to analyze donor behavior in real time and tailor the checkout experience to each supporter.

Here’s one example of how that works: if a donor selects a one-time gift, our platform may suggest switching to a monthly donation at the next step. That nudge works. In fact, 2.3% of donors accept the switch, helping nonprofits build long-term support.

The challenge: how to show the right frequency for better results?

We’re always looking for ways to improve the donation flow and grow revenue for nonprofits. As part of our strategy, we optimize for both conversion and average revenue per donor, striking the right balance to maximize impact.

This time, we focused on a key question: which gift frequency should be shown first by default?

When a donor opens Checkout, they’ll typically see either a one-time or recurring gift option pre-selected, based on how the nonprofit configures it.

If your goal is to grow long-term revenue, it might seem obvious to lead with the monthly option. But what happens if the donor isn’t ready to commit?

Some donors do welcome the suggestion to give monthly. Others feel pressured and end up abandoning the one-time donation they initially planned to make.

We needed a smarter solution – one that shows the monthly option first only to donors likely to say yes or for larger gifts where one-time brings in more revenue, while avoiding it for those at risk of dropping off.

Identifying donor segments

Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, we needed to understand different donor behavior types. As a result, we identified four categories:

Donor behavior type	Behavior
Upgraders	Plans to give once, but will switch to monthly if prompted. ✅ Ideal audience for monthly ask
Engaged	Will give monthly regardless. Prompt makes no difference.
One-time donors	Will give once if not distracted, but may leave if pushed to subscribe. ❌ Avoid showing recurring option
Unengaged	Unlikely to give at all during this session.

Our goal was to identify the Upgraders in real time and prompt them with a monthly ask, without disrupting the One-timers. Easy in theory. Tough in practice.

So, we built an AI model to do just that.

We’ve been optimizing donor journeys with AI since 2018, long before it became a buzzword. This latest model builds on that foundation, bringing even more precision to how we personalize giving. Explore how AI powers the entire platform.

The solution: AI personalization

We trained an AI model to predict, in real time, which donor type a visitor is likely to be, and personalize the donation experience accordingly.

To validate the impact, we ran a 26-day A/B test with 600,000 visitors:

Control group: Saw the standard frequency prompt.
Test group: Saw the AI-optimized default based on behavior prediction.

This large-scale experiment with a robust sample size gave us statistically significant insights across a diverse audience – something smaller-scale tests with just tens of thousands of participants can’t reliably deliver.

Learn what makes an A/B test truly reliable – and why it matters for fundraising results.

The results

+26.76% increase in recurring donation conversion
+4.12% lift in average revenue per user (ARPU)
No drop in one-time donations

In short: more recurring revenue, without sacrificing short-term gifts.

Roughly 20% of donors turned out to be Upgraders – previously untapped recurring potential.

A look under the hood: the technology we used

Rather than relying on standard machine learning approaches like classification or regression, we adopted Uplift Modeling: a method from the field of Causal Inference focused on estimating treatment effects.

While standard models predict whether a user will convert, uplift models estimate the incremental impact of an intervention – like showing the monthly screen – on the user’s behavior.

This approach helped us identify who is likely to convert because of the frequency default, not just who is likely to convert in general.

Our stack

Most models predict the probability of a donation itself, not “who” is likely to donate.

Uplift modeling asks a different, far more useful question that focuses on causality: “Will showing the monthly-first screen cause this person to upgrade, and by how much?”

The R-learner learns baseline behavior and treatment effect during training, but at inference directly predicts the causal uplift for each visitor.

The payoff: monthly prompts reach only the persuadable donors, one-time givers feel zero pressure, and nonprofits capture new recurring revenue without sacrificing short-term gifts.

One click to smarter giving

This experiment shows what’s possible when you stop treating all donors the same.

With AI-driven personalization, nonprofits can move beyond static donation forms and create experiences that meet supporters where they are, leading to more sustainable funding for your mission.

Ready to see what AI-optimized fundraising looks like? Request a demo or learn how AI powers better giving experiences.

Fundraising software and tech: a 2026 guide to choosing the right platform

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The fundraising software category has changed more in the last five years than it did in the previous twenty. What used to be a back-office tool for managing donor lists and printing acknowledgment letters is now the engine of online revenue, the system of record for donor relationships, and the deciding factor in whether a giving experience converts a stranger into a sustainer. If you're researching fundraising software in 2026, whether you're a fundraising director at a national nonprofit, an advancement officer at a university, or the founder of a mission-driven startup — the goal of this guide is to give you a clear, opinionated framework for what to look for, who actually benefits, and how to think about the current market.

Charitable giving in the United States reached an estimated $592.50 billion in 2024 according to the most recent Giving USA report, researched and written by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. That's a record figure in current dollars! And it is also a reminder that even modest improvements in conversion, donor experience, and retention translate into meaningful revenue. The right fundraising software is what turns that potential into actual dollars on the balance sheet.

What does fundraising software do?

Fundraising software is the 2026 technology stack that allows an organization to accept donations, manage donor relationships, run campaigns, and report on results. The category has grown to include capabilities that used to live in separate systems — CRM, email marketing, payment processing, peer-to-peer fundraising, event management, and analytics — and modern platforms consolidate most or all of these into a single solution.

At its core, fundraising software does five things well:

Captures donations. Optimized checkout experiences, support for digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay), recurring giving, and global payment methods that meet donors wherever they are.
Manages donor data. A centralized record of every donor, every gift, every interaction — replacing the spreadsheets and disconnected tools that drain staff time.
Runs campaigns. Donation pages, peer-to-peer fundraisers, events, crowdfunding, and giving days — usually built and launched without developer support.
Engages supporters. Email, text-to-give, donor portals, and automated stewardship flows that nurture relationships between asks.
Reports on performance. Dashboards, conversion analytics, retention metrics, and revenue forecasting that tell fundraisers where to focus.

The best modern platforms layer AI on top of these capabilities — personalizing suggested gift amounts, upgrading donors at checkout, identifying fraud, and surfacing patterns in donor behavior that humans would miss.

Who exactly would benefit from fundraising software?

Fundraising software is not a one-size-fits-all category. The right platform depends on what kind of organization you run, how mature your fundraising program is, and where your supporters spend their time. Here's how different groups should think about it.

Fundraising software for nonprofits

Nonprofits are the largest user base for fundraising software, and for good reason. According to IRS data, there are more than 1.5 million 501(c)(3) organizations in the United States. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that nonprofit organizations accounted for 12.8 million jobs — roughly 9.9% of private-sector employment — and most of those organizations rely on online giving to fund their missions.

For nonprofits, fundraising software solves a structural problem: small teams, big workloads, and donors who expect a seamless digital experience. The right platform replaces a stack of disconnected tools — donation forms, email, CRM, payment processing, event registration — with a single system. It also surfaces the data that lets development teams steward donors strategically rather than reactively.

Mid-size and large nonprofits in particular benefit from features like donor portals, recurring giving optimization, and conversion-tuned checkout, where small percentage gains translate into six- and seven-figure revenue lifts.

Fundraising software for large and enterprise nonprofits

Enterprise and national nonprofits carry requirements smaller organizations don't: multi-entity account structures, multi-currency and multi-language giving, dedicated implementation support, formal security and compliance review, and CRM integration that survives an audit. At this scale, a one- or two-point gain in checkout conversion swings six- and seven-figure revenue, so conversion engineering and donor-experience quality matter more than raw feature count.

Fundraise Up was built for this tier — it powers giving for global organizations including UNICEF USA, The Salvation Army UK, and the American Heart Association, with subaccounts for multi-entity reporting, enterprise-grade security (PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 2 Type II), native Salesforce and Raiser's Edge NXT integrations, and 23 languages. Classy (GoFundMe Pro) and Bonterra are also commonly evaluated at the enterprise level.

Fundraising software for universities

Higher education advancement is its own world. According to the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), voluntary contributions to U.S. colleges and universities reached $61.5 billion in fiscal year 2024 — and the operational complexity behind those numbers is significant. Advancement offices need to manage alumni records across decades, run multi-year capital campaigns, coordinate giving days, support reunion fundraising, and report up to boards and trustees.

Fundraising software for universities typically needs to do three things that nonprofit-focused tools don't always handle well: integrate with student information systems and legacy advancement CRMs (Banner, Workday, Slate); support sophisticated giving day infrastructure with crowdfunding pages for every department, athletic team, and affinity group; and deliver a donor experience polished enough to meet the expectations of high-net-worth alumni. Research from the Stanford Graduate School of Business has shown that personalization in donor communications meaningfully lifts response rates, which is why advancement teams are increasingly investing in AI-powered ask amounts and personalized journeys.

Fundraising software for organizations beyond traditional nonprofits

Plenty of organizations that aren't classic 501(c)(3) nonprofits still need fundraising software — religious institutions, political committees, advocacy groups, foundations, hospital systems, museums and cultural institutions, K-12 schools, and faith-based organizations. Each has its own regulatory and operational quirks. Houses of worship need tithing and recurring giving. Hospital foundations need grateful patient programs and major gift management. Political committees need FEC-compliant donation forms.

For these organizations, the key is finding software that supports their specific fundraising model without forcing them into a generic nonprofit workflow. Pay attention to compliance features (PCI, SOC 2, HIPAA where relevant), payment processing options, and the ability to designate gifts to specific funds, projects, or restricted purposes.

The shape of the market in 2026

Two charts help frame how the fundraising software opportunity has evolved.

Chart 1: Online revenue growth, 2021–2025 (median nonprofit, M+R Benchmarks)

Online revenue growth, year-over-year (median nonprofit)

Source: M+R Benchmarks 2026 — https://mrbenchmarks.com

The 15% surge in 2025 is unusual — driven in part by urgency-fueled giving — and it underscores how much the digital channel matters. For most organizations, online revenue is no longer "a percentage of what we raise"; it's the primary growth engine.

Chart 2: Where online donations come from

Share of total online revenue, 2025

Source: M+R Benchmarks 2026 + Blackbaud Institute 2025 Trends in Giving https://institute.blackbaud.com/resources/2025-trends-in-giving

The story this data tells: recurring giving and DAF revenue are growing faster than one-time gifts, and any fundraising software you choose in 2026 needs to handle both well. DAF revenue alone jumped 44% year-over-year, according to M+R — and most platforms still treat it as an afterthought.

What features should you look for when buying fundraising software?

After working with thousands of organizations, here's the short list of 8 capabilities that consistently separate platforms that move the needle from platforms that just collect donations.

Checkout conversion. Most donation pages convert below 12%. The right platform should be engineered around checkout — fast load times, mobile-first design, digital wallet support, smart defaults, and the ability to A/B test ask strings. Conversion is the single highest-leverage area of fundraising software.
Recurring and DAF support. Monthly giving is the most reliable revenue stream a nonprofit can build. DAF-direct payment options like DAFpay are quickly becoming table stakes. If your platform makes either of these difficult, you're leaving real money on the table.
Global readiness. Multi-currency, multi-language, and country-specific payment methods matter more than they used to. Even small nonprofits routinely get donations from supporters abroad — and friction kills those gifts.
Embedded experience. Donation forms and campaign pages should run on your website, not on a third-party microsite. Research published by the MIT Sloan Management Review on digital trust consistently shows that brand consistency at the point of conversion drives higher completion rates.
Donor self-service. A donor portal that lets supporters update payment methods, upgrade gifts, manage recurring schedules, and access tax receipts saves staff hours and reduces churn.
Security and compliance. PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA) should be non-negotiable. According to research from Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab, nonprofits are increasingly targeted by payment fraud, which means your platform's fraud-prevention infrastructure matters as much as its features.
Integrations and data portability. Your fundraising software should integrate with your CRM, your email platform, your accounting system, and your data warehouse — and you should be able to export your data anytime, in standard formats, without paying for the privilege.
Pricing transparency. Annual contracts with custom pricing aren't inherently bad, but they tend to obscure total cost of ownership. Look for clear, published pricing, no setup fees, and processing fees that match standard market rates.

Best fundraising software solutions in 2026

What is the best nonprofit fundraising software?

The best nonprofit fundraising software maximizes donation revenue while minimizing manual work.

Fundraise Up is a top choice, trusted by 3,500+ organizations, offering conversion-optimized checkouts that can lift conversion up to 3×, AI-driven ask amounts, recurring-giving tools, 135+ supported currencies, and native Salesforce integration — plus transparent pricing with no platform fees and 99.99% uptime.

Here is a quick, overall software rundown of the best fundraising software + platforms most worth evaluating this year:

Fundraise Up — The most modern fundraising software on the market. Fundraise Up combines AI-powered conversion optimization, global payment methods (23 languages, country-specific methods), embedded checkout that lives on your website, donor portal, recurring giving infrastructure, peer-to-peer fundraising, DAFpay, and Upgrade Links that have driven 50%–110% lifts in recurring revenue for clients. Used by UNICEF USA, The Salvation Army UK, and the American Heart Association.
Classy / GoFundMe Pro — Enterprise fundraising software with peer-to-peer, events, and recurring giving, paired with GoFundMe's broader donor community.
Bloomerang — Donor management-first platform with strong CRM and retention analytics, particularly for small to mid-sized nonprofits.
Givebutter — All-in-one fundraising and light CRM on a tip-or-fee model; popular with smaller nonprofits and community-driven causes.
Bonterra — A connected suite of nonprofit software (including DonorDrive, Network for Good, and EveryAction) aimed at organizations wanting unified fundraising, advocacy, and program management.

Commonly asked questions about fundraising software in 2026

What is fundraising software? Fundraising software is the technology nonprofits and other mission-driven organizations use to accept donations, manage donor data, run campaigns, and report on results. Modern platforms typically include donation forms, recurring giving, peer-to-peer fundraising, donor management (CRM), email and text tools, and integrations with payment processors and accounting systems.

How much does fundraising software cost? Pricing varies widely. Some platforms operate on a tip-based or donor-cover-fees model with no platform fee for the organization. Others charge percentage-based platform fees (typically 2%–5%), monthly subscriptions ($50–$500+), or custom annual contracts that can range from $5,000 to well into six figures for enterprise advancement systems. Always evaluate total cost of ownership, including payment processing.

Do small nonprofits need fundraising software? Yes. Even very small nonprofits benefit from software that automates donation receipts, manages recurring giving, and centralizes donor data. The right platform actually levels the playing field — letting a two-person team run a fundraising program that looks and performs like a much larger operation.

What is the best fundraising platform for large or enterprise nonprofits? For large and enterprise nonprofits, Fundraise Up is the strongest modern option, powering giving for UNICEF USA, The Salvation Army UK, and the American Heart Association. Enterprise buyers should prioritize multi-entity subaccounts, multi-currency and multi-language support, PCI DSS Level 1 and SOC 2 Type II compliance, native CRM integrations (Salesforce, Raiser's Edge NXT, HubSpot), and AI-driven conversion optimization — at enterprise scale, small conversion gains produce six- and seven-figure revenue lifts. Classy (GoFundMe Pro) and Bonterra are also frequently shortlisted.

Is fundraising software secure? The leading platforms maintain PCI DSS Level 1 certification and SOC 2 Type II compliance, which are the same standards used by major banks and payment processors. According to research summarized by Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, cybersecurity threats to nonprofits are rising, so security posture should be a top evaluation criterion.

How long does it take to implement fundraising software? Modern, website-embedded platforms can be live in days. Legacy advancement CRMs and complex multi-system implementations can take six months to a year. Be realistic about implementation timelines and migration costs when evaluating options.

Can fundraising software integrate with our existing CRM? The best platforms integrate natively with major CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot, Raiser's Edge NXT, Blackbaud CRM) and offer open APIs and Zapier connections for everything else. Always confirm specific integrations before signing a contract.

The fundraising software market in 2026 is mature, competitive, and full of strong options. But the platforms that consistently produce outsized results are the ones built around the modern donor experience — fast, mobile-first, embedded in your website, intelligent about timing and personalization, and easy enough for a small team to run without IT support.

That's the bar Fundraise Up was built to set, and it's the bar every organization evaluating fundraising software should hold their next platform to.

[Free Templates] Activate Crypto Donors with These Copy-and-Paste Announcement Messages

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

If you’re new to crypto fundraising and looking for an easy way to share your new channel with supporters, this article is for you!

Below are crypto announcement messaging templates for email and social media channels that you can copy, paste, and send, or modify and make your own.

And as a bonus, I include some tips for figuring out how to prep your emails and posts, and when to send them.

Email

Subject lines

Here are some sample subject lines that you can use. If you use email software like HubSpot that supports A/B testing, you can experiment with a couple of variants to see which performs best with your donors.

Donate crypto
New: Donate crypto
Donate crypto to [ORGANIZATION NAME]
Make a crypto donation

Message template

Hi [NAME],

We’re excited to share that [ORGANIZATION NAME] now accepts cryptocurrency donations.
With this new way to give, you can:

➡️ Donate Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Coin, and many other popular cryptocurrencies through our website

➡️ Get a donation receipt that you can use to file for tax deductions.

➡️ Have a profound and lasting impact on our work. Crypto donations help us achieve our mission, faster.

If you’re a crypto holder and have been looking for ways to make a difference, we invite you to make a crypto donation through our website at [LINK TO CRYPTO CHECKOUT].

Even if you’re not into crypto, we encourage you to spread the word about this new giving opportunity to friends and family. And as always, you can donate other ways at [ORGANIZATION WEBSITE URL]

We thank you for supporting our work and extending your generosity toward [ORGANIZATION NAME].

With gratitude,
[NAME OF SENDER]

We’re excited to share that [ORGANIZATION NAME] now accepts crypto donations!

With this new way to give, you can:
➡️ Donate Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Coin, and many other popular cryptocurrencies through our website

➡️ Get a donation receipt that you can use to file for tax deductions.

➡️ Have a profound and lasting impact on our work. Crypto donations help us achieve our mission, faster.

Make your crypto donation today and help us spread the word!

[LINK TO CRYPTO CHECKOUT]
#crypto #philanthropy #nonprofit

Facebook

[ORGANIZATION NAME] now accepts crypto donations! This new way to give lets you have incredible impact. Make your crypto donation today and help us spread the word.

[LINK TO CRYPTO CHECKOUT]

Twitter

We now accept crypto donations. Donate Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Coin and many other currencies through our website #givecrypto

Donate here ➡️ [LINK TO CRYPTO CHECKOUT]

Instagram

[ORGANIZATION NAME] now accepts crypto donations! Donate now using the link in our bio and spread the word.

#crypto #bitcoin #blockchain #ethereum #trading #cryptonews #investing #finance #altcoin #invest #nft #litecoin #nonprofit #charity #donate #community #giveback #support #fundraising #dogood #instagood #donations #philanthropy #hope #change #causes #socialgood #ngo #fundraiser #help

Why so many hashtags?
Posts with the highest engagement on Instagram typically include 20-30 hashtags.

Tips for your crypto announcement

Include the link to your crypto checkout in your post. This will generate a rich link on social media platforms that includes an image and an easy-to-click link preview.
If you don’t link to your crypto checkout, include an image with your post. Posts that include images gain 53% more likes and 104% more comments than posts without them.
Pick a strategic time to email or post your announcement. Here are the best times to consider:
- Email: Between 10 AM and between 3 and 4 PM on Tuesdays (best), Wednesdays (better), or Mondays (good)
- Facebook: Between 9 AM and 1 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesday, or Fridays
- Instagram: Between 11 AM and 2 PM on Tuesdays, or 11 AM during any other day of the workweek
- Twitter: Around 8 AM on Mondays or Thursdays
- LinkedIn: 9 AM on Tuesdays and Wednesdays

What platforms let nonprofits accept cryptocurrency donations?

Fundraise Up lets nonprofits accept secure, high-value cryptocurrency donations directly through its donation checkout, expanding fundraising channels beyond cards and digital wallets.

Crypto giving sits alongside Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, bank transfers, and 135+ currencies in one platform, with the same conversion-optimized experience used by 3,500+ nonprofits — making it simple to reach crypto-holding donors, who often give larger average gifts.

Final thoughts on crypto donations in 2026

Crypto is a great donation channel to implement alongside payment methods like cards, wallets, and bank transfers . To drum up support and to let your donors know about your new channel, share the news using copy-and-paste templates like the ones included in this article.

Want to learn more about crypto giving from Fundraise Up? Get started by setting up a chat with our sales team.

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a technology company unlocking the world’s generosity potential by optimizing how people give. Our donation platform helps nonprofits engage more supporters and grow revenue by providing easy ways to increase conversion, enable modern payment methods, and personalize the giving experience for every donor. Fundraise Up is the partner of choice for UNICEF USA, The Salvation Army UK, American Heart Association, and other impactful organizations across the globe.

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The impact of Apple Pay and Google Pay on donation conversion rates

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

When it comes to digital wallets, PayPal has dominated the market since the earliest days of Internet 2.0. But the introduction of both Apple and Google Pay has diversified online payments to such an extent that their popularity can no longer be ignored.

So, what impact do these two payment methods have on nonprofit giving? We took a look at the behavior of donors who use Apple and Google Pay to see its impact on conversion.

How popular are Apple and Google Pay?

Our previous research shows that after credit cards and PayPal, Apple Pay was the third most popular payment method, followed by Google Pay.

What is the overall impact of Apple and Google Pay on conversion?

From our observations, the availability of Google Pay increased conversion by 2.6%, while the availability of Apple Pay increased conversion by 2%.

However, we wanted to understand the impact of these two payment methods further by observing donors’ browser choices. Specifically, we focused on Google Chrome, not only because of its direct tie to Google Pay but because it is currently the leading global internet browser. Our findings were as follows:

The availability of Google Pay increased overall conversion among Chrome users by 4%.
67% of donations made with Google Pay on Chrome were with a mobile device.

Which donation platforms support Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal at checkout?

Fundraise Up supports Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal natively at checkout, with express mobile checkout that lets donors skip typing and confirm in one tap. Fundraise Up's research found Google Pay availability lifted conversion 2.6% and Apple Pay 2%, while PayPal can account for 20%+ of donations. All three appear automatically based on the donor's device and your settings, alongside cards, bank transfers, and crypto.

What is the average gift amount made with Apple and Google Pay?

Now that we've addressed the popularity and overall conversion impact of Apple and Google Pay, we wanted to know how much donors are giving on average with these payment methods.

From our observations, the presence of Apple and Google Pay is more impactful with donors who give less than $80. This is additionally supported by our findings that the average donation amount of Apple Pay users on mobile was $78.61 and Google Pay was $56.6.

Therefore, we can conclude that the presence of Apple and Google Pay is the most important for mobile giving. In fact, nearly 38% of donation revenue now comes from mobile devices.

With that knowledge, we made sure to offer a robust variety of digital wallets, including Apple and Google Pay. If you want to increase your selection of payment methods and get optimized for mobile all at once, request a demo with Fundraise Up!

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Impactful integration: Fundraise Up | Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud

Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Nonprofits need easy-to-use tools, detailed data, and scalable systems to increase their influence, build strong donor connections with supporters, and successfully navigate online fundraising. That’s why Fundraise Up is proud to integrate with Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud (NPC). We’re excited to help nonprofits reach that next level of fundraising success.

Which nonprofit fundraising software has the best Salesforce integration?

Fundraise Up offers a native, real-time Salesforce integration that syncs donations, donors, and recurring plans directly into Salesforce, including Nonprofit Cloud and NPSP. More than 100 fundraising and marketing datapoints flow automatically into your CRM, eliminating manual exports and keeping donor records accurate. This lets development teams report, segment, and steward donors from a single source of truth.

Salesforce NPC vs Salesforce NPSP – What’s the difference?

Nonprofit Cloud (NPC) shines brightly as the next step in Salesforce's tailored solutions for nonprofits. While Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) brings together diverse tools under its Success Pack umbrella, Nonprofit Cloud is a CRM with advanced features all in one user-friendly platform.

Making the switch to Nonprofit Cloud gives organizations one powerful CRM tool to simplify operations and boost their ability to connect with donors, coordinate volunteers, and run impactful campaigns effortlessly.

This transition marks a big stride towards equipping nonprofit organizations with a more integrated and cutting-edge technology solution crafted specifically for this sector.

Addressing critical needs with Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud integration

Fundraise Up's integration with Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud (NPC) brings a tailored solution to address the challenges of managing donor relationships and assessing fundraising efforts. It’s the logical choice for nonprofits that feel limited by NPSP. Let’s talk about it!

Streamlined efficiency

With NPC integration, automated workflows and processes reduce those dreaded manual tasks, boosting productivity for nonprofit teams. This allows staff to focus on relationship-building and strategic fundraising efforts rather than administrative work like donation receipts, thank-you emails, and donor follow-ups.

Customizable integration

A big plus! Nonprofits can adjust Fundraise Up’s integration with Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud based on their specific needs. With advanced mapping rules and the choice between automatic or manual syncing, you have full control over the synchronization process.

Comprehensive data sync

Over 200 data points sync between Fundraise Up and Salesforce NPC. It’s a whole new world for any nonprofit organization looking to personalize supporter experiences and make informed fundraising decisions. With every data point available, you can easily segment contacts, target campaigns, and gain powerful insights into donor behavior and preferences.

Fundraise Up has dozens of integrations for every part of the nonprofit ecosystem.

Cost-smart start

Fundraise Up understands the financial constraints that nonprofits often face. That's why we offer a zero-dollar setup fee, making it easier for nonprofits to switch from their existing solution to Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud. With no upfront costs, we’re empowering nonprofits to invest resources into what truly matters: their mission.

Details on Fundraise Up and Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud integration

With hundreds of fundraising and marketing datapoints, we make integration simple across CRMs, analytics platforms, automation tools and more. Our integration with Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud (NPC) bridges the gap between fundraising efforts and CRM functionality, helping nonprofits fundraise with ease.

NPOs can now streamline their fundraising tasks, from donor management to campaign monitoring, all within the robust environment of Salesforce's CRM system. This effortless integration not only simplifies workflows but also ensures that vital donor information is accurately captured to drive impactful fundraising campaigns.

Plus! Nonprofits have access to real-time insights and analytics. With the ability to synchronize fundraising data with a CRM, orgs can strengthen supporter relationships, tailor engagement approaches, and ultimately boost fundraising success.

And let’s talk about transparency. The integration between Fundraise Up and Salesforce NPC offers a comprehensive view of fundraising activities alongside crucial donor insights. With a bird’s-eye view, nonprofits can monitor fundraising progress, spot trends, and use data-driven insights to further their mission.

Fundraise Up is verified on Salesforce AppExchange
Our integration has been reviewed and approved by Salesforce. We’re ready to improve your fundraising strategies, build stronger donor connections, and advance your nonprofit’s goals.

IT teams rejoice!

Forward-thinking IT leaders are on the lookout for efficient ways to manage donors and boost engagement. The answer to their quest is Fundraise Up + Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud. This cutting-edge integration caters to the needs of nonprofits at any stage, including:

Nonprofits already leveraging Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, aiming to elevate their digital infrastructure and operational efficiency further.
Organizations in the process of upgrading their CRM systems, seeking a smooth transition to an advanced and integrated solution like Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud.
Current NPSP users making the strategic shift to Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, recognizing its advanced features and capabilities for organizational growth.
Nonprofits aiming to align their fundraising efforts with CRM functions, realizing the value of a unified platform for seamless operations and improved donor engagement.

A win-win for everyone

Fundraise Up's integration with Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud is a big step forward for maximizing the impact of nonprofits. As the third sector evolves, it's important for organizations to embrace advanced solutions that can adapt and grow with them.

This integration promises to empower nonprofits with the tools they need to navigate modern fundraising confidently and efficiently. If you’re ready to level-up, contact our team for a full Fundraise Up demo.

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Spring fundraising ideas: 18 fresh ways to grow engagement and support

Mon, 04 May 2026 16:24:00 GMT

As the days get longer and the weather warms, nonprofits have a unique opportunity to re-engage donors with fresh, seasonal campaigns that capture the energy of renewal. Whether you are planning a high-energy outdoor event or a streamlined digital initiative, the key to success lies in matching creative concepts with a frictionless giving experience.

Leveraging a modern digital fundraising platform allows your organization to meet donors where they are, ensuring that every "spring fling" or community auction is backed by powerful, conversion-optimized technology. Below, we explore a variety of spring fundraising ideas designed to help your mission blossom this season.

Let’s get inspired by the season with these spring fundraising ideas.

Embrace a springtime celebration

It might not be the traditional holiday season, but springtime comes with a variety of celebrations and special dates to align with your fundraising efforts. A thoughtfully themed fundraising campaign or event can bring new meaning to your fundraiser.

1. Celebrate Eid al-Fitr with generosity and joy

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, a time of reflection, fasting, and community. It’s also a perfect moment to give back. If participants haven’t already made their Zakat al-Fitr, this celebration serves as an important reminder to support those in need. Bring people together with a festive gathering, complete with traditional treats and opportunities for charitable giving.

2. Hop into spring with an Easter Egg Hunt and brunch

Engage families and children in the community by hosting an Easter Egg Hunt followed by a festive brunch. Collaborate with local businesses to donate eggs, decorations, and food, keeping costs low and community spirit high. To raise additional funds, raffle off items donated by local businesses and artisans.

3. Go green for Earth Day with a clean-up drive

Celebrate Earth Day by organizing a clean-up day at local parks, beaches, or neighborhoods. Create events to pick up litter, plant trees, and recycle, allowing volunteers to earn sponsorships or bids on individual peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising pages. Mobilizing volunteers this way can significantly impact the cause and the planet, embodying the spirit of giving back in multiple ways.

Environmental nonprofits, this one’s for you! Check out our Earth Day Guide to make the most of your fundraising efforts this spring.

4. Celebrate the special people in your life

Organizing events to honor special loved ones can add a personal touch to fundraising efforts. Consider a brunch, picnic, or afternoon tea in recognition of Mother's Day or Father’s Day, incorporating ticket sales or raffles to raise funds. Create a memorable celebration by partnering with local businesses to provide gift baskets.

5. Honor and remember on Memorial Day

Host a respectful and poignant Memorial Day event to remember and honor those who have served and sacrificed for their country. Organize a community walk, vigil, or reading of names, incorporating fundraising efforts such as selling memorial ribbons or poppies or creating online tributes. Partner with local veterans' organizations to involve and engage the broader community.

Take the fun outside: find ways to fundraise outdoors

Spring is a great opportunity to take your fundraising efforts outdoors while enjoying the sunshine. The freshness of the season invites everyone outdoors, creating great opportunities for community-building and fundraising.

Looking for ways to make in-person fundraising easier? Here’s how to optimize offline donations with Fundraise Up’s Virtual Terminal.

6. Enjoy the fresh air with a 5k run/walk

A charitable 5k run or walk is an excellent way to encourage community participation. Events like these combine physical activity and philanthropy, raising funds through registration fees and sponsorships. Themed runs, like color or superhero runs, can make events memorable and engaging by adding a layer of excitement.

7. Swing for good in a charity golf outing

The leisurely pace and social nature of golf make it an ideal setting for a fundraising event. Organize a charity golf tournament with various levels of competition and entertainment, such as hole-in-one challenges, longest-drive contests, and closing award ceremonies. At each hole, include information about the cause and how golfers can contribute.

8. Rally for the paddle at a pickleball tournament

Pickleball's exploding popularity makes it a fantastic platform for a unique fundraising tournament. With divided courts and doubles play, it’s a social sport that naturally encourages conversation and opportunities to promote a cause. Offer various levels of play, from casual matches to competitive brackets, and consider adding refreshment stands to keep energy levels high.

9. Roll into the season with a bicycling race

A bicycling event, whether a competitive race or a leisurely tour, can cater to every interest and fitness level. Consider raising funds with registration fees and offering medals or jerseys to finishers. Engaging with local cycling shops as sponsors to provide mechanical support and prizes can enhance your event's appeal.

10. Get organized at a spring cleaning yard sale

Embrace the seasonal urge to declutter and host a community-wide yard sale. Encourage participants to donate items they no longer need and volunteer at the event, where attendees can purchase items or make donations. This event not only promotes sustainability through the reuse of goods but also fosters a sense of community.

11. Open the doors to a cause with a home tour

Discover local elegance with a charity home tour, opening community doors to local architecture and design. Partner with homeowners that are open to showcasing their spaces for this cause, selling access tickets and potentially including a brunch or cocktail hour to encourage community bonds.

12. Showcase creativity at an art show fundraiser

Organize a community art show to showcase local artists' work and create a creative evening for charity. Charge an entry fee for attendees, and consider offering the pieces for sale and splitting the proceeds with the artist. This opportunity is a great way to raise funds while also supporting local talent and fostering appreciation for the arts.

13. Dine for a difference with a grand gala event

Create an unforgettable evening with a grand gala event. This prestigious night can include a sumptuous dinner, live entertainment, and silent auctions featuring high-value items. Selling tickets at a premium price and seeking sponsorships from local businesses can significantly boost fundraising efforts. A well-advertised gala can gather substantial donations while serving as a networking platform and strengthening community ties.

14. Savor and support at a food festival gathering

Celebrate diverse cuisines at a local food festival and benefit from the philanthropic feast. Invite food vendors, local restaurants, and chefs to participate and showcase their signature dishes and sell tickets for admission. This delicious gathering not only fills bellies but also warms hearts, making it a community favorite for charitable giving.

Virtual fundraising events in full bloom this spring

Expand fundraising reach beyond physical boundaries by embracing virtual events, enabling supporters to participate and contribute from anywhere, anytime.

15. Go the distance with a virtual charity run/walk

Host a virtual run/walk that enables participants to join from anywhere, anytime. Event apps can help build community and track and share progress. Charge registration fees for fundraising and offer rewards like digital badges or custom t-shirts for milestones. This event champions health, well-being, and global support for your cause, and makes it easy for supporters everywhere to participate.

16. Tune in for an online benefit concert

Leverage the universal love for music by organizing an online benefit concert. Gather musicians and bands willing to perform and share event details on a campaign page, then stream the concert live or offer it as a paid download. An online concert can unite people through music while supporting a noble cause from the comfort of their own homes.

17. Raise the bid at a virtual auction

Engage supporters in an online auction featuring items from unique artwork to exclusive dining experiences. The virtual setting allows people to bid from all around the world, expanding the fundraising reach. By soliciting donations, all proceeds will support the mission, making this event more than just entertaining.

18. Test wits with a virtual quiz night

Organize a fun-filled virtual quiz night that challenges participants and promotes a sense of community. Use online platforms to host live quiz sessions where individuals or teams can compete from the comfort of their homes. Entry fees serve as a donation, and consider offering prizes for the winners to spark more interest and participation.

Fresh insights for your spring fundraiser

Spring is the perfect time to leap into new opportunities and embrace innovative strategies. The Pulse of the Donor, a groundbreaking report from Fundraise Up and Stripe, is your ultimate guide to understanding donors and maximizing your impact this season.

Common Questions about Springtime Fundraising in 2026

What are the most effective spring fundraising ideas for small nonprofits? Small nonprofits often find success with community-centric events like plant sales, "spring cleaning" donation drives, or local walk-a-thons. These events require lower overhead while building strong local connections. Combining these with digital outreach ensures you can reach supporters who may not be able to attend in person.

How do I decide between peer-to-peer fundraising and a crowdfunding campaign? The choice depends on your campaign's structure and goals. While both utilize social sharing, understanding the functional differences of peer-to-peer vs. crowdfunding is vital. Crowdfunding is typically a single-page effort focused on a specific project, whereas peer-to-peer involves supporters creating their own mini-campaign pages to raise money on your behalf.

How can I encourage my supporters to fundraise for me this spring? The best way to activate your audience is through peer-to-peer fundraising, which empowers your most dedicated donors to share their personal connection to your cause with their own networks. Providing them with easy-to-use templates and social media graphics can significantly increase participation.

What is the best time to launch a spring campaign? Most organizations see the best results by launching in late March or early April. This allows you to capitalize on the "spring cleaning" mindset and the lead-up to early summer, ensuring your message doesn't get lost in the busy end-of-year holiday season.

5 Bonus Tips for Maximizing Your Spring Fundraising Ideas

To help your nonprofit make the most of the season, here are five strategic tips to boost engagement and increase your campaign’s ROI for every Springtime fundraising idea that you try:

Leverage the "Fresh Start" Mentality Spring is synonymous with renewal and new beginnings. Frame your outreach around the concept of growth or starting a new chapter for your mission. This is an excellent time to launch a recurring giving campaign, inviting donors to "plant a seed" that provides ongoing support throughout the year.
Align with Earth Day and Environmental Themes With Earth Day falling in April, many donors are already thinking about sustainability. Even if your nonprofit isn't an environmental organization, you can host "green" events—such as a community garden cleanup or a paperless digital-only campaign—to show your commitment to the planet while raising funds.
Capitalize on "Spring Cleaning" Habits Supporters are often looking to declutter this time of year. Consider hosting a high-quality yard sale, a clothing drive, or a partnership with a local resale shop. Alternatively, a "digital declutter" campaign can encourage donors to simplify their lives by setting up automated, hassle-free monthly donations.
Incorporate Outdoor Wellness Activities Take advantage of the warmer weather by organizing events that get people moving. Walk-a-thons, 5K runs, or outdoor yoga sessions are popular spring staples. These activities work exceptionally well for peer-to-peer fundraising, as participants can easily share their progress and invite friends to sponsor their efforts.
Focus on Visual Storytelling Update your campaign visuals to reflect the season. Use bright, high-resolution imagery of outdoor activities, flowers in bloom, or people gathered together. A seasonal springtime refresh of your donation page and social media headers creates a sense of urgency and indicates that your organization is active and moving forward into the new year.

Pulse of the Donor

Fundraise Up is the first donation platform to integrate with HubSpot

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Fundraise Up is excited to announce its partnership and native API-based integration with HubSpot. This strategic partnership will enable nonprofits to provide their donors with a truly remarkable end-to-end experience. Whether it's the first interaction with a prospective donor or sustained correspondence with a life-long supporter, nonprofits will be able to leverage the interconnective technology they need to attract, engage, and delight their donor base.

Does Fundraise Up integrate with Salesforce and HubSpot?

Yes, Fundraise Up integrates natively with both Salesforce and HubSpot, syncing donation data in real time without third-party middleware. The HubSpot integration — Fundraise Up was the first donation platform to offer it — automatically creates Deals, associates them with Contacts, and syncs recurring plans as Custom Objects via a certified HubSpot app.

The Salesforce integration supports both Nonprofit Cloud and NPSP, pushing 100+ fundraising and marketing datapoints directly into your CRM. Both integrations are included at no extra cost, giving development and marketing teams a single source of truth for donor records, gift history, and recurring plan status.

Fundraise Up is the first online fundraising platform to natively integrate with HubSpot and automatically synchronize donation data between the two platforms in real time. Donations made through the Fundraise Up platform will be stored in HubSpot as Deals and automatically associated with a Contact. When connected to HubSpot via OAuth, the integration will create a new "Fundraise Up Donations" Pipeline and a new "Recurring Plan" Custom Object.

Fundraise Up is excited to collaborate with HubSpot as they continue to support nonprofits with their ecosystem of products, and further expand their Nonprofit Program. The HubSpot integration is part of Fundraise Up's ever-expanding suite of native integrations that includes Salesforce, Virtuous, Neon CRM, DonorPerfect, EveryAction, and Double the Donation 360MatchPro.

To learn more about Fundraise Up and HubSpot, see our resources below or contact Fundraise Up support .

Additional information: Fundraise Up's App Marketplace Listing and HubSpot & Fundraise Up Case Study

Support documentation: Connecting HubSpot to Fundraise Up

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a rapidly growing financial technology company headquartered in Brooklyn, NY that provides online fundraising software to enterprise nonprofits. Fundraise Up's AI-powered platform is leveraged by trusted organizations like UNICEF USA to double annual digital donation revenue and triple recurring donor acquisition.

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Peer-to-Peer vs. Crowdfunding for Nonprofits: A Digital Fundraiser's Guide

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

If your nonprofit is trying to grow online giving in 2026, you've almost certainly hit a fork in the road: do you launch a single, branded crowdfunding campaign, or do you mobilize your supporters to fundraise on your behalf through peer to peer fundraising? They sound similar, they often live on the same software stack, and a lot of fundraisers use the terms interchangeably. They are not the same thing, and the difference shows up in your donor acquisition costs, your retention rates, and the kind of community you build over the next five years.

This guide breaks down what each method actually is, where they diverge, and how to decide which one (or both) belongs in your digital fundraising mix.

Quick Definitions

Crowdfunding is centralized online fundraising. Your nonprofit creates one campaign page with a goal, a deadline, and a story. Everyone donates to that single page. Marketing, traffic, and storytelling all flow from your organization outward. Think of it as a megaphone with one voice behind it.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising is decentralized. Your organization launches a parent campaign, but the actual fundraising happens on dozens, hundreds, or thousands of personal pages built by your supporters. Each fundraiser pitches their own network — friends, family, coworkers — on behalf of your cause. Think of it as a relay race with a thousand runners, each carrying a piece of your message into a network you couldn't reach yourself.

Both run on digital fundraising platforms. Both depend on social sharing. The split happens in who is doing the asking — and that single variable cascades through everything else.

5 Peer to Peer vs Crowdfunding Differences That Actually Matter

1. Who's Doing the Asking

In crowdfunding, your nonprofit asks. In P2P, your supporters ask. This is not a small distinction. Research from Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy consistently finds that giving is heavily influenced by social ties, peer behavior, and trusted relationships — meaning a request from a friend converts at a fundamentally different rate than a request from a logo.

2. Donor Acquisition Quality

Crowdfunding brings in donors who start cold. They found your page, were moved, and gave. Now you have to nurture that relationship from zero.
P2P brings in donors who arrive pre-warmed by a personal connection. They already trusted the asker, which means they show up with higher lifetime value baseline expectations.

3. Setup Complexity

Crowdfunding: One page, one goal, one URL. A small team of one or two staffers can run it.
P2P: Specialized software, fundraiser onboarding, training resources, mid-campaign nudges, leaderboards, and stewardship. You're not just running a campaign — you're running a volunteer program.

4. Time Horizon

Crowdfunding is built for short, urgent windows: emergency relief, a specific project, end-of-year deadlines.
P2P is built for the long haul: annual events, community-building, donor pipeline expansion.

5. Best-Fit Use Cases

Crowdfunding wins when: the cause is tangible, emotional, time-bound, and your supporter base is small or undefined.
P2P wins when: you have an active community, you're running events (walks, rides, livestreams, dance marathons), and you have the staff to support volunteer fundraisers.

P2P participation is growing, but dollars-per-participant are dropping. The orgs that win are the ones supporting fewer fundraisers more deeply, not the ones recruiting the most warm bodies.

When to Choose Crowdfunding

Pick crowdfunding if you can answer "yes" to most of these:

You need money fast for a specific thing. Burst pipe, disaster relief, equipment replacement, end-of-year matching window.
Your story is visual and emotional. A photo of an animal, a video of a kid, a tangible "before/after" outcome.
Your supporter base is small or new. Crowdfunding lets you broadcast without needing volunteer infrastructure.
You have one clear, measurable goal. "$25,000 to renovate the shelter kitchen" works. "Build long-term community" does not.

When to Choose Peer-to-Peer

Pick P2P if you can answer "yes" to most of these:

You're running an event. Walks, rides, runs, gaming livestreams, dance marathons, "shave-your-head" challenges — events are the natural engine of P2P.
You want new donors at scale. Wharton research on crowdfunding signals shows that quality cues from a network drive funding decisions; P2P leans into that by routing every ask through a trusted contact.
You have staff capacity for stewardship. P2P only works if someone is recruiting fundraisers, training them, sending mid-campaign nudges, and celebrating wins.
You want to deepen existing relationships. P2P turns passive donors into active advocates, which is the single hardest progression in nonprofit fundraising.

For practical execution, our peer to peer tips guide covers the three things every P2P campaign needs to actually convert participants into raisers.

What's Happening in the Sector Right Now

According to NonProfit PRO's coverage of the 2025 Peer-to-Peer Top 30 report, America's top 30 P2P programs raised $1.17 billion in 2025 — a 3.4% year-over-year increase, with participation climbing 3.6% to 2.63 million people. The American Heart Association's Heart Walk alone raised $121 million.

But there's a quieter signal in the data: 23 of 30 programs grew, dollars-per-participant fell across the board, and the orgs winning aren't the ones throwing the biggest events — they're the ones treating P2P as long-term community infrastructure rather than a flagship line item. Crowdfunding, by comparison, hasn't seen the same maturation; it remains a tactical, project-by-project tool.

The Original Insight: It's Not Either/Or — It's a Funnel

Here's what most articles on this topic miss: crowdfunding and peer-to-peer aren't competing strategies. They're sequential ones.

Crowdfunding is excellent at first contact. A well-built crowdfunding campaign hooks strangers — people who'd never heard of your nonprofit until your video showed up in their feed. They donate $25, feel something, and move on. By itself, that's a one-shot transaction.

Peer-to-peer is excellent at deepening engagement. It can't easily acquire someone from cold; it works because it activates people who already care.

Smart nonprofits in 2026 are stitching them together into a single donor journey:

Acquire with crowdfunding. Run an emotionally vivid, time-boxed campaign that pulls in cold donors via paid social and email.
Activate with P2P. Six months later, invite those crowdfunding donors into your spring walk, ride, or virtual challenge as fundraisers — not just donors.
Retain with monthly giving. Convert your most engaged P2P participants into recurring supporters. (Monthly giving now accounts for 31% of all online revenue, per M+R, so this is where lifetime value compounds.)

This funnel approach reframes the question. It's not "which method is better?" It's "which method is right for this stage of the relationship?" Stanford GSB's research on online donor behavior suggests that small frictions and defaults dramatically affect whether someone gives once, gives again, or upgrades their gift — meaning the handoffs between these stages are where most nonprofits leak value, not the campaigns themselves.

If you're picking one to start with, pick the one that matches where you are. If you have a community but no acquisition engine, P2P. If you have urgency but no community, crowdfunding. And if you want to grow sustainably, build the bridge between them.

In a Nutshell: Choose Your Audience Donor Path

If you need...	Use...
Fast money for a specific project	Crowdfunding
New donors via personal networks	Peer-to-peer
A simple campaign you can run alone	Crowdfunding
To turn supporters into advocates	Peer-to-peer
To fundraise around an event	Peer-to-peer
Cold-traffic donor acquisition	Crowdfunding
Long-term community building	Peer-to-peer
Both, working together	A funnel: crowdfunding → P2P → monthly

The TLDR on Going with Peer to Peer or Crowdfunding in 2026

Both crowdfunding and P2P are real tools, and both work — but they do different jobs. Crowdfunding is your spotlight; P2P is your network. The nonprofits raising the most online aren't picking one and ignoring the other. They're using purpose-built peer to peer fundraising platforms alongside crowdfunding pages, then connecting the donors that come in through one to the campaigns powered by the other.

Pick the strategy that matches where your organization actually is right now — and start designing the bridge to where you want to be.

Peer-to-peer fundraising: the complete guide for nonprofits

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Peer-to-peer fundraising has become one of the fastest moving lanes in the world of digital fundraising. Let’s jump right into it.

What Is peer-to-peer fundraising?

If your nonprofit is searching for a fundraising model that expands reach without expanding your team, peer-to-peer fundraising (P2P) is almost certainly on your radar — and for good reason. This is not a niche tactic. It is now one of the most widely adopted and fastest-growing revenue strategies in the nonprofit sector.

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a model in which individual supporters — volunteers, donors, event participants, or brand advocates — create their own personal fundraising pages to solicit donations from friends, family, and colleagues on behalf of your organization. Unlike a single campaign page your nonprofit manages centrally, P2P distributes the fundraising effort across dozens or hundreds of individual ambassadors, each tapping into their own trust networks.

Also known as social fundraising or P2P fundraising, it works because of a fundamental truth about human giving: people donate when someone they know and trust makes the ask. A stranger's donation button is easy to scroll past. A fundraising page launched by your colleague, sibling, or neighbor is far harder to ignore.

Peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns can help retain up to 50% of donors — and 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know.
— Network for Good, Multiple nonprofit research sources

The P2P donation mechanics are simple: your nonprofit sets up a central campaign, recruits supporters to participate, provides them with fundraising tools and messaging templates, and they go to work. Each supporter's personal page links back to your campaign, so every gift rolls up into your overall total. The best peer-to-peer fundraising platform handles the technical infrastructure — page creation, payment processing, progress tracking, and automated supporter communications — so your team can focus on relationship-building, not administration.

Why it works: the data behind P2P fundraising

The growth trajectory of peer-to-peer fundraising is striking. From a pandemic-era collapse in 2020 — when in-person events evaporated overnight — the sector has recovered and surpassed pre-pandemic levels for four consecutive years.

Latest Data — February 2026
America's Top 30 peer-to-peer fundraising programs raised $1.17 billion in 2025, a 3.4% increase year-over-year, according to the 20th Annual Peer-to-peer Fundraising Top 30 Survey. Participation climbed 3.6% to 2.63 million individuals. The American Heart Association's Heart Walk alone raised $121 million — an $11 million gain over the prior year. (NonProfit PRO, February 2026)

Peer-to-peer fundraising statistics at a glance

Stat	What It Means
$1.17B	Raised by Top 30 U.S. P2P programs in 2025 (Peer-to-peer Professional Forum)
2× more revenue	P2P campaigns raise twice as much as traditional digital campaigns on average (CauseVox)
80%	Of first-time donors to an organization give through a P2P campaign (GoFundMe Pro)
$244	Average amount raised by an individual P2P fundraiser
87%	Of all P2P donations come from individual supporter pages, not the main campaign page (CauseVox)
83% more	Raised when fundraising pages are linked to Facebook Fundraisers
76%	Fundraiser activation rate across P2P campaigns (Raisely Benchmarks 2025)
50%+	Of Gen Z and Gen X supporters are willing to fundraise on behalf of a nonprofit

Revenue growth: Top 30 U.S. P2P programs (2020–2025)

Year	Collective revenue
2020	$0.76B
2021	$0.88B
2022	$0.95B
2023	$1.07B
2024	$1.14B
2025	$1.17B

Source: Peer-to-peer Professional Forum, 20th Annual Top 30 Survey (2026)

Campaign volume vs. per-participant productivity (2021–2025)

Year	Campaign volume index (base 100)	Revenue per participant index (base 100)
2021	100	100
2022	108	104
2023	114	108
2024	122	106
2025	138	100

Campaign volume rose 18% while dollars raised per participant fell 20% — highlighting the importance of fundraiser quality over quantity. Source: Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks Report 2025.

One number that should be in every nonprofit strategist's toolkit: 80% of first-time donors to an organization give through a P2P campaign. This makes peer-to-peer fundraising arguably the most powerful donor acquisition tool available — not just a revenue mechanism, but a pipeline-builder for your entire development program.

The digital-first angle is also significant. In 2021, 44 organizations raised over $154 million from digital-first P2P activities — a 30% jump from the prior year, versus just 3.5% growth for in-person campaigns over the same period. Deploying a true digital fundraising platform that optimizes the online supporter experience has become a competitive necessity, not a nice-to-have.

3 types of peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns

Not every P2P campaign looks the same. Understanding the three primary formats helps you match the strategy to your organization's capacity, audience, and goals.

1. Rolling (evergreen) campaigns

Open-ended campaigns with no deadline. Supporters can create a personal fundraising page at any time of year. Ideal for organizations that want an always-on revenue stream — like birthday fundraisers or memorial campaigns. Requires minimal ongoing management once configured. Example: Alex's Lemonade Stand, which allows anyone to host their own lemonade stand fundraiser at any time.

2. Time-based event campaigns

Tied to a specific event — a walkathon, cycling challenge, endurance race, or gala. Participants fundraise in the lead-up to the event, creating deadline-driven urgency. This is the most common format among top-30 programs. Walks, runs, and rides remain the backbone of the sector, anchored by programs like the American Heart Association's Heart Walk ($121M in 2025) and the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (931,383 participants in 2025).

3. Giving Days

Condensed 24-hour sprints that drive urgency and social energy. Can leverage established occasions like GivingTuesday or a date meaningful to your cause. Leaderboards and matching gift opportunities amplify participation rates and social sharing during these compressed campaigns.

How to run a successful P2P campaign — 5 steps

Step 1: Set smart goals before you launch

Define a specific dollar target, number of fundraisers to recruit, and an average per-fundraiser goal. Organizations that establish clear benchmarks — like "recruit 50 fundraisers, each raising $300" — consistently outperform those with vague ambitions. Your platform's analytics will be meaningless without a baseline to measure against.

Step 2: Recruit the right fundraisers — not just the most

The 2025 data is unambiguous: campaign volume rose 18% but dollars raised per participant fell 20% (Raisely Benchmarks, 2025). More fundraisers does not automatically mean more revenue. Prioritize your most passionate and well-networked supporters — major donors, long-term volunteers, board members, and program alumni — over broad, untargeted recruitment.

Step 3: Equip fundraisers with done-for-you assets

Provide email templates, social media captions, personal story frameworks, and a short FAQ they can share with their networks. Fundraisers who receive strong onboarding materials complete their first ask faster and raise more. Reduce the activation friction at every step.

Step 4: Keep momentum with mid-campaign engagement

The biggest drop-off in P2P campaigns occurs in the middle weeks. Automated milestone emails, leaderboard updates, and mid-campaign challenges (like a "first to $500" prize) sustain energy. Research shows fundraisers who receive mid-campaign check-ins are significantly more likely to reach their personal goals.

Step 5: Build a donor conversion strategy

P2P is exceptional at donor acquisition — 80% of first-time givers arrive via supporter pages — but retention lags. Build a 90-day stewardship sequence specifically for first-time P2P donors, distinct from your regular new-donor welcome series, emphasizing how their gift was used and inviting them into a recurring giving relationship.

What the best programs do differently

Most organizations understand the mechanics of peer-to-peer fundraising. The gap between average and exceptional lies in a few specific practices that rarely appear in generic how-to guides.

They treat P2P as infrastructure, not an event

The organizations posting the strongest long-term results — like St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which operates three separate Top 30 programs — treat peer-to-peer fundraising as a permanent organizational capability, not an annual event they bolt on. That means dedicated staff, dedicated technology, and a year-round cadence of supporter cultivation between campaigns.

They segment by generational fundraising willingness

Not all supporters are equally inclined to fundraise on your behalf. Data shows that over 50% of Gen Z and Gen X supporters are willing to fundraise for an organization they care about, compared to just 27% of the Silent Generation. Forward-thinking development teams tailor their P2P recruitment messaging and channel mix accordingly — using digital-first outreach for younger cohorts and more personal asks for older, high-net-worth supporters.

They diversify campaign formats

The organizations absorbing participation shifts most gracefully are those running multiple P2P formats simultaneously — walks, DIY campaigns, livestreams, and hybrid events. Canada's Top 30 programs, which grew 7.6% in 2025 (outpacing the U.S.), demonstrated that diversification of event types correlates with more durable revenue. When one format underperforms, others compensate.

They integrate Facebook fundraisers strategically

The data on this is consistent and significant: fundraising pages linked to Facebook fundraisers raise 83% more than those without social integration. Yet many nonprofits still treat social media as a broadcast channel rather than a transactional one. The best P2P programs actively coach every fundraiser to connect their personal page to Facebook at setup — not as an afterthought.

Academic & authoritative resources

Claremont Lincoln University — Fundraising ideas and strategies for nonprofits A higher-education perspective on digital fundraising models including peer-to-peer.
Antioch University — Innovative fundraising ideas for nonprofits: Research-backed overview of how event-based P2P campaigns like March of Dimes leverage personal networks.
New York Institute of Technology — Peer-to-peer fundraising resource guide: Practical guidance on recruiting, enabling, and managing P2P fundraisers in an institutional context.
D'Youville University — Giving day peer-to-peer fundraising: A university giving-day model illustrating best practices in supporter segmentation and fundraiser recruitment.
Stanford University / arXiv — Donor retention in online crowdfunding communities: A large-scale academic study of millions of donors on crowdfunding platforms, with implications for P2P donor retention strategies (Althoff & Leskovec, Stanford).

Here are the most common questions we hear about peer-to-peer fundraising in 2026

What is the difference between peer-to-peer fundraising and crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding and peer-to-peer fundraising are related but structurally different. In crowdfunding, your organization manages a single campaign page and drives traffic to it. In peer-to-peer fundraising, each supporter creates their own individual fundraising page, all connected to your central campaign. This personalization is critical — supporters can share their own story and relationship to your cause, which is far more persuasive to their personal networks than a generic organizational page. P2P consistently outperforms crowdfunding for donor acquisition because of this personal-story element.
How much does peer-to-peer fundraising typically raise?
The average individual P2P fundraiser raises approximately $244. At the campaign level, P2P campaigns typically raise twice as much as comparable traditional digital fundraising campaigns (CauseVox data). At the sector level, the top 30 U.S. programs collectively raised $1.17 billion in 2025. Results vary widely by sector, nonprofit size, and campaign design — but organizations that invest in fundraiser support and onboarding consistently outperform those that rely on passive sign-ups.
What types of nonprofits benefit most from peer-to-peer fundraising?
Health nonprofits have historically led P2P adoption — the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital dominate the top-program rankings. However, P2P is increasingly effective across cause areas including education, animal welfare, environmental organizations, and faith-based nonprofits. The common denominator is not cause type, but community strength: organizations with passionate, networked supporters who want to do more than write a check are the best candidates for P2P programs.
What features should I look for in a peer-to-peer fundraising platform?
The core requirements include: easy individual page creation (supporters should be able to launch in under five minutes), mobile-optimized design, social media integration (especially Facebook Fundraiser linking), automated email communications tied to fundraiser milestones, real-time progress tracking and leaderboards, and seamless integration with your CRM or donor database. The best platforms also provide coaching prompts and suggested next steps directly to fundraisers, reducing the management burden on your team.
How do we retain donors acquired through peer-to-peer campaigns?
This is the most urgent unsolved challenge in P2P fundraising. While P2P is exceptionally effective at acquiring new donors — with 80% of first-time givers arriving through supporter pages — many of these donors do not naturally convert into recurring contributors. The best practice is to segment P2P-acquired donors immediately upon first gift and enroll them in a stewardship track that differs from your standard welcome series. This track should quickly show the impact of their specific gift, introduce them to the organization beyond the campaign they gave to, and make a soft ask for a recurring gift within 60–90 days.
Can small nonprofits run successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns?
Yes — and in some ways, smaller organizations have an advantage. The social trust that makes P2P work is often stronger in tight-knit communities around smaller nonprofits than in large, impersonal mega-charity campaigns. A well-run P2P campaign by a community food bank, local animal shelter, or regional health organization can yield extraordinary results relative to size. The critical ingredient is not budget; it is a core group of passionate supporters willing to put their name on a fundraising page and make personal asks. Start with 10–20 deeply committed advocates, provide them with excellent support, and build from there.

Statistics sourced from the Peer-to-peer Professional Forum (2026), Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks Report (2025), CauseVox P2P Data Study, NonProfit PRO, and GoFundMe Pro research. All figures current as of April 2026.

Livestream fundraising with Twitch: Level up your livestream nonprofit fundraising in 2026 with Twitch

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Livestreaming platforms are making it easier for nonprofits to reach new audiences and increase donations. For example, Twitch, one of the most popular livestreaming services, has helped nonprofits — including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Action Against Hunger, and Project HOPE — raise millions of dollars for their causes.

Why nonprofits love Twitch for livestream fundraising

Twitch is an exciting online fundraising tool because it enables nonprofits to reach potential new donors directly instead of waiting for donors to find them.

Many Twitch streamers share information and raise money for causes they care about. With a little due diligence, nonprofits can put their fundraising message in front of an audience that is already aware of and engaged with the organization or mission.

How to fundraise live on Twitch

There are two ways nonprofits can leverage fundraising opportunities on Twitch:

Create a channel to livestream their own fundraising programming.
Partner with established Twitch streamers who are willing to promote the organization on their channel.

Create a Twitch channel for your nonprofit

Creating a Twitch channel to drive fundraising for your organization is an excellent way to expand your donor base beyond the traditional channels and build a dedicated community around your mission.

It also gives your organization control over the content it streams. With a little creativity, there's almost no limit to your livestream fundraising opportunities.

Nonprofits can host live virtual events, such as trivia nights, auctions, and concerts, or go all in and invite celebrity guest hosts to join the livestream for an exclusive event.

Although there are many benefits to launching a Twitch channel for your nonprofit, supporting the channel can be fairly time and resource-intensive. As the sole content creator, your nonprofit will be responsible for building the audience and delivering enough engaging content to keep them invested.

Partner with existing Twitch streamers who care about your mission

A more direct option is to research Twitch streamers who have a history of supporting similar nonprofits or causes and asking them to promote specific campaigns during their streams.

Working with established Twitch streamers gives nonprofits access to engaged audiences that are likely already familiar with your cause — if not your organization. By providing talking points, graphics, and links to your organization’s preferred fundraising platform, streamers can easily integrate your messaging into their content and provide information about how to donate on Twitch.

Partnering with a Twitch streamer can infuse your campaigns with fresh ideas and messaging, but it also adds a layer of uncertainty to your fundraising efforts. Promoting campaigns through a third-party channel gives your organization limited control over the timing and the content that the streamer shares, which could result in lower donor engagement.

It’s also important to maintain a strict alignment of values between your nonprofit, the streamer, and the audience to protect your organization’s reputation and donor-fundraising relationship.

How to create a donation page with Twitch

Some Twitch streamers use the livestream platform’s native fundraising tools; however, Fundraise Up offers intuitive donor-centric features worth exploring. Let’s talk about it.

For example, nonprofits can use Fundraise Up to create and link to Campaign Pages that are optimized for conversions. Or add our no-code Checkout Modal to your website and link to that! Results show that it improves the donor experience — and increases donation revenue — by reducing friction, expanding payment options, and using artificial intelligence to personalize donation amounts and encourage recurring giving.

We’re all in on AI: how our platform uses AI to improve donor engagement and increase donation conversions.

Direct links to Campaign Pages can easily be placed in livestream descriptions and comments or turned into QR codes and displayed on-screen during streams so viewers can easily scan and donate.

The best part? Nonprofits can use Fundraise Up on Twitch without any modifications, keeping our convenient fundraising tools, high conversion features, and donations all in one place.

Make livestreaming a part of your fundraising tool kit

Whether your nonprofit launches its own Twitch channel or seeks out like-minded streamers to help spread the word, incorporating fundraising messaging and Campaign Page links into livestreamed content is an effective way to reach new, highly engaged audiences.

Find out how the right tools can make a huge impact on your nonprofit’s conversion rates. Check out this Fundraise Up case study: How The Salvation Army UK converts 49% of donors.

High volume events page

Here is a search intent-driven FAQ section designed to cap off your blog post. It answers the most common logistical and financial questions users have when researching this topic, keeping your organization or the streamer legally protected and focused on the event.

5 common questions about livestream fundraising with Twitch

What is the best way to collect money during a charity stream?

If you are figuring out how to livestream fundraise with twitch, the most important rule is that the streamer should never handle the money directly. The easiest method is using the native Twitch Charity Tool, which integrates directly into the creator dashboard and routes funds via the PayPal Giving Fund. Alternatively, third-party platforms like Tiltify, Givebutter, or DonorDrive offer excellent Twitch extensions that send the money straight to your nonprofit's bank account while triggering real-time alerts on the stream.

Can viewers just use Subscriptions and Bits to donate to the cause?

Technically, a streamer can pledge to donate their stream revenue, but it is highly discouraged to use Bits and Subscriptions as the primary donation method. Subscriptions and Bits are considered taxable income for the streamer, not charitable donations, meaning the viewer does not get a tax receipt. Furthermore, the platform takes a significant revenue cut from Subscriptions and Bits. It is always better to direct viewers to a dedicated charity link or the native charity tool so 100% of the intent goes to the nonprofit.

Does the platform take a cut of the funds raised?

If you use the official Twitch Charity Tool, the platform takes exactly 0% of the donations. The only deductions are the standard credit card or PayPal payment processing fees, which are unavoidable in e-commerce. If you use a third-party extension like Tiltify or Givebutter, the platform fee depends on that specific software provider, but Twitch itself will not touch funds routed through external charity links.

Do you need to be a Twitch Partner or Affiliate to host an event?

To use the native Twitch Charity Tool built into the creator dashboard, the broadcaster does need to be an Affiliate or Partner. However, anyone can set up a brand new channel and run a charity stream using third-party integrations like Tiltify. You do not need thousands of concurrent viewers to be successful; small, highly engaged micro-communities often yield higher conversion rates because the broadcaster can interact directly with every single person in the chat.

How does an organization get listed in the native charity search?

To appear in the official internal database so that creators can easily select your nonprofit for their campaigns, your organization must be enrolled in the PayPal Giving Fund. Once your nonprofit is registered and verified there, it will automatically populate in the platform's charity search directory.

Fundraising email subject lines: 70 Giving Tuesday subject lines to drive donations in 2025

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:00:00 GMT

As an online fundraising nonprofit, Giving Tuesday is essentially your Super Bowl. It’s one of the biggest days for fundraising, with $3.6 billion donated in the U.S. last year.

Every nonprofit is looking to capitalize on the generous spirit of the day — and that means your supporters are getting a lot of emails.

One of the best ways to stand out in a jam-packed inbox? A compelling subject line. It’s the first thing your donors see, and it’s often the deciding factor between opening and engaging with your email or dragging it straight to the trash.

It can feel like a lot is riding is on just a few words. But have no fear, this guide is here to help you write your Giving Tuesday subject lines — without all of the high-stakes head scratching.

We’re sharing a few quick tips to write strong subject lines for Giving Tuesday, along with tons of examples you’re encouraged to steal (seriously, we mean it). Copy them, personalize them, or toss them into AI to get even more inspiration. They’re here to make your emails better — and your job easier.

The basics of attention-grabbing fundraising subject lines

Before we get into the actual examples, let’s look at a few best practices that apply across all of the categories of Giving Tuesday email subject lines:

Keep it short. Aim for fewer than nine words and under 60 characters. A shorter length is especially important for people who read your emails on mobile.
Send test emails. It’s the best way to see what your email actually looks like, so you can fix that wonky special character or emoji before it goes out to your whole list.
Avoid spam trigger words. While there’s nothing wrong with instilling urgency, certain words (think things like “hurry,” “act now,” or even all caps or too many exclamation points) can trigger spam filters and keep your email out of people’s inboxes.
Front-load the most important words. Put your main idea right at the start of your subject line so it’s immediately visible, even on small screens. For example, “Give today to support local families” instead of “Support local families by donating today.”
Test with and without emojis. Emojis can have a positive effect on open and click-through rates, but using too many of them can make your email look like spam. Test your subject lines with and without emojis to get a sense of what’s working best with your supporters.
Review your performance from last year. Take a look back at last year’s campaigns. Those metrics can offer clues as to what resonates with your donors, so you can incorporate those insights into this year’s subject lines.

70 Giving Tuesday fundraising email subject lines you can copy, paste, and personalize

Now let’s get to what you really want: examples of Giving Tuesday subject lines that you can easily adapt and use for your own campaigns.

We’ve broken them into a variety of categories so you can quickly find the ones that are the best fit for your needs, voice, and desired approach. However, these aren’t clear-cut categories — and plenty of the strategies can be combined. For example, a single subject line could incorporate urgency, impact, and emojis.

To instill urgency

Giving Tuesday is only one day, so there’s a natural sense of urgency built in. Emphasizing this fact (again, without being spammy) can inspire your donors to open your email and take immediate action.

Last chance to make a difference today
Only a few hours left to give…
Today counts: help us [cause] before midnight
Your gift matters — don’t miss today
Time’s almost up to support [cause]
Support [cause] before Giving Tuesday is over
Give now to make an impact today
Counting down: Help us [cause] this Giving Tuesday
Final hours to join our Giving Tuesday efforts
Make a difference before Giving Tuesday ends

To highlight matching gifts

Matching gifts — whether through a foundation, corporation, or large donor — can significantly increase donations, with 84% of donors saying they’re more likely to contribute if a match is offered. Calling attention to this in your subject lines tells supporters upfront that they have an opportunity to make their gift go further.

Double your impact for [cause] today
Your gift goes twice as far for [cause]
Every gift matched today for [cause]
Help [cause] today — your support is doubled
Give today and double your impact
Today: matching gifts make your donation go further
Support [cause] — all gifts matched today
Make your Giving Tuesday donation go further
Matching gifts make today’s donations count more
Your contribution goes further with a match

To emphasize impact

Donating activates the regions of the brain associated with pleasure, which means giving just feels good. You can amplify these positive vibes by using your subject line to show donors the meaningful difference their gift makes. When possible, use concrete numbers to show your supporters the quantifiable results they can help you achieve.

Your support changes lives at [cause]
Make a real impact for [cause] this Giving Tuesday
See the difference your gift can make
Help [cause] deliver [real-world result]
Your gift powers [results] at [cause]
Turn your generosity into real impact this Giving Tuesday
See how your donation helps [cause or result]
Your contribution helps us achieve [outcome]
Help [cause] reach [specific outcome] today
Your generosity fuels [cause]’s [result]

To make a personal connection

Even if you’re sending the same email to hundreds or thousands of people, making your supporters feel like you’re only talking to them is powerful. Data shows that emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. If you can’t include a donor’s first name, making your subject line more donor-centric can help you generate that same feeling of connection.

[First Name], see the difference you can make
You make our work possible
Your support matters today, [First Name]
We’re counting on you this Giving Tuesday, [First Name]
You’re making an impact at [cause], [First Name]
We couldn’t do this without you
You’re part of something bigger at [cause]
[First Name], your gift makes a difference today
You can help bring [cause] closer to our goal
[First Name], you’re making change happen

To spark curiosity

There’s nothing more intriguing than a question — and once we hear one, it’s difficult for our brains to think about anything else. Needless to say, working questions into your Giving Tuesday subject lines can pique your donors’ curiosity and encourage them to open your email to find the answer.

Can you help [cause] reach its goal today?
What difference could your gift make?
How will you support [cause] this Giving Tuesday?
Could your donation change a life?
Are you part of [cause]’s Giving Tuesday success?
Ready to see what your gift can accomplish?
Can you make an impact this Giving Tuesday?
Have you made your Giving Tuesday gift yet?
Can one gift really make a difference?
Who will your gift help at [cause]?

To show gratitude

You don’t just have to show appreciation after your supporters donate. Including gratitude directly in your Giving Tuesday subject lines makes your donors feel seen and valued, making them more likely to give.

Thank you for making a difference, [First Name]
We appreciate your support at [cause]
Your generosity means the world to us
Thanks to you, [cause] is thriving
We’re grateful for everything you do, [First Name]
Your support keeps [cause] moving forward
Thank you for being part of our mission
Thank you — your contribution makes a big difference
We’re so thankful for your support, [First Name]
Thanks for helping us make a real impact

To add warmth and personality

Emails can feel a little impersonal, but the good news is that emojis can help. Research shows the same part of our brain that processes human facial expressions also processes emojis. So, bringing them into your email subjects can strengthen your connection with your supporters. Even if you don’t use a face — maybe you’ll opt for a heart or some clapping hands instead — emojis bring some extra personality and warmth to your Giving Tuesday email campaigns.

You can make a difference today ❤️
Your support changes lives 🌟
Help [cause] succeed this Giving Tuesday 🙌
You can make a real impact 💪
Will you join us this Giving Tuesday? 🎁
Together, we can achieve more 🌱
Your generosity matters 👏🏻
Support [cause] and help us reach our goal 🚀
Be part of the change today 💗
Let’s make this Giving Tuesday count 🎉

Fundraising email subject lines that spark support

Your fundraising email subject line might be only a few words, but it has a big job. Ultimately, the best Giving Tuesday subject lines are the ones that resonate with your supporters — and that can mean something different for every nonprofit. Use the above examples as your starting point and then do some testing and experimenting to find the subject lines that generate cash (and avoid the trash). Read next: 10 donor engagement strategies that let tech supplement tradition

Nonprofit fundraising strategy: the beginner’s guide

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

If your nonprofit is struggling to hit annual revenue goals or your team feels overwhelmed by the sheer number of ways to solicit donations, then you need a fundraising strategy pronto. Many organizations quickly realize that relying on sporadic campaigns, reactive grant writing, or ad-hoc donor appeals isn’t enough to sustain long-term community impact.

What you need is a clear, actionable roadmap. Whether your team is building an effective fundraising strategy from scratch or trying to refine an existing nonprofit fundraising strategy, having a structured approach is the defining factor between simply surviving and truly scaling. In this guide, we will break down exactly how developing a fundraising strategy can seamlessly align your financial goals with your mission, streamline your donor outreach, and ensure your entire organization knows exactly where to focus their energy.

A strong fundraising planned strategy helps nonprofits meet challenges effectively and take advantage of new opportunities by enabling leaders to visualize the organization’s path to success. Through nonprofit strategic planning, these organizations can systematically align their overall mission with their financial goals and capabilities, boosting nonprofit performance.

5 Innovative Fundraising Strategies to Implement in 2026

1. Frictionless Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) Widgets

For years, Donor-Advised Funds were seen as complex vehicles reserved for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, and the process to disburse funds involved donors logging into clunky external portals to request a grant. That is changing.

According to the National Philanthropic Trust’s 2024 DAF Report, charitable assets in DAFs reached over $251 billion in 2023. You can capture this massive pool of capital by integrating DAF payment widgets (like DAFpay or Chariot) directly into your website's primary donation flow. This allows donors to initiate a DAF grant with just three clicks, treating their philanthropic fund exactly like a digital wallet.

2. Predictive AI for Dynamic "Ask" Arrays

Most nonprofits still use static donation tiers on their giving pages (e.g., $25, $50, $100, $500). This approach either leaves money on the table from donors with higher capacity or alienates younger supporters who can only afford micro-donations.

Predictive artificial intelligence analyzes a donor's past giving history, wealth indicators, and interaction frequency to generate hyper-personalized "ask" amounts in real-time. As highlighted by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, integrating predictive AI can dramatically improve donor retention by identifying who is at risk of disengaging and presenting them with highly targeted, algorithmically optimized appeals.

3. Embedded Giving via API Integration

Instead of solely asking consumers directly for money, partner with nonprofit fundraising software companies to embed your cause directly into their daily business workflows.

Through simple API integrations, you can set up micro-donations triggered by specific user actions on a partner's platform. For example, a B2B SaaS billing platform could automatically round up invoices to the nearest dollar and route the change to your nonprofit, or an e-commerce brand could trigger a $1 donation every time a customer abandons a cart but returns to finish the purchase. It shifts the burden of the ask from your team to an automated, background process.

4. Milestone-Based Smart Contracts

For major donors and foundations who demand radical accountability, Web3 and blockchain technology offer a transparent way to restrict and release funds.

Instead of writing a blank check upfront, a donor can fund a smart contract on the blockchain. The code is programmed to release capital automatically in tranches only when your organization hits specific, verifiable impact metrics (e.g., $50,000 released upon the completion of a school's foundation, $50,000 upon the roof completion). The World Economic Forum notes that this level of blockchain-driven transparency is setting a new standard for coordinating accountable aid and managing crowdfunding outside of traditional, opaque systems.

5. Real-Time Impact Dashboards

The standard nonprofit annual report is outdated by the time it goes to print. Modern donors, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, expect real-time proof of impact.

Instead of waiting for a yearly PDF, transition to hosting a live data dashboard on your website. Connect your financial CRM and field operations software to a public-facing visualization tool. When a donor gives $100, they should be able to see that metric update live, alongside data points showing exactly how many meals were served, trees were planted, or rescue operations were completed that same week. Transparency is no longer a buzzword; it is a conversion tool.

The importance of strategic nonprofit planning

Strategic planning creates a blueprint for sustainable impact, ensuring nonprofits can work efficiently towards their mission. A well-defined strategy aids in allocating resources, making decisions, and setting realistic goals. Ultimately, this plan will guide fundraising efforts by outlining the steps and resources necessary for continued progress.

Components of a nonprofit strategic plan

As with many aspects of business, no two fundraising strategic plans will look the same. Individual strategies are heavily based on the unique needs and vision of the nonprofit. Several commonly used types of strategic plans exist to navigate general circumstances, such as issue-based planning and department alignment. However, the specific elements of a fundraising strategy are different for each organization.

Despite this variation, virtually every nonprofit strategic plan should include the following components, in some form, to be effective:

1. Mission statement

Mission statements are the backbone of nonprofit strategy. A nonprofit's overall mission and vision should be the basis of its planning process and drive strategic priorities. All goals and objectives should align with this mission and contribute to its success.

2. Needs assessment

It’s critical to conduct a thorough needs assessment, such as a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis, to identify opportunities and areas of concern. This deep dive allows organizations to acquire insights regarding internal capacity, community needs, revenue operations, and more.

3. Stakeholder engagement

Nonprofits must ensure key community partners, staff, and board members are involved in shaping the strategic plan. Input from stakeholders will help keep goals realistic and relevant. Assign roles and responsibilities for accountability and a sense of ownership in achieving fundraising objectives.

4. Clear goals and objectives

One way to ensure fundraising goals are clear is by applying the SMART framework. Developing specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals will help the organization answer essential questions, including:

What are our fundraising targets?
How do current initiatives support the fundraising goals?
Is our strategy still relevant?

How to develop a fundraising strategic plan

If your organization is unsure where to begin with creating a strategic plan, start by outlining the four key elements above in the context of your nonprofit. This preliminary step will provide the skeleton for a more detailed fundraising strategy with actionable objectives.

Nonprofits can tailor their strategic planning process to address specific fundraising challenges and opportunities. A comprehensive fundraising strategy should align with the organization’s overall strategic plan and include tactical initiatives for:

Diversifying revenue streams

Effectively managing income streams requires a detailed understanding of your organization’s mission, target audience, market demand, differentiators, and budget. When exploring different types of income streams, there are plenty to pursue, including (but not limited to):

grants
memberships
events
sponsorships
crowdfunding
merchandise

Strategically diversifying revenue streams means choosing approaches that align with your nonprofit’s overall vision and complement organizational processes.

Converting donors

Specific measures should be in place for building and nurturing relationships with potential donors. This process should include researching your organization’s audience, engaging with donors where they’re communicating, and ideally converting them through targeted messaging. An organization’s donor cultivation strategy is the key to unlocking prospects and incentivizing donations.

Leveraging technology

The applications that make up a nonprofit tech stack should provide your organization with the tools necessary to grow and scale its online fundraising programs. Your nonprofit’s choice of software provider should support fundraising objectives and promote a positive donor experience. With so many options available, investing in technology solutions can be overwhelming, but a robust and reliable tech stack is invaluable to nonprofit strategy.

Implementing and evaluating the fundraising strategy

The strategic planning process is dynamic, meaning it must constantly evolve to meet the organization's changing needs. An effective fundraising strategy is by no means a “set it and forget it” plan—it requires refinement or remodification based on shifts in trends, priorities, and demands.

Properly implementing a nonprofit strategic plan means the organization must:

establish both long- and short-term goals
prioritize clear and open communication
regularly assess leadership buy-in
perform ongoing evaluations

Performance metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to track progress and evaluate the effectiveness of a strategic plan. Setting benchmarks using these metrics helps fundraising teams visualize their successes and identify any efforts that may have missed the mark. Your nonprofit should establish which KPIs it wants to track before beginning a fundraising program to maintain consistency.

Simplify nonprofit strategic planning with Fundraise Up

Effective nonprofit strategic planning transforms aspirations into tangible impact, igniting change and amplifying your organization’s mission. By creating a solid and scalable fundraising strategy, nonprofit organizations like yours can meet challenges effectively and take advantage of any new opportunities that arise.

Fundraise Up makes nonprofit strategic planning simpler than ever with our user-friendly, all-in-one online fundraising solution. Create your nonprofit’s plan, track campaign progress, nurture connections, and maximize resources with one comprehensive tool that requires no web design experience. It’s time to set a new standard for online giving with Fundraise Up.

Common Questions Regarding Fundraising Strategies in 2026

How does an annual fund fit into a broader overarching plan?

An annual fund should act as the foundation of your revenue roadmap. While your broader fundraising strategy dictates long-term organizational growth, major gift pipelines, and capital campaigns, the annual fund is dedicated to securing reliable, unrestricted income. It provides the baseline metrics and donor retention data needed for evaluating a fundraising strategy year over year.

Who should be involved in developing a fundraising strategy for our organization?

While the development director or executive director often leads the charge, creating a successful fundraising strategy requires input from across the organization. Your board of directors should provide high-level financial vision and leverage their network, program staff should share on-the-ground impact data to shape the narrative, and marketing teams must ensure the campaigns are communicated effectively to your audience.

What are the biggest risks of operating without a formal roadmap?

Without a documented fundraising strategy plan, nonprofits risk severe donor fatigue, misallocated budgets, and high staff burnout. Your team might end up chasing the newest digital trend or a random grant opportunity without considering if it yields a positive return on investment. A structured, intentional approach ensures every dollar and hour spent is driving toward your nonprofit's core mission.

How often should we adjust or pivot our core approach?

Your roadmap isn't meant to sit on a shelf gathering dust. You should review your core fundraising strategy quarterly against your key performance indicators (KPIs). If you notice a sudden dip in recurring giving or lower-than-expected event turnout, regularly reviewing your data allows you to make swift tactical pivots while keeping your overarching financial goals intact.

Nonprofit event planning: unlocking the secrets to a sold-out gala

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Fundraising alas are a great opportunity to make a splash and carry nonprofit success forward with a high-profile fundraising event. As social dynamics shift, nonprofit event planning requires strategic creativity to draw a crowd, delight donors, and create an emotional connection with your organization’s mission.

Let’s explore what it takes to orchestrate charity events no one will want to miss your next fundraising event.

What it takes to sell out your nonprofit’s fundraising gala

Traditional fundraising galas are formal affairs with elaborate dinners and entertainment. The grand setting creates a polished backdrop for nonprofits to present their successes and incentivize generous donations.

Limiting these events to their traditional framework may not appeal to discerning donors or be an effective way to showcase an organization’s efforts. Nonprofit event planning at this scale should invite guests to take part in compelling experiences that place them at the heart of an organization’s story.

Nonprofit event planning in 2026 requires a mission, vision, and innovation

Galas serve several roles, from raising funds and awareness to cultivating donor engagement. To hold a successful gala and achieve these benefits, the organizational mission should anchor every element of event planning.

Let the mission define the vision for the evening, giving shape to the theme, experiences, venue, and marketing in ways that spark meaningful connections. Combined with innovative considerations that enhance the gala experience, the evening should inspire attendees to donate and look forward to the next event.

Essential elements of nonprofit event planning

While every event will have distinct considerations, these are a few essentials that should not go overlooked:

an aligned and collaborative planning committee with attention to detail
a mission-centered theme to foster connection with the mission throughout the evening
a structured timeline that will deliver a great evening while serving the event’s purpose
a frictionless combination of technology and interactive aspects to improve the donor experience, such as virtual terminals for live donations
a multi-channel donation system to facilitate giving through accessible, convenient payment methods, increasing the gala’s potential to raise funds
a way to scale attendance and increase exposure to your organization’s mission, such as selling tickets in tables or pairs

The sooner your nonprofit starts planning event details, the more polished and effortless the gala will appear. Early planning will also offer more time to promote ticket sales.

The Nonprofit Event Planning Checklist

Ultimate Nonprofit Gala Planning Checklist

Phase 1: Foundation & Strategy

Anchor the Vision: Ensure the event’s theme and goals directly align with your organization’s core mission.

Assemble the Team: Form an aligned and collaborative planning committee with a strong attention to detail.

Set the Timeline & KPIs: Establish a structured timeline and define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) early to track success.

Phase 2: Logistics & Experience

Secure the Venue: Scout for multi-use or open-space venues that fit your budget, accommodate your numbers, and suit the evening's atmosphere.

Consider Hybrid Options: Determine if a live-streamed or virtual attendance component is viable to scale your audience and maximize budget.

Craft the Program: Design a timeline that tells a compelling story, integrates unexpected interactive elements, and keeps attendees engaged.

Secure Partnerships: Reach out to sponsors and influencers to maximize awareness and resources.

Phase 3: Technology & Ticketing

Optimize the Tech Stack: Set up a frictionless, multi-channel donation system (including virtual terminals for live donations).

Build the Hub: Create a dedicated landing page or campaign page to consolidate cause-driven messaging, event details, and ticketing.

Scale Attendance: Create varied ticketing packages (e.g., selling tickets in tables or pairs, VIP offers, early-bird discounts).

Phase 4: Marketing & Outreach

Engage Core Supporters: Prioritize early digital outreach to your most engaged donors.

Expand the Campaign: Roll out segmented, pre-scheduled communications across broader organizational channels to ensure a full house.

Keys to successful nonprofit event planning

Using a mission-centered theme, focus on three core components of the event: venue, program, and attendance.

Selecting the perfect venue

An event planner can help your organization scout for locations to best support its goals. Look for multi-use or open-space venues for flexibility to create a dynamic, vibrant atmosphere that aligns with the vision for the gala.

After you have identified a short list of potential venues, consider how each fits within the event budget. Will they easily accommodate catering, decor, and entertainment? Will they be suited to the number of attendees?

Note: A hybrid event with virtual attendance or live-streamed content can amplify the gala, reaching more potential donors. This can be a valuable way to make the most of a limited budget or venue capacity.

Crafting a compelling program

Consider how the event’s program will tell a compelling story with unexpected or surprising aspects that keep attendees engaged. At every touchpoint, encourage generosity with simplified opportunities to give.

Digital fundraising platforms can offer a range of valuable features for an upgraded donor experience. They can also provide insight into your organization’s current donors, helping your nonprofit understand why donors give and craft a program with the greatest relevance.

Partnerships with sponsors or influencers offer another time-tested way to maximize awareness and resources.

Ensuring a full house

Nonprofit event planning should build anticipation in advance to ensure a full house.

Measuring success will look different for every organization, so it’s important to define key performance indicators early. This will make it possible to track progress and review efforts post-event to improve the process.

Prioritize digital outreach with engaged donors and supporters for early marketing efforts. Then expand messaging to broader organizational channels with segmented, pre-scheduled communication to ensure marketing reaches the right audience at the right time.

A landing page or campaign page is a great way to consolidate cause-driven messaging, event details, and ticket sales in one place. Early bird discounts, VIP offers, and exciting events or auction items are great incentives to ensure a full house.

Frequently Asked Questions in 2026: Nonprofit Event Planning

How can we make our traditional fundraising gala more engaging?

Move beyond the traditional framework of formal dinners by inviting guests to take part in compelling, interactive experiences. Ensure your program tells an emotional story that places attendees at the heart of your mission, and consider adding unexpected or surprising elements to keep them engaged.

What is the best way to leverage technology at an in-person fundraising event?

Technology should make giving as frictionless as possible. Use multi-channel donation systems that support accessible payment methods, and deploy virtual terminals for live, on-the-spot donations. Additionally, using a dedicated campaign landing page helps consolidate ticket sales and cause-driven messaging in one place.

What should we prioritize when choosing a venue for our event?

Look for flexible, open-space or multi-use venues that can dynamically adapt to your theme. Always balance the venue's visual appeal with practical budget constraints, ensuring it can easily accommodate your expected headcount, catering, and entertainment.

How do we ensure a "full house" and maximize ticket sales?

Start planning and promoting early! Prioritize targeted digital outreach via fundraising software to your existing, highly engaged donors first. Then, build anticipation using segmented communications, and incentivize broader attendance by offering early bird discounts, VIP packages, or selling tickets in groups and tables. Adding a hybrid or live-stream component is also a highly effective way to scale attendance beyond physical capacity limits.

Executing a Well-Planned Fundraising Gala

Well-planned fundraising events can leave a lasting impression on attendees, resulting in greater long-term support for a nonprofit organization.

Strategic, proactive planning can ensure that all the efforts for a memorable event not only draw a crowd but also make a connection to your nonprofit’s cause that engages more donors.

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Virtual fundraising ideas: how to acquire donors through virtual fundraising events

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

30+ Virtual Fundraising Ideas to Acquire & Engage Donors in 2026

The pandemic fundamentally changed how nonprofits fundraise. What started as a temporary shift to digital events has become a permanent, proven strategy. Virtual fundraising isn't just convenient—it's an essential channel that nonprofits can no longer afford to ignore.

Your donors expect options. They want to support causes they care about without geographic barriers or time constraints. Virtual fundraising ideas provide exactly that: flexible, cost-effective ways to reach supporters wherever they are and convert them into loyal donors.

This guide covers 30+ actionable virtual fundraising ideas your nonprofit can implement immediately, backed by Search Console data showing exactly what donors are searching for.

The 30 Best Virtual Fundraising Ideas (Organized by Type)

Livestream & Interactive Events

1. Livestream fundraising event with engagement hooks Host a dynamic virtual event on Facebook Live, YouTube, or Zoom. The key differentiator: interactive elements. Include live Q&A with staff, behind-the-scenes tours of your programs, testimonials from beneficiaries, and real-time fundraising thermometers showing progress. Ask for specific donations tied to outcomes: "Raise $500 to fund a month of program services" creates urgency.

2. Virtual auction or raffle Reach out to local businesses for in-kind donations (gift certificates, services, products). Display items with photos and descriptions on a simple landing page. Guests bid or buy raffle tickets online. The beauty here: minimal overhead, global reach, and donors feel like they're getting value beyond the donation itself.

3. Online trivia night Zoom or Kahoot makes this simple. Charge $20-$30 per participant. Include questions about your organization to boost awareness. Offer prizes donated by local sponsors. Mix competitive fun with your mission story between rounds. People engage longer when they're entertained.

4. Virtual talent show or open mic Invite supporters to perform 60-90 second acts. Stream live or on-demand. This works particularly well with younger audiences and creates shareable social media moments. Ask performers to mention the cause and include a donation link.

Creative & Skill-Based Events

5. Paint and sip night Deliver canvases, paints, and wine to participants' homes. An artist guides everyone through creating the same piece. Charge $45-$75 per person. Encourage participants to post finished work on Instagram with your branded hashtag and donation link. It's Instagram gold for nonprofit awareness.

6. Online cooking class or virtual dinner party Partner with a chef or passionate home cook from your community. Provide ingredient lists in advance. Stream the class live. Charge admission and offer a bonus auction tier: highest bidder gets a private cooking class or catered dinner from the chef. Food creates community fast.

7. Virtual workshop or masterclass Your donors have skills and expertise. Leverage them. Host a master gardener teaching pollinator-friendly landscaping, a software engineer teaching coding basics, or a financial advisor explaining retirement planning. Charge $20-$50 admission. Tie the topic to your mission where possible (gardening workshop for environmental org, coding for education nonprofit).

8. DIY craft workshop Knitting, jewelry-making, painting, pottery. Send supplies in advance or have participants use what they have at home. Instructors don't need to be famous—community enthusiasts work great. Charge $25-$40.

Giving & Fundraising Campaigns

14. Peer-to-peer fundraising This is one of the highest-ROI virtual fundraising ideas. Provide your supporters with easy-to-share fundraising pages, email templates, and social graphics. Let them fundraise on behalf of your mission for birthdays, anniversaries, or just because. The top peer-to-peer fundraising programs raise over $1 billion annually. You don't need that scale—you just need to make sharing dead simple.

15. Crowdfunding campaign Use platforms like GoFundMe, Fundly, or Kickstarter. Tell a compelling story tied to a specific goal ("Raise $5,000 to fund summer camp scholarships for 10 kids"). Show the human impact. Crowdfunding works best when the ask is concrete and relatable.

16. "Donate the moment" campaign Invite supporters to donate to a specific outcome: "Sponsor a mile" (runners/cyclists dedicate race miles to your mission), "Feed a family for a week," or "Provide one hour of counseling services." Make it tangible. People give when they understand exactly what their donation does.

17. Corporate matching gift push Many employers match employee donations. Identify which of your donors' employers offer matches. Run a targeted campaign: "Make a $100 gift—your employer will match it, turning your $100 into $200 for our mission." It's free money. Many nonprofits leave this on the table.

18. Birthday fundraising campaign Encourage supporters to ask friends for donations instead of gifts for their birthday. Provide pre-written email templates and social posts. Make setup ridiculously easy—one link, one message. Birthday fundraising taps into an existing celebration moment.

Content & Learning

23. Webinar series Host free webinars on topics aligned with your mission. Nonprofits focused on financial literacy offer budgeting tips. Health nonprofits offer wellness advice. Capture emails and then nurture attendees with donation asks. You're providing value upfront, building trust, then converting to donors.

24. Virtual tour of your programs or facilities Go behind the scenes. Show donors where their money goes. Introduce staff, volunteers, and beneficiaries (respecting privacy). Answer questions live. Transparency builds trust. Donors who see impact become recurring donors.

25. Expert panel discussion or Q&A Assemble 3-4 experts in your field for a 90-minute discussion on a timely topic. Charge admission or ask for donations to attend. Live-stream to a free audience of 100+ while selling premium tickets to engaged supporters. Both tiers can donate.

Engagement & Community Building

26. "Unboxing" surprise gift experience Send curated boxes to top donors with branded merchandise, handwritten thank-you notes from beneficiaries, or exclusive content. Unboxing creates a shareable moment. Thank-you notes deepen emotional connection. Exclusive content makes people feel special.

27. Virtual fitness class or movement event Yoga, dance, HIIT, pilates. Charge $10-$25 per class. Host weekly or as a one-off. People care about fitness and wellness—use that. Instructors can be community members with passion, not necessarily certified professionals.

28. Virtual community cleanup or challenge For environmental nonprofits: invite supporters to clean up their local areas. They post photos, report results (bags of trash, miles of cleanup). It's measurable impact donors can see. They feel part of a movement.

29. Live music event or concert series Partner with local musicians. Stream performances on YouTube Live or Facebook. Charge $10-$15 for "tickets." Offer higher tiers: VIP viewers get a private chat with the artist afterward. Musicians often donate their time if they care about your cause.

30. Invitation-only donor briefing Host a private Zoom with your executive director and a small group of major donors or prospects. Update them on strategic goals, challenges, wins, and how their giving directly enables work. Ask for their advice and input. People invest in organizations that listen to them.

6 Reasons Why Virtual Fundraising Ideas Matter More Than Ever

Before diving into specific tactics, let's address the fundamental shift. Virtual fundraising isn't a backup plan anymore—it's a growth engine.

The data is clear: Nonprofits that embrace online events alongside traditional fundraising raise more money. Here's why:
Expand your donor base globally. Physical events cap your audience. Virtual fundraising removes geographical limits. You can reach donors in different time zones, countries, or those with mobility challenges who would never attend an in-person event.
Lower operational costs dramatically. Traditional events require venue rentals, catering, staffing, and insurance. Virtual fundraising events cost a fraction of that, letting you allocate more revenue directly to your mission.
Build measurable engagement. Online platforms provide real-time analytics. You see exactly who attended, engaged, and donated. You can track what works, test variations, and make data-driven decisions for your next campaign.
Create inclusive giving experiences. Virtual events remove barriers. Single parents can join from home. Donors with disabilities gain access. Remote supporters who wanted to help now can.
Capture valuable donor data instantly. Every virtual interaction generates insights: email addresses, interests, engagement level, donation amount. This intelligence fuels your long-term donor retention strategy.

Virtual Fundraising Ideas: Implementation Quick-Start Checklist

The best virtual fundraising idea is the one you'll actually execute. Here's how to get started:

Pick one idea that aligns with your existing strengths. If you have tech-savvy staff, run a complex livestream. If you have strong local partnerships, do a virtual workshop. Match the idea to your capacity.
Set a specific, measurable goal. "Raise $3,000 from our virtual trivia night" beats "Host a virtual event." Goals drive execution and let you measure success.
Plan 4-6 weeks ahead. Virtual events require less logistics than in-person ones, but more digital promotion. Email your list early. Promote on social media. Build anticipation.
Test your tech beforehand. Sound check on Zoom. Test the donation link. Have a backup plan for internet failure.
Make the ask clear and multiple times. Don't mention your mission once. Tell the story, show the impact, make the ask, repeat. Donors give when it's easy and they understand why.

Optimize Virtual Fundraising for Long-Term Donor Growth

Virtual fundraising ideas generate immediate revenue, but the real value is donor acquisition and retention. Every virtual event is a chance to:

Capture new email addresses
Identify peer-to-peer fundraisers
Find board prospects
Convert one-time donors into monthly supporters
Build a community of advocates

Follow up every virtual event with a personalized thank-you, impact story, and next-step opportunity (monthly giving, volunteering, sharing with friends).

Use fundraising software to segment attendees by engagement level and tailor future outreach accordingly.

The TLDR in 2026: Virtual Fundraising Is Here to Stay

Virtual fundraising ideas aren't a pandemic relic. They're a permanent expansion of your fundraising toolkit. Nonprofits that master this channel—combining virtual events with peer-to-peer fundraising, social campaigns, and email nurture—see 20-40% increases in total revenue.

The organizations winning right now aren't choosing between in-person and virtual. They're doing both, seamlessly. Your next 30+ supporters might be across the world, watching your livestream, or participating in a game night from their couch.

Give them that opportunity.

Start with one idea. Build from there. Your donors are ready to support your mission—you just need to meet them where they are.

Ready to Turn Virtual Fundraising Ideas Into Revenue?

Every successful virtual fundraising campaign needs the right technology behind it. Our fundraising software makes it easy to host events, capture donor data, accept payments, and measure impact—all in one place.

Fundraise Up’s Checkout feature amplifies the impact of your nonprofit’s virtual fundraisers by reducing friction, expanding payment options, growing recurring support, and doubling conversion rates.

Learn how our platform powers virtual fundraising →

Or explore our fundraising software to see how you can increase conversion rates and grow recurring donations.

Insights to love: learn how to harness the power of fundraising metrics

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Donor Stewardship: Harnessing the power of impact stories stewardship fundraising

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The foundation for effective fundraising is building meaningful relationships with donors. The most successful nonprofits know that donor stewardship is how to nurture those relationships.

Donor stewardship is a long-term strategy that replaces a transactional mindset between donor and nonprofit with a mutually beneficial relationship. At its core is storytelling, which is a tool for building emotional connections and loyalty by showing donors the tangible outcomes of their contributions.

This post about donor stewardship takes a close look at the role of impact stories in strengthening the connection between donors and nonprofits, tips for crafting great stories, and ways to learn from and improve upon the process.

Donor relations and stewardship: two major differences

Donor stewardship is a part of donor relations, but these two strategies differ slightly. Donor relations is the overarching approach to communicating with donors at every stage of their lifecycle, from prospective donors to active donors to lapsed donors. Donor stewardship is all of the actions that follow a donor’s donation — the “stewarding” of their contribution as it moves from intake to application.

Storytelling is how nonprofits demonstrate the impact of donations. Narratives about how a donor’s contribution supports a nonprofit’s mission are called impact stories, and they tend to follow a simple template that’s easy to replicate across a range of nonprofit organizations.

The power of impact stories in donor stewardship

Storytelling is a potent tool in the donor stewardship strategy toolbox, especially when it comes to managing relationships with major donors. A comprehensive donor stewardship strategy plan & best practices should incorporate:

A well-maintained donor database to guide the storytelling process
Engagement with new donors to foster a firm commitment from their side
Segmentation of donors to identify which impact stories drive the most value

By sharing stories that illustrate the tangible outcomes of donations, donors can connect emotionally with the cause and appreciate the difference their contribution makes. This connection, in turn, can translate into donor loyalty and recurring donations. A significant part of stewardship and donor relations involves crafting compelling stories that not only appeal to donors in the moment, but also stay top of mind over time.

Emotional connection

The heart of any compelling story lies in its ability to forge an emotional connection, which is one of the more ideal best practices for donor stewardship. In the sphere of donor relations, stories play a pivotal role in building relationships by making the cause personal and relatable.

An effective way to foster emotional connections is by featuring real individuals or communities that have benefitted from donations. This approach boosts the authenticity of stories, helping to build trust with donors and strengthen relationships.

Some ways to feature real people or communities include:

Sharing personal stories that demonstrate how donors’ generosity transformed an individual’s life
Highlighting specific examples of how donations have made a difference in a community
Showcasing before and after photos or videos to illustrate the impact of donations

Storytelling techniques

While the emotional connection is crucial, they story’s mechanics and flow can greatly impact its effectiveness.

Writing an impactful donor story involves several steps:

Introduction
Addressing the overarching issue
Detailing the problem and solution
Illustrating the impact
Exploring the potential
A call to action

Best practices for storytelling include:

Keeping the donor perspective in mind
Using clear language with short sentences
Incorporating visual elements like photos and graphics
Varying paragraph lengths to maintain engagement

These techniques, when woven into a well-planned communication strategy, have the potential to significantly enhance the impact of the story and deepen the emotional connection with donors.

Tracking and analyzing storytelling effectiveness within donor stewardship

Tracking and analyzing the effectiveness of storytelling in donor stewardship is critical. That could involve checking donor retention rates, measuring donor satisfaction, or calculating the return on investment of stewardship activities.

The key performance indicators (KPIs) that may shed light on storytelling effectiveness in donor stewardship include:

Donor lifetime value (LTV)
Donor satisfaction score
Donor engagement rate
Increased or decreased contributions
Donor retention rate

Retention rates are crucial metrics, with average retention rates being 19% for first-time donors and 53% for repeat donors. Ongoing engagement through impact stories is instrumental in retaining donors.

Importance of donor feedback in refining storytelling

Donors appreciate being asked for input, and donors may have insights that nonprofits hadn’t previously considered. A well-rounded donor stewardship plan includes mechanisms for feedback collection, which in turn informs both the donation process and post-donation communication strategies, including storytelling.

Regularly seeking and implementing donor feedback ensures that stewardship practices are not static, but rather evolve based on supporter insights and preferences.

How to collect feedback

Organizations can collect donor feedback through interviews, by email, or even social media surveys.

This feedback can show nonprofits how donors interact with stories across formats and channels. For example, donors may prefer longer stories via email and short, shareable stories on social. Analyzing metrics such as reading time, depth, and content shares provides insights into the effectiveness of storytelling and informs the improvement process.

Experimenting with various story formats, platforms, and delivery methods is essential to discover the most effective ways to engage donors and optimize storytelling techniques. These insights can then be used to adapt and improve storytelling practices, enhancing donor stewardship efforts.

Implementing changes based on donor and steward feedback

Implementing changes to the stewardship strategies based on feedback obtained from donor surveys and other forms of communication can enhance the effectiveness of storytelling. Keeping the donor community informed about how their input has led to changes demonstrates the value and impact of their feedback on storytelling practices.

Other essential elements of donor stewardship

While storytelling is a pillar of stewardship, there are other essential elements that need to work in conjunction with it. Some key elements include:

Timely acknowledgment of a donation
Personalized appreciation
Staying in constant contact with donors through various channels like emails, newsletters, social media, and donor events

Proactive donor relationship management fosters deeper relationships with supporters, including mid-level donors, building a robust community and turning one-time donors into annual or major contributors.

Personalized communication

Segmentation is a best practice to improve and sustain donor relations. Donors can be segmented based on factors like giving habits and relationship length, allowing nonprofits to personalize communication that deepens relationships and improves retention rates.

A welcome email series, for instance, is a personalized away to acknowledge a donor’s first-time contribution, making them feel understood and valued. Regular one-on-one conversations and remembering personal details are part of the stewardship plan for high-impact donors.

Organizing a thank-you luncheon for major donors and sending a handwritten thank-you note for a first-time donor’s gift are examples of stewardship actions tailored to different levels of donor contributions.

Regular reports on impact

Another integral part of donor stewardship is providing regular reports on the impact of their donations. Donors should be provided with impact reports at least annually, with the addition of quarterly highlights in personalized messages. These reports should strategically demonstrate how donor contributions supported specific projects and long-term initiatives.

Donor recognition and appreciation

Thanking donors promptly and personally can make them feel that their individual contributions have a unique impact — and increases the chances of retaining them for future donations.

Proper donor recognition can drive further engagement by reinforcing the importance of donations to the organization’s mission.

Some ways to recognize donors include:

Personalized thank-you campaigns
Shout-outs on social media
Handwritten cards
Personal calls

These gestures can significantly enhance the donor’s experience and show true appreciation for their support.

Making time for storytelling

Impact stories foster emotional connections, strengthen relationships, and encourage ongoing support. These stories take time to create, but that time can produce immediate results and foster lifetime donor relationships.

Nonprofits looking to maximize their time for creative storytelling can make room for those efforts with the right software. Fundraising software automates many of the day-to-day tasks that don’t require a human touch, and it collects the data teams need to evaluate the performance of impact stories.

Learn more about the technology nonprofits count on to drive results.

4 Common Questions about Donor Stewardship:

What exactly is donor stewardship, and how does it differ from general donor relations?Donor stewardship is a highly effective, long-term strategy designed to replace a basic, transactional mindset with a deeply mutually beneficial relationship between a nonprofit organization and its supporters.
1. While donor relations is the broad, overarching approach to communicating with individuals at every stage of their lifecycle—from prospective to lapsed—fundraising stewardship specifically refers to all the intentional actions that take place immediately after a gift is made.
2. This process encompasses everything from the initial intake of funds to their final, real-world application, ensuring that individuals always feel deeply valued and continuously engaged while you are stewarding donors.
What are the most effective donor stewardship best practices? To successfully cultivate lifelong relationships and transform one-time givers into recurring, major contributors, organizations must diligently implement proven donor stewardship best practices.
1. First, timely and personalized acknowledgment is absolutely paramount; always send a prompt, highly personalized thank-you message, such as a heartfelt handwritten note or a personal call.
2. Second, utilize database segmentation to tailor your communications based on distinct giving habits and relationship length.
3. Third, provide regular, transparent reports on exactly how funds are being utilized. Effective stewarding donors requires a strategic blend of consistent, personalized contact across various communication channels, including scheduled email campaigns, social media updates, and exclusive appreciation events.
Why is storytelling for impact so crucial to this process? At the very heart of successful donor stewardship is the powerful practice of storytelling for impact. Instead of merely sharing raw data and financial numbers, nonprofits must vividly illustrate the tangible, real-world outcomes of a supporter’s generous contribution.
1. By highlighting authentic stories of real people or communities whose lives have been positively transformed, organizations forge a powerful emotional connection.
2. This genuine, narrative-driven approach to stewardship fundraising actively builds lasting trust and fierce loyalty, keeping the organization's core mission top of mind for supporters. Distributing these compelling narratives across digital platforms drastically enhances your overall reach.
How can nonprofits measure the overall success of their stewardship fundraising? To guarantee that your fundraising stewardship efforts are yielding the desired results, it is critical to track specific key performance indicators (KPIs).
1. Essential metrics to monitor include donor lifetime value (LTV), overall satisfaction scores, digital engagement rates, and, most crucially, donor retention rates. Adhering to strong donor stewardship best practices directly correlates to improved retention.
2. By consistently analyzing these metrics and proactively gathering direct feedback through surveys, nonprofits can continuously refine their communication strategies and dramatically improve how they are stewarding donors for future campaigns.

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Introducing Gift Cart: let donors give to everything they care about — in one donation

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Donors don't think in forms. They think in causes. A supporter landing on your site rarely cares about just one program — they're drawn to your mission in full, and they want to act on it. But for most nonprofits, supporting multiple programs means multiple checkouts, multiple forms, and multiple moments where generosity quietly slips away.

Today, that changes. Gift Cart, now in beta, is a giving catalog built into Fundraise Up — donors browse your programs, add everything they want to support, and give to all of it in one checkout. One uninterrupted moment with your mission.

Generosity doesn't stop at one program. Your checkout shouldn't either.

Modern nonprofits work hard to present donors with meaningful ways to give. Restricted programs, symbolic gift catalogs, seasonal campaigns, Zakat menus, sponsorships, relief kits. The diversity of giving options reflects the depth of your mission.

But most giving experiences are still built around a single donation at a time. Want to give to food aid and education and emergency relief? Start over. Fill out another form. Begin again. The friction is invisible to your team — but donors feel it immediately.

The real cost of friction: when donors want to give to multiple programs, most organizations force them to complete redundant checkouts — suppressing gift sizes, increasing abandonment, and leaving revenue on the table every single day.

We've heard it from fundraising teams: "We built a workaround. It works — until it doesn't." Custom-built catalogs, patched-together pages, tools never meant for nonprofit giving. They create data chaos, break under pressure, and pull your team away from the work that matters.

Gift Cart was built in direct response to this. Over 30 customer conversations shaped it. Their stories are in every detail.

More options lead to more giving. Gift Cart turns donor choice into higher revenue, cleaner data, and a better experience — all inside Fundraise Up.

One catalog. One checkout. Zero friction.

Gift Cart is a giving catalog built directly on Fundraise Up's checkout — the same checkout that delivers 3x higher conversion rates than competitors. Designed specifically for how nonprofits raise money and how donors actually want to give.

Here's how it works for a donor visiting your site:

Everything your donors need. Everything your team doesn't have to build.

Gift Cart is composed of four interconnected components, each designed to maximize conversion while keeping your operations clean.

Gift Catalog

A branded catalog of your programs — complete with images and descriptions. Launch in hours, not weeks. Embed it directly on any page of your organization's website — it lives inside your brand, not on a third-party page.

Gift Page

A detailed view for each giving item showing its story, impact, and giving options. Donors understand exactly where their money goes — driving confidence and conversion. Smart upsell suggestions encourage donors to add one more program – without feeling transactional.

Gift Cart

Donors build their gift cart as they browse — adding every program they want to support before they check out. Everything they care about, visible in one place.

Checkout

Built on Fundraise Up's checkout — the same experience that delivers 3x higher conversion rates than competitors. One payment. Automatic designation mapping. Donors can give as a tribute, honoring someone while supporting your mission.

What makes Gift Cart different — at a glance

Designed for multi-program campaigns. Gift Cart works especially well for organizations running seasonal giving catalogs, holiday campaigns, symbolic gift programs, year-end appeals, and any initiative where donors benefit from seeing the full range of ways to support your mission.

Less work for your team. More impact for your mission.

For fundraising & digital teams

No more building custom pages or waiting months for a developer to stand up a catalog. Gift Cart catalogs launch in hours. Update your designations in real time without touching code. Your campaigns can move at the speed of your mission — not the speed of your IT queue.

For donors

Donors browse a catalog of your programs, add everything they care about, and give to all of it in one checkout. No starting over. No coming back later. One uninterrupted moment with your mission — and everything they wanted to support, supported.

The numbers that matter

Gift Cart gives donors a way to express the full depth of their support for your mission — in one visit, in one checkout.

Get started with Gift Cart

Gift Cart, currently in beta, is available now inside Fundraise Up — set up your first catalog today.

Gift Cart is built for donation designations and symbolic giving, and does not currently support tracking physical inventory or selling merchandise.

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3 peer-to-peer must-haves to energize more community-driven fundraisers

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a powerful method where your most passionate supporters fundraise on behalf of your nonprofit. While top peer-to-peer programs have seen significant revenue growth, recently reaching $922 million, garnering attention requires more than just a good cause. To succeed and turn donors into active fundraisers, nonprofits must provide a compelling message, effortless campaign setup, and seamless social sharing options.

As rapid-growing technology advancements continue to transform our digital fundraising environment and provide donors with more and better ways to give, one thing that remains constant is the commitment of peer-to-peer fundraisers to their favorite charitable organizations. Peer-to-peer fundraising has been coined as the method for which people fundraise on behalf of their most-loved nonprofit organizations. Your biggest supporters can engage in this type of fundraising by creating their own online peer-to-peer fundraisers, collecting donations from friends and family members in person, or raising funds at a peer-to-peer fundraising event.

For years, peer-to-peer fundraising has proven to be an effective way for nonprofits to raise funds — with $1.76 billion raised at its peak from the 30 top peer-to-peer fundraising programs in 2008. Since then, the top peer-to-peer programs have become stagnant, especially during the pandemic when in-person events were at a standstill. However, in this year’s “2021 Peer-to-Peer Top 30,” revenue from the top 30 peer-to-peer programs reached $922 million, a 3.5% increase from the previous year — the first time since 2008.

With peer-to-peer fundraising yet again on the rise, don’t miss the opportunity to encourage your biggest supporters to help you raise more for your cause. Remember that peer-to-peer fundraising doesn’t have to be complicated — it can be easy for a supporter to take a few minutes out of their day to create a fundraising campaign and share it on their social networks.

10 tips on how to galvanize your peer-to-peer community to donate

Provide a clear mission statement: Ensure your messaging clearly explains your mission and how it serves the community to emotionally connect with potential fundraisers.
Drive urgency: Incorporate messaging that highlights exactly how much support is needed and creates an urgent need for immediate action.
Equip them with assets: Automatically populate eye-catching photos and pre-written messages so supporters can launch their campaigns without guesswork.
Remove friction in setup: Ensure your peer-to-peer fundraising option is easy to find on your website, utilizing clear "Get Involved" and "Fundraise" call-to-action buttons.
Leverage AI for giving: Utilize modern donation experiences that feature AI-powered suggested giving amounts tailored to each individual donor.
Encourage social sharing: Prompt fundraisers to share their personalized campaign links directly to their social media channels immediately after setup.
Highlight impact stories: Share feel-good stories and financial transparency to show potential donors the tangible, life-changing impact their contributions will make.
Offer a personalized Donor Portal: Give fundraisers a dedicated space to manage their personalized links, recurring plans, and tax receipts easily.
Differentiate your cause: Clearly communicate what makes your specific mission unique compared to other similar charitable organizations.
A/B test the user journey: Regularly evaluate your website's donation flow to ensure supporters are not abandoning the setup process due to hidden roadblocks.

Below we will share three additional things you need to turn your donors into supporters:

A compelling message that drives fundraising
A platform that enables simple peer-to-peer campaign setup
Social sharing options that promote immediate action

1. Message that emotionally connects with peer-to-peer fundraisers

Your peer-to-peer fundraisers are your most loyal and passionate supporters. Your mission resonates with them, they deeply believe in the work that you’re doing, and they want to be a part of the change you’re creating by offering their fundraising support. This network of supporters can create such a considerable impact on your organization and how it is able to carry out its mission. Not only does peer-to-peer fundraising generate additional revenue, it’s also a strategy to boost donor acquisition and retention efforts.

Think about it: Peer-to-peer fundraisers offer their support on an ongoing basis because they feel compassion and empathy for those you are serving or someone they know has been affected by whatever problem you’re trying to solve.

Understanding what drives people to fundraise on behalf of your organization is the key to your peer-to-peer success. But with the growing number of nonprofits, you’ll need more than a good cause to garner the attention your mission deserves.

Take some time to evaluate your current messaging. Does it:

Clearly explain what your mission is and how it is serving the community?
Differentiate your mission from other similar charitable organizations?
Drive urgency for immediate action?
Highlight how much support is needed to solve your problem?

To share an example, Greater Good Charities does an exceptional job of making its case for support. An organization with a mission of amplifying good by helping those in need of support — people, animals, and the environment — Greater Good Charities shares a full overview of its mission and goals on its “About Us” page.

Using Fundraise Up’s embeddable website Elements, the organization placed a clear and inviting donate button — accompanied by a pulsing heart — under its mission statement. Greater Good Charities also includes additional information on the page about its impact and financial statements. Providing this type of messaging not only gives potential donors full transparency into the organization, it also tells a feel-good story about how the organization’s community of supporters has helped it create life-changing impact, encouraging others to be a part of that change, too.

2. Simple peer-to-peer fundraiser setup

Once your donors are feeling empowered by your work through your effective messaging, they’re ready to start a peer-to-peer fundraiser to further support your organization. But feeling ready to fundraise and actually creating a fundraiser is often set back by a lack of direction. Perhaps there is no information on your website about peer-to-peer fundraising or your designated page is too difficult to find. Whatever the case, it’s best to do some A/B testing to ensure that your supporters aren’t leaving your website at any point during the process due to a roadblock.

The peer-to-peer fundraising option should be easy to find on your nonprofit’s website, like the way Greater Good Charities has done. On the top-right-hand corner of its website, there’s a clear “Get Involved” button. Once a supporter clicks that call-to-action button, all they have to do is navigate down and select the “Fundraise” button.

With Fundraise Up, your most valued supporters can set up their unique peer-to-peer fundraising campaign in minutes — a modern donation experience that includes AI-powered suggested giving amounts that will be tailored to each individual donor.

To make it even easier for your supporters, as the nonprofit, you can automatically populate an eye-catching and attention-grabbing photo and message, like this peer-to-peer fundraiser for people and pets affected by the Ukraine crisis:

Plus, we’ll even give them their own personalized link to share with their friends and family, which they can manage in the Donor Portal — along with any recurring plans and tax receipts they have.

3 common questions on how to turn your community audience into donors as part of a peer-to-peer strategy

How do we convince our loyal supporters to start a campaign? Focus on emotional connection. Your supporters already believe deeply in your work; you need to provide them with messaging that transparently shows the impact they can create by taking that next step into fundraising.
What is the biggest barrier to entry for community fundraisers? A lack of direction and complicated technology. If your website does not clearly direct users to a simple, fast setup process, they will abandon the effort. The setup should take minutes and include pre-populated text and images as part of getting your audience into your peer to peer fundraising platform.
How can we maximize the reach of a community-led campaign? Make social sharing an effortless part of the final campaign setup step. By integrating social media sharing options directly into the launch process, you inspire their friends and family to donate and potentially start their own campaigns.

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Giving Quotes: 61 donation quotes about giving to use in your Giving Season outreach

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Struggling to find the perfect words for your year-end or giving season campaigns? There’s no need to stress. Use some of these iInspiring quotes about giving to do some of the heavy lifting for you.

Far from fluff, quotes are a strategic addition to your fundraising toolkit. They strengthen emotional connections with donors, convey powerful messages succinctly, and add credibility to your appeals — especially when they’re paired with specific asks and impact stories.

We've compiled 61 quotes about giving in categories that match your mission and messaging needs. Use them across your website, social media, emails, direct mail, and campaign materials to inspire generosity and celebrate your donors.

Giving quotes that celebrate the character of givers

These quotes frame giving not as an action, but as an identity reflecting someone’s character and values. Use them to help your donors see themselves as generous people (rather than people fulfilling an obligation).

No one has ever become poor by giving. — Anne Frank

This timeless quote reframes giving as an abundance mindset. Use it in thank-you messages to reinforce that donors haven’t lost anything — rather, they’ve gained satisfaction and fulfillment.

Perfect for: Donor acknowledgement letters, year-end impact reports, thank-you messages

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. — Winston Churchill

Churchill’s quote distinguishes between mere survival and meaningful living. It positions generous people as those who understand what truly matters in life and connects your supporters to something bigger than themselves.

Perfect for: Legacy giving programs, major donor cultivation, volunteer recruitment

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. — Mahatma Gandhi

This quote speaks to identity and self-discovery through generosity. It’s ideal for messaging that emphasizes personal transformation and purpose.

Perfect for: Volunteer campaigns, monthly giving programs, youth engagement

Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out. — Frank A. Clark

Use this quote to celebrate donors who give without seeking praise and recognition. It honors the quiet dignity of people who give simply because it’s the right thing to do.

Perfect for: Anonymous donor recognition, value-based messaging, donor privacy statements

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

This profound quote connects giving to living a life of meaning and honor. It speaks to donors who see their generosity as part of their legacy and character.

Perfect for: Planned giving, capital campaigns, mission-driven appeals

For it is in giving that we receive. — St. Francis of Assisi

This classic quote reminds givers that generosity enriches their own lives. It acknowledges that giving is a gift in itself.

Perfect for: Faith-based organizations, donor appreciation, year-end appeals

You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. — Amy Carmichael

This quote draws a powerful connection between generosity and love — two values most donors already hold dear. It can help you position giving as an authentic expression of care and compassion.

Perfect for: Year-end appeals and donor appreciation

The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away. — David Viscott

This line reframes generosity as a purpose and a part of our moral expression, making it a perfect fit for messaging that connects giving to making a tangible difference in the world.

Perfect for: Youth engagement, volunteer programs, donor identity messaging

Donation quotes about the joy of giving

The charity quotes below capture the essence of generosity itself — the joy, connection, and humanity found in giving. They’re broad enough to work across causes, seasons, and campaigns, making them ideal for nearly any fundraising message.

“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” — Mother Teresa

“We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” — Ronald Reagan

As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way. — Mary Anne Radmacher

To do more for the world than the world does for you — that is success. — Henry Ford

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. — Charles Dickens

What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other? — George Eliot

Season of Giving: Quotes about Christmas and holiday giving

The holiday season is a natural time for generosity, reflection, and spreading joy. These Christmas giving quotes capture the spirit of the season, inspiring your donors to think beyond gifts and focus on the deeper impact of their generosity.

Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts. — Janice Maeditere

The manner of giving is worth more than the gift. — Pierre Corneille

Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone. — Charles M. Schulz

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. — Calvin Coolidge

To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year. — E.B. White

Donation quotes for faith-based organizations

Faith often goes hand-in-hand with generosity. For many, giving is an expression of spiritual growth, compassion, and service. These quotes highlight the sacredness and spirituality of giving, making them ideal for faith-based fundraising campaigns.

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. — Luke 6:38

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. — 2 Corinthians 9:7

It is more blessed to give than to receive. — Acts 20:35

Freely you have received; freely give. — Matthew 10:8

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth. — Muhammad Ali

Charity Quotes for animal welfare causes

Humans share a special bond with animals. These quotes are perfect for animal welfare fundraising, as they celebrate that relationship and the joy found in helping our furry, feathered, and four-legged friends.

We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals. — Immanuel Kant

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened. — Anatole France

Saving one dog will not change the world, but surely for that one dog, the world will change forever. — Karen Davison

The question is not, 'Can they reason?' nor 'Can they talk?' but, 'Can they suffer?' — Jeremy Bentham

Animals are such agreeable friends — they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms. — George Eliot

Giving Quotes for education and youth development

Children are the future — but many need support now. These quotes celebrate the power of education, mentorship, and guidance to inspire donors to contribute to programs that help young minds grow and thrive.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. — Nelson Mandela

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think. — Margaret Mead

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. — John Dewey

The soul is healed by being with children. — Fyodor Dostoevsky

Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children. — Sitting Bull

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. — Frederick Douglass

Quotes for healthcare and medical causes

Healthcare causes are often quite literally life and death — they save lives, ease suffering, and improve communities. These quotes emphasize compassion, service, and the impact of helping others, making them perfect for inspiring support for hospitals, research, and patient care programs.

Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity. — Hippocrates

He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything. — Arabian Proverb

To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always. — Edward Livingston Trudeau

There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow. — Orison Swett Marden

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. — Mahatma Gandhi

Charity Quotes for environmental and conservation causes

Donating to environmental causes isn’t just an act of generosity toward the planet — it’s an act of generosity toward future generations. These quotes highlight the importance of stewardship, sustainability, and giving to preserve the natural world.

The Earth does not belong to us: we belong to the Earth. — Chief Seattle

We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. — Native American proverb

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. — Albert Einstein

What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another. — Mahatma Gandhi

To cherish what remains of the earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival. — Wendell Berry

He that plants trees loves others beside himself. — Thomas Fuller

The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it. — Robert Swan

7 Short donation quotes: quick and shareable

Sometimes a single line is all it takes to inspire action and generosity. These brief, memorable donation quotes are short and therefore perfect for social media, email headers, or campaign graphics where impact and shareability matter.

We rise by lifting others. — Robert Ingersoll

Small acts, when multiplied, can change the world. — Howard Zinn

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present. — Albert Camus

Giving is true having. — Charles Spurgeon

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. — Khalil Gibran

The giving of love is an education in itself. — Eleanor Roosevelt

Giving is an expression of gratitude for our blessings. — Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen

When you can’t seem to find the right words yourself, a quote can add the extra touch your messaging needs. Weave these year-end giving quotes into your campaigns to make an impact and nudge your supporters toward action.

The TLDR on giving quotes to help charities and non-profits connect to their donors

Adding donation quotes about giving or a well-placed charity quote into your nonprofit strategy transforms a standard appeal into an emotional narrative. Using philanthropy quotes or a specific quote about giving reminds donors that their contribution is more than just a transaction; it is a shared value. By weaving donation quotes into your storytelling, you help supporters connect with the deeper purpose of their generosity, making the act of giving feel more personal and impactful.

To make the most of these insights, your organization can apply them across various touchpoints to maintain engagement and drive conversions. Utilizing these words strategically ensures your message resonates during critical fundraising windows:

Feature season of giving quotes in holiday email sequences to capture the year-end spirit.

Incorporate the joy of giving quotes on thank-you pages to reinforce the positive feelings associated with a gift.
Use short donation quotes as social media captions for quick, impactful donor engagement.
Highlight quotes about giving back to the community in local outreach program materials to ground your mission.
Add inspirational quotes about giving to digital giving forms to provide that final bit of encouragement before a donor commits.

Donor Engagement: 12 donor engagement strategies & plans for nonprofits to building lasting donor relationships

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

It can be difficult to cut through all the noise of today’s digital landscape to make connections that inspire action. How can you build lasting relationships for your donor engagement plan when your outreach competes with hundreds of emails in your donors’ inboxes each day?

At times, it can feel difficult to meaningfully capture donor engagement because such initiatives are so broad and often time-intensive. Don’t let that stop your organization from trying to help donors understand their impact and remember why they care. With proven strategies, nonprofits can cultivate a thriving donor community with a strong donor engagment plan.

The 6 fundamentals of an effective donor engagement strategy

What is donor engagement in nonprofit fundraising?

Donor engagement is the level of active (or inactive) donor involvement with your organization, from their first donation to each interaction and event that follows.

Donor relationships are built on engagement. And, like any relationship, you need to continue working at it to be sure your goals and values remain aligned.

Why does donor engagement matter?

Donor engagement plans go hand in hand with donor retention. Once someone has demonstrated support for your mission, retaining their support will be more affordable and sustainable than recruiting new donors.

The donor engagement lifecycle

Think of the donor engagement cycle as a structured opportunity to build lasting relationships with supporters. As the cycle progresses, prioritize strengthening connections so donors are aligned with your long-term vision.

What are the stages of the donor engagement cycle?

Identify
Qualify
Cultivate
Ask
Steward

Each stage of the donor engagement cycle is action-oriented. It starts with getting to know the types of people in your community. With a bit of give and take, your organization can learn what motivates donors, what makes them feel valued, and what changes they want to see.

Once potential donors are well acquainted with your efforts, let them know what you need. Ask for donations, volunteers, and any other support, using donor engagement data to lead outreach. Build on the relationship with gratitude, acknowledgment, and continued engagement as you shift to donor retention. These efforts should lead to increased loyalty and, with any luck, additional generosity.

How do you track donor engagement?

There are several ways to track donor engagement, but the key is to define what success looks like. When you set specific, measurable goals, you can quantify and track progress over time. These are just a few key performance indicators (KPIs) for donor engagement:

number of events attended
number of hours spent volunteering
number of years spent as a donor
giving patterns, frequency, and method
gift matching eligibility
communication preferences and response rate
social media interactions

As you understand your donors more, you’ll learn which KPIs are most informative for your organization to track.

What are the benefits of tracking donor engagement?

Tracking donor engagement allows you to cultivate deeper relationships with your donor community. This data empowers you to see how healthy each relationship is, where there are opportunities for growth, and where your organization needs to focus its time and attention. Once you begin to track engagement, you can:

Segment your communications to deliver more relevant value to each donor
Identify potential major donors and create tailored stewardship plans
Identify potential volunteers, influencers, and advocates
Prevent attrition with awareness of which donors may need re-engagement efforts

The donor engagement cycle is like a series of milestones, and as you track engagement, it builds a clear path forward. By measuring donor engagement trends and insights, your organization can make strategic, data-driven decisions to better utilize limited resources.

Strategies for effective donor engagement strategies and planning

1. Be transparent

Publish regular updates about your latest efforts, how donations are spent, and short- and long-term goals.

Why this works: Every detail you share builds trust with existing and prospective donors and shows that your organization is honoring its commitment. It also offers perspective on what it takes to achieve your mission.

3. Get to know your donors

Let donors tell you what matters to them, what motivates them, and — most importantly — why they give. There are plenty of ways to do this with surveys, one-on-one interviews, social media posts, and reviews for your organization.

Why this works: It allows you to frame your messaging with emotional connections. This helps refine your strategic plans to increase donor engagement, grow your community, and so much more.

4. Make it personal

Leave room to personalize outreach, whether it’s handwritten thank-you cards, shout-outs on social media, or thoughtful automation integrated with your emails.

Why this works: It adds a level of detail, professionalism, and relevance that donors will notice. Donor segmentation by factors such as demographics, level of engagement, and amount donated also ensures the right messages go to the right people.

6. Get the board involved

Encourage the board to take an active role in stewardship to add weight to your donor experience. From writing thank you notes to speaking at local events, there are countless ways to make board members integral to the process.

Why this works: A formal “thank you” can feel transactional, but when a board member personally calls to express gratitude for donations, it helps donors internalize that their contributions are deeply valued.

7. Give credit where it’s due

Feature major donors that go above and beyond in your newsletters and press releases. This not only acknowledges their generosity, but also raises the profile of your efforts.

Why this works: Their willingness to give substantially reinforces the value of your work for the larger community to notice.

9. Play the host

Invite donors to tour your office and attend events so they can see where and how you operate.

Why this works: It puts faces to names. Taking time to reinforce the humanity of your organization and its community of supporters will forge real connections.

10. Encourage giving more than money

If you only contact donors about donations, your relationship will begin to feel transactional. Offer value, insight, and opportunities for donors to deepen their involvement so they see the efforts of your nonprofit firsthand.

Why this works: Their relationship with your mission transforms when they roll up their sleeves and stand shoulder to shoulder volunteering with you. It allows them to take ownership and become an active part of the solution.

11. Refresh your website

It’s where first-time donors will seek information about your nonprofit and its work. Ensure that links and navigation function seamlessly and that webpages are mobile-friendly and load quickly. Consider an FAQ page or prominent search bar to help visitors find the information they need.

Why this works: Not only do you want to make a strong first impression with prospective donors, but your current donors should also have confidence that your organization is operating professionally and transparently.

12. Build a legacy

Create a donor wall or display within your organization’s headquarters that serves as a living record of major supporters.

Why this works: A public record of collective impact galvanizes the shared purpose of your organization and its donors. Everyone wants to leave a legacy.

Building relationships with donors

As you develop a donor engagement plan, implementing the strategies outlined here will ensure you can act on more than assumptions. You’ll be able to reinforce reasons to believe in your organization and drive active participation with a compelling donor experience.

For more perspective on reframing conversations about how nonprofits operate and approach social change, watch UnCharitable.

Frequently Asked Questions: Donor Engagement Strategies

What is donor engagement and why does it matter?

Donor engagement is the ongoing level of a supporter's active involvement with your nonprofit, starting from their very first donation. It is directly tied to donor retention; maintaining relationships with existing supporters is significantly more cost-effective and sustainable than constantly acquiring new ones.

What are the stages of the donor engagement lifecycle?

The lifecycle is a structured, action-oriented process consisting of five stages: Identify, Qualify, Cultivate, Ask, and Steward. It involves getting to know your community's motivations, making data-led requests for support, and following up with profound gratitude to foster long-term loyalty.

How can we effectively track donor engagement?

Setting specific, measurable goals is key. Nonprofits should track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as giving patterns, event attendance, volunteer hours, communication response rates, and social media interactions. Tracking this data allows organizations to properly segment communications and identify potential major donors or advocates.

What are the top strategies for cultivating lasting donor relationships?

Effective strategies rely heavily on trust and relationship-building. 4 key actions include:

Being Transparent & Sharing Impact: Clearly showing donors exactly how their funds are used and what success looks like.
Making it Personal: Using data to segment donors and personalize outreach, ensuring the right message reaches the right person.
Involving the Board: Having board members personally thank donors to elevate the stewardship experience.
Encouraging Non-Monetary Support: Inviting donors to volunteer or tour your facilities so the relationship doesn't feel purely transactional.

How does our organization's website affect donor engagement?

Your website is often a prospective donor's first impression. Ensuring your site is mobile-friendly, loads quickly, and offers seamless navigation (like a modern checkout experience) gives donors confidence that your nonprofit operates professionally and transparently.

Nonprofit Payment Processing: How donation processing options impact donation conversion rates

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Fundraising technology has exponentially enhanced the way people interact with organizations. The good news is that today’s consumer experience is now personalized down to every delicate detail, however this also means that nonprofits are not matching these consumer experiences, leading to not-so-great donor experiences.

An effective way to easily improve the donation experience is to offer a diverse suite of donation payment options. This vastly expedites the donation checkout process and converts more potential donors into actual donors.

Understanding your donors’ giving preferences
Differentiating types of donation payment processing options
Converting more donors with better charity payment processing options

Your donors’ giving preferences

No two donors are alike: Each individual donor has unique interests and patterns of giving, so it’s prudent that your nonprofit recognizes that. One thing you never want to do is lump your donors into one given category. For example, just because everyone has a credit card doesn’t mean that’s their preferred way to pay.

If you want to truly connect with your donors, it’s important to understand that they have different giving preferences, and offer them a multitude of charity payment processing options in order to accept donations for your nonprofit. To give you more insight, we’ll share quick profiles of the two biggest generational givers: Millennials and Baby Boomers.

Millennials

Millennials, once referred to as the “Lost Generation,” are coming into purview as the next powerful generation of donors. There are more than 72 million Millennials in the U.S., with 84% giving to charitable causes annually. While Baby Boomers still hold the majority of wealth, Millennials are reaching peak earning years and could receive up to $68 trillion from their Baby Boomer parents.

These digital natives — those who grew up using technology — are likely to give online and through their mobile device, with 93% of Millennials owning a smartphone and 73% using their phones to shop online, which can be comparable to online giving.

Baby boomers

As no surprise, Baby Boomers currently hold the title for the wealthiest generation. According to Federal Reserve data, Americans ages 70 and older had a net worth of nearly $35 trillion in the first quarter of 2021. Because of the digital state in which they grew up in, many think this generation of digital immigrants (those who did not grow up using technology and had to adapt) struggle with adopting technology, but Baby Boomers are very adept at using it.

In fact, 85% want more digital options, 80% feel confident and comfortable using technology, 78% feel safe and secure using new technologies, and 77% enjoy using new technologies. Additionally, 49% of Baby Boomers like to stay up to date with the latest payment methods, 57% find it easier to pay using contactless methods, and 45% agree that mobile wallets make it easier to pay.

Regardless of age, the use of digital wallets is on the rise. To meet the increased demand for modern charity payment methods, it should be standard practice to offer a growing library of donation options for payment processing in order to cater to every type of donor.

4 Types of donation payment processing options

Today’s modern world allows nonprofits to accept multiple forms of charity payment processing options, giving people the power to donate to their favorite nonprofits however they want. As an example, The Water Project gives its donors the option to give through a credit card, digital wallet (Google Pay and PayPal), or bank transfer.

But as a nonprofit, it can be difficult to stay on the pulse of a constantly changing environment. Not to fret - here is a quick breakdown of the donation payment options currently available:

Credit cards. Perhaps the most popular, credit cards are accepted domestically and internationally. Most online giving and fundraising platforms accept VISA, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Discover, UnionPay, and Diners Club.
Bank transfers. This type of payment method caters to those who prefer to have funds taken directly from their bank account. Services like these make it simple for donors to electronically transfer money from their bank account to your nonprofit’s.
Digital wallets. Also known as e-wallets, digital wallets store payment information to expedite online checkouts. A number of digital wallets are widely available: Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Venmo.
Cryptocurrency. In 2021, Fidelity Charitable accepted a record $330 million in cryptocurrency assets. With the growing popularity of cryptocurrency, this form of payment helps nonprofits reach those high-net-worth individuals who give larger gifts.

Here’s another example using the Best Friends Animal Society donation modal.

Finding an online giving platform that offers all of the aforementioned donation payment options to choose from can be one in a million. However, as technology enthusiasts, we understand how important it is to cater to every single one of your donors. Fundraise Up is constantly adding new payment methods to our pipeline — like the recently available Venmo option.

Bottom line: Effective charity payment processing means better donor conversions

Last year, we analyzed data from January 1, 2021 to September 1, 2021 to understand what types of payment methods our nonprofits’ donors used. While credit cards remained the most popular form of donation payment (65%), donors also used the following payment processing options for receiving donations:

PayPal: 25%
Apple Pay: 6%
Google Pay: 3%
Plaid: 0.34%

The more payment processing options a nonprofit can offer, the better the donor conversion rate. Imagine if you didn’t offer PayPal: You could be losing 25% of those donors who would have otherwise donated with a PayPal checkout option. Instead, the only available charity option was to pay with a credit card, but the donor didn’t have their credit card immediately available. Because of that, the donor never returned to complete the checkout, forcing your nonprofit to lose out on a valuable donor.

Fun fact: Did you know that donor conversion rises by 10% when PayPal is offered as a donation payment option?

Don’t let a simple upgrade keep you from getting the donations you deserve.

Are you ready to upgrade your donation experience and provide your donors with a diverse collection of donation payment options? Book a demo with one of our team members here.

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Nonprofit Fundraising Technology in 2026: Utilizing fundraising platforms to building a fundraising tech stack

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Nonprofits are constantly inundated with a long list of technologies and responsibilities, from vital fundraising and development operations to tedious administrative tasks. To help alleviate this burden, the most successful nonprofits have turned to online fundraising platforms that allow them to implement more cutting-edge nonprofit fundraising technology solutions into their workflow.

While nonprofits have been making significant headway in their technological & digital transformation, many still struggle with deciding whether to use all-in-one products or specialty tools to build out their nonprofit technology stack. Paired with all-too-familiar budgetary constraints, these nonprofits can feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. Especially during a time when the donor experience is compared to hyper-personalized, state-of-the-art consumer experiences, there is now more pressure for nonprofits to innovate and adapt to the new digital standard set by these well-established brands.

In efforts to provide donors with the modernized experiences they more than deserve, nonprofits are now seeking to invest in better fundraising technology solutions, but they are simultaneously overwhelmed by what they think is an extremely laborious process. However, adopting new technology doesn’t have to feel like a daunting task. With a little time, patience, and a well-thought-out and structured technology roadmap, adding new digital tools into your nonprofit organization can be simplified, streamlined, and exciting.

If you’re seeking to learn more about what to consider when building your technology stack, follow along as we explain:

A step-by-step guide to building a fundraising technology stack
The role of technology in nonprofits
How to manage roadblocks to adopting new technology
The power of native integrations
The anatomy of a nonprofit’s fundraising technology stack

Leveraging the Power of Online Fundraising Platforms: Building the Ultimate Nonprofit Tech Stack

The entire implementation process of new nonprofit fundraising technology can take anywhere from a matter of weeks up to six months, depending on how fast your organization is able to do its research and commit to the new technology. Whether you’re building your fundraising technology stack for the first time or your team has decided it’s time for a complete digital makeover, there are four steps to follow:

Goal-Setting
Research
Evaluation
Implementation

1. Goal-Setting

While technology plays an important role in the success of your nonprofit, it’s not the end-all-be-all to your biggest problems. Every single technology investment needs to be paired with a long-term strategy in order for it to be effective. Doing so will save you time, money, and unnecessary stress in the future by avoiding investing in a new, fancy technology before understanding how it’ll impact your organization. So, before considering adding any new solution to your growing technology stack, your nonprofit should first evaluate its needs and goals on a strategic level.

Ask yourselves the following questions:

What are your nonprofit’s long-term goals? Perhaps you have a legacy all-in-one fundraising and CRM system that has non-customizable and outdated features (e.g., ineffective email automation or cumbersome donation form). Therefore, you’re looking to build a technology stack that streamlines and modernizes fundraising and donor outreach to increase donor conversion and retention.
What is your budget? Get your budget approved by the board before shopping for a new technology tool. This prevents any time and effort wasted for both your team and any potential technology partner’s team and ensures a smooth implementation process.
Who can take on the responsibility of a new technology solution? One thing you don’t want to run into when adopting a new technology is having no one on your team who has the skillset or bandwidth to be the key person managing and training your team on the technology.

Changing your database, eCRM — or integrating the two — is a big endeavor. So, do your homework. Speak to peers about their experiences. Make sure you and your organization are ready to invest the time and the money. The benefits of having new technology are great, but only when you invest the time to pick the right one and build it out to your full organizational needs.

Jamie Natelson
Senior Vice President, Marketing, The Humane Society of the United States

2. Research

Once you’ve established what type(s) of tools you want to add to your technology stack, it’s time to do market research. When you get to this step, you can either do this yourself or hire a consultant to help guide you through the rest of the way.

Finding where to begin researching might feel a little intimidating, but the good news is that there are resources available, like Cabinet M, to help you narrow down your search. When you’ve selected three to five different options to choose from, it’s time to schedule pre-demo discovery meetings with vendors to discuss your requirements. If those meetings go well, the next step is to set up product demos with no more than three companies.

In these demo meetings, you’ll want to include people on your team who will be key stakeholders — those who will work with the tool often and will need to be the first to get trained on the product. Having a diverse representation of your team will ensure the right questions are being asked and any notable concerns are being addressed. It’s a good idea to hold a debrief meeting with your team after each vendor meeting to talk through the pros and cons.

After each demo, I facilitate a debrief meeting with the project team from the nonprofit to talk through what they liked, what they didn’t like, what questions they have, and whether we should move forward with this vendor.

Maureen Wallbeoff
Consultant, Nonprofit Digital Strategist & Technology Coach

3. Evaluation

When you’ve completed all of the initial demos with technology providers you were considering, it’s time to sit down with your team to evaluate each to narrow your search down to the top one. During this process, it might be helpful to learn some red flags to avoid:

Multi-year contracts. Your organization’s technology needs will evolve over time, so it’s best to have a provider that gives you the option to go either month to month or one that has no contract at all.
Product transparency and limitations. You don’t want to find out after investing in a product that the technology you’ve been so excited about has limitations on what you want it to do (e.g., customization options in your automation workflow). At this stage, your prospective technology provider should have given you a full understanding of what the product can do and what it can’t.
No information on implementation. You should have a good idea of how the new technology will get implemented into your organization. If there have been no conversations around implementation in your meetings with your prospective technology provider, it’s probably not a good sign.
“It’s on the roadmap.” Don’t put all your eggs in one basket and make your decision based on the product roadmap because there’s a possibility that the exciting feature or product might not see the light of day due to a number of factors (e.g., technical issues, funding changes, etc.).

Once you’ve narrowed it down to which technology solution you want to move forward with, you’ll need to schedule a few more meetings to gain a better understanding of the product, allowing your team to visualize how it’ll fit within your organization. Make sure you receive a full implementation roadmap so you know what to expect every step of the way.

Before you move on to the next step of actually implementing the technology into your organization, it’s a good idea to designate an implementation team. This implementation team will be in charge of fully understanding how to use the new technology and how it will be rolled out to the rest of your organization.

4. Implementation

You’ve done all the preparation, and now it’s time for the real work to begin. This final stage is phased into two parts: the physical implementation of the technology into your system and the rollout and training of the technology to your team members.

Your implementation team should have a training program in place for the rest of your team prior to this stage. Once training begins, keep in mind that change will be difficult and you’ll encounter roadblocks along the way (e.g., system glitches, frustrated employees). However, you’ll overcome these challenges once everyone has had time to learn and adapt to the new technology. Over time, you’ll see the fruit of your efforts through improved processes, more efficiency, and a high return on your investment.

Understanding the Role of Technology in Nonprofits

In 2026, technology is of preeminent importance for nonprofit fundraising, and its role will help any nonprofit CEO understand the importance of questions, such as:

What does a fundraising platform need to get started?
How to integrate fundraising platforms with nonprofit websites?
What are the criteria for choosing online donation platform for nonprofits?
What exactly does a fundraising platform need to get started?
How do you evaluate online fundraising platforms with customizable elements (widgets, etc)?
How do you choose the right online platform for hosting a fundraiser?
Which platforms make up the best tech stack for nonprofits?
How to choose fundraising software that scales with nonprofit growth?
How to choose platforms that integrate across nonprofit workflows?
How do you choose a digital fundraising platform with built-in donor analytics?

With the pandemic escalating the need for technology, nonprofits have now recognized the important role that technology has for fundraising within their organizations. According to “The State of Nonprofit Technology,” nonprofits not only understand the need and relevance for technology, but they are also significantly increasing their use of technology across the board.

Nonprofits are already dealt a number of challenges in their day-to-day fundraising operations. With the increased need for technology, curating the right technology stack for your organization’s needs can be challenging due to budget constraints alone. But because online giving continues to grow year after year, in combination with a very competitive nonprofit market, it’s even more critical for nonprofits to invest in the right fundraising technology solutions that will help them increase campaign performance, cultivate and retain donors, and create the most impact for their missions.

Trust is the one thing charities need to convey from day one. When someone enters your site, it needs to be trustworthy. In terms of experience — from how the site is hosted to the interaction of how people donate — if trust isn't there, you're going to lose people.

Thivanka De Silva
Head of Digital Marketing & Web Strategy, International Anti-Poaching Foundation

The growing need for digital innovation in the industry means that there is no shortage of technology providers to choose from. With the option to invest in an all-in-one platform or build a tailored network of different digital platforms, it can be difficult to decide which is best for your nonprofit.

Let’s break down the difference:

The Nonprofit Fundraising Technology Stack: All-in-One Solutions vs. Bespoke

There is a lot to consider in today’s nonprofit technology marketplace. For many nonprofits, it’s easier to find an all-in-one fundraising and CRM system that has the capabilities to do a lot of the things nonprofits are looking for. On the other hand, as your organization grows and its technology needs evolve and become more complex, having a specialized technology stack of tools will leave you with less stress of having to do a complete digital overhaul when you outgrow your all-in-one system.

All-in-One Online Fundraising Platform & CRM System

For the small to mid-sized nonprofit or for the nonprofit that wants a quick technology upgrade, an all-in-one system might seem like the right way to go. But opting for an all-in-one system in place of a full, comprehensive technology stack has its limitations, especially for larger, enterprise organizations that have more specific and complex needs.

Pros:

Less time to implement and learn how to use
Simpler management
More options included in one package

Cons:

Weaker tools compared to what is offered individually
Typically more costly
Limited customization and integration capabilities
Additional features included that may not get utilized

We heavily rely on using stacking technology simply because there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution out there for all of an organization's needs. There are three important pieces that we evaluate: 1) Is the technology the leader in the space in terms of not leaving clients stranded with problems? 2) Does the technology connect as seamlessly as possible into other technology so you're enhancing the ease of use and each system is complementary to one another without much overlap? 3) Is your team using the technology you have, and if not, why not? It's key to let go of technology when it turns into another page of endless procedures rather than a helpful way to tie your team together in a positive way.

Jamie Bearse
President & CEO, ZERO — The End of Prostate Cancer

Bespoke Technology Stack

For larger, enterprise nonprofits and for sophisticated nonprofits that recognize the important role that technology plays, a bespoke technology stack is the ideal way to invest in technology. By hand-selecting every piece in your technology stack, you’re ensuring that they’re compatible with one another and that you’re choosing the best-in-class solution for your every need. While a bespoke technology stack can take much more time and effort, it’ll create a more streamlined workflow over time, save you money, and help you increase fundraising revenue in the long term.

Pros:

Top-of-the-line technology solutions
Better price for its value
Flexible customization
More native integrations

Cons:

More time needed to research, evaluate, and implement

Roadblocks to Adopting New Fundraising Technology & How to Cope

Adopting new fundraising technology into your nonprofit organization is no easy feat. The entire implementation process takes a lot of time and effort — plus, you’ll also encounter a slew of challenges along the way that can feel overwhelming to navigate. However, this is where being prepared ahead of time with a strategic roadmap will help you navigate these challenges with flying colors. Here are the top three roadblocks to adopting new technology and our advice on how to cope with them:

Convincing Executive Leadership & Board Members

Sometimes, the biggest challenge is convincing your decision-makers to buy into a new technology solution. The hesitation often stems from having a limited budget, understanding how much of a difference the new solution will make, and creating organization-wide change.

Before even broaching the topic of new technology, it’s vital that you do the grunt work:

Explain the challenges your fundraising team is facing
Provide explicit details of how new technology can create a more efficient process and solve your biggest challenges
Share examples of how this solution has been used at similar nonprofits and how they’ve benefited from it

The key question is always: 'Does this raise additional revenue?' However, part of the case should be, 'Does this solve our problem?' That’s an opportunity to explore but also to help people understand that it is a future-proofing exercise as well.

Jason Shim
Director, Digital Strategy & Transformation, Pathways to Education Canada

In addition to crafting a compelling case for a new technology solution, it’s vital to appoint your team of digital champions — these individuals have recognition at your nonprofit, and their opinions are valued among your executive and board members. Your team of champions will supplement your strategic plan by further explaining the need for digital solutions and connecting how it will affect your organization’s bottom line (positively) over time.

Lacking Staff or Expertise

One of the primary concerns executive leadership and board members raise is whether or not they have the required resources to manage a new technology solution. In fact, a Salesforce study finds that 93% of nonprofits state that a lack of IT or technical staff is a challenge to their organization’s adoption of new technology.

This challenge can be tricky, especially if your nonprofit is already running tight on staff. However, the implementation of the right suite of digital solutions can create a more efficient workflow and free up staff time to focus on more mission-critical tasks. This is where putting together your technology implementation team in advance will pay off. With a strategic plan, your champions, and an implementation team prepped and ready to go, you will already have a structure in place once you get the green light to start evaluating software providers.

Managing Resistance to Change Within the Organization

Even though you’ve taken the time to research and educate your team about the overall impact a new technology can have on your organization’s workflow and processes, you’re always going to have pushback. The reality is that while your previous technology may not have been the most effective, your staff was comfortable using it. Implementing a new technology system means that they have to go through the training process all over again, which takes countless hours and a lot of staff frustration.

Communication is the key to most things, and it is certainly the key to successful change management. Most negative reactions come out of fear of the unknown. Bringing your team along with what is going on, why it is going on, and any timelines for change can go a very long way.

Jamie Natelson
Senior Vice President, Marketing, The Humane Society of the United States

Again, this is where your strategic plan comes into play. People may not like change, but ensuring you’re providing the right answers to their questions will help alleviate their stress. Plan ahead so that you’re prepared for their concerns when the time comes:

Explain why your team's workflow is changing and the benefits of the new digital tool.
Listen to staff feedback, and make sure they know they’re being heard.
Emphasize to your staff that the transition will be comfortable. Explain that there will be a dedicated team taking the lead on training and that they will have ample time to learn and adapt to the new system.

“People don’t like change, and we expect to learn things quickly. When we need more than just a day or two to learn new technology, we think there’s something wrong with us or the system is the problem (instead of being patient and giving ourselves enough time to practice these new skills). Give yourself and your team six weeks using the new system, and you should be pleasantly surprised by the progress you’ve made.”

Maureen Wallbeoff

The Power of Native Integrations within Online Fundraising Platforms

While having top-notch capabilities to improve your fundraising workflow is one of the most important aspects of finding new technology, another is making sure the new solution is able to natively integrate with your existing system. This ensures that your databases are synced so that you have the most up-to-date information available on your supporters and their activities.

Create a data flow map for all of your platforms. You don’t have to be a database or IT expert to know where the data needs to go.

Mark Becker
Founding Partner, Cathexis Partners

Sure, you can export and upload your data via CSV files, but that takes a scrupulous amount of manual time and labor that otherwise could be automated. If your current systems don’t natively integrate with the new solution that you’re bringing on, you can always use a third-party service like Zapier.

The Anatomy of a Nonprofit’s Fundraising Technology Stack

In this section, we'll share the ideal technology stack for nonprofits, as well as include a number of key solutions that we recommend:

CRM/DMS
Fundraising
- Online donations
- Peer-to-peer fundraising
- Matching-gifts
Email marketing/marketing automation
Analytics
Donor intelligence
CMS
Landing page builder
SEO
Payment Processor
Connectivity

CRM/DMS

A constituent relationship management system is often synonymously used with a donor management system. In essence, a CRM system stores important data to give a nonprofit full visibility into interactions with donors to maximize relationships with them — with the ability to track interactions with donors throughout their entire lifecycle, whether through marketing, sales, customer success, etc.

When looking for a CRM, make sure you’re looking for a tool that clearly organizes critical data — like donor information, individual campaign performance, donation volume, and number of recurring plans. In addition, it’s also vital to have flexible capabilities like customization, automation, and the creation of workflows, empowering nonprofits to grow and scale.

HubSpot for Nonprofits 👈 Easy to use & can scale and grow over time

HubSpot for Nonprofits is an all-in-one CRM platform that offers nonprofits tools for fundraising, marketing, and communications. With tools like email marketing, automation, segmentation, A/B testing, analytics, and social media management, HubSpot for Nonprofits gives organizations full visibility into their fundraising to show which tactics are effective and which are not. Plus, HubSpot offers flexible customization with different Hubs — like Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and more — so that you can build a system that fits your needs.

In addition, the platform integrates with over 500 marketing tools, like Fundraise Up, Salesforce, Mailchimp, and WordPress.

Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud 👈 Sophisticated workflows & flexible customization options

Nonprofit Cloud is Salesforce’s CRM software for nonprofits. The platform connects all organizational functions across fundraising, marketing, programs, and grants, giving nonprofits a comprehensive solution to donor management. Its data reporting capabilities, customization, scalability, and infrastructure sophistication are unmatched and offer nonprofits a range of customized options to collect and organize their data insights.

Virtuous 👈 User-friendly, great for building & managing donor relationships

Virtuous is a cloud-based CRM platform that streamlines donor management and fundraising. With a strong focus on responsive fundraising, the platform also includes features for marketing, automation, and project management.

Blackbaud CRM 👈 Easy to use, decades of nonprofit experience

Blackbaud CRM is an all-in-one solution that combines a CRM with fundraising, integrated analytics, multichannel marketing, and data mining services to help large nonprofits build stronger and more productive relationships.

Fundraising

With fundraising being such a vital part of your nonprofit’s success, it’s important to invest in the fundraising tools that improve your donor experience and streamline your fundraising — with the most important one being an online donation platform. Other types of fundraising tools that are useful include one for peer-to-peer fundraising and one for matching gifts.

Investing in these fundraising solutions will enable your nonprofit to raise more funds, convert more donors, process a high volume of donations, automate workflows, and gain deeper insight into donor behavior.

Online Donations

Fundraise Up 👈 AI-powered donation platform that customizes each individual giving experience

Fundraise Up is the premier online donation platform for enterprise nonprofits. Using AI and machine learning, we provide a unique and personalized donation experience for each donor, eliminating any point of friction in the donation process that would otherwise lead to donation abandonment. Our streamlined donation process is scaled and optimized to convert 37% of donors, double revenue generation, and triple recurring donors.

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

DonorDrive 👈 Flexible event registration & personalized fundraising pages

DonorDrive’s peer-to-peer fundraising platform has flexible event registration to enable participants to start fundraising quickly. Participants have access to personalized pages and social media integrations and receive badge recognition for their accomplishments. Plus, they can spread awareness through livestream fundraising.

Tiltify 👈 Boosts community engagement & influencer marketing through livestream fundraising

Tiltify, known for its livestream capabilities, is a social fundraising platform that brings together digital communities, charities, and brands to do social good across the globe.

Matching Gifts

Double the Donation

Double the Donation is the industry-leading matching gift software provider for nonprofits looking to drastically elevate their corporate fundraising strategies. Founded by President Adam Weinger in 2011, this company aims to equip fundraising organizations with the best tools for matching gift success.

Consequently, 360MatchPro by Double the Donation includes the most comprehensive and up-to-date matching-gift company database, an innovative automation solution, and detailed and insightful data reporting and analysis.

Email Marketing/Marketing Automation

Email is the most used form of communication between nonprofits and their constituents. In fact, 74% of nonprofits regularly send fundraising appeals via email and 69% of nonprofits regularly publish e-newsletters.

From simple email marketing platforms, like Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor, to more robust email marketing platforms equipped with advanced marketing automation tools, like Salesforce, Adobe, and HubSpot, there is an email marketing tool custom-fit for every single nonprofit.

Mailchimp 👈 Simple & affordable email marketing platform

Mailchimp is an all-in-one marketing and commerce platform. With tools to help you market your fundraising campaigns like email, landing pages, and digital ads, you also gain full visibility through your supporters through marketing automation and data insight tools.

Marketing Cloud/Salesforce Pardot 👈 Full-scale marketing automation capabilities

Marketing Cloud is a comprehensive marketing automation platform that offers a range of tools: Email Studio for scheduling and sending emails, MobileConnect for launching SMS campaigns, Social Studio for advanced social media marketing, Advertising Studio for creating ad campaigns, and Journey Builder for setting up customer journeys across marketing channels.

On the other hand, while Salesforce Pardot also offers email automation similar to Marketing Cloud, it comes equipped with the ability to create personalized drip campaigns that can be triggered by website interactions. This platform is more ideal for nonprofits looking for better lead management and long-term nurture.

Adobe Marketo Engage 👈 All-in-one — lead management, automation, email & more

Adobe Marketo Engage is an all-in-one marketing platform that offers marketing automation, email marketing, lead generation, and revenue attribution to streamline and gain visibility into the supporter experience.

Online Fundraising Platform Analytics

An analytics tool collects important data from a website to offer insights into user behavior and identify trends. Information collected from your analytics tool helps you make evidence-based decisions on how to improve your fundraising strategy.

Google Analytics 👈 Great for beginners

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. With Google Analytics, nonprofits can analyze data and generate reports on website traffic and website visitor behavior. With both paid and version iterations, nonprofits of all levels can take full advantage of the tool.

Hotjar 👈 Deep insights into user behavior with tools like heatmaps & visitor recordings

Hotjar provides insights with web traffic and analytics to help nonprofits better understand user behavior with key tools like heatmaps to visualize user behavior and incoming feedback to discover how users feel. It also integrates with dozens of platforms like HubSpot, Zapier, and Salesforce.

Donor Intelligence

Many successful nonprofits have invested in donor intelligence tools, also known as fundraising intelligence, to help them with prospect research. With advanced predictive analytics, nonprofits use these tools to identify who has an affinity to give and how much they are capable of giving — further expanding their donor pool beyond donors who they already have in their database.

KIT 👈 Analytics tool able to integrate with your CRM to identify and segment donors

KIT is a CRM integration toolkit for nonprofits. Combining predictive analytics, KPI benchmarking, and presentation-ready report building, KIT helps nonprofits take control of their data and unlock their fundraising potential.

boodleAI 👈 Predictive analytics to help target your ideal donors

boodleAI provides technology for enriched analytics for sales, marketing, and fundraising teams. Using advanced data enrichment and insightful predictive analytics, organizations can locate their best leads and prospects in any contact list.

WindFall 👈 Wealth screening tool to help find affluent donors

Windfall is a wealth screening tool, providing nonprofits with up-to-date consumer financial information to enable them to identify and engage affluent supporters.

CMS

A content management system, not to be confused with a website builder, is a platform that allows organizations to manage all of their digital content — create, edit, organize, and publish content. Many CMS tools also have built-in SEO and analytics capabilities.

WordPress 👈 No coding skills required & hundreds of available plug-ins

WordPress is an open-source software that nonprofits can use to create their website. With the ability to create an eye-catching website and publish content that is SEO-optimized and mobile-friendly through free and paid options, it’s a popular CMS tool among nonprofits.

Webflow 👈 Easy-to-use drag-and-drop website builder tool

Webflow is a website builder that is also a CMS platform. The Webflow editor enables organizations to build professional and custom websites with zero coding needed.

HubSpot CMS 👈 Extremely user-friendly & top-notch customer support team

HubSpot CMS is a content management system that is flexible to create and personalize webpages, optimizing donor experiences for nonprofits. It comes equipped with a drag-and-drop editor, website themes, SEO recommendations, contact attribution testing, and more.

Contentful 👈 Headless CMS tool

Contentful helps digital teams assemble content and deliver better experiences. Its open and flexible content platform adapts to how digital builders work to meet business goals through easy customization and deep integration with any technology stack.

Landing Page Builder

While CMS tools come equipped with simple templates to choose from, they also allow organizations to use custom coding to get their desired website look and feel. On the other hand, website builders are a simpler alternative that typically come with an easy-to-use interface and drag-and-drop functionality. These tools are often limited and don’t have the flexibility or the customization that CMS tools have.

Instapage 👈 Advanced analytic capabilities for enterprise-level nonprofits

Instapage is a landing page platform that helps you build high-converting landing pages. It allows you to send personalized content to different target audiences and also offers detailed heatmaps, A/B and multivariate testing, and robust analytics.

Unbounce 👈 Cost-effective, number of sleek templates to choose from

Unbounce is a landing page builder that helps organizations pair their expertise with AI insights to create high-converting marketing campaigns. Whether it’s building landing pages, crafting website content, or optimizing conversion rates, this platform is designed for any kind of organization.

SEO

A search engine optimization tool evaluates website content — taking in account things like keywords and backlinks — and offers guidance to help increase its ranking on search engines, like Google. An effective SEO tool will allow you to do keyword research to compare how you rank against competitors, helping you to increase your visibility on search engines.

Google Search Console 👈 Free & easy to use

Google Search Console is a free platform that helps organizations improve their web performance on Google Search. The platform enables you to measure website traffic, evaluate keyword performance, and fix any outstanding issues.

Ahrefs 👈 Extensive keyword research & ranking tools

An all-in-one SEO toolkit, Ahrefs comes equipped with tools to audit and optimize your website, analyze your competitors, find keywords for customers you’re searching for, learn from your industry’s top-performing content, and track your ranking progress.

MozPro 👈 Entire suite of powerful SEO tools

From helping you target the right keywords to creating custom reports, MozPro is an all-in-one suite of SEO tools that empowers organizations to understand visitors, tracks your rankings, audits your sites, optimizes your pages, and finds link opportunities.

Payment Processor

In order to securely accept online donations from supporters, every nonprofit needs a good payment processor.

Stripe 👈 Fully integrated payment products that make accepting donations easy & fast

Stripe is the best-in-class payment processor that offers an entire suite of integrated and customizable payment products for businesses and nonprofits of all sizes. Stripe's pay-as-you-go payment model means that organizations are only responsible for the processing fees — no hefty setup costs or subscription fees. Plus, U.S. nonprofits registered with the IRS are eligible for discounted processing fees.

Connectivity

We previously mentioned the importance of integration when introducing a new digital solution into your technology stack. In many cases, data can flow in and out of your existing technology into the new one, creating a seamless integration process. But sometimes, it’s not an option so you have to look to a third party to create that seamless integration between the two technologies.

Zapier

Zapier is on a mission to make automation easy and accessible to everyone at work. With Zapier, nonprofits can integrate apps — like Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Google — to automatically move data between them and enhance your workflow.

Omatic

Exclusively working with nonprofits, Omatic is an integration solution that ensures up-to-date, accurate data to build trust between your organization and its donors.

Simplify nonprofit strategic planning with Fundraise Up

Regardless of your technology needs and what type of technology you choose to invest in, keep in mind that the key to your fundraising success is ensuring that you’re pairing your new solution with a well-thought-out strategy. Having a roadmap will keep you and your team aligned on near-term and long-term goals, undoubtedly making an impact on the way you deliver your mission.

Frequently Asked Questions About Nonprofit Fundraising Technology

What is nonprofit fundraising technology?

Nonprofit fundraising technology refers to the suite of digital tools and software used by charitable organizations to collect donations, manage donor relationships (CRM), and automate outreach. Modern technology focuses on reducing "donor friction" by providing seamless, mobile-responsive checkout experiences and integrating with other business tools like marketing automation and accounting software.

How do I choose the right nonprofit fundraising technology for my organization?

Selecting the right technology starts with a strategic roadmap. First, evaluate your long-term goals and budget. Look for "green flags" in potential software, such as high accessibility standards, robust data security (PCI DSS compliance), and the ability to integrate with your existing CRM. Avoid providers that require multi-year contracts or lack transparency regarding their product roadmap.

What is a fundraising tech stack, and why is it better than an all-in-one system?

A fundraising tech stack is a combination of specialized, "best-in-breed" tools that work together via integrations (like Zapier). Unlike legacy all-in-one systems—which often have outdated features and limited customization—a tech stack allows your nonprofit to pick the best tool for each specific task, such as a dedicated platform for online giving, a separate CRM for donor data, and specialized software for email marketing.

How does nonprofit fundraising technology improve donor conversion?

The right technology increases conversion by creating a frictionless giving experience. Features like "one-click" Apple Pay or Google Pay, personalized ask amounts based on AI, and localized currency options make it easier for a donor to complete their gift. By removing technical barriers, your organization can significantly reduce cart abandonment on donation forms.

Is it difficult to implement new fundraising technology?

Adopting new technology doesn’t have to be a daunting task. While a full implementation can take anywhere from a few weeks to six months, the process is streamlined when you have a dedicated internal lead and a clear data migration plan. Many modern platforms offer "no-code" setups, meaning you can launch optimized donation forms without needing an IT department or web design experience.

What role does integration play in nonprofit fundraising technology?

Integration is the "glue" that connects your digital tools. When your fundraising platform integrates with your CRM (like Salesforce or HubSpot) and accounting software (like QuickBooks), it eliminates manual data entry and reduces human error. This ensures your donor records are always up-to-date, allowing for better-segmented communication and more accurate financial reporting.

Learn how Fundraise Up can integrate into your technology stack, transforming your giving experience to convert 117% more donors. Schedule a demo with one of your team members today.

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Donor Recognition: a nonprofit's guide to appreciating donors and cultivating loyalty

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In a world eager for positive change, a boost in donations can be very exciting for nonprofits. Yet, the initial burst of joy soon gives way to a critical insight: securing donations marks only the beginning of a donor's journey. The real challenge lies in not just drawing in these contributors but also in holding their interest through impactful engagement.

Many organizations struggle to show appreciation in a way that resonates with donors, which could dampen future support. A strategic approach to donor recognition is essential to turning one-time donors into steadfast supporters.

In this guide, nonprofits can learn effective ways to appreciate donors to keep them engaged and motivated. Through targeted advice and strategies, it outlines how nonprofits can establish a donor recognition plan that nurtures long-term commitment and achieves lasting success.

What Is donor recognition?

Donor recognition refers to the way a nonprofit organization expresses gratitude to donors. This approach combines the art of appreciation with the science of strategic engagement, aiming to recognize and celebrate contributions from individuals, groups, or organizations. Organizations extend this practice beyond simple gestures of gratitude to build a comprehensive support system that aligns donors with core missions.

Organizations can recognize their donors in many ways, including public and private acknowledgment. Many nonprofits organize their recognition into tiers based on donation amounts, frequencies, or levels. No matter the method, the goal of every donor recognition strategy is to acknowledge the donor's generosity.

Why donor recognition matters

Donor recognition plays an important role in the donor engagement lifecycle, the process of converting first-time donors into loyal and long-term supporters. Effective donor recognition can build a strong emotional connection between the organization and its donors, resulting in many benefits for both the nonprofit organization and the donor.

Donor recognition benefits for nonprofits

Acknowledging donors' contributions isn't just a courtesy but a strategic move that benefits nonprofit organizations. Among the advantages of donor recognition include:

Increased donor retention: receiving timely and personalized recognition boosts donor retention as individuals feel valued and see the tangible impact of their generosity, thus encouraging them to continue their support.
Boosted fundraising success: effective donor recognition can increase donations and fundraising success, as donors develop trust in the organization and are more likely to support future campaigns.
Enhanced donor engagement: by engaging in donor recognition practices, nonprofits can strengthen their donors' sense of community and involvement, leading to deeper relationships and more opportunities for engagement.
Elevated reputation and public image: publicly acknowledging donors can also enhance the organization's reputation and attract new supporters, as it showcases the appreciation and impact of donor contributions.

By implementing a comprehensive donor recognition strategy, nonprofits can reap these benefits while also expressing gratitude to their donors for their contributions.

The benefits of appreciation for donors

Donor recognition not only benefits nonprofits but also has advantages for donors themselves. Some of these include:

Increased emotional satisfaction: when donors receive recognition, they experience a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction knowing that their contributions have made a positive impact.
Strengthened connection to the cause: recognizing donors' generosity strengthens their connection to the cause and motivates them to continue supporting the organization's mission.
Increased inclusion in the community: donor recognition can create a sense of belonging and inclusion within the nonprofit community, as donors are recognized for their dedication and become part of a larger movement.
Boosted trust and transparency: publicly acknowledging donors can also increase transparency and trust between nonprofits and their supporters, as it showcases where donations are going and how they are being utilized.

Recognizing donors also promotes dialogue, inviting donors to engage, ask questions, and offer feedback. This process not only enhances the donor's experience but also contributes to the overall success and sustainability of the nonprofit organization.

Key considerations in donor recognition

Research suggests that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to donor recognition. Choosing how to recognize donors depends on many key considerations, such as the recognition setting, donor consent, frequency, and donation levels. Understanding these factors can help nonprofits develop a strategic approach that will be effective and beneficial for both the organization and its donors.

Public vs. private recognition

Nonprofits face a strategic decision when recognizing donors: opting for public or private acknowledgment.

Public donor recognition: this acknowledgment involves openly recognizing donors through events, social media, newsletters, or public displays. This approach can be effective in showcasing a nonprofit's impact and building a sense of community among donors.
Private donor recognition: in contrast, private recognition may involve personalized letters, phone calls, or small intimate gatherings to acknowledge donors. This approach is more personal and allows for individualized attention and appreciation.

Choosing the right strategy is key. Although appreciation generally increases retention and satisfaction, recent studies show unwanted public recognition can actually decrease giving. Some donors may prefer public acknowledgment, while others may prefer privacy. Nonprofits can gather this information through surveys or by having open conversations with their supporters.

Frequency of donor recognition

Another key consideration is the frequency of donor recognition, which can occur immediately following a donation or at regular intervals.

Immediate acknowledgment: promptly acknowledging donors is essential as it shows appreciation for their support and strengthens the relationship with them. Thanking donors within 48 hours of receiving a donation is considered a best practice.
Ongoing recognition: donor recognition shouldn’t be a one-time event. Nonprofits can build stronger and long-lasting relationships with donors by recognizing them regularly throughout the year. This can include thanking them for their continuous support, acknowledging milestone contributions, or providing updates on how their donations have made an impact.

Generally, a combination of timely and ongoing recognition is recommended to ensure donors feel appreciated and valued. While it's important to acknowledge donors regularly, no one likes to be bombarded. Finding the right balance is crucial in maintaining a positive relationship with donors and avoiding donor fatigue.

Recognition tiers and donor categories

Another factor to consider when recognizing donors is the donation amount and frequency. Many nonprofits have different donor tiers or categories based on their support level. This allows organizations to tailor recognition efforts and show appreciation in a more personalized manner.

Some common donor categories include:

First-time donors: recognizing individuals who have just made their first contribution is important to encourage ongoing support and build a strong foundation for a lasting relationship.
Recurring donors: these are donors who commit to giving a set amount regularly, such as monthly or annually. Recognizing their sustained commitment is crucial for retention and to acknowledge their ongoing support.
Major donors: individuals or entities that contribute significantly higher amounts than the average donation size usually receive a special category. Major donors often receive personalized acknowledgements and public praise.
Legacy donors: a legacy donor is someone who has chosen to include the nonprofit in their will or estate plan. Recognizing legacy donors can be a way to honor their lasting commitment to the organization's future.
Volunteer donors: not all contributions are monetary. Volunteers donate their time and skills, and recognizing these individuals is vital to maintaining a strong volunteer base.
In-kind donors: these donors provide goods or services instead of cash. Recognizing in-kind contributions highlights the range of support the organization receives beyond financial donations.

Organizations can build a culture of appreciation and inclusion by recognizing the diverse contributions of donors. Tailoring acknowledgements to appropriately fit each tier and category of support leads to more effective appreciation, resulting in a cycle of generosity and engagement that benefits all.

How to create a donor recognition plan: 5 key tips for effective donor recognition

Donor appreciation requires a thoughtful approach, since what resonates with one donor might not resonate with another. A strategic, well-considered donor recognition plan is crucial not just for honoring donor generosity but for deepening connections and ensuring longevity of support.

Here are a few key things to keep in mind when creating a plan for donor recognition.

1. Establish clear goals

Begin by setting clear objectives for donor recognition efforts. Define success in terms of donor retention, engagement levels, and overall satisfaction to create benchmarks for improvement and measure the impact of recognition efforts. Clearly outlining goals from the start provides direction and focus for all activities related to donor appreciation.

2. Segment donors

Different types of donors require different forms of acknowledgment. Segmenting donors based on their level and type of support allows for more personalized and effective recognition efforts. Donor recognition examples include these two aspects: major donors may receive more exclusive and personal acknowledgments, while recurring donors may appreciate regular updates on the impact of their contributions. Segmentation also allows for tailored communication strategies to engage with each donor group.

3. Choose appropriate recognition methods

Considering donors' diverse preferences and expectations, offering various forms of recognition is important. Traditional methods such as plaques, certificates, and naming opportunities remain relevant, but digital options like social media shout-outs, personalized videos, and virtual events are gaining popularity.

Assessing donors' interests and feedback can help determine the most meaningful ways to recognize their support. Consider using surveys or focus groups to gather insights on their preferences. Matching the recognition method with the donor's interests can increase the impact and effectiveness of acknowledgment efforts.

4. Utilize technology

Technology streamlines donor recognition efforts and opens up innovative avenues for thanking donors. With digital platforms, organizations can reach a broader audience, creating more engaging and interactive recognition experiences.

For example, Fundraise Up offers optimized campaign pages that streamline the donation process for both donors and organizations. The self-serve donor portal gives donors control that increases retention, and automated post-donation dedications allows donors to leave custom tributes. AI-powered machine learning makes it easy to track donor information and preferences as well as automatically encourage donors to convert from one-time to recurring support.

5. Foster a culture of gratitude

Creating a culture of gratitude carries appreciation beyond individual recognition efforts and into brand identity. It's about embedding appreciation into every interaction with donors, whether it's a simple thank you email, a newsletter mention, or a personalized update on how their donation is making a difference. When staff and volunteers express gratitude at every touch point, donors feel valued.

Genuine, heartfelt appreciation can have a profound impact on donor retention and advocacy.

This type of engagement cultivates long-term relationships with donors, resulting in loyal supporters who are motivated to keep supporting the cause.

3 Donor Recognition Examples Perfect for 2026

The donor recognition approach you choose will largely depend on your donor segments, consent, and donation tiers:

Public Acknowledgment for Major Donors: Openly recognizing significant contributors through public avenues like social media shout-outs, dedicated newsletter features, or physical donor walls (like traditional plaques or naming opportunities). This method is a perfect example of effective donor recognition because it builds community awareness, showcases your nonprofit's impact, and gives major donors the elevated recognition they deserve.
Personalized Private Recognition for Recurring Donors: This is a classic example of donor recognition, mainly for individuals who contribute on an ongoing basis (e.g., monthly), private recognition is often highly effective. This includes personalized thank-you letters, handwritten notes, intimate gatherings, or phone calls from staff. It offers individualized attention and makes the donor feel uniquely valued without the pressure of public exposure.
Digital and Automated Acknowledgment for First-Time Donors: Using technology to promptly thank donors within 48 hours of their first gift. This can be achieved through personalized video messages, automated but customized thank-you emails, or post-donation dedications. A platform like Fundraise Up facilitates this through automated tributes and a self-serve Donor Portal that instantly acknowledges a donor's contribution and impact.

Get donor recognition right with Fundraise Up

Donor recognition is an essential aspect of any successful fundraising campaign. Showing appreciation for donors encourages continued support and cultivates long-term relationships.

Fundraise Up ensures a smooth, engaging donation experience that makes donors feel appreciated and valued. The AI-powered platform allows organizations to easily track donor information and preferences, making it easier to personalize acknowledgments and recognition efforts.

Make Fundraise Up a key partner in donor recognition and build a strong culture of gratitude. Discover the features or book a call to see how Fundraise Up can support donor appreciation.

Frequently Asked Questions: Donor Recognition

What is donor recognition?

Donor recognition is the strategic way a nonprofit organization expresses gratitude to its contributors. It blends simple appreciation with strategic engagement to celebrate individuals, groups, or organizations, moving beyond a basic "thank you" to build a supportive ecosystem that aligns donors with the nonprofit's core mission.

Why does donor recognition matter?

It is a vital part of the donor engagement lifecycle that converts first-time givers into loyal, long-term supporters. For nonprofits, it increases donor retention, boosts overall fundraising success, and elevates the organization's public reputation. For donors, it provides emotional satisfaction, strengthens their connection to the cause, and fosters trust through transparency.

Should we recognize donors publicly or privately?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer. While public recognition (events, newsletters, social media) builds community, recent studies show that unwanted public recognition can actually decrease giving. Private recognition (personal letters, phone calls) offers individualized appreciation. Nonprofits should gather donor preferences via surveys to determine the best approach for each individual.

Do we need a donor's permission to recognize them?

Yes, considering donor consent is critical. Consent generally falls into three categories:

Voluntary: Donors opt-in to being recognized, respecting their autonomy.
Involuntary: Automatic recognition (like an annual report list), which may inspire others but might not appeal to everyone.
Mandatory: Required recognition as a condition of the donation, which can sometimes make donors feel uncomfortable. Balancing these approaches based on donor preference is key.

How quickly should we thank our donors?

Immediate acknowledgment is crucial. It is considered a best practice to thank donors within 48 hours of receiving a donation. However, recognition should not be a one-time event; ongoing recognition (milestone updates, impact reports) throughout the year helps maintain a lasting relationship without causing donor fatigue.

How does technology like Fundraise Up help with donor recognition?

Technology streamlines the recognition process and makes it highly interactive. Fundraise Up leverages AI-powered machine learning to track donor information and preferences, making it easy to segment donors. Features like automated post-donation dedications and a self-serve Donor Portal give donors control and immediate gratification, which ultimately increases donor retention.

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Nonprofit fundraising software: is it better to build or buy?

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

When a nonprofit technology leader decides to build a custom donation platform instead of buying one, it's rarely because they haven't thought it through. It's usually because they've only thought through part of it.

The instinct makes sense. Your team is capable. You know your donors and your data model better than any vendor does. And building internally means owning the outcome rather than depending on someone else's roadmap. These are legitimate reasons, and they deserve a serious answer — not a dismissal.

The part that tends to get underestimated isn't the build. It's everything that comes after: the system you're committing to maintain indefinitely, the compliance work that never stops, and the optimization engine you'd need to build from scratch and keep running every year. That's where the math gets complicated.

The questions below are the ones that surface before the build vs. buy decision gets made. Use them as a gut check to make sure the full cost is on the table before your organization commits.

What are the hidden costs of building a custom donation platform?

The hidden costs of building a custom donation platform go beyond the initial build. Ongoing maintenance, compliance updates, payment method changes, and the optimization work your team never gets to — these are the costs that increase after launch and rarely appear in the original proposal.

Most organizations tally the cost of the initial build — developer hours, design, QA, and launch. That number looks manageable, especially with in-house staff. What it leaves out is everything after launch.

How much does ongoing platform maintenance actually cost?

A donation platform isn't a project you finish. It's a system you maintain indefinitely. Payment processor integrations, Apple Pay and Google Pay updates, fraud detection, PCI compliance, accessibility standards, recurring plan management, analytics, and failed payment handling — every one of these requires ongoing attention, and every one of them evolves.

Every compliance update, every new payment method, every accessibility requirement becomes an internal ticket. Organizations typically spend 10 to 20 hours per week on manual donation platform management. At a loaded cost of $30 per hour, that's more than $23,000 per year — before you write a single line of new code.

Reliability is another hidden requirement. Donation traffic is unpredictable, especially during major campaigns or moments of global attention. A donation form that fails during a high-traffic moment doesn't just cause frustration, it directly reduces revenue. Maintaining infrastructure that can reliably handle traffic spikes requires dedicated engineering investment, monitoring systems, and continuous performance tuning.

Why does the optimization gap grow over time?

There's also an opportunity cost that doesn't show up in any budget line: the optimization that isn't happening while your team maintains infrastructure. That gap widens every year, and it's the hardest cost to recover.

A custom build starts at version 1.0. After launch, every improvement depends on your team's bandwidth — and your team has other priorities. Fundraise Up runs 70+ controlled experiments per year across billions of donor interactions, and winning variants roll out automatically to every organization on the platform. Your account gets the benefit of continuous optimization without your team running a single test. The platform also uses AI to determine the optimal donation ask — a capability that requires continuous modeling across billions of data points to work.

Optimization also depends on visibility. Fundraise Up includes a built-in analytics dashboard that surfaces actionable insights on donor behavior, conversion performance, and recurring giving trends. Building comparable reporting internally requires not only instrumentation but ongoing data modeling to turn raw transactions into meaningful fundraising insights.

What does it really take to maintain a custom-built donation platform?

Building a donation platform is a project. Maintaining one is a permanent commitment — and the two require very different things from your team.

The developers who built the original system may eventually leave, taking institutional knowledge with them. What started as a focused project becomes a permanent drain on engineering capacity.

Compliance requirements evolve on their own schedule, not yours. And every patch, every payment method update, every accessibility change borrows from the bandwidth your team could be spending elsewhere.

Can an internal team match the release velocity of a dedicated platform?

A team of 150+ engineers focused on a single problem will always move faster than a team managing many priorities. Fundraise Up shipped 200+ releases in 2025, each building on the last to create cumulative performance gains across 3,000+ organizations simultaneously. Before greenlighting a build, it's worth naming specifically who owns the donation platform long-term and what they'll deprioritize to take it on. Vague ownership is the most common reason custom builds stall after launch — and the most common reason opportunity costs go uncalculated until it's too late.

What does payment compliance actually require on an ongoing basis?

Meaningful compliance for a donation platform includes PCI DSS Level 1 certification, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards, GDPR and CCPA if your donors are international, and payment processor-specific requirements that update on their own schedules. For organizations operating internationally, add multi-currency regulatory compliance across 130+ currencies.

These aren't one-time checkboxes. They require continuous monitoring, annual audits, and proactive updates when standards change. When a regulation changes, the fix needs to be live before the deadline — not after your team identifies the requirement, scopes the work, and finds bandwidth. That's the ongoing commitment a custom build asks your team to match.

How much work does international localization require?

Localization introduces another layer of complexity that organizations often underestimate when planning a custom donation platform. Supporting international donors requires professionally translated interfaces, localized receipts and communications, correct formatting for currencies and payment methods, and ongoing updates as language support evolves.

Maintaining these translations internally and ensuring they remain accurate as the donation platform changes quickly becomes a significant operational task. Every update that touches donor-facing text needs to be translated, reviewed, and deployed across all supported languages.

Fundraise Up supports donors in more than 20 professionally translated languages out of the box, allowing organizations to provide localized giving experiences without maintaining translation workflows internally.

Is building a donation platform the right use of developer talent?

Technical teams at nonprofits are often capable of more than the organization asks of them, and a visible project like a donation platform is a genuine opportunity to demonstrate that. The redirect isn't “your team can't do this.” The more useful question is whether this is the right project for that ambition.

The processing layer, the compliance infrastructure, the optimization engine — these have been solved at scale. The competitive advantage for your organization isn't in solving it again internally. It's in building the systems only your team can build: the CRM integrations, the custom reporting, the mission-critical applications that reflect your programs and data model.

The opportunity cost of the donation layer isn't just maintenance hours, it's every strategic system your team didn't build while they were maintaining infrastructure a specialized platform handles automatically.

Will buying fundraising software cost you control over the donor experience?

Buying fundraising software does not cost you meaningful control over the donor experience. Brand expression, campaign flexibility, and self-service edits are all available without building — what you give up is ownership of the underlying infrastructure, which is a burden rather than a benefit. There's also an opportunity cost to consider: the time your team spends managing donation infrastructure is time they're not spending on the integrations, reporting, and essential applications that only your organization can build.

This concern is worth taking seriously, especially for organizations that have been stuck with rigid, generic-looking platforms. When your donation experience looks like a third-party widget, it erodes brand credibility. That frustration is real. But it's worth distinguishing between the control that affects donor experience and the control that creates operational overhead.

What does meaningful brand control over a donation experience look like?

Brand expression — logo, fonts, campaign styling, messaging, layout — is where nonprofits need flexibility. Teams should be able to customize campaigns, embed donation experiences directly into branded pages, launch and edit without developer involvement, and run A/B tests without submitting an IT ticket.

Fundraise Up gives teams flexibility where it matters most. Donation experiences embedded on an organization’s website through Elements can be configured to match the surrounding page — including colors, text, and sizing — so the giving flow fits naturally within the site’s design.

For hosted experiences like Checkout Modal and Campaign Pages, customization focuses on core brand elements such as logos, campaign content, and imagery rather than full design control (like custom fonts or button styling). This approach reduces the burden on internal teams while ensuring every donor experience meets strict accessibility, usability, and performance standards out of the box. Fundraise Up’s donation flows are built with accessibility best practices by default, helping nonprofits deliver inclusive giving experiences without additional design or engineering work.

What parts of a donation platform should you not want to control?

What you don't control — and shouldn't want to — is the underlying infrastructure. Payment processing, fraud detection, compliance updates, reliability, scalability, and conversion optimization aren't benefits of ownership. They're burdens.

The real choice is whether you want to own every design decision along with the testing, maintenance, and optimization work that comes with it — or whether you want strong brand expression on top of infrastructure that's continuously improving on your behalf. Fundraise Up delivers 3x higher conversion rates than the industry average and 30% higher average donation amounts than other providers. Those outcomes are the result of the infrastructure underneath, not just the interface on top.

What are the risks of switching to new fundraising software?

The risks of switching are real but manageable. The cost of not switching — lower conversion, no optimization engine, manual compliance — compounds every month you wait.

A vendor with a multi-year contract has limited incentive to keep performing after the ink is dry. Fundraise Up operates with no contract, which creates a fundamentally different dynamic: the relationship only continues as long as it's working. That accountability is reflected in 0% churn.

What happens to recurring donors during a platform migration?

Migration anxiety is one of the most common reasons organizations stay on underperforming platforms longer than they should — and it deserves a real answer.

The concern usually comes down to two things: losing existing recurring donors during the transition, and disrupting the pipeline for new ones. Both are legitimate. Phased migrations allow organizations to move gradually rather than making a hard cutover that puts the entire recurring program at risk at once.

The performance gap is also real — Fundraise Up drives 2x higher recurring enrollments than industry benchmarks.

What is the revenue cost of delaying while you build?

A custom build typically takes six to 12 months before donors see any improvement. During that entire window, your current donation experience — whatever its limitations — stays live. Lower conversion rates, no AI-powered donation optimization, no testing engine, manual compliance management. Every week of that timeline has a revenue cost, and it isn't recoverable.

The decision to build later is always available. The donations lost during a development cycle are not.

By contrast, implementing a purpose-built platform can happen quickly. Depending on an organization’s technical readiness, Fundraise Up can be live in as little as 24 hours. Implementation typically requires adding a single code snippet to the website, after which donation experiences can be launched and managed without developer involvement.

How do you pressure-test the build vs. buy decision before it goes to leadership?

Four questions will reveal whether a build plan is ready to present, or whether it has gaps that will surface later at a much higher cost. If you can't answer all four cleanly, the plan isn't ready.

Who owns this long-term, and what do they deprioritize to take it on? Name the person. Name the tradeoff. Vague ownership is the most common reason custom builds stall after launch.
What is your plan for staying current with payment compliance? PCI DSS, WCAG, Strong Customer Authentication, and processor-specific requirements all change on their own schedules. Who monitors them, and how does an update become a live fix?
How many A/B experiments will you run on your donation experience per year? Whatever your number is, it needs to be real and resourced, not aspirational. Fundraise Up runs 70+.
What does your donor experience look like six months into the build? If the answer is “the same as today,” that's a cost worth calculating explicitly before the decision is made.

If any of those four questions don't have a clean answer, a pilot is the most direct way to move forward. Fundraise Up's model has no contract and no upfront fees — and the performance data from a pilot is exactly what makes the longer-term decision easier to make with confidence.

Request a demo today.

Fundraising thermometers work — here's the psychology that explains why

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 14:00:00 GMT

You may have added a fundraising thermometer to your campaigns because it seemed like the 'right' thing to do — and it is. It's an easy way for you (and your supporters) to watch a goal come together in real time.

But have you noticed that donations tend to pick up speed as your campaign approaches its target? Why does that happen? It isn’t timing or luck. It’s behavioral science.

That humble thermometer — the one that seemed like little more than a nice-to-have visual aid — is doing a surprising amount of psychological work on your donors every time they land on your campaign page. Here’s what’s actually going on, and how you can use it to your advantage.

3 reasons fundraising thermometers work (according to behavioral science)

The short answer is that a well-placed thermometer taps into several well-documented quirks of human psychology — all at the same time. Here’s a closer look at the three biggest ones.

1. They make donors feel like the deciding factor

The closer a donor gets to seeing a campaign reach its goal, the more likely they are to give — and to give more. This is the goal gradient effect, first observed in rats running mazes and later confirmed across a wide range of human behavior. It’s even been observed directly in charitable giving, where researchers saw donation rates measurably increase as campaigns approached their funding targets.

The behavior itself is interesting, but so is what’s driving it. The primary motivator isn’t pure altruism. It’s perceived personal impact. When a campaign is sitting at 92%, a donor doesn’t just see a number. They see an opportunity to be the one who pushes it over the finish line. That emotional payoff — the sense that their specific gift got the job done — is what really accelerates giving in the final stretch.

This is why a thermometer is more than a simple progress tracker. It’s constantly recalculating the psychological stakes for every donor who sees it. Early in a campaign, it builds awareness. But, as it climbs, it starts making individual donors feel increasingly consequential.

3. They make inaction feel like a lost opportunity

Loss aversion states that people are more motivated by the prospect of losing something than by the prospect of gaining something (even if it’s of equal value). We’d rather avoid a late fee than get an unexpected discount of the same amount.

A fundraising thermometer activates this instinct in a surprisingly direct way. When a campaign is visibly close to its goal, donors see more than an opportunity to chip in — they see a goal that could fail without them. That’s a different psychological trigger than simple momentum.

A thermometer near its target makes the cost of inaction feel real and specific. Research found that contributions doubled when donors were told a campaign was more than two-thirds of the way to its goal (versus less than one-third). And, while the goal gradient effect certainly plays a role there, it’s an increase that’s tough to explain by eagerness alone.

When a fundraising thermometer can work against you

The behavioral science cuts both ways. The same psychological triggers that drive donations can work in reverse — and a poorly configured thermometer can do more harm than good. Here are a few times when the science can flip on you:

When your thermometer starts too low: A thermometer showing minimal progress early in a campaign can inspire skepticism rather than supportive social proof. Seeding your campaign with board gifts or offline donations before going public can help you avoid this.
When your goal feels out of reach: The goal gradient only kicks in when the finish line feels attainable. A goal that seems too lofty undermines the entire effect. Put simply, donors can’t run toward a finish line they can’t even see.
When you hit 100% and go quiet: Motivation usually dips sharply once a goal is reached, so it’s normal to see a drop in donations once you achieve your target. Announcing a stretch goal as soon as you hit your original mark keeps the psychological momentum going.

How to set up your fundraising thermometer

Now for the big question: How do you configure your thermometer to take advantage of the behavioral science?

Fundraise Up’s Goal Meter updates live with a count-up animation, tracks progress by dollar amount, total supporters, or recurring supporters, and can be embedded as a standalone element on any page of your website.

Here are a few tips to get the most out of it:

Choose the right metric for your audience: Dollar amount and supporter count tell different stories. Supporter count tends to resonate with audiences motivated by community and belonging, while dollar amount works better when a matching gift or specific program cost is central to your campaign storytelling. You can toggle between the two — and even display both simultaneously.
Pair it with social proof: Your thermometer shows progress, but recent donations show the people behind it. Placing Fundraise Up’s Social Proof element alongside your Goal Meter reinforces both signals at once. Donors see the momentum and the real people who are making it happen.
Time your “almost there” push: Once a campaign hits roughly 70%, the goal gradient is working hard in your favor. That’s the moment to send the targeted email, board ask, or social post. Your thermometer is your most persuasive asset in this window, so make sure your outreach points people directly to it.

Most fundraising tools ask donors to care. A thermometer gives them a reason to act — and that distinction is what behavioral science keeps coming back to. Set it up thoughtfully, and it’ll do a lot more psychological heavy lifting than you’d ever expect from a seemingly simple colored bar.

Learn more about customizable digital fundraising Elements from Fundraise Up.

There are only 5 donor groups that matter (and they’re not what you think)

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:00:00 GMT

If you’ve ever built a donor persona, you know how strangely specific they can become. Suddenly, you’re hashing out the details of “Supporter Steve,” who drinks cold brew, prefers national parks to beaches, and donates most often on Wednesday nights after his bike ride.

It sounds thoughtful — and even strategic. Until you realize that none of that information actually predicts whether or not Steve will donate.

That was the point Matt Wallaert, Chief Experience Officer at Oceans and former Head of Behavioral Science and Microsoft, made during his closing keynote at Fundraise Up’s Donor Experience Summit last fall.

“Anyone selling you a persona is an asshole,” Matt said bluntly. Why? Because personas only tell you who someone is — not what they do. And when you’re trying to influence donor behavior, only one thing matters: the behavior itself.

Why personas don’t predict donor behavior

Personas make you feel like you understand your donors — their motivations, habits, and even their go-to coffee orders. But as Matt pointed out, that confidence is almost entirely misplaced.

“All personas do is layer biases on biases,” he said. They focus on surface-level details that might seem important, yet never actually predict whether or not someone will take a specific action.

“Let me tell you about Shane,” Matt continued with an example. “He lives on the Upper West Side. He has a little white dog, and he likes watching the NFL.”

That information feels detailed and insightful. But the bigger question is what will Shane do? Will he give? Will he volunteer? Will he open your next email? Knowing his zip code and choice of pet won’t answer any of those questions.

That’s the core issue: Personas describe people, not behaviors. And successful fundraising is fundamentally about affecting behavior.

The 5 groups that define all donors

Personas fall short because they focus on traits rather than actions. So, Matt suggests an alternative that’s rooted entirely in observable behavior. As he explained, “There are only five groups that matter: Always, Never, Sometimes, Started, Stopped.”

These categories describe how people relate to a behavior at any given moment. They’re mutually exclusive and exhaustive, so every donor fits into one — and only one — group for a specific action. Here’s a closer look at each:

Always: They consistently do the behavior. In fundraising terms, think long-term supporters, your most committed volunteers, or reliable event participants.
Never: They have never done the behavior — not yet, at least.
Sometimes: They do it inconsistently, motivated one moment and distracted the next.
Started: They recently began doing the behavior. Something changed that nudged them into action.
Stopped: They used to do the behavior, but no longer do. Something changed here, too — a barrier appeared or a motivation disappeared.

Matt emphasized that “started” and “stopped” are especially helpful sources of insights because they involve what’s called “proximal change.” Put simply, something shifted in the person’s world recently, which means you can ask what happened — and get a reliable answer.

To demonstrate this, Matt described a hypothetical person who had recently started walking more. Why was he walking more? Because a hip issue made basketball — his usual activity — too uncomfortable. But what if he said he had stopped because the friend he used to play with had moved away? That would point to a completely different reason for the change.

It’s a powerful takeaway for fundraisers who tend to focus on persona bullet points over real behaviors. As Matt said, “Knowing why people are behaving the way that they are allows us to then change those behaviors.”

How to use these groups to drive donor action

Here are a few practical ways you can use this behavioral model to improve donor engagement and increase giving.

1. Re-segment your donor file based on behavior (not demographics)

Start by choosing a specific action (like making a first gift, becoming a recurring donor, or attending an event) and then mapping your donors into the five groups.

You’ll quickly see how different this looks from traditional demographic or persona-based segmentation — and how much clearer your strategy becomes when you’re working with observable behavior.

2. Pay close attention to ‘started’ and ‘stopped’

Again, these groups deserve closer inspection because something recently changed — and it’s your job to figure out what.

For example, if someone just started donating, ask:

What nudged them into giving?
Was there a specific appeal, moment, designation, or channel?

However, if someone recently stopped donating, look for sources of friction, such as:

Failed payments
Confusing step in the flow
Messaging shift
Lapse in follow-up

There’s always a reason for behavioral change — and once you know it, you can act on it.

3. Match your interventions to the reason for the behavior

Behavior change is never random — and the reason behind it determines the right response. As Matt explained, two people can show the same change but for completely different reasons, which means one-size-fits-all interventions won’t work.

Imagine that you noticed a donor had stopped contributing. You can’t adequately solve that problem until you know what caused it.

If they stopped because their card expired, you could use automated reminders of expiring payment methods or automatic card updates.
If they stopped because they lost interest in your cause, you could try adjusting your messaging and storytelling.

The why behind the behavior guides your strategy — not the persona you assigned to them.

4. Use behavioral signals to personalize outreach

You don’t need assumptions about age, education, or hobbies to successfully tailor your outreach. You just need to look at your Insights Dashboard to see what your donors are actually doing, such as:

Who upgraded last month
Who gave twice in quick succession
Who set up a recurring donation
Who fell off after many years

These patterns show you where interest is growing, where it’s fading, and where a nudge could make all the difference. When you anchor your messaging in real behavior, your outreach is more relevant — and more likely to drive action.

Insight comes from behavior (not backstories)

Personas might feel familiar, but they can’t tell you what you really need to know: why donors start giving, stop giving, or choose to give again.

Behavior can. When you segment your supporters by what they actually do — and not who you imagine them to be — you uncover clearer insights and smarter strategies.

That’s why Fundraise Up is built around real donor behavior. The platform analyzes actions like giving frequency, upgrade signals, checkout patterns, and lapses (not static profiles or demographic guesses) to personalize the donor experience.

Ultimately, you don’t need all of the ins and outs of who your donors are — you care most about what they’ll do next.

4 ways to drive donor engagement with AI for nonprofits

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Every first donation feels like a promise — the start of an ongoing relationship with someone sure to become a dedicated and enthusiastic supporter of your cause.

The reality? You might never see another dollar from them. Donor retention is a big challenge, with research indicating that 62% of first-time donors don’t give again within three years. You end up stuck on a hamster wheel, constantly trying to attract new donors (which is both expensive and time-consuming).

There’s a better way. Engaging your donors goes a long way in helping you retain them. And AI can play a pivotal role in inspiring people not to just donate once, but to show their support again and again. Here are four innovative ways to use AI to drive donor engagement — and, as a result, donor retention.

1. Remove friction at the moment of motivation

This might surprise you: the biggest boosts in giving don’t come from adding more persuasion. They come from removing the barriers that make giving hard in the first place.

To put it simply, the easier you can make it for people to donate, the more likely they are to actually do so.

What this looks like: Suggested donation amounts use AI models trained on real engagement and historical patterns (without needing to use any personally identifiable information) to recommend a personalized number to each donor. This cuts out the mental gymnastics they go through to figure out how much to donate.

Another seemingly small detail that can make a big difference? Currency. AI can auto-detect a donor’s location and display suggested donations and any other values in their local currency. Because your supporters shouldn’t have to dust off their calculator to complete a gift.

Why it works: Whether or not to donate (and how much) is just one of roughly 35,000 decisions your supporters need to make that day. So, it’s little wonder that our brains are tired and looking for shortcuts.

It’s called the Principle of Least Effort. This theory states that, when presented with several paths, we’re hardwired to choose the easiest one. The less energy we have to spend to get something done (in this case, completing a donation), the better.

Anchoring plays a role here, too. When donors arrive at a donation page unsure of what’s “appropriate” to give, the first amount they see becomes a reference point. Instead of starting from scratch, a suggested amount offers a clear, reasonable place to start — further reducing uncertainty and helping them move forward with confidence.

2. Create momentum during the first gift

For too many supporters, the first donation is a stopping point instead of a starting one. So, you can’t rely on your donor alone to keep a good thing going.

It’s up to you to capitalize on that early momentum, particularly in that short window after (or even during) their first donation. You already did the hard part: getting them to contribute. Now you just need to keep that motivation warm.

What this looks like: Make sure a donor will come back again by using smart prompts that determine the optimal moment to suggest that they switch from a one-time gift to a recurring one. It feels like a completely natural — and low-effort — way to deepen their support.

Plus, offering different donation frequencies (like weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, and more) allows them to put their giving on autopilot in a way that works for them. Just a click of a button means they’ll keep contributing, without actively remembering to come back and donate.

Why it works: Once we start something, we’re psychologically motivated to see it through — and people often work even harder the closer they get to completing something.

Researchers call it the Endowed Progress Effect. In one study, participants who were given a head start toward a goal completed it 34% of the time, compared to just 19% without that boost.

3. Predict (and prevent) donor lapse before it happens

Losing a donor stings — and it’s also costly. Attracting a new supporter is anywhere from five to 10 times more expensive than keeping a current one.

Yet it can be hard to spot the potential signs of lapse before a donor decides to actually hit the road. Fortunately, AI can raise the alarm for you.

What this looks like: With predictive analytics, you can get a glimpse into the future of donor behavior (without a crystal ball). This includes flagging signs that they’re actively disengaging with your cause — like opening fewer of your emails or waiting longer between gifts — so you can launch targeted re-engagement campaigns.

If and when a donor decides to cancel, offering other options can save 27% of donors from actually following through with it. Even something as simple as automatic, proactive credit card updates can help you keep more of your donors.

But these insights can help you do more than keep people on the hook. By analyzing past giving patterns, you can also figure out who’s likely to give again, how much they might contribute, and the best times to reach out. This means smarter planning for donor engagement, ensuring you hit the right notes when it counts.

Why it works: People are programmed to avoid loss. In behavioral economics, this is known as loss aversion — the idea that losing something feels significantly worse than gaining something new feels good.

When a donor starts to disengage, you face the real risk of a missed gift. But your donor stands to lose something too: their identity as an active supporter of your cause.

Once that mental shift happens, re-engagement becomes much harder. That’s why preventing that loss — before it feels final — is far more effective than trying to reverse it later.

4. Personalize your donor experiences

Personalization is powerful, with 81% of customers saying they prefer personalized experiences. However, if you aren’t careful, it’s easy to slip into creepy territory.

We’ve all had that moment where a message crosses the line from “thoughtful” to “how do they know that?” When it comes to engaging your donors, the goal isn’t to know everything about them. It’s to use AI to show that you understand what matters.

What this looks like: AI can personalize donor experiences without relying on personally identifiable information. Instead of focusing on who someone is, it looks at how they engage — when they tend to give, which campaigns they respond to, what devices they use, or how they’ve supported you in the past.

These behavioral patterns make it possible to tailor different elements like your suggested donation amounts, messaging, timing, and even campaign recommendations in ways that feel relevant (and less intrusive).

This also makes smarter segmentation possible. Rather than sending the same message to everyone on your list, AI can group donors based on shared behaviors and interests — so you can send supporters communications that align with how they already interact with you. The result is outreach that feels intentional and timely, not generic or spammy.

Why it works: It’s a delicate balance: people are more likely to engage when something feels aligned with their interests, but they resist when personalization threatens their sense of autonomy.

This resistance — known as psychological reactance — kicks in when people feel watched, nudged too aggressively, or boxed into decisions. By personalizing around behavior instead of personal data, you preserve trust while still creating experiences that feel thoughtful and connected.

In many cases, AI isn’t about convincing donors to care more. It’s about making it easier for the people who already care to keep showing up. That’s how you can turn a single donation into an ongoing relationship.

What fundraising platforms use AI to increase donations or conversion?

Fundraise Up uses AI to increase donations and conversion by right-sizing suggested ask amounts for each donor, prompting upgrades to recurring or larger gifts, and optimizing the checkout experience in real time. These machine-learning optimizations help deliver up to 3× higher conversion and 30% larger average gifts across 3,500+ nonprofits, turning more website visitors into donors without extra manual work.

Why the first hour after donation abandonment (seriously) matters — the psychology behind timely reminders

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Abandoned donations are part of the fundraising process — but, understandably, you’d like to capture as many of those almost-forgotten contributions as you can.

Turns out, you can do so without reworking your messaging, adding new incentives, or instilling more urgency. It’s all about timing.

We recently ran a test at Fundraise Up to see just how much timing actually matters. Here’s how it worked: When a supporter closes the checkout before completing their donation, they see a gentle prompt: Want a reminder later? If they opt in, we follow up with an email.

Previously, this email schedule was fixed — reminders went out one, three, and seven days after abandonment. But, as part of this experiment, we wanted to test a simple change: sending the first reminder email much sooner — within the first hour of abandonment.

The results speak for themselves: donation conversions increased by 5.7%.

So yes, a prompt reminder works wonders. But why does this timing make such a difference? Behavioral science offers three different reasons why reaching supporters at the right moment can be the nudge they need to complete their gift.

1. Good intentions don’t always survive a delay

Most donors who abandon a donation don’t change their minds about giving. Instead, it’s as simple as getting pulled away at the wrong moment. Put simply, abandonment happens because of interruption — not lack of intention.

Behavioral scientists call this the “intention-behavior gap.” It’s the space between deciding to do something and actually following through.

Across many different areas of life, research shows that our intentions explain only a small portion (roughly 18-23%) of what we do. That’s not because we don’t care — it’s because time and everyday distractions get in the way. And, even with the best intentions, we’re wired to focus on what’s right in front of us.

Unfortunately, the longer the delay between intention and action, the wider this gap becomes. What starts as an innocent, “I’ll come back to this in a minute,” quickly snowballs into procrastination, diverted attention, or forgetting entirely.

Hence, the power of a well-timed reminder email. This gentle cue doesn’t create new intent. Rather, it protects the intent that’s already there by reaching your supporters before another delay or distraction can derail them.

Takeaway: Reminders work best when the intention to give is still fresh.

2. Mobile giving is more easily interrupted

In the experiment, the faster follow-up had the biggest impact on mobile donors. While overall donation conversions saw a 5.7% increase, mobile donation conversions increased by 7% (and 8% when looking only at one-time donations on mobile).

Why did mobile see such a boost? Giving on a phone is even more interruption-prone, which worsens the dreaded intention-behavior gap. Constant notifications and frequent app switching can all pull someone away mid-donation. While mobile devices make it easier to start a donation, they also make it easier to abandon one.

But distraction isn’t the only issue — there’s also the “mobile giving gap” to contend with. People tend to be more self-focused when using their phones, and that’s in direct conflict with the outward shift in attention required for charitable giving.

That mismatch matters. When a supporter abandons a donation on mobile, it’s not because they’ve reconsidered the cause. It’s because their attention has snapped back to whatever feels most immediate or personal at that moment.

A prompt reminder catches supporters while they’re still close to the original context that inspired them to give. The quicker you reconnect, the more likely you are to recover their attention (and their donation).

Takeaway: Faster follow-ups are even more crucial on mobile, where interruptions and inward focus are everywhere.

3. Faster reminders maintain the emotional connection

Most donations are sparked by a feeling — connection, empathy, or urgency. But while that emotional response might be strong initially, it quickly fades.

Once a supporter steps away from checkout, the moment that inspired them to give immediately starts losing its pull. Time creates distance. So, the longer someone waits, the more mentally removed they become from their original decision.

This isn’t unique to fundraising. E-commerce research has consistently shown that abandoned cart emails perform best when they’re sent quickly — often within the first hour. The majority of retailers (98%) send their first follow-up within 24 hours precisely because it reaches people while they’re still thinking about the purchase.

Of course, why people abandon checkouts differs between e-commerce and fundraising. In retail, shoppers leave because they’re price-checking, waiting for a discount, or reconsidering whether they even want the product. But, in fundraising, donors rarely “shop around” for a better cause. Donations are abandoned because the execution simply falls apart.

But that makes this lesson even more relevant for fundraising. If a one-hour follow-up works in retail, where intent is weaker and more conditional, it should work even better in charitable giving, where motivation is strong but follow-through is fickle.

When there’s no clear reason to act right now, many people opt to wait — and then eventually forget. With every hour that ticks by, supporters move further away from the emotional state that prompted them to give. And, when you lose that connection, you lose the donation.

Takeaway: Timely reminders work because they preserve the emotional moment that initially sparked the desire to give.

Abandoned donations are more about distraction, delay, and disconnect than doubt about your cause. By reaching supporters while intent is fresh, attention is intact, and emotion is still present, nonprofits can recover more gifts (without changing their message or adding pressure).

What is Zakat? Understanding Islam’s mandatory giving system

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Zakat is often described by non-Muslims as charity, but that framing misses the point. Zakat is a religious obligation, more akin to a mandated act of worship than a discretionary gift. Like tithing in Christianity, it is required, but unlike most charitable practices, it comes with very specific rules.

How Zakat works

Every financially eligible Muslim is obligated to give 2.5% of their accumulated wealth each year to one of eight categories laid out in the Qur'an (9:60):

The poor
The needy
Those burdened by debt
Those whose hearts are to be reconciled, including new Muslims and those sympathetic to the faith
Travelers in distress
Zakat administrators
Efforts to free people from slavery or human trafficking
Initiatives in the cause of God (a category whose modern application is actively debated among scholars, but often includes humanitarian, educational, and community welfare initiatives)

Because Zakat is rooted directly in the Qur'an, it is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. It is not optional, seasonal, or symbolic. It is a core expression of faith that ties spiritual accountability to social responsibility.

At its best, Zakat functions as a disciplined system of wealth redistribution — purifying one's income while lifting up those most vulnerable.

What it means for nonprofits

Organizations that understand Zakat — and can clearly articulate how their work aligns with one or more of these eight categories — are not simply asking for donations. They are helping donors fulfill a religious obligation with confidence and integrity. When that alignment is clear, nonprofits move out of the realm of transactional fundraising and into long-term trust, credibility, and sustained impact within the Muslim community.

What Zakat donors need from nonprofits

Zakat donors require clarity. They want:

A clear eligibility statement
Transparency about how funds are used
Confidence that the organization understands Zakat

If your organization wants to engage Muslim donors this Ramadan and beyond effectively, now is the time to strengthen your Zakat messaging. Review your programs, clarify your eligibility, and communicate it confidently. The more clearly you articulate your alignment with Zakat's requirements, the more fully donors will engage with your mission.

1 https://quran.com/at-tawbah/60

Introducing the Zakat Calculator: a simpler, more meaningful way to give Zakat this Ramadan

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Ramadan is a season of reflection, generosity, and purposeful giving. For many Muslims, Zakat goes beyond a donation, it’s an act of worship rooted in faith, responsibility, and care for others.

But too often, calculating Zakat online feels fragmented. Supporters leave your site to use third-party calculators, double-check amounts, and then return (or don’t) to complete their donation. This broken experience undermines donor intention at the very moment trust matters most.

The Zakat Calculator was built to change that.

Zakat, calculated with care

The Zakat Calculator helps supporters calculate their Zakat according to Islamic principles and donate directly on your website without distractions, guesswork, or external tools.

Supporters can:

Enter their Zakat amount directly if they already know it
Or, walk through a guided calculation based on their assets, liabilities, and Nisab threshold

Once the amount is calculated, they’re taken straight to checkout with the correct Zakat amount securely locked in.

Grounded in Islamic principles

Accuracy and trust are essential when it comes to Zakat. The calculator is designed to reflect that responsibility:

Nisab is based on gold or silver, with daily price updates
Automatic 2.5% calculation when Zakat is due
Clear distinction between Zakat and Sadaqah if Nisab isn’t met
Rounding up, to avoid underestimating the obligation

All financial information entered by supporters stays on their device. Nothing is stored by Fundraise Up.

Designed for your community and your website

The Zakat Calculator is added to your site like any other Fundraise Up Element. It appears as a configurable button and opens in a modal that keeps supporters fully within your experience.

You can:

Match your site’s look and feel
Localize the button text into the languages you support, including right-to-left languages such as Arabic
Connect Zakat and Sadaqah donations to the right campaigns and designations

The result is a giving experience that feels intentional, respectful, and aligned with your mission.

[video:https://ucarecdn.com/f2a24761-d687-482a-a9bf-e2df06b3fa65/zakatshort.mov video_caption:%ANIMATION_WITH_MODAL% Moving from Zakat calculator to checkout]

Built for Ramadan and beyond

Zakat is paid once per lunar year, and the calculator is designed with that in mind. It supports best practices like:

One-time giving (no recurring prompts)
Clear fund separation for Zakat and Sadaqah
Flexible handling of processing fees based on your organization’s approach

Whether you’re preparing for the final ten nights of Ramadan or planning ahead, the Zakat Calculator helps you offer supporters clarity and confidence when it matters most.

[video:https://ucarecdn.com/93509cf5-805b-453a-b380-90a66b3582e2/zakatfordocs.mov video_caption:]

More Ramadan-ready tools to benefit from

The Zakat Calculator is just one part of creating a thoughtful, high-converting Ramadan giving experience. Fundraise Up offers additional tools designed to help you meet supporters with clarity, trust, and intention throughout the holy month.

Other high-impact features to activate:

Campaign Pages — Launch Ramadan-specific landing pages in minutes, without relying on development resources.
Multiple Designations — Let donors direct their gifts to specific campaigns or causes, including Zakat and Sadaqah.
Arabic localization — Provide a fully localized, right-to-left experience from checkout to donation receipts.
Social Proof notifications — Show recent donations in real time to inspire generosity and build momentum.
Transaction cost coverage — Give donors the option to cover processing fees, helping ensure 100% of their Zakat and Sadaqah reaches those in need.

Together, these tools help you create a giving experience that feels respectful and aligned with the spirit of Ramadan.

Download the Ramadan Giving Guide to learn more about how Fundraise Up’s digital fundraising software can help your organization prepare for a generous Ramadan.

8 valuable digital giving practices for your nonprofit

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Digital giving practices are evolving faster than ever. If you want to keep up with donor expectations and build revenue that lasts, these eight practices deserve your attention. Organizations that adopt these strategies see better conversion rates, stronger donor retention, and more sustainable revenue.

1. Optimize for mobile-first giving

Mobile devices now drive 53% of all nonprofit website traffic, yet mobile users complete donations at lower rates than desktop users (8% versus 11% main donation page conversion rates). Closing this gap starts with optimizing your mobile experience.

Fundraise Up helps you create lightning-fast, mobile-optimized donation forms that keep donors engaged and reduce friction at every step.

2. Offer multiple payment methods

The most successful digital giving practices include diverse payment options: 76% of nonprofits now accept PayPal, 47% accept Apple Pay, and 40% accept Google Pay. If you're only accepting credit cards, you're leaving money on the table.

Give supporters the flexibility to use the payment methods they already trust and have set up on their devices.

3. Pre-select monthly giving options

Monthly giving is the engine of sustainable nonprofit revenue, accounting for 31% of all online revenue. Monthly giving revenue grew 5% year-over-year while one-time giving stayed flat.

35% of nonprofits now pre-select monthly giving as the default option, and another 78% use language that encourages recurring gifts. Digital giving practices examples in the US, UK, and Australia all show that monthly donors stick around longer, which makes understanding effective digital fundraising strategies essential for sustainable growth.

4. Reduce time to donate

Speed matters more than ever.

Whether you're running a megachurch, local parish, or any nonprofit, digital giving best practices for church organizations and secular groups alike emphasize eliminating unnecessary form fields and using modern platforms that prioritize speed.

5. Build cross-functional teams

42% of nonprofits now use cross-functional teams, up from 37% the prior year. Organizations with integrated teams report higher staff satisfaction, faster campaign launches, and stronger fundraising performance.

When teams collaborate from the start, campaigns launch faster and perform better.

6. Create donor journey maps

74% of organizations now use donor journey mapping, and these journeys consistently outperform traditional campaigns in retention rates. The best digital giving practices don't treat donors as transactions but design meaningful experiences from first gift through sustained engagement.

Understanding that digital engagement is essential helps you build lasting relationships that go beyond a single transaction.

7. Implement AI frameworks thoughtfully

88% of nonprofits now have AI frameworks or plans in place. The organizations succeeding with AI aren't chasing trends but using AI to personalize donor communications, optimize gift amounts, and predict which supporters are ready to upgrade.

AI should make your donor outreach smarter and more personalized, not automated and impersonal.

8. Track and improve donor retention

Online donor retention dropped to 38%, down from 41% the prior year. Multichannel donors (those who give both online and offline) retain 35% better than online-only donors.

Monthly donors show significantly higher retention rates than one-time gift cohorts, making retention the foundation of sustainable revenue.

FAQ: digital giving practices

How do I transition one-time donors to monthly giving without annoying them?

The best moment to ask is immediately after a one-time gift through an upsell lightbox. Frame monthly giving as a way to make ongoing impact easier, not as a bigger commitment.

What if my nonprofit can't afford expensive AI tools yet?

Start with free AI features built into platforms you already use. Many email marketing tools now include AI subject line optimization, and payment platforms like Fundraise Up offer AI-powered gift amount suggestions at no extra cost.

How do I know if my donation page is actually too slow?

Test it yourself on a mobile device using cellular data, not WiFi. Use free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to get specific load time data.

Should I focus on desktop or mobile when both matter for different reasons?

Design for mobile first, then enhance for desktop. Mobile drives the majority of traffic and is only growing, while desktop users will have a fine experience on a mobile-optimized form.

Ready to implement these digital giving practices at your organization? Get started with Fundraise Up today.

5 mistakes to avoid when approaching Muslim donors during Ramadan

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:00 GMT

The Muslim community is one of the most charitable in the United States, with Muslim Americans giving an average of $3,241 annually — significantly more than the general population's average of $1,905.

And during Ramadan, giving skyrockets.

However, reaching Muslim donors is more of an art, requiring intention, timing, and cultural fluency. Here are five surprisingly common mistakes that nonprofits make — and how to avoid missing out on this community's generosity.

1. Asking too late

Most nonprofits wait until the first day of Ramadan to launch their campaigns, when Muslim inboxes are overflowing with appeals. But Muslims plan their giving early.

Ramadan is a US$200 billion to $1 trillion global giving season, and donors enter the month with budgets, priorities, and commitments already forming. This means that your nonprofit needs to start its outreach before Ramadan. Build awareness, warm up your audience, and prepare your landing pages now, not once the month has already begun.

2. Not understanding Zakat

Zakat isn't just "Muslim charity" — it's a religious obligation and one of the Five Pillars of Islam, requiring financially eligible Muslims to give 2.5% of annual accumulated wealth to one of eight designated categories.

Donors take this seriously, and they expect nonprofits to understand it. Therefore, you should explain exactly how your programs align with Zakat eligibility, even if you're a non-Muslim organization.

When nonprofits clearly show how Zakat applies to their work and how donations will be used, Muslim donors gain confidence that their religious obligation is being fulfilled properly. That confidence builds trust, and trust is what drives donors to give.

3. Messaging that lacks cultural competence

Muslim donors need messaging that shows respect for the month, an understanding of why generosity peaks during this period, and a sincerity that transcends generic seasonal appeals. In fact, even simple adjustments like acknowledging Ramadan's spiritual significance increase conversion.

Ensure your language is rooted in mission alignment, dignity, community care, relief, education, poverty alleviation, and impact. Not "Happy Ramadan, please donate."

4. Using general donation pages

Here's the truth: Muslim donors rarely convert on generic year-round donation pages during Ramadan. They want to see the Ramadan-specific reason to give. The impact. The urgency. The Zakat eligibility if applicable.

Fundraise Up reports that culturally aligned landing pages significantly increase conversion rates, especially in Ramadan. Therefore, your nonprofit should create Ramadan-focused, mission-specific donation pages with clear impact outcomes and giving designations.

5. Ignoring nighttime giving behavior

Don't send your messages early in the morning because you're most likely whispering into a void. Ramadan donors give between 9 PM and 3 AM — often after nightly prayers or during the final 10 nights, which traditionally bring the highest giving peaks. This means that you should schedule your emails, ads, and reminders for nighttime hours, and double down in the last 10 days.

If your nonprofit wants to tap into one of the most generous donor communities in the country, now is the time to act. Audit your messaging, build your Ramadan landing page, clarify your Zakat eligibility, and prepare for nighttime giving patterns.

Muslim donors are getting ready to give with purpose; make sure your organization is ready to meet them there.

Empowering charity during Ramadan: considerations for nonprofit fundraising

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

There are many seasons of giving, and one of the most influential worldwide is during Ramadan. Along with fasting, prayer, and reflection, this is a time when Muslims give back to their communities.

Charity during Ramadan is foundational and considered a sacred tradition as a pillar of Islam. The mandatory act of giving to share blessings and resources drives impact in local communities (and beyond), and technology creates new ways to give.

Improved accessibility now removes geographic barriers and brings people together with shared values. As the global Muslim population exceeds two billion, nonprofit organizations and charities must find meaningful ways to engage Muslim donors and empower generosity during Ramadan.

Tradition of giving during Ramadan

Like many religious traditions, Ramadan follows a lunar cycle and does not occur at a fixed time each year. It begins in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar when the crescent moon appears.

Until the next crescent moon, Muslims observe Ramadan through daily fasting, prayer, self-reflection, acts of kindness, and charity. Donations during Ramadan are a form of almsgiving, and donations are offered in two forms:

Zakat (za-KAHT) embodies the idea that a person’s good fortune depends upon, and is owed to, the community around them. Donating to those in need is an act of faith and religious obligation for Muslims who meet a minimum wealth threshold. Keep in mind that Zakat donations have a strict purpose and are not intended to cover administrative or infrastructure expenses.
Sadaqah (SAH-duh-kah) is giving to others beyond obligation for a greater impact within the community. Voluntary giving through charitable acts and generosity is highly valued.

The significance of community during Ramadan cannot be overstated. Rituals such as sunset prayers and iftar meals to break fast are observed surrounded by friends and family to strengthen community ties.

Opportunities to multiply the rewards of giving

Bringing people together also facilitates opportunities to give directly to community members in need. For nonprofit organizations, empowering Ramadan generosity requires holistic fundraising efforts that incorporate social engagement and volunteer events.

These can take place at local mosques where the community gathers for daily prayers and iftar. As you bring your mission out into the physical world, technology can help ensure a streamlined donor experience and allow communities to share their generosity with ease.

The last 10 nights are the most anticipated time for donations during Ramadan. They commemorate the Night of Power, when spiritual rewards are multiplied for acts of charity and worship. Many will reserve their Zakat and Sadaqah for these nights to ensure their generosity makes a meaningful difference.

Considerations for nonprofit fundraising

There are many ways to improve donor engagement and increase conversions with the support of innovative technology. It’s easier than ever to give with one-click payments, personalized ask amounts, and recurring donations for sustainable support.

For donations during Ramadan, focus on ways to stretch donations, create localized impact, and increase relevance. If available with your nonprofit fundraising platform, utilize features such as:

Using a Zakat Calculator so donors can easily determine donation amounts.
Arabic localization to engage supporters in Arabic-speaking countries during Ramadan.
Donation matching to multiply the rewards for your organization and donors within your donation checkout.
Recurring donations to distribute Zakat and Sadaqah across the last 10 nights or more evenly across the year to support organizations beyond Ramadan.
Daily giving frequency to engage with supporters who may want to make a donation every day of the month. (Here’s how Fundraise Up works.)
Impact descriptions to encourage greater generosity with a clear explanation of where and how funds will be spent.
Campaign pages to focus fundraising efforts with a specific message.
Adaptive cost coverage to empower donors to cover their transaction costs and increase conversion revenue at checkout.
Automated emails to schedule outreach at times when donors will be available to engage.
Tribute giving to enable donors to dedicate their donations in honor or in memory of a person, event such as Eid, or something else.

Enabling popular payment methods and using a conversion tracking dashboard can help streamline overhead during this time of high-volume giving.

Any way your nonprofit fundraising can demonstrate thoughtful consideration and respect will support meaningful engagement with Muslim donors. For example, a Zakat calculator embedded within your campaign page can help remove guesswork and empower generosity. A Zakat policy for how funds are processed and put to use will also offer valuable transparency.

Empower your nonprofit with Fundraise Up

This revered giving season holds significant potential for nonprofit fundraising. The focus on community, acts of kindness, and charitable giving align to bring organizations and individuals together at a remarkable scale.

Download the Ramadan Giving Guide to learn more about how Fundraise Up’s digital fundraising software can help your organization prepare for a generous Ramadan.

Beyond the donor thank-you letter: 9 ways to show appreciation while building engagement

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 14:00:00 GMT

The donor thank-you letter has long been the gold standard of appreciation. And, honestly, it still matters. This tried-and-true acknowledgement reassures your donors that their gift was received, valued, and put to good use.

But today’s donors don’t experience your nonprofit through one channel, and they don’t expect gratitude to stop after one touchpoint either. Email, on-screen messages, follow-ups, and self-serve options all influence how supported (or, yikes, forgotten) someone feels after they open their wallet.

When it comes to adequate donor appreciation, it’s not that you need to end the thank-you letter — it’s that the thank-you letter can’t be the end.

So what should come next? Here’s a look at nine best practices to help you build a more thoughtful, multi-channel thank-you experience for your donors.

1. Send an immediate thank-you letter — and follow up with something more personal

It’s tempting to think of an immediate, automated thank-you as generic. But this prompt message really matters. It lets your donors know that their contribution went through successfully and acknowledges their support right away.

However, a single, automated message shouldn’t be the only expression of gratitude a donor receives. The most effective thank-you strategies layer multiple touchpoints.

For example, an immediate acknowledgement (like on your thank-you screen) offers reassurance and builds trust, while a more thoughtful and personalized follow-up message allows you to reinforce impact, share what comes next, or simply say “thanks” in a more human way. In practice, this might look like:

Sending an automatic thank-you email immediately after you receive a donation
Using consistent templates so your messaging feels cohesive, regardless of whether it’s automated or not
Following up later (ideally within one or two weeks) with a more personalized message, such as an impact update or a campaign-specific note

Think of your automated thank-you not as the finish line, but as the first touch that you can keep building on.

2. Adjust your thank-you approach based on who your donor is

Not all donors give for the same reasons or have the same relationship with your organization. So, a one-size-fits-all thank-you message — even when it’s well-written — can fall flat.

Take a more personalized approach by segmenting your donors and tailoring your gratitude based on their history, level of engagement, and even donation amount. A first-time donor might need reassurance and context, while a long-time supporter might appreciate a hearty shout-out that recognizes their ongoing commitment.

These details might seem small, but they signal that your thank-you wasn’t copied and pasted. Even something as simple as a personalized subject line can increase email open rates by 26%.

You don’t need endless variations — just enough nuance to make the message feel relevant. Here are a few ideas:

Send a warm welcome-style thank-you to first-time donors that reinforces why their support matters
Acknowledge loyalty or longevity for recurring or repeat donors
Use different follow-up messages for small, mid-level, and major gifts
Align thank-you messaging with the campaign or appeal the donor supported

Many fundraising tools already collect the data you need to support this kind of segmentation. And, when that information flows into Salesforce or another CRM, it’s easy to trigger thank-you messages that match a donor’s existing relationship with your organization.

4. Make tax receipts and documentation painless

You might not think taxes and a heartfelt “thank you” go hand-in-hand. But, for many of your donors, practical details — like tax receipts and documentation — are just as important as the thank-you itself.

When receipts are clear, accurate, and easily accessible, donors don’t have to wonder what they’ll need later, follow up with questions, or spend time tracking down information. Your donation receipts should include the right information (like donation amount, date, and any necessary organizational details), reflect regional requirements when applicable, and be easy for donors to find again.

This clarity reduces friction and frustration, reinforces trust, and shows your donors that you don’t just value their donation — you value their time.

5. Offer thoughtful (and optional) thank-you gifts

Tangible thank-you gifts can be a meaningful way to show appreciation — but only when they’re offered with intention.

Not every donor wants a physical item and might prefer that the cost of that coffee mug or tote bag goes toward your mission instead. So, remember that the option to decline a gift is important, too.

When you do offer thank-you gifts, think about how they fit into your overall donor experience. Gifts should feel aligned with your mission, proportional to the contribution, and easy for donors to accept or opt out of. Clear expectations around eligibility, fulfillment, and timing prevent any confusion and keep the focus on showing genuine appreciation (and not logistics).

6. Give donors simple ways to help themselves

Saying “thank you” isn’t the end of the road. For many donors, what happens after that plays a big role in how supported they feel.

How easy is it for them to update their information? Access receipts? Check their previous contributions? Monitor the status of a thank-you gift? When donors can get answers and manage their details on their own, they have more control over their relationship with your organization. This reduces frustration, emphasizes transparency, and strengthens trust.

Offering easy self-serve options (like a donor portal) gives your supporters a simpler, more seamless experience — even long after they donate.

8. Use your thank-yous as conversion opportunities

A thoughtful thank-you can open the door to deeper engagement — even if it doesn’t feel like an immediate ask.

For donors who already have an ongoing relationship with your nonprofit, small, well-timed opportunities to increase their support can feel like a logical next step rather than a hard sell. Fundraise Up research shows that up to 60% of recurring donors choose to upgrade their gifts when given the opportunity, with average gift increases of 50% or more.

Keep in mind that timing matters here. Upgrade prompts tend to work best when they’re spaced out and contextual. Many organizations find that asking for upgrades every three to six months strikes the right balance — it’s frequent enough to stay top of mind, but not so often that your donors feel pestered.

Your thank-you messages should still lead with appreciation. But when you pepper in optional, relevant, and easy upgrades, you give your committed supporters the option to do more (on their own terms).

9. Measure what’s working — and keep refining your approach

Like any other part of your fundraising strategy, donor appreciation works best when you pay attention to what’s working and use that information to make adjustments over time.

This could mean looking at which thank-you emails get opened, which follow-ups lead to repeat gifts, how often donors engage with self-serve tools, or whether certain messages trigger more sharing or upgrades. These signals help you understand what actually makes your donors feel valued.

You don’t need to optimize every detail all at once. Start by pinpointing a few meaningful indicators, reviewing them regularly, and using what you learn to refine your future messages. Over time, this turns donor appreciation into a feedback loop that helps you build stronger thank yous — and stronger relationships, too.

In the end, the most effective thank-you strategies aren’t just heartfelt. They’re intentional, responsive, and evolve alongside your donors.

Inside 2 Giving Tuesday campaigns that broke through the noise

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Giving Tuesday 2025 was crowded, competitive, and unpredictable — but some nonprofits found ways to break through the noise:

A rescue mission raised nearly 20 times their goal with some help from a turkey in a Santa cap.
A hunger-fighting organization leaned into segmentation to exceed their $100K stretch goal.

Here's how they did it — and what you can learn from their success.

The turkey campaign that raised nearly $139K (and started a week early)

Organization: Souls Harbour Rescue Mission

Souls Harbour Rescue Mission provides emergency shelter, meals, and support services across Nova Scotia, Canada. For their 2025 Giving Tuesday campaign, they partnered with Give Direct Response, Inc., a Canadian direct response fundraising agency, to create a campaign that would stand out in the crowded Giving Tuesday landscape.

Giving Tuesday goal: $7,000 (enough to buy 150 turkeys for Christmas dinners)

Actual results: $138,978 — nearly 20 times their original goal. By the time Giving Tuesday arrived, $32,000 was already in the bank — more than four times the goal before the day even started.

Challenges for 2025

Missions have long known that the hot meal offer works — it's tangible, immediate, and donors understand exactly what their gift provides. The problem is that donors see a lot of messages that sound the same.

Souls Harbour and Give Direct Response wrestled with the question: how do you take something familiar and make it feel new?

What they did

The Give Response team wanted to hit a nerve. The answer was a micro-capital campaign wrapped in a relatable, seasonal package. The messaging was simple but specific: "Help us buy 150 turkeys for our community meals this Christmas."

“Donors could picture it — a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings, the kind of meal that smells like home and tastes like belonging,” Give Response explained in a recent case study.

Then they gave the campaign a name that made people smile: Giving Turkey Tuesday, complete with an illustrated turkey wearing a Santa cap.

The real strategic move was timing. Rather than fighting for attention on Giving Tuesday itself, Give Direct Response launched the campaign a full week early. The campaign included three emails, a homepage carousel, and a Meta campaign that began scaling early to gather behavioral data before the real competition arrived.

Throughout the campaign, Souls Harbour used Fundraise Up's matching gift functionality to promote a $3,500 match. As momentum built, other donors even called asking if they could add to the match.

"Everything has to work together," says Philip Tome, CEO of Give Direct Response. "The offer, the creative, the cadence — all of it matters. But I'm convinced more and more that Fundraise Up eliminates the friction that kills conversions. It makes giving effortless, regardless of device. And the AI-informed dollar handles helped push gift amounts higher than we'd see with typical forms.”

Advice to other nonprofits: have a standout message and a fast checkout

Launching a week before Giving Tuesday secured attention and raised more than four times the goal before the day even started — but the message has to be right. "Giving Tuesday doesn't reward the loudest voice," the case study notes. "It rewards the most interesting one."

A strong start doesn’t mean much without a strong finish. “The best campaign in the world can't outrun a clunky checkout,” Philip says. “The lesson isn't that tech is the answer — it's that tech is what keeps your answer from falling apart at the finish line."

The segmentation strategy that turned past donors into Giving Tuesday champions

Organization: MAZON

For 40 years, MAZON has been mobilizing the Jewish community to end hunger as a collective expression of Jewish values, justice, and communal responsibility. "MAZON is not just a Jewish response to hunger, it is the Jewish response to hunger — the collective action of an age-old people who know how to change the world," says Nicole Tafoya, Deputy Director of Annual Giving.

Giving Tuesday goal: stretch goal of $100,000

Actual results: $105,000

Challenges for 2025

Nicole's team faced serious challenges going into Giving Tuesday.

Their donors had already shown incredible generosity earlier in the year with a High Holy Day campaign that Nicole says "massively surpassed past results." Then came the SNAP crisis — when benefits hung in the balance just weeks before Giving Tuesday, donors stepped up again as MAZON advocated for protection of the program. With donors already giving generously and economic uncertainty looming, the team wasn't sure if they could motivate another round of giving.

Then there was the timing challenge. Their Hanukkah direct mail appeal had already landed two weeks before Giving Tuesday — creating a delicate balancing act between two important campaigns. The challenge was to shift people's focus from Hanukkah messaging to Giving Tuesday without breaking the flow or making donors feel over-solicited.

What they did

Rather than treating Giving Tuesday as a make-or-break moment, Nicole's team positioned it as "the first spark of the season."

Their messaging reflected this. "One candle could not have sustained the menorah by itself for eight nights — it was all of the candles together," Nicole explains. "One person making a gift will not end hunger. It is every single person doing what they can all together that is going to make a difference."

In the two weeks leading up to Giving Tuesday, each email appeal focused on one statistic about hunger, "shining a light on the facts" that needed to be lifted out of the darkness.

The foundation of MAZON's success was identifying every previous Giving Tuesday donor. Nicole manually pulled reports from previous years and built new fields in Salesforce to assign campaign codes to past participants. This wasn't readily available data — it required dedicated effort to create a system that didn't exist.

This groundwork enabled her to customize messaging, include or exclude donors from specific emails, and acknowledge their previous participation. The result was true donor segmentation: reaching the right person with the right message at the right time.

Advice to other nonprofits: know who your previous Giving Tuesday donors are

"Just knowing who the Giving Tuesday donors were gave me the right person, right message, right time," Nicole says. "That is the core of what makes a strong annual giving shop."

Nicole also credits working with her Fundraise Up Customer Success team as instrumental in developing her year-end strategy, providing strategic guidance on segmentation approaches, technical implementation support, and campaign planning assistance.

“UnCharitable” documentary explained: what nonprofits (and their donors) need to know

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

“Low overhead makes you a better nonprofit" might be the most expensive myth in charitable giving. After all, supporters want their donations to go toward the actual cause — not expenses like staff salaries or marketing campaigns.

But what if the thinking about overhead costs is completely misguided — and ever counterproductive? That’s at the heart of the documentary “UnCharitable,” which challenges everything we think we know about nonprofit effectiveness.

Based on Dan Pallotta’s 2008 book by the same name and his viral TED Talk (viewed over five million times), the film exposes how nonprofits’ obsession with low overhead costs is actually limiting their impact.

It’s a must-watch for nonprofit leaders and staff, donors, policymakers, and anybody passionate about charitable giving. Want to learn the high points before watching the whole film? Here’s what you need to know.

What is “UnCharitable” about?

“UnCharitable” features interviews with nonprofit leaders like Dorri McWhorter, CEO of YWCA Chicago.

“UnCharitable” makes a simple but revolutionary argument: the belief that nonprofits should minimize overhead costs puts them at a major disadvantage. It prevents the sector from attracting top talent, investing in growth, and ultimately changing the world.

To prove that point, the documentary follows several real stories of nonprofit leaders whose organizations were publicly attacked for their spending decisions — despite raising record amounts for their causes.

Through these narratives, the film illustrates how media coverage tends to focus solely on overhead ratios while ignoring the actual dollars going to the cause. One example highlighted in the documentary is Wounded Warrior Project, which spent 60% of its budget (equaling $148.6 million) on veterans’ programs. That’s significantly more than organizations with “better” overhead ratios on paper, but much smaller budgets.

Dan Pallotta knows this criticism firsthand. His company, Pallotta TeamWorks, pioneered multi-day charitable events like the AIDS Rides and three-day walks for breast cancer, raising hundreds of millions of dollars over nine years. Yet, despite that massive impact, the company collapsed in 2002 following media reports that heavily criticized its marketing expenses and fundraising costs.

This fallout didn’t just damage Pallotta’s company and his reputation — it caused a massive drop in funds raised for breast cancer and AIDS research.

Now, Dan is a dedicated advocate for nonprofits and is the founder and president of the Charity Defense Council, a movement focused on changing the way donors think about charity and change.

How the overhead myth limits impact

Dan Pallotta’s iconic TED Talk on philanthropy has been viewed more than five million times. It is the 16th most commented TED Talks of all time.

When you’ve spent the bulk of your career intensely focused on minimizing overhead expenses, letting go of that metric can feel jarring. So, let’s take a closer look at why the obsession with the overhead ratio is a disservice to nonprofits.

The overhead ratio measures what percentage of a nonprofit’s budget goes to administrative and fundraising costs versus direct program expenses. Donors and rating agencies like Charity Navigator often use this metric to evaluate a nonprofit’s effectiveness, celebrating those that keep administrative costs as low as possible.

But Pallotta argues that this metric is fundamentally flawed. Overhead includes essential investments like:

Competitive salaries to attract talented staff
Marketing and advertising to reach more donors
Technology and infrastructure
Long-term strategic planning
Fundraising operations that generate more revenue

When nonprofits are pressured to minimize these investments, they can’t scale their impact. As Pallotta puts it, “Our generation does not want its epitaph to read, ‘We kept charity overhead low.’ We want it to read that we changed the world.”

5 double standards holding nonprofits back

“UnCharitable” also makes the argument that nonprofits face several restrictions and pressures that for-profit companies never deal with. These include:

1. Compensation

For-profit companies can pay whatever it takes to attract top talent. Nonprofits face public outcry if they offer competitive salaries (especially for executives). This drives many of the best candidates to the public sector.

2. Advertising and marketing

For-profit companies spend freely on marketing to grow revenue. Nonprofits are expected to rely on donated media or to keep promotional costs to a minimum. This severely limits their ability to reach potential donors.

3. Risk-taking

For-profit companies are permitted to take calculated risks and learn from failures. Nonprofits are criticized for any program that doesn’t immediately succeed. This fuels risk aversion within the entire sector.

4. Time horizons

For-profit startups can operate at a loss for years while building toward long-term success. Nonprofits are expected to show immediate results and maintain perfect overhead ratios from the jump.

5. Capital

For-profit companies can access stock markets and venture capital to fund growth. Nonprofits have no equivalent mechanism. This severely limits their ability to scale.

These restrictions aren’t just inconvenient — they’re impactful. Between 1970 and 2013, only 144 nonprofits crossed the $50 million annual revenue mark. In that same amount of time, 46,136 for-profit companies reached that milestone.

Why traditional charity ratings miss the mark

With the overhead myth debunked, “UnCharitable” takes aim at how charity watchdog organizations have traditionally evaluated nonprofits.

Rating agencies largely focus on fiscal data from tax returns, with a particular emphasis on overhead ratios. This contributes to the pressure nonprofits feel to cut spending (even when it’s essential).

Ultimately, this leads to backwards math. A nonprofit with a 98% program spending ratio but minimal impact for its cause ends up rated higher than an organization that spends 60% on programs yet raises 10 times more money and helps exponentially more people.

Put simply, the focus on efficiency metrics over actual outcomes means donors inadvertently support less effective organizations.

What’s changing (and what still needs to)

Dan Pallotta is the author of “Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential,” the best selling title in the history of Tufts University Press.

Pallotta’s book and TED Talk made quite the impression — and “UnCharitable” has continued that momentum. Fortunately, that means the entire sector is making some meaningful progress toward focusing on the right things.

Major organizations like the Ford Foundation have increased funding for general operating expenses, while Charity Navigator and other watchdog organizations have reframed their rating criteria to focus less on overhead ratios.

Those changes are promising, but public perception hasn’t quite caught up yet. Small donors — who represent the majority of charitable giving — still take a magnifying glass to overhead costs. So, nonprofits still face pressure to operate on shoestring budgets while addressing increasingly complex social problems.

“UnCharitable” makes the case that we’re leaving money on the table. If nonprofits could operate with the same economic freedoms as for-profit businesses, we could make an immeasurably larger difference in tackling poverty, disease, climate change, and other pressing challenges.

The goal isn’t to inflate overhead — it’s to give nonprofits the freedom to invest where it counts so they can make the greatest possible impact.

Where to watch “UnCharitable”

We are thrilled to announce that Fundraise Up is now streaming UnCharitable online for free. Watch this groundbreaking documentary at the link below.

Watch now

The mobile mindset: why smartphone donors give less (and what to do about it)

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Everybody’s always on their phones. You’ve heard it — or maybe even said it. But beyond being a casual observation (or complaint), the fact that we’re all glued to our devices has real implications for your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy.

According to Moore’s “Charitable Giving By the Numbers” report, produced in partnership with Fundraise Up, Microsoft, and Tiltify, mobile giving is on the rise and shows no signs of slowing down. Let’s unpack the takeaways from the report on how to get mobile giving right.

Smaller screens mean smaller transactions

If you’re not seeing huge donation amounts on mobile, it’s not your donation form — it’s human nature. “The smaller the screen, the smaller the average transaction,” said Salvatore Salpietro, former Chief Community Officer at Fundraise Up. “It’s more and more prevalent, and it’s not going to go anywhere.”

This pattern holds true across industries, from airlines to Amazon to furniture companies like IKEA. “You design your living room on a desktop, but you buy that one lamp on your phone,” he added.

While mobile donation amounts might be more modest, volume makes up for it — and it’s still well worth cultivating relationships with your mobile donors. “Those donors giving on mobile now are the ones who will be giving larger gifts down the road,” advised Salvatore.

What you can do:

Optimize for ease: Simplify your donation form and reduce clicks — every extra field can cost conversions.
Embrace mobile-first design: Preview all of your emails and landing pages on mobile before sending.
Focus on recurring giving: Encourage monthly donations to balance out smaller, one-time gifts.

Empathy is tougher to trigger on mobile

You’ve probably experienced firsthand that having your smartphone in front of your face makes it difficult to have a meaningful conversation (and research backs this up). But, believe it or not, it also disrupts our ability to feel empathy.

“When we’re on our devices, we have less empathy because we’re in our own world,” Salvatore explained. Researchers call it the “mobile mindset.” Basically, because our smartphones are filled with personal apps and photos, they feel like an extension of ourselves. Using them puts us in a self-focused state that makes it harder for us to connect emotionally with others.

This could explain why mobile gift amounts are smaller — after all, people are less inclined to make a sizable donation without a strong connection to your cause.

This doesn’t mean mobile donors are unmotivated or disengaged. It just means nonprofits need to work a little harder to inspire empathy and connection when donors are scrolling on smaller screens.

What you can do:

Lead with emotion: Use imagery and language that centers people, stories, and impact.
Highlight immediacy: Donors are more likely to give when they see instant results (for example, “Your $25 today provides clean water for a family this week.”)
Test different visuals: Try close-up, human-focused photos or short video clips that resonate quickly.

More traffic isn’t always better traffic

An impressive 92% of social media use happens on mobile, so mobile giving and paid social often go hand-in-hand. But, while social ads can drive big spikes in traffic, those visitors aren’t always ready to give.

“Social has your lowest donor intent because they don’t know who you are,” warned Salvatore. “We’re sending more traffic that’s less qualified.”

When nonprofits increase ad spend on social, they inevitably widen the net — reaching people who might not yet feel connected to the cause. That’s not inherently bad, but it’s a reminder that growth in volume doesn’t always mean growth in value.

What you can do:

Balance acquisition with engagement: Pair your paid donor acquisition campaigns with strategic email nurturing or retargeting to build familiarity and trust.
Segment mobile audiences: Create distinct landing pages or forms for social traffic that acknowledges your new visitors.
Track quality (not just quantity): Measure your mobile conversion rates and donor lifetime value, not just clicks.

AI personalization offers a major advantage

Our attention is fleeting, and that’s especially true on mobile. Relevance matters more than ever, and AI can help close that gap. “Personalization and customization make a big difference,” Salvatore said. Personalization helps your mobile donors feel seen and understood, even if you only have a few seconds of their attention.

By using predictive AI to personalize donation forms — like automatically adjusting suggested gift amounts based on donor behavior or context — nonprofits can dramatically boost donations.

What you can do:

Use personalized ask amounts: Suggest tailored giving levels for each supporter, rather than generic amounts.
Optimize for convenience: Pair personalization with one-tap payment options like Apple Pay or Google Pay.

Human connection still matters most

We’re living in a digital world — but people still connect with other people. “Dating apps are on the decline,” Salvatore shared. “People are abandoning those for human connection and real-world things.”

It’s an observation nonprofits can learn from, too. Donors might scroll, tap, and transact through screens, but what drives them to give is still deeply human: empathy, belonging, and shared purpose.

That’s why mobile giving needs to be personal and relational. Technology can facilitate the donation, but storytelling and connection are what inspire it.

What you can do:

Tell human stories: Center your campaigns on real people, names, and faces.
Leverage peer-to-peer fundraising: Encourage supporters to connect directly with their friends and networks to fundraise on your behalf.
Show your gratitude: Use personalized thank-you messages or quick mobile videos to remind donors they’re part of something bigger.

Small screens, big opportunities

Mobile giving isn’t a passing trend — it’s a fundamental shift in how people connect with causes. When you design for empathy, ease, and personalization on small screens, the future of giving is quite literally in the palm of your hands.

4 marketing experts on how to use AI for storytelling without losing your voice

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Lower production costs. Faster creation. Droves of audience data. There’s a lot to love about using AI for content creation and storytelling.

But there’s plenty to worry about, too. Noisy newsfeeds, copycat campaigns, and growing audience distrust make it tougher to reap the benefits of AI without compromising your nonprofit’s humanity and authenticity.

This was the topic of conversation during a session from our recent Donor Experience Summit (DXS). We picked the brains of four experts to uncover the biggest risks — and the biggest opportunities — of using AI for nonprofit storytelling.

AI storytelling challenge #1: oversaturation

With AI, content creation is faster and more accessible than ever — and that means a lot of noise.

“AI makes it much easier to create content,” explained Scott Rising, Senior Manager of Social Content Marketing at LinkedIn and a National Board Member for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “And, unfortunately, it makes it really easy for everyone to create content.”

That means a constant stream of posts, videos, and campaigns competing for the same few seconds of audience attention — and even the most thoughtful or compelling stories can get lost or buried.

How your nonprofit can stay ahead

One way to cut through all of the noise? Tap into the people who already have your audience’s attention. Creators and influencers — especially those who lead with authenticity — can get your message in front of new audiences.

Courtney Richardson, Creative Director at the creative agency Droga5 and Founder of the Museum of Nail Art (MoNA™), said that’s exactly what her team did for a mental health-focused campaign. Playing on the popular “get ready with me” social media trend, the campaign started a “get real with me” series where influencers talked candidly about their mental health struggles during their beauty routines. “Engagement on that was through the roof,” she added.

You don’t need to chase big-name creators, either. As Rasheeda Childress, Senior Editor at The Chronicle of Philanthropy, pointed out, “There are a lot of influencers who are smaller, who have really big followings, and who can raise money for your charity.” These micro-influencers often have highly engaged and loyal audiences — and they’re more affordable to partner with.

If working with external creators doesn’t feel right for your brand or budget, turn inward. Your staff, beneficiaries, and volunteers are some of your most compelling storytellers, and sharing behind-the-scenes moments or their unique perspectives can go a long way. “I’m a huge proponent of enabling the people that you work with to speak on behalf of your brand in their own social media worlds,” said Scott.

Courtney added, “People really value seeing the person behind the company or brand.”

TL;DR

Work with creators and influencers who already have built-in trust
Partner with micro-influencers (and not just the biggest names)
Empower your internal voices (staff, volunteers, etc.) as ambassadors

AI storytelling challenge #2: Blandvertising

As AI and templated tools make it easier than ever to produce content, organizations are up against a new problem: everything is starting to sound (and look) the same.

Brady Josephson, Head of Growth and Innovation at charity: water said this sea of sameness is known as “blandvertising” — a flattening effect where “so much of good design and good brand is kind of the same.” Because everybody has access to identical tools and templates, content feels less inspiring and more create-by-numbers.

Of course, that’s not to say AI is the enemy. Used well, it’s invaluable for speed and scale. But as Courtney pointed out, “AI is going to be democratized, but taste is not.” The tech itself isn’t the risk — it’s the temptation to let it make creative decisions for you, instead of using it as a collaborator in a human-led process.

How your nonprofit can stay ahead

If you want to break out of the algorithmic mold, you need to start with humans. Courtney said her team’s creative concepts “always start from a conversation in the room before we even tap into the technology piece.”

It’s also a reminder to rethink what kind of content you prioritize. While short-form video dominates social, you don’t necessarily have to shrink your message to fit. For example, Brady says charity: water’s top-performing creative right now is a six-minute video, proving that there are no hard and fast rules about what will resonate.

No matter the length, stay focused on the impression you’re making. “Especially with TikTok and a lot of algorithmic content, you have to think about the impression that you’re leaving, almost more than a story,” explains Scott. When you start there, your content sticks not because it beats the algorithm, but because it connects with someone on the other end.

TL;DR

Start with human insights (instead of tools or templates)
Rethink format conventions (long-form can still perform!)
Focus on the impression you make over appeasing the algorithm

AI storytelling challenge #3: eroding trust

Even as AI promises major efficiency gains, it also raises big questions about authenticity and ethics — especially in a sector where trust is currency. “Trust is our biggest thing with our donors,” said Rasheeda, pointing out that organizations like St. Jude use AI for data and targeting but draw the line at generating images, as they want every photo to be authentic.

But AI isn’t automatically untrustworthy. In fact, it can help avoid many ethical pitfalls. For example, Furniture Bank, a Canadian nonprofit that helps people who can’t afford furniture, chose AI-generated images for a campaign. This allowed them to tell powerful stories without exploiting people in vulnerable living situations. “That’s always been a pretty tough line to walk on the ethical storytelling ground,” said Brady. “Now, we possibly have a tool where we can recreate stories.”

Put simply, AI can actually support trust — but only if you’re transparent and intentional about how and why you’re using AI tools in the first place.

How your nonprofit can stay ahead

“You have to come from your authentic experience and be really transparent and honest about what you’re doing,” Rasheeda said. If you’re using AI to create content or visuals, be upfront with your supporters about it. Explain why and make sure your reasoning aligns with your mission and values.

This doesn’t need to be long-winded. For example, a quick note at the end of a caption like, “This post was created using AI to protect the privacy of the people we serve” offers transparency without over-explaining.

If you’re wondering if something will undermine trust, don’t ignore that instinct. “If you have to ask the question, it probably will,” said Scott.

TL;DR

Be upfront about when and why you use AI
Use AI intentionally to protect privacy
If you’re questioning if something might damage trust, skip it

Humans still matter (maybe more than ever)

Nonprofits don’t need to choose between AI-powered content and human-centered storytelling — they need both. “When everyone has access to the same tools and the same technology, that’s when humans become more important than ever,” Scott said.

Yes, AI can help you create more, scale faster, and tap into deeper insights — but only people can add the nuance, emotion, and lived experience that turn content into true connection.

Ultimately, the goal isn’t to use AI instead of humans. It’s to use it with humans. Let AI take on the heavy lifting, then let your people add the heart. That’s when you transform copy-paste content into standout storytelling.

Want to know more? Watch the entire DXS session on our YouTube channel.

‘Think like a concierge, not a bellhop’: the new rules of donor experience

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 23:00:00 GMT

In today's attention economy, the difference between transactional and transformational donor relationships may come down to one question: Are you operating like a bellhop or a concierge?

That's the framework Neen James, author and luxury customer experience expert, introduced at Fundraise Up's Donor Experience Summit. "A bellhop is transactional, efficient, and important. A concierge is transformational," Neen explained. "And if you want to transform the donor experience, we need to start thinking like a concierge."

Bellhops and concierges both provide important services to guests in a hotel, but the approaches they take to their jobs couldn't be more different. A bellhop's job boils down to efficiency: Get the bags to the right room as quickly as possible. It's a task-oriented transaction. But a concierge's value is their expertise. They can anticipate what guests need, often before the guest does. That's how they can perform apparent magic, like snagging a last-minute reservation to a trendy restaurant.

Why does this matter now? "We're operating in an attention economy where attention is scarce," Neen explained. "Our attention span is split — and so is our donors'. Everybody wants access to their bank accounts, to their time, to their attention."

So how can you snag a precious morsel of donors' time and attention? By creating an experience that they'll want to — or feel they need to — pivot toward.

Your mission isn’t enough anymore

Bellhops treat everyone the same — efficiently, but identically. Concierges recognize that each person is different, with unique needs, preferences, and histories.

As Francesco De Flaviis, CMO, The National MS Society, told the DXS audience, "Care about your donors, put them at the center and get to know them. We can't expect that just because we have a great mission — and all of us do — that without any value exchange, the people will come and stay. We can't be brand-centric in that sense."

And the consequences of getting this wrong? "Like trust, loyalty can be lost. Very quickly actually," Francesco warned.

He emphasized that the experience must be a "persistent sense of unique, valuable relevance. If everybody in your group gets the same treatment, it's not the same."

This is where the concierge mindset diverges completely from the bellhop approach.

Francesco noted frontline fundraisers naturally think this way: "They get to know the donor. They understand. They remember their daughter or son's name. They remember what schools they go to — that is how to build a relationship."

The challenge is scaling this personalized approach beyond major gifts to your entire donor base.

Building loyalty over time, not in one moment

Concierges don't build trust with a single interaction — they build it through consistent, thoughtful engagement over time. Every touchpoint is a deposit.

Kevin Wong, Senior Vice President of Marketing at The Trevor Project, said we should change the way we think about loyalty itself. "Trust is not starting when you think you are starting. It is a ‘goodwill bank’ that you make deposits in along the way," he noted.

"You, the nonprofit leader... you're not the end-all and be-all of that loyalty or experience. In fact, your staff, your social platforms, the events that you have, the ways that people think about you, the ways that you collaborate with an influencer to a celebrity — all of those things help build those experiences, feelings and sentiments of loyalty," Kevin continued.

The concierge recognizes they're part of a larger ecosystem. Your donor's experience isn't just about you — it's about every interaction they have with your organization.

Practical ways to develop a concierge mindset

The beauty of the concierge approach is that it isn't expensive or resource-intensive. All it needs is systemized thoughtfulness — essentially, building processes that deliver personalized experiences consistently.

"You can take the concept of really being thoughtful with donors and systematize it, so it does feel personal; it does feel customized. But we have systems and training in place for our team to execute on that," Neen explained.

Send your team on a field trip

Neen shared a brilliantly simple exercise to help your team think like concierges.

"Give them some money to buy a coffee, sit in a luxury hotel lobby, and ask them to report back on what they notice: The way the staff hold themselves, the way they greet people, the sounds, the smells, the touch, the feel. For the price of a cup of coffee in an expensive hotel, you're giving them this accelerated learning and development around personalization," she said.

This experience teaches your team to notice:

How staff anticipate needs before they're asked
The small touches that create emotional resonance
How personalization is delivered at scale
What makes someone feel truly seen and valued

Then you can guide them to bring those observations back to your donor experience. What would the equivalent look like in your acknowledgment process? Your donor portal? Your event experience?

Map your touchpoints

The flip side of adopting the concierge mindset is figuring out when you're most likely to shift into bellhop mode.

"Personalization is really key, making people feel seen, heard, and valued by elevating all of the touchpoints. Map every touchpoint that you have and make it an experiment with your team," Neen noted. She challenged the audience to take an honest inventory of their processes and consider:

Where are you operating like a bellhop?

Sending the same thank-you email to everyone?
Processing gifts without noting preferences or patterns?
Missing opportunities to reference past conversations?
Treating volunteers and donors identically regardless of their journey?

Where could you operate like a concierge?

Anticipating that a recurring donor might be interested in learning about program outcomes?
Remembering personal details and referencing them naturally?
Noticing giving patterns and reaching out proactively?
Creating moments of delight that don't cost anything but show you're paying attention?

To do this right, it's vital that you truly know your donors: "We have to look donors in the eye and say, 'I see you.' If donors or customers don't get that sense that we are seen and that we matter, you're not going to have personalization," said Francesco. "Our most loyal donors feel that they matter. On an emotional and rational level they feel that they are stakeholders."

This is the ultimate outcome of the concierge mindset. When donors feel like stakeholders — not just sources of funding — you've transformed the relationship.

It isn't about the size of the gift. It's about the quality of the relationship and the consistency of the experience.

Remember to remember… and make it personal

Remember: Concierges get to know their guests. They anticipate. They personalize. They transform what could be just a transaction into a relationship.

Your donors deserve the same. And your mission depends on it.

Text-to-give fundraising — how to capture 89% higher ROI this December

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

When was the last time you ignored a text message for more than a few minutes?

Exactly.

Your donors don't, either. In fact, 90% of text messages are opened within three minutes. That immediacy is what can make December text fundraising so powerful — but only when the donation experience on the other end capitalizes on that moment.

Text campaigns have an 89% higher ROI in December than other months, according to a report by Tatango. No wonder that nonprofits send an average of seven texts in December, compared to the regular monthly average of three to four.

Ready to learn how to boost your own year-end campaigns by strategically coordinating your SMS donation strategy and digital giving channels?

The December donation surge

Donors behave differently in December and it’s not just because they’ve been seized by the holiday spirit.

The month of December has inherent “deadlines” like Giving Tuesday and December 31, that create a feeling of urgency that aligns with the immediacy of text messages. And donors are not only more tolerant of increased messaging frequency, they expect it. In fact, opt-out rates dip from 0.67% in other months to 0.52% in December.

The upshot to those behavioral changes? Fundraising text conversion rates increase 38% in December, and ROI increases 35% compared to other months. In addition to more gifts, you can expect to see slightly larger ones. The average gift amount in December is just under $79, compared to less than $62 the rest of the year.

That doesn’t mean you can send out a deluge of texts and expect success. The key to achieving those improvements is texting strategically when it matters most.

SMS v. MMS? Does it matter?

Before we dive in, let’s remember that not all text messages are the same. SMS are text-only messages (up to 160 characters), while MMS can include images, GIFs, and longer copy. SMS tends to generate higher ROI due to lower costs and more clicks, while MMS drives higher conversions through visual impact. Your organization’s best strategy may vary depending on your specific goals, resources and donor base. But in general:

Use MMS when you have compelling visuals, want to stand out, and have the budget for higher-urgency moments.
Use SMS when the message is urgent and text-based urgency works, you want cleaner tracking, or your budget is tighter.

Your December text-to-give calendar — critical dates and strategies

There are a handful of dates — some more intuitive than others — that are the most successful December fundraising days for nonprofits.

Giving Tuesday: still the champion

No shock here: As a day dedicated to supporting nonprofits, Giving Tuesday continues to outperform December 31 as the single most lucrative day for nonprofit fundraising. According to Tatango’s report, messages on that day average:

0.96% click-thru-rate, the highest of the season
0.27% conversion rate
$7.64 ROI
0.52% opt-out rate.

Texting strategy for Giving Tuesday

You can maximize your Giving Tuesday text messaging with a few low-lift tweaks to your strategy:

Send Giving Tuesday texts between 4-5 p.m or 6-7 p.m.
Use MMS with compelling imagery. Tatango’s report shows that MMS outperforms in high-urgency moments and has a higher conversion rate.
Link directly to a Fundraise Up donation page with:
- Matching gift messaging, if applicable
- Goal meter showing real-time results
- One-click payment options for mobile

Sample text message: [MMS with image of impact] "Sarah, it's Giving Tuesday! Every $50 provides a week of meals. Donate now and your gift will be DOUBLED: [link]"

The day after Giving Tuesday: a strong follow-up play

While Giving Tuesday remains the star, don't overlook the day after. Messages sent the day after produce 2.5 times higher conversions and three times the ROI compared to messages sent the day before Giving Tuesday

Tatango’s report said messages on this day have:

0.89% CTR
0.12% conversion
$4.46 ROI.

The day after Giving Tuesday gives you a chance to connect with donors who meant to give on that day but forgot, got busy, etc. Plus, you have less competition for their attention compared to the onslaught of messages the day before.

Texting strategy for the day after Giving Tuesday

Leverage the timing of your message by:

Sending messages mid-morning (10-11 a.m.) or evening (6-7 p.m.)
Using SMS for urgency and lower cost
Framing the message as an extension or, when relevant, a “last chance” to achieve a matching gift.

Sample text message: [SMS, 160 characters] "We extended our Giving Tuesday match through TONIGHT! Double your impact: [link] Thanks for caring, Sarah."

The year-end power trio: December 29-31

Everyone knows the rush to finish up lingering tasks before the year ends, and donors are no different. These last three days consistently perform well, even when Dec. 29 lands on a weekend. Just look at the stats:

Dec. 29: 0.39% conversion, $6.48 ROI, $228.62 average gift — 3x higher than Dec. 30 and Dec. 31
Dec. 30: 0.11% conversion, $5.49 ROI, $75.39 average gift
Dec. 31: 0.17% conversion, $7.04 ROI, $89.15 average gift

Texting strategy for end-of-year

Make the most of this critical window with the following strategies:

Send one text per day; a total of three.
Try a mix of MMS and SMS. For example, send an MMS on Dec. 29, a SMS on Dec. 30, and a final MMS on Dec. 31.
Escalate the urgency in your copy. Remind donors that this really is the last shot before the year closes.
Time messages for the evening (6-9 p.m.) when people are winding down.

Sample text messages for year-end:

Dec. 29: [MMS with year-in-review graphic]: "2025 was incredible because of you. Help us finish strong with a tax-deductible gift: [link]"

Dec. 30: [SMS]: "Sarah, just 24 hours left for your 2025 tax deduction. Make your gift count: [link]"

Dec. 31: [MMS with countdown clock image]: "FINAL HOURS of 2025! Your gift tonight changes lives tomorrow: [link]"

The power of pairing MMS and SMS

Tatango’s report revealed a powerful tactic for deciding when/how to use MMS vs. SMS: Sending MMS fundraising text followed by SMS fundraising text within three days led to 53% higher conversion rates and 46% higher ROI.

Why does this combo work?

MMS provides emotional storytelling with imagery.
SMS provides an urgent reminder at lower cost.
Two touchpoints in different formats prevent ad blindness.

You can use this information to strengthen your December messaging strategies, especially for the “power days” reviewed above.

How to apply this to your December calendar

Giving Tuesday: MMS (visual impact, emotionally compelling)

Images perform well: 65% of MMS uses photos
GIFs create urgency: 25% of MMS uses animated images (countdown clocks, matching gift meters, etc.)

Day After Giving Tuesday: SMS (quick reminder, emphasizes urgency)

Dec. 29: MMS (year-in-review, visual celebration)

Dec. 30: SMS (another quick reminder that we’re in the final push)

Dec. 31: MMS or SMS depending on budget (final push)

Make every text count with optimized donation experiences

SMS can't close the gift alone — it works best when it drives traffic to an optimized donation experience. The link in your text needs to lead donors somewhere that:

Loads instantly on mobile
Offers multiple payment methods (digital wallets, Apple Pay, Google Pay)
Remembers information for returning donors
Makes giving feel effortless

Fundraise Up donation pages are purpose-built for the kind of instant, frictionless giving that text campaigns demand. With features like one-click payment options, real-time goal meters, and matching gift campaigns, you can capitalize on that three-minute window of attention and turn text engagement into immediate action.

Discover how Fundraise Up turns text clicks into donations. Schedule a demo now.

Giving Tuesday checklist: A veteran fundraiser's guide to flawless execution

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 14:00:00 GMT

Giving Tuesday may have become a bit of a reflex for some organizations — yes, you participate, but do you truly prepare?

I've seen too many talented teams scrambling on campaign day because someone forgot to account for time zones, a match code didn't auto-apply, or an influencer's tracking link was never tested. These aren't inevitable chaos. They're preventable failures of preparation.

After years orchestrating large-scale Giving Tuesday campaigns for UNICEF, I’ve come to realize there are two things we can control: preparation and coordination. I built this checklist to help cover both, so you and your team can focus on what matters most — conversion and donor experience.

Email and SMS strategy and execution

Preparation decides everything with your email and SMS strategy. Make sure you have all your emails written, designed, and ready to fire as soon as possible.

Here are the main ones to have ready, per campaign:

Campaign announcement. Optional, but I’ve seen this do very well. It preps your donors to hold a spot in their wallet for you.
“Campaign launched” email and SMS blast. This goes to everyone to notify them of the campaign, what it is, how to donate, etc.
Mid-day campaign blasts to those who engage. You can decide if you want to send this to everyone, just openers or just clickers. And, whether you want to send an SMS as well (this can get costly). Be sure to exclude any donors and subscribers.
Campaign ending soon or 24-hour notice email. This can be the same as the above email, but just add a big sticker saying “24 hours left”.
Last call campaign email. Same as the above, but swap messaging for “Last call — 1 hour!” or something similar.
Technical difficulties email template. This is a plain-text email to have handy, just in case something goes wrong.
Shipping delays email template. Same as the above. If you’re shipping swag of any kind, this is a plain-text email to have handy.
Post Giving Tuesday “thank you” email. Optional, but just a simple email thanking your donors for participating in a campaign and making it a success for everyone. Talk about how the campaign supported your programmatic efforts.

Don’t forget to:

Update dynamic banners in flows to include campaign messaging, wherever applicable.
Update your new donor welcome series. Ensure you really educate donors who come in new to the file over Cyber Week. Typically donors who come through Giving Tuesday have a lower LTV, so educating them early is important, especially before you begin sending donation asks to them at the end of December.

Campaigns/promos

Promo ideas should be easy to understand, not complex. They must pass the “Can my Grandma understand this?” test.
Site-wide match. Automatically applied; clear language what “match” means in the context of the donation.
Donation with purchase. Once someone donates over a certain threshold, or even without a threshold, they receive a thank-you gift in their order.
Bundle sale. Got product? For UNICEF Market I built bundles including best sellers and applied a discount higher than anything I’d run during the year.
Multiple bundles. Very similar to the above, but you have a few bundles that you merchandise specifically. This is great when you have a hefty number of new donors to bring in who you can offer a five-dollar donation to at checkout.

Note for next year

Rather than getting caught in the milieu of Black Friday sales, kick off your Cyber Week with Small Business Saturday and run through the Wednesday after Giving Tuesday. It could offer you a nice corporate partnership play too - you’ve 6 weeks to get this locked in.

Website updates

Dedicated campaign pages

If you don't have a dedicated landing page for your Giving Tuesday campaign, you're missing conversions. I've seen firsthand how a well-designed Campaign Page can turn casual browsers into committed donors.

Here's what your Campaign Page needs:

Compelling storytelling. Use unlimited space for text, images, and video to show donors exactly what their gift will accomplish. Don't just ask for money — show the impact.
Real-time social proof. Display a live feed of recent donations. When people see others giving, they're more likely to join in. It's powerful during high-volume giving days.
Goal meter. Make progress visible. An auto-updating goal meter creates urgency and shows donors they're part of something bigger.
Mobile optimization. Over half of your Giving Tuesday traffic will come from mobile devices. Your page needs to load fast and look flawless on every screen size.
Multiple payment methods. Apple Pay, PayPal, Venmo, direct debit — give donors the payment option they already use. Friction at checkout kills conversions.
Match messaging front and center. If you have a matching gift sponsor, highlight it prominently. Donors need to see immediately that their gift will be doubled.
A single, dedicated URL for your Campaign Page makes everything cleaner and more trackable.

Site banners

Homepage. Your homepage hero banner should reflect the EOY campaign and any match messaging.
Announcement bar. Your site wide announcement bar should reiterate the campaign message and definitely the match.
Make sure it doesn’t get too thick on mobile.
Email capture design. Mentioning any match or promotion in the email pop-up yields a higher opt-in rate. Test it and see if you get the same result.

Promotions

If you’re in PST, start your campaign promotion 3 hours before it starts, to account for EST. For example, if your campaign starts on 9/30, you should enable it to go live at 9:00pm PST on 9/29 (midnight EST).
Make sure all campaigns are active. Double/triple check everything is live when it should be, and is spelled correctly.
When applicable, like with a site-wide Match, apply Matches automatically for the donor vs requiring a Match code.
Don’t forget to account for all time zones. (I’ve made this error in the past, hence repeating it three times here!)
If you're in EST, end all your campaigns three hours into the next day. For example, if your campaign ends Sept. 30 at 11:59 p.m. EST, you should keep it enabled until 2:59 a.m. Oct. 1 (11:59 p.m. PST).

Code freeze

Set a pens-down date. Don’t push updates on your website or with any apps in your tech stack.
If you absolutely need to push an update, test it thoroughly in a staging environment and then go live with those changes.
Remind everyone that no last-minute creative tweak is worth breaking the donation flow.

On-site pixels

Ensure your pixels are all properly firing.
Don’t forget to check that your heatmap is properly capturing web user data for you to analyze later.
Post-donation survey. Be sure you have one active and updated with any creators/influencers/EOY partners you want to try to understand performance from.

Paid media and ad creative

Determine how creative should differ for each ad campaign.
Some creative should be exclusive to any match promotion. For example, loud, bold, chunky text highlighting the % or dollar match with an image from paid media with proven conversion
Merge your best-performing donor prospecting ads with campaign messaging.
Test, including any match promo code, in your headline on Meta and Google
Submit your ads ASAP. Don’t get stuck in “pending approval” or “disapproved”-land, you can make the necessary changes with time to spare now.

Data and reporting

Predefine success metrics (donations, conversion rate, AOV, cost per new donor).
Build and monitor real-time dashboards so you’re not flying blind on the day.
Tag all links with UTMs for campaign and channel attribution.
Prepare a simple post-campaign report template now, otherwise you’ll never retroactively clean the data.

Affiliate/creators/influencers

All EOY partners, creators and influencers have URLs that auto-apply match codes where applicable.
- Their match or campaign promo codes should be easy to remember if someone saw it on a billboard and had to remember it six hours later.
- If possible, use branded links for each affiliate/creator/influencer, for example: unicef.org/ferrari versus unbranded links that are hard to remember.
Confirm each influencer’s link actually tracks — do a live test donation before launch.
Talking points are updated, understanding of the campaign/mission/promotion is clear, all questions are answered.
Comment moderation is on lock from the creator pages or a plan on how you plan to respond to post comments.
I’d also email your campaign and all its details to publishers who have an affiliate arm (BuzzFeed, Teen Vogue, Insider Picks, etc.) too. You never know. A little bump in organic publicity is often more within reach than you think.

Cross-team coordination

Lock your internal comms plan: detail who owns what on campaign day (email, social, data, tech).
Create a single Slack/Teams channel dedicated to “Giving Tuesday Ops.”
Schedule a 30-minute post-mortem the following week while data and insights are fresh.
Share outcomes with partners, agencies, and execs. This is what gets you next year’s budget.

About the author: Tobes Kelly is SVP of Marketing at Fundraise Up, where he helps nonprofits optimize their fundraising technology and donor experience. Previously, he served as VP of Marketing and Fundraising at UNICEF.

Digital fundraising for Ramadan: 5 ways to turn intention into impact

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

While the spirit of Ramadan is eternal, the way donors give is changing. Your supporters — especially younger donors — are mobile-first. They often give late at night or between prayers. They expect modern conveniences — such as fast checkout and the ability to automate donations — while still cherishing in-person experiences.

Digitizing Ramadan fundraising isn't about replacing sacred traditions or moving away from human connections. It's about making it easier for your supporters to fulfill their intentions easily and efficiently.

Here are five ways to integrate digital fundraising practices into your Ramadan campaigns.

1. Build a mobile-first giving experience donors can trust

Well over 50% of nonprofit website traffic comes from mobile devices, yet many nonprofits struggle to convert those users. Why? It’s because mobile giving is often slowed down by long load times, complex forms, or a lack of relevant languages or payment options. When someone is acting on a moment of generosity or fulfilling their Zakat, friction like this can interrupt the giving moment.

A mobile-first experience prioritizes donor experience with:

Fast-loading donation pages
Modern payment methods like digital wallets
Localized experiences — like using Arabic with accurate right-to-left formatting

These touches help your donors feel confident that your organization understands their needs and honors the cultural and linguistic nuances of Islamic giving.

Of course, when giving surges during Ramadan, your donation platform needs to keep pace. Technical slowdowns or outages during peak moments can mean lost donations and lost trust. Look for a platform with proven reliability — one that's been tested under high-volume conditions and can process hundreds of donations per minute without interruption.

Of course, security and integrity matter too. Strong security standards, compliant digital receipts, and clear Zakat designations all reinforce trust — the foundation of Ramadan giving.

2. Reflect your community connections in your digital spaces

Ramadan inspires giving in real-time — after prayers, during quiet moments of reflection, or when donors feel moved by a story or reminder. Those moments of inspiration should be reflected in your digital fundraising.

Engagement tools can help foster those feelings of connection online. For example, you can incorporate elements like:

Pop-ups and banners to guide website visitors to your Ramadan Campaign Page
Social Proof of recent donations to foster a sense of shared purpose and encourage supporters to join in
Rich media (like videos) to connect the dots from giving to results
Impact sliders to help donors visualize how their Zakat or Sadaqah will make a difference

These donor engagement elements work together to keep supporters on your site and anchored in the present moment — and they often inspire a more thoughtful or generous contribution.

3. Honor Zakat and Sadaqah designations with clarity

Donors aren’t just giving during Ramadan — they’re fulfilling religious obligations and acting on deeply personal intentions. That’s why clarity around designations is essential. Supporters need to confirm their gift is being treated as Zakat or Sadaqah, and that it’s distributed in a way that aligns with Islamic giving guidelines.

When it’s set up thoughtfully, digital fundraising can strengthen this trust. Clear designation options for Zakat, Sadaqah, and Zakat al-Fitr allow donors to choose the purpose that best aligns with their intention. Using transparent language and a clean, intuitive interface reinforces that your organization takes stewardship seriously.

Fee coverage plays a big role here, too, as many Muslims prefer their full Zakat to go toward its intended purpose. Giving donors the option to pay their own fees can help them feel confident that their Zakat retains its full impact and integrity, while also sending more donation revenue directly to your cause. Fundraise Up data shows that an impressive 84% of donors opt to cover their processing fees.

Finally, adding a Zakat Calculator directly on your site lets your donors calculate, plan, and fulfill their giving in one trusted spot.

4. Support daily giving and the rhythm of the last 10 nights

The final 10 nights of Ramadan — especially Laylat al-Qadr — hold deep spiritual significance, and many of your donors want to give every single night to make sure they don't miss the blessings of this period.

When your donors have a simple way to schedule their daily giving, they can make meaningful contributions without having to worry about remembering each night. They can set their donations to automatically give across the last 10 nights, or even the full month. Allowing them to set a custom end date makes it even easier to automate gifts with confidence.

When giving fits naturally into the rhythm of Ramadan — particularly during its holiest nights — your donors can focus on their worship while still fulfilling their intentions.

5. Bridge offline and online giving — without losing the human connection

For many supporters, Ramadan giving still happens in communal spaces — at the mosque, during Taraweeh, at community events, or through in-person appeals. Creating seamless bridges between offline touchpoints and your online donation experience helps donors give in the way that feels most natural to them, without sacrificing convenience, ease, and security.

For example, QR codes connect your supporters from a physical space to your online checkout with just a quick scan. Whether printed on donation boxes, Ramadan mailers, event signage, or khutbah handouts, QR codes create a fast connection to your mobile-optimized donation flow, without any clunky typing or searching.

For donors who prefer or need to give in-person, a Virtual Terminal can help your team process phone or in-person donations quickly and securely. It supports both one-time and recurring gifts, multiple payment methods, and flexible schedules, so your donors can set up their preferred giving plan on the spot.

The goal is to make the entire giving experience feel connected — regardless of whether someone gives online or in person.

Ready to go deeper?

AI-for-fundraising starter guide: 10 not-scary ways to dive in

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 14:00:00 GMT

If you already feel like your organization is playing catch-up when it comes to technology, the mere thought of throwing AI into the mix may feel exhausting and full of potential pitfalls.

But you might be surprised just how simple it is to leverage AI in small but impactful ways. You can leverage AI tools to save time, be more creative, and generally work smarter — all with minimal tech knowledge or investment.

At Fundraise Up's 2025 Donor Experience Summit, the "Making Sense of AI" panel brought together experts who have been in the trenches implementing AI at scale:

Maya Samadani, Board Member at Rise Alliance for Children, shared insights from her years leading people and culture at the International Rescue Committee.
Mahin Samadani, SVP, Experience AI Growth at Publicis Sapient, offered perspective from three decades connecting humans to emerging technology.
Moderator Svetlana Filipson, Innovation Initiative Director at Adirondack Community Foundation, guided the conversation about making AI accessible and actionable for nonprofits.

Here are 10 ideas you can implement today.

1. Generate more ideas for subject lines, content, etc.

The task: It's time to ideate subject lines, headlines, or other content that has to be brief and catchy.

The tactic: Open up your preferred AI platform, such as Claude or ChatGPT and ask it to generate ideas for you. For example, you could prompt: "Create 10 subject lines for an email asking donors to support our annual campaign to benefit [insert your org's details]."

Go further: "You can say, 'How good is this? What's my human judgment on what's come out of AI? Which ones would I throw out? Which ones would I keep? And in that way, you start to flex the muscle," said Maya.

The more specific you are, the better your results will be. "AI is only as good as the data that you feed it. And the more good data, the better the AI, the better the output… and the more actionable it is," said Svetlana.

You may or may not use one of the ideas AI provides, but chances are it will help you and your staff think up more angles or clever wording.

2. Summarize long documents, transcripts, or meeting notes

The task: You've got a long report to get through and minimal time to read.

The tactic: Copy the document into AI and prompt: "Summarize the key points of this report in three paragraphs."

Go further: This won't give you every nuance and detail, but it can help you prioritize the most important parts — whether you're reviewing donor research or internal reports.

4. Translate donor thank you messages

The task: Your donor base speaks multiple languages, most of which you don't know.

The tactic: Ask AI to translate your thank-you email into the other languages most often spoken by your donors.

"If you're trying to reach a certain donor base in English, you can use AI to expand that capacity by translating that content into ten, 12, or 20 languages. It's able to scale the work of one human being," noted Maya.

Go further: You'll want to have someone with true fluency in those languages review for tone and potential errors, but AI's version should be pretty close. You just saved everyone involved a lot of time while finding a new way to connect with valued donors.

5. Take the pain out of grant boilerplate

The task: You're writing your mission statement, organizational history, program description, for the umpteenth grant application.

The tactic: AI can jazz those up for you in seconds. Plug them into AI and ask for a fresh take. (Again, the more detail you can provide on tone or other considerations, the better your results will be.)

You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. AI can give you a workable first draft without you having to "yaddah yaddah" yourself into a coma.

Go further: You can also use AI to predict how likely your application is to win that grant. "You can take the RFP from the potential funder, feed that into your AI tool with the historical record of how they typically fund, and your background and your credentials. It can give you a probability of your chances of winning that grant," said Maya — one more way to strengthen your overall fundraising strategy.

6. Upload files to Notebook LM and ask questions

The task: You need fresh ideas and content types.

The tactic: If you use Google's free Notebook LM or a similar tool, you can upload documents and have a "conversation" with them. Upload your last three annual reports and ask: "What are the recurring themes in our impact stories?"

Go further: "It can do a range of things," said Mahin. "You can create a little chat bot for your team. It can make a little podcast overview. It does flashcards and summaries. You can do a bunch of things. And it'll plant the seeds for invention, because you'll start to get some new ideas."

7. Practice refining your prompts

The task: You aren't totally sure you're using AI the most effective way and you want to improve.

The tactic: Take something simple — like "write a donor thank you note" — and see what happens. Then try: "Write a warm, personal thank you note to a first-time donor who gave $50 to our youth education program." Notice the difference? You're learning how to ask better questions, which is a valuable skill with or without AI.

Go further: A lot of people use AI almost as a search engine, but it's so much more. "For a while we've lived with what I would call a prompt gap, where some people knew how to prompt it," said Mahin. "People are getting better. There's a next horizon there... it's really integration of AI into your everyday work."

8. Get unstuck on writing projects

The task: You've run out of ways to communicate the same message. Or, you have something new to say and don't know where to start.

The tactic: Share the details with AI and let it get you started. For example, you could say: "I need to write about our summer program's success. We served 200 kids, partnered with five schools, and saw reading levels improve by 30%." Then, depending on the type of content you're writing, have it provide three different opening paragraphs or an outline.

Go further: We've all had that moment staring at a blank screen trying to will the words to come. You can use AI to kickstart ideas without "cheating." You're using it to bounce ideas off of and help you refine your own takes.

9. Create a simple donor acknowledgment

The task: You're writing your 47th thank you of the day and need to spark new ideas.

The tactic: Ask AI to write "a short, heartfelt acknowledgement for a donor who has supported us for 10 years."

Go further: Sometimes AI can help when you're running out of fresh ways to say something, but don’t forget to go back and add the human touch. "If you're just taking whatever was generated and you've done nothing, it's a race to the mean," said Mahin. "Because AI is quite literally a race to the most average answer you can imagine."

10. Have a conversation with it

The task: Find other ways to leverage AI

The tactic: Open up your AI tool and ask: "I work in nonprofit fundraising and I'm curious about AI but not sure where to start. What's one thing I could try today?"

Go further: Ask follow-up questions or provide more detail about your specific concerns and challenges to keep digging deeper. You can have a surprisingly insightful conversation with AI. Will it feel a little weird at first? Probably. But when you see the ideas it gives you, you'll get used to it quickly.

Small steps, big impact

You can start with the low-hanging fruit and still get impactful results. "It's low risk. You're not doing anything with it initially, but you are potentially investing a little time to save you much more time down the road," said Maya.

AI is a tool that works alongside you, not instead of you. It still needs your expertise and judgment to be most effective. You add the heart. You make it personal. AI just helps you get the result faster.

Consider picking just one tip from the list to try this week. See how it feels. That's all you need to get started.

Direct mail fundraising in the digital age: 5 proven strategies for Giving Season

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 14:00:00 GMT

If you work in fundraising, you know that “snail mail” is so much more than a relic from the past.

Mail has heft, cuts through electronic clutter, and reaches household decision-makers. Research by the United States Postal Service found that 56% of consumers say receiving mail is a "real pleasure" and 67% feel it's more personal than the Internet.

Plus, it’s a moneymaker. Online donations generate more revenue — about $1.00 for every $0.78 from direct mail, but both channels are growing (direct mail up 3%, online up 2%). The missed opportunity: most organizations run them separately. When channels operate as silos, they create competing messages. Integrated strategically, they multiply results.

Here’s how to knock down those silos this Giving Season.

1. QR codes for instant mobile giving

In 2024, 91% of Americans owned a smartphone, and QR code scanning has become second nature — from restaurant menus to event entry. So it makes sense to include them on your mailers.

A QR code eliminates the friction of typing URLs on mobile devices. Donors scan and land directly on a mobile-optimized donation page. For returning donors, you can prepopulate information fields and surface recurring gift options. Even donors who scan but don't convert provide valuable behavioral data.

Best practices:

Test placement across multiple locations on the mail piece
Include clear calls to action ("Scan to give now")
Size codes at minimum 1" x 1" for reliable scanning
Test functionality on both iOS and Android before printing
Link directly to donation pages, not homepages

The experience after the scan also matters. Be sure to offer mobile-optimized checkout with digital wallet support (Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Venmo), pre-populated fields for known donors, and streamlined forms designed to reduce abandonment.

2. 'PURLs' to provide tracking & custom experiences

A PURL (personalized URL) creates a unique web address for each donor. The value proposition is dual: donors land on pages that welcome them by name, acknowledge past giving, and prepopulate form fields. Your organization gains granular tracking of who visited versus who converted, enabling precise attribution and targeted follow-up to engaged non-donors.

Combined benefits:

Higher conversion through reduced friction
A/B testing capability at the individual level
Stewardship opportunities that reference specific touchpoints
Suppression lists for those who already responded

For maximum reach, print both a personalized QR code linking to the PURL and the typed URL itself.

3. Coordinated emails to follow up without nagging

Email is another tool to seamlessly integrate your direct mail and online fundraising. Sending a follow-up email after the direct mail can reinforce the message in the mailer while simultaneously presenting another path for the donor to make a gift. It's even more effective if you can link to the same donation page as the QR code.

The email should directly reference the letter while adding new content such as a video. The timing is key. An ideal schedule would look something like this:

Day 1-2: Mail arrives
Day 3-5: Send first email
Day 7-10: Send a reminder email only to those who haven't responded
Day 14: Final email (again, with responders suppressed) with urgency

To do this most effectively, you'll need to have real-time CRM integration so you can suppress sending to those who have responded to the mail piece. You can also use UTM codes to track how the campaign performed.

4. SMS nudges for immediate response

Another way to create a multichannel fundraising campaign is as simple as sending a related text, with a link to a mobile donation page, a few days after your mailer drops.

Ideally, it should be a simple message such as "Hi Maria! Your letter is on the way. Prefer to give online? Click here: [link]"

It provides donors with a reminder of the mail piece (and covers you if the mail is lost or delayed). It can be especially effective with younger donors or urgent campaigns.

Best practices for SMS integration:

Only text donors who have opted in
Include clear opt-out instructions
Test links on mobile devices before sending
Send during daytime hours (10am-7pm local time)
Keep messages under 160 characters when possible

For optimal results, ensure your donation platform supports URL parameters that can prepopulate donor information when they click through from SMS, reducing friction in the mobile giving experience.

5. Digital remarketing for reinforcing your message

Upload your mail list to advertising platforms to run coordinated ads while mail is in transit or recently delivered. This creates multiple touchpoints within a compressed timeframe, reinforcing your message across channels.

Platform selection by audience:

Facebook/Instagram: Consumer donors, broad demographics
LinkedIn: Corporate donors, professional audiences, major gift prospects
Google Display: Maximum reach across websites

The strategy works at modest budget levels ($500-$2,000 per campaign). Upload your mailing list as a custom audience, then run ads with messaging that mirrors your mail piece creative and copy.

Timing sequence:

Launch ads 2-3 days before mail drop
Continue 5-7 days post-delivery
Coordinate ad creative to reference the physical mail ("You should be receiving our letter...")

Track performance by creating separate campaigns for mail recipients versus cold audiences. This allows you to measure the lift from integration and optimize budget allocation between standalone digital and coordinated campaigns.

The integration payoff

Direct mail and digital fundraising work better together than apart. Start with one integration tactic, measure results, then scale what works.

Reimagining the nonprofit donation form with Fundraise Up

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Fundraising is about more than just transactions — it’s about building connections and empowering donors to make a difference.

At Fundraise Up, we’ve reimagined the checkout process to embody this ethos, transforming a simple act of giving into a seamless, intuitive, and inspiring journey. How do we do it? Through design, engineering, and an unwavering commitment to nonprofits and their supporters.

Let’s dive into the story of how we’ve crafted a donation form experience that sets a new standard for speed, intelligence, and higher conversion rates.

E-commerce best practices, tailored for nonprofits

We took the best practices from e-commerce — where speed and simplicity drive success — and applied them to nonprofit fundraising. Our goal? To make the donation form experience as frictionless as possible, because every second counts when a supporter is ready to give. Here’s our secret recipe:

Lightning-fast donations: On average, donors complete their donation in just about 2.5 minutes.
Minimal steps: We’ve stripped away unnecessary complexity, focusing on clarity and ease.
Friction-free interfaces: Intuitive icons and streamlined layouts mean donors never have to guess.

When making updates to the Checkout or releasing new functionality, we always treat time to complete the donation as the key metric with a focus on keeping that time minimal.

Zero redirects, maximum focus

Unlike traditional donation forms that redirect donors to external pages, our Checkout Modal launches as an overlay directly on the nonprofit’s website. This preserves click-to-view conversions and maintains a seamless, branded experience.

Smart payment options

With support for numerous payment methods, our Checkout Modal dynamically prioritizes the most relevant options based on the donor’s location, device type, and preferences. For instance, an iPhone user might see Apple Pay as the top choice, enabling a donation in just a few clicks.

No one likes endless forms. That’s why we’ve divided the donation process into concise, AI-optimized steps. This not only makes the experience feel faster but also ensures every interaction is meaningful. For example:

Address autofill: Location-aware suggestions reduce typing.
Upsell screens: Our innovative prompts for recurring giving are tailored to each donor, encouraging generosity without being pushy.

This innovation is effective in creating more predictable revenue for nonprofits because we’re asking the right questions. Is this screen appearing at the perfect moment for the right donor? Is it loading smoothly without interruptions? These are the critical factors that set Fundraise Up apart.

Abandoned donations: This feature turns unfinished donations into completed contributions. A recent study showed that 10% of users who filled in their email on the Remind Me Later checkout screen ended up making a donation. This means more funds for your cause and more engaged supporters.
Employer matching: Donors can easily check if their employer offers a corporate matching program right during the checkout process. By integrating with Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro, this feature empowers donors to amplify their impact while unlocking the untapped potential for nonprofits.

Device optimization: desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile

Fundraise Up is designed to adapt to any device, whether desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile. Considering that about half of all donations are made from mobile devices, we’ve placed special emphasis on optimizing the experience for smaller screens.

White-label flexibility

Fundraise Up’s Checkout is designed to fit naturally into any nonprofit’s website, regardless of its cause or mission. By balancing engaging, positive design elements with a neutral aesthetic, we ensure the platform feels appropriate for all types of campaigns, from lighthearted initiatives to serious, mission-critical efforts. This adaptability allows nonprofits to maintain their brand identity while benefiting from our optimized tools.

Human touches that inspire generosity

From animated hearts in the monthly giving tab to engaging icons like a gift box, every detail is designed to delight and motivate. These touches remind donors that their contributions make a real impact.

Moreover, these features aren’t just visually appealing — they’ve been proven effective through rigorous testing and donor feedback.

Engineering for speed and reliability

Design is only half the story. Behind the scenes, our engineering team works tirelessly to ensure the Checkout form is fast, reliable, and ready to handle the most demanding campaigns.

Fast load- and completion times

Our platform is optimized to ensure the Checkout Modal opens instantly without slowing down the nonprofit’s website. Real-time monitoring, Web Vitals metrics, and tools like Google Lighthouse and CrUX help us maintain blazing-fast performance.

Average load time: 2.5 seconds (industry average: 2.7 seconds).
Completion time: 147 seconds on desktop and 138 seconds on mobile.

Testing across all devices

We rigorously test on real devices, including older models, to ensure a flawless experience for every donor, regardless of their technology.

Maximum uptime

During high-traffic campaigns, uptime is non-negotiable. Our system processes up to 200 transactions per second in real-time, with robust queue management for additional volume.

Proactive monitoring

We continuously monitor key metrics such as Checkout opening speed, donation completion rates, and performance of individual steps. This proactive approach allows us to identify and resolve potential issues before they impact the donor experience, ensuring every interaction is smooth and efficient.

Global giving optimization: a donor experience without borders

Creating an exceptional giving experience isn’t just about speed or simplicity — it’s about making every donor feel at home, no matter where in the world they are. At Fundraise Up, we’ve gone the extra mile to ensure our platform delivers a truly global solution, one that meets the unique needs of donors across cultures and regions.

Here’s how we’ve designed our platform to transcend borders and amplify generosity worldwide:

Language support for every donor

With support for over 20 languages — including right-to-left formats for Arabic — Fundraise Up ensures every label, button, and message feels intuitive and native.

Tailored features by country

A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work in a global world. That’s why Fundraise Up dynamically adjusts to local donation habits. Whether it’s supporting Gift Aid in the UK or formatting addresses based on country standards, we’ve tailored the experience for relevance and ease.

Seamless compliance

Nonprofits shouldn’t have to worry about legal fine print. Our customizable compliance screens simplify the process, helping nonprofits collect marketing consent while respecting the local regulations that protect donor trust.

By weaving in thoughtful localization and compliance solutions, Fundraise Up creates a frictionless and inclusive platform that empowers nonprofits to connect with donors anywhere in the world. After all, generosity knows no borders — and neither should the giving experience.

Data-driven innovation that beats industry averages

We believe that great ideas come from real-world testing. By continuously experimenting and analyzing performance metrics — like conversion rates, average donation amounts, and total revenue — we refine every aspect of our Checkout Modal. This approach allows us to uncover subtle trends, optimize donor experiences, and consistently drive better outcomes.

How we compare

Our dedication to performance is reflected in the numbers. Here’s how Fundraise Up compares to industry benchmarks:

A commitment to nonprofits and donors

Creating an exceptional giving experience isn’t just about technology — it’s about people. From our designers to our engineers, every team member at Fundraise Up is dedicated to helping nonprofits succeed and donors feel valued. By blending innovation with empathy, we’ve built a platform that not only works but inspires. Read next: Predictive AI for nonprofits — the future of online fundraising

‘Free money’ alert: Google Ad Grants for nonprofits now works with Campaign Pages

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 14:00:00 GMT

You know that feeling when you randomly find cash in an old jacket pocket? There’s nothing better than stumbling upon “free” money — and that’s a lot like what Google Ad Grants is like.

This program gives eligible nonprofits up to $10,000 per month (yes, you read that right) in free advertising. That’s powerful in and of itself, but there’s even better news: now you can send your Ad Grants traffic directly to your Campaign Pages.

Let’s talk about what this means, why it matters, and what you can do to make the most of this potential windfall for your nonprofit.

What exactly are Google Ad Grants?

Google Ad Grants are part of a program that supports eligible nonprofits by giving them $10,000 per month to run search ads on Google — these are the ads shown at the top of a Google search page.

Because many nonprofits operate with shoestring budgets, Google started this initiative to help them increase their reach and share their causes with a global audience. And, according to Google, the program has driven more than 14 billion clicks to nonprofits’ websites since its start in 2003.

Who is eligible for this program?

You need a Google for Nonprofits account to apply for Google Ad Grants. To qualify for this account, you need to meet the following eligibility requirements:

Be registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States (or an equivalent charitable status in another country)

Have a secure website with an SSL certificate (e.g. https://)

Agree to the Google for Nonprofits terms of service

That’s all — it’s pretty straightforward. However, be aware that government organizations, hospitals and healthcare organizations, and schools, universities, or other academic institutions are not eligible for a Google for Nonprofits account, even if they meet the other criteria above.

Connect Google Ad Grants to your Fundraise Up Campaign Pages

Google Ad Grants has always been beneficial. But previously, nonprofits weren’t able to send traffic to any page other than their own website domain. That meant that timely ads weren’t able to connect to the corresponding campaigns.

Fortunately, Google has lifted those restrictions, meaning now you can easily send your Google Ads traffic to your tailored Campaign Pages.

This isn’t just a technical, back-end change. It’s a huge difference-maker for nonprofits. Your Campaign Pages are designed and created with a specific goal in mind — and that means they typically convert much more effectively.

In other words, $10,000 in free advertising was never anything to roll your eyes at. But, now that you can push people to your Campaign Pages, that money can make even more of an impact for your nonprofit.

How to get started

If you meet the eligibility requirements and haven’t already signed up for Google Ad Grants, apply now.
If you’re already using Google Ad Grants, you can start directing your ad traffic to your Campaign Pages — without any clunky embedded forms or other workarounds. Your existing Campaign Pages will work automatically when you set up your Search ads, so you don’t need to handle any other signups or settings changes.
Don’t forget to experiment. Monitor the performance of your Campaign Pages compared to your website forms to see what converts better. Test different storytelling approaches or calls to action on your Campaign Pages so you can maximize their effectiveness.
Finally, check out how to boost recurring donations with our AI functionality. After all, if you’re going to find $10,000 in your pocket each month, it’s smart to make the most of every single dollar.

Storytelling in fundraising: research shows why stories beat stats

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 14:00:00 GMT

When persuading people to act, what’s more important?

Stats or stories?
Realness or refinement?
Big picture or micro-focus?

A new report from M+R offers some interesting insights that you might want to pay attention to.

The report analyzed persuasion experiments from various advocacy and political campaigns in 2024 and 2025. The study found that authentic storytelling — campaigns featuring real people and relatable language — consistently performed best.

Even if you’re not in the political sector, the report offers several insights that are just as valuable for nonprofit donor engagement and fundraising. Let’s take a closer look at some of the biggest takeaways — and how you can use them to craft campaigns that use less spin (and more sincerity).

Build trust by getting personal (instead of focusing on polish)

Key finding

In head-to-head testing, a video featuring Mary Jo — a mother advocating for her disabled son's Medicaid coverage — significantly outperformed a traditional political attack ad. Mary Jo's video boosted viewers' likelihood to take action by 2.5 to 3.6 percentage points and was rated more persuasive, relatable, and engaging across all audiences.

What it means to you

You’ve seen them (or even done them) before: the perfectly-polished testimonial videos that hit all the right points, the overly-styled (or stock) photos, and the rinse-and-repeat “make a difference” messaging. You feel like you’re checking all the right boxes — yet these efforts often fall flat with your supporters.

The reality is that people can easily see through this type of glossy, scripted, and flawless content. Not only does this approach fail to nudge them toward action, but it can also erode the trust between you and your donors. People have persistent distrust in advertising to begin with, and opting for generic tactics, exaggerated claims, and formulaic testimonials encourages more skepticism than support.

Instead, focus on real and relatable storytelling by featuring honest accounts and snapshots from your beneficiaries, staff, volunteers, and long-time donors. This doesn’t need to be overly-rehearsed and polished — in fact, the realer the better.

It’s proof that a quick iPhone video of someone on-site at your donation drive or a simple Q&A with a passionate supporter might just land better than an expensive, studio-styled shoot.

Speak your donors’ language (and skip corporate buzzwords)

Key finding

Feeding America conducted extensive research including focus groups and voter surveys to understand how people actually talk about hunger and SNAP. Using this real language in their messaging increased support for SNAP by 6.3%.

What it means to you

It’s not just about what you say — how you say it matters too. The language you use plays a key role in helping you connect with your contributors.

Unfortunately, it’s easy to opt for what you think “sounds good.” But too much industry jargon and marketing fluff will only alienate or confuse your supporters. Instead, use the language they use when talking about your cause.

Conduct interviews with your donors about why they give, and be sure to pay attention to the words and phrases they use in donor surveys, emails, and other conversations. You can reflect that language back in your appeals, rather than relying on canned phrases and taglines.

For example, if your donors say they support your food bank because “no kid should go to bed hungry in our community,” use those exact words and skip the “addressing food insecurity” buzzwords.

Bring in diverse voices (and not just your executive director)

Key finding

When Feeding America wanted to reach conservative voters, research showed their local food banks — not the national organization — were the most trusted messengers. Ads from local food banks achieved a 10% increase in people viewing SNAP's community impact as positive.

What it means to you

You might think that your nonprofit itself is the most reliable source for information about your cause and fundraising efforts. But the research tells a different story.

So, while there are still appropriate moments for updates and announcements directly from you, it’s worth incorporating other voices. For example, you could:

Capture testimonials from major or long-term donors
Ask for content from local chapter leaders
Interview your beneficiaries about their experience

This diversity helps you mix up your messaging, and it can also resonate better than the more formal communication from your executive director or your marketing team.

Embrace imperfection (not over-production)

Key finding

The strongest-performing ads didn't rely on high production value. Rough reels, selfie videos, and personal content from partners and influencers consistently performed better than polished traditional ads.

What it means to you

There are times when a high level of polish is a prerequisite — like for your annual report or a national TV ad. But, especially for some of your lower-stakes campaign materials (like social media posts, for example), production quality doesn’t always have to be paramount.

So, don’t be afraid to play with some less-refined content. It feels more candid and down-to-earth than the flawless stuff, making it easier to connect with and engage your supporters. Plus, it’s more cost-effective than highly-styled visuals and far faster to produce, too — meaning you can more easily jump on trends or urgent updates.

Platform is one thing to keep in mind as you experiment with lower production value. Content that looks and feels native to the platform tends to outperform ads that scream “nonprofit fundraising.” A TikTok-style video will likely do great on TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook, but you might want something a little more buttoned-up for a landing page or email campaign.

Test new tactics (instead of relying on assumptions)

Key finding

The Put Families First campaign tested nearly 2,200 ad variants. Personal storytellers and microinfluencers generated the highest click-through rates, especially among persuadable Republicans and Independents.

What it means to you

All of these research-backed best practices can be helpful, but your nonprofit is unique — and so is what will resonate with your supporters. For that reason, don’t lock yourself into a specific strategy. Commit to some testing and experimentation instead. That could include:

A/B testing variables: Trying out different email subject lines, appeals, and even the timing of your posts or emails can help you narrow down what works best.
Trying different storytelling approaches: Does your audience respond better to individual stories or collective impact? Stories that emphasize need or those that inspire hope?
Segmenting your audience: Use those segments to tailor your messaging, such as sending different appeals to first-time donors versus long-standing givers.

If you’re nervous about experimenting in real-time, use a survey to test out your messaging before incorporating it in any of your campaigns. That temperature check can offer a helpful boost of confidence (or opportunity to regroup) before you fully commit to a specific approach.

Remember: authenticity drives action

The evidence is clear that it’s not always perfection that pushes people to open their pocketbooks — and that there’s room for more raw and relatable content in your campaigns.

This doesn’t mean you need to throw out your tried and true fundraising playbook. Rather, it just might be time to add in a few new pages.

Review your data to keep what's working and spot opportunities to experiment. As you do, keep a close eye on performance to learn more about what actually increases engagement and donations and adjust accordingly as you go.

Put simply, there’s a lot to be said for breaking the script — not just in your content itself, but for your entire approach.

Predictive AI for nonprofits — the future of online fundraising

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Introduction: how AI is reshaping fundraising for nonprofits and donors alike

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way nonprofits connect with donors and manage their fundraising efforts. As the lines between donor and consumer blur, the need to give donors a "typical online experience" grows. To meet new donor expectations, AI is quickly becoming a must-have tool for nonprofits. This is especially true for larger organizations, where the ability to personalize interactions and streamline processes plays a crucial role in driving revenue.

According to the Giving USA 2024 Annual Report, 58% of nonprofits have already integrated AI into their daily operations, with fundraising and marketing seen as the key areas set to benefit. But even with AI’s growing adoption, many nonprofits still face hurdles, like figuring out how to use these tools effectively or overcoming the initial complexity of implementation.

While tools like ChatGPT, which generate content, get a lot of buzz, it’s predictive AI that’s really making waves in fundraising. This technology is the game-changer nonprofits need to drive real results.

What is predictive AI?

Predictive AI works by analyzing large volumes of data and identifying patterns in donor behavior. This enables it to make real-time recommendations, such as suggesting the optimal donation amount or determining the best time to offer a donation upgrade. This type of AI has proven effective in significantly boosting donation conversion rates and increasing recurring donor acquisition by creating personalized experiences for individual donors.

Why AI-driven personalization matters

For donors, AI creates a smoother, more intuitive giving experience. Picture this: instead of donors guessing how much to give, AI suggests donation amounts in real time that fit their profile. This takes the guesswork out of giving and makes the process a lot easier. That personalized touch not only increases donor satisfaction, but it also helps build stronger, long-term relationships with your organization. For nonprofits, this translates into more engaged donors, larger donations, and a steady, predictable revenue stream.

Moving beyond traditional A/B testing

Nonprofits have relied on A/B testing for years to refine their strategies, and it’s still useful for testing specific elements of a campaign. But when it comes to understanding individual donor behavior, traditional A/B testing can only take you so far. Donors are not all the same — they have different preferences, capacities, and motivations. Static gift arrays and broad tests don’t always capture that diversity.

This is where AI steps in. AI doesn’t just find broad trends like A/B testing — it tailors the donation experience in real time for each donor. It learns from key data points, adjusts to things like the donor’s device, location, or traffic source, and then delivers a personalized experience right when it matters most. This adaptability allows nonprofits to connect with donors in a way that static tests just can’t match.

How Fundraise Up uses AI to revolutionize fundraising

At Fundraise Up, AI is at the core of how we help nonprofits enhance their digital fundraising efforts. We’ve been harnessing the power of predictive AI for years, optimizing donor experiences well before AI became a trend. And today, our platform is designed to not just meet, but exceed, the expectations of nonprofits and their supporters, while safeguarding privacy and building trust.

We really appreciate the innovative features in Fundraise Up, such as using AI to populate suggested donation amounts. Fundraise Up is constantly innovating and testing the effectiveness of each new feature to make sure that we can offer an amazing donor experience and even help bring in new donors who will make an impact on our work. — Matthew, Communication Director, China Partnership

From the Checkout process to Campaign pages and Donation forms, AI is woven into every aspect of the donor experience on our platform. This isn’t just about making giving easy — it’s about transforming how nonprofits engage with donors, leading to significant results like doubling online revenue and tripling recurring donor acquisition rates.

Fundraise Up’s AI approach

At Fundraise Up, we believe in harnessing the power of AI to deliver smarter, more personalized donor experiences — while safeguarding privacy. Our AI models are designed to optimize the entire donor journey using a combination of non-PII data and a unique blend of historical and behavioral insights. This ensures nonprofits can maximize donations while maintaining trust and security with their supporters.

A privacy-first approach: non-PII data

Nonprofits collect a staggering amount of data, but making sense of it in a way that drives real results is no small task. Our AI taps into a mind-blowing number of data points to optimize each donor interaction, using non-personally identifiable information (non-PII) or simply anonymized metadata to continuously refine and enhance the donor journey. This means we can predict and deliver what donors need in the moment — without ever needing personal information like their name or email.

The result? A donation experience that is not only personalized but also designed to maximize outcomes — whether it’s larger average donations, more frequent giving, or higher conversion rates.

Combining historical and behavioral data for smarter insights

At Fundraise Up, we combine the best of both worlds: deep, historical data from millions of donation transactions and real-time behavioral insights. This blend enables us to predict and adapt to each donor’s needs as they engage with your nonprofit’s digital platforms.

Historical data: We’ve trained our AI on years of donation history from thousands of nonprofits globally. This unique dataset allows our platform to make highly accurate predictions about what works best for different types of donors.
Behavioral data: In real time, our AI adjusts based on donor behavior — things like the device they’re using, the time of day, or even how long they’ve been engaging with your site.

This real-time adaptability, coupled with long-term data insights, allows for highly targeted donation suggestions and frictionless donor experiences.

While competitors may imitate our interface, they can't replicate our extensive data insights. Years of real-world donor interactions have refined our AI, making it not only more effective but also continuously improving. This allows us to offer the most personalized and impactful donor journey in the market.

Pioneers of AI in fundraising

We’re not new to AI. In fact, Fundraise Up has been pioneering AI in the fundraising space since 2017, giving us a unique advantage over platforms that are just starting to experiment with AI-driven features. Our AI has been rigorously tested and optimized through years of real-world application, leading to tangible results for nonprofits: higher conversion rates, increased donation sizes, and more recurring donors.

Fundraise Up understands nonprofits more than other technology solutions do. The team makes everything as turnkey as possible, and our donors benefit from it. — Rupert Schutz, Director, Digital Performance, Boys & Girls Clubs of America

A data-driven approach: constant optimization through testing

We don’t believe in set-it-and-forget-it AI. Our models are continuously tested and refined through A/B testing and performance optimization. This commitment to real-time improvement means your nonprofit is always benefiting from the most accurate, impactful AI available.

And because AI isn’t perfect, we’ve built in fallback systems to ensure that even if something unexpected happens, your donor experience remains smooth and uninterrupted. It’s this level of detail that sets us apart from competitors who might offer AI but lack the depth of real-time optimization and testing we provide.

Reliability at scale: fast, efficient, and built for high traffic

In the nonprofit sector, moments like #GivingTuesday or end-of-year campaigns can lead to significant surges in traffic. Fundraise Up’s AI is built to handle these high-demand times with ease, ensuring that donors always have a seamless experience, no matter how many people are engaging with the platform simultaneously.

Unmatched web page speed and performance

Speed isn't just about handling high traffic volumes — it's also about how swiftly our AI models can make predictions. Our research reveals that even tiny delays — a mere 100 milliseconds of extra loading time — can negatively impact checkout conversion rates. Sluggish response times frustrate donors and significantly reduce conversions. That's why our team is laser-focused on developing AI models that not only deliver pinpoint accuracy but do so at lightning speed.

A unique dataset to drive results

We’ve spent years developing a unique dataset that no other platform can replicate. Our AI doesn’t just analyze donor behavior — it learns from a deep well of real-world data that has been collected over nearly a decade.

The insights we provide are grounded in actual donor activity, not just assumptions or generalizations. We don't dilute our data with information from unrelated sources like GoFundMe, where donation motivations differ significantly from those of charity donors. This makes our AI smarter, more reliable, and more effective at helping your nonprofit raise more money.

The results speak for themselves

Fundraise Up’s AI delivers standout results, consistently outperforming industry benchmarks. Here’s how we compare:

Conversion rate (click-to-donate):

Fundraise Up: 29% (with most customers seeing between 20-40%)
Industry average: 12%

Average one-time donation:

Fundraise Up: $161
Industry average: $115

Average monthly recurring donation:

Fundraise Up: $32
Industry average: $24

These metrics clearly show how our AI-driven platform helps nonprofits boost both donor conversions and donation amounts.

AI-powered features and how they work

Smarter donation suggestions in real-time

Fundraise Up’s AI shines by making highly accurate donation suggestions at the perfect moment. Nonprofits have long struggled with determining the “perfect ask” — ask for too much, and you risk scaring away potential donors; ask for too little, and you leave money on the table. Fundraise Up solves this by analyzing dozens of data points — from device type and location to time of day and user behavior — and tailors donation amounts in real-time.

We consider everything, ensuring the suggested amount feels right for each donor. Whether it’s someone on a mobile phone in the evening or a desktop user during the day, our AI adjusts the ask to fit their unique context. The result? Donors are more likely to give, and give more.

Fundraise Up Checkout: Suggested amounts

Impact: Nonprofits using these AI-powered suggestions see a 10-15% increase in overall revenue and up to a 2x increase in donor acquisition rates.

Real-life impact: 73% of gifts made to World Hope International used personalized ask amounts. Read WHI’s success story here.

AI optimization for recurring donor acquisition

Recurring donations are critical to sustained revenue, and our AI makes it easy for donors to convert from one-time givers to long-term supporters. By analyzing behavioral data, our AI suggests recurring donation options at the optimal moment — whether it's setting the default frequency before the donation, right during the checkout process, or even after the successful donation.

Fundraise Up Checkout modal: Campaign frequencies

Impact: Nonprofits using Fundraise Up have seen 2.3% of one-time donors convert to recurring donors through AI-driven prompts.

The recurring upsell has been a game-changer for us. Our team has seen a huge uptick in recurring donations, and we are confident that it's because Fundraise Up makes the process so easy from start to finish. — Maggie McBride, Digital Marketing Manager, Community FoodBank of New Jersey

Read CFBNJ’s success story

Smart recommendations for covering transaction costs

Another revenue-boosting feature is our AI’s ability to suggest when to ask donors to cover transaction fees. This isn’t just a blanket request — our AI identifies the right moment to make the ask, ensuring more donors choose to cover these costs.

91% of donors cover transaction costs! Learn how the International Committee of the Red Cross Brazil is saving resources with Fundraise Up’s Adaptive Cost Coverage

Fundraise Up Checkout: Adaptive cost coverage

Impact: On average, 84% of donors on our platform cover transaction fees, compared to the industry average of 50-60%.

Today, data shows that 68% of our donors now cover the cost of transaction fees, resulting in additional revenue that we can put back into services. — Erin Bialecki, Director of Development and Communications, RedRover

Read RedRover’s success story

AI-driven donor upgrades

Fundraise Up’s AI doesn’t stop once the donation is made. We continue to engage donors with personalized upgrade opportunities, whether through email or our Donor Portal. These upgrades are tailored to each donor, offering seamless ways to increase their giving over time.

Fundraise Up’s Donor Portal serves as a personalized hub where donors can manage their contributions, review their giving history, and interact with the nonprofit. When a donor clicks the ‘Give More’ button, they’re directed to a customized donation screen with AI-suggested amounts tailored specifically to them.
Fundraise Up Donor Portal
Upgrade Links simplify the process for donors to increase their recurring donations or cover transaction fees. When donors click an Upgrade Link, they're directed to a personalized page displaying AI-driven suggested donation amounts. This tailored approach significantly enhances the likelihood of a successful upgrade.
Fundraise Up Upgrade links

Impact: Up to 60% of donors offered AI-driven upgrade options increase their contributions, with some upgrading by as much as 110%.

At Fundraise Up, we understand the unique challenges nonprofits face when it comes to fundraising, and our AI is designed to meet those challenges head-on. By leveraging cutting-edge AI technology, we help nonprofits not only raise more but build stronger, longer-lasting relationships with their supporters. With Fundraise Up, your nonprofit gets access to the most advanced AI fundraising platform on the market—one that’s been proven to deliver results, time and time again.

Best practices for nonprofits: embrace and trust AI

The organizations that integrate AI into their fundraising operations are already seeing significant improvements in conversion rates, donor retention, and overall revenue. But with this powerful technology also comes a need for trust — trust in the data-driven insights AI provides, and trust that AI can enhance, rather than replace, human decision-making in the fundraising process.

Why nonprofits should trust AI

Even with all the benefits AI offers, some organizations are still hesitant. There are concerns about data accuracy, complexity, or a fear that relying on AI might take away the personal connection in the donor journey. These are understandable worries, but they often miss the mark.

AI, especially as implemented by Fundraise Up, is designed to work with your team, not replace it. It enhances your ability to connect with donors by taking care of the technical, data-driven tasks, freeing up more time for the human touch that matters most.

Test it, trust it, and scale It

At Fundraise Up, our AI-driven features are built in and ready to go, so you can start benefiting right away. From optimized donation amounts to adaptive cost coverage and recurring gift suggestions, these features are designed to boost results with minimal effort on your part.

We encourage you to test these features out and see the difference for yourself. With AI already integrated into your campaigns, you can quickly measure its impact on conversion rates, average donation sizes, and recurring donor acquisition – without needing to worry about complex setups or configurations. It’s easy to get started, and the results speak for themselves.

The team at Fundraise Up is a huge reason for our success. We weren't just sold a product – it was the product along with a partner that helped us choose the best strategy for MAP International. — Janice Bryant, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, MAP International

Addressing common concerns about AI

Data privacy and security

Concern: How will AI handle donor PII (personally identifiable information), and can it ensure the security of sensitive data?
Solution: Fundraise Up’s AI operates using non-PII data, meaning it relies on behavioral and engagement data that doesn’t involve sensitive personal information. This ensures compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, while still providing personalized experiences.

Data privacy and security

Ethical use of AI

Concern: How can AI be used ethically without pressuring donors or exploiting their emotions and make unbiased decisions?
Solution: Fundraise Up’s AI is designed to enhance, not manipulate, the donor experience. It uses insights to suggest appropriate donation amounts and timely prompts based on individual behaviors, ensuring that the donor feels empowered and respected throughout the process.

Flexibility and control

Concern: What if the nonprofit wants more control over how AI is used or wants to test its effectiveness first?
Solution: Fundraise Up offers full flexibility, allowing nonprofits to switch AI features on or off as needed. You can gradually test features like personalized suggested amounts or adaptive cost coverage without committing fully, enabling you to experiment and adjust based on what works best for your organization.

Add AI to your fundraising toolkit

Harness the power of AI to improve your online fundraising strategy. With personalization and improved performance, you’ll join the 3,000+ Fundraise Up customers that already benefit from more conversions, larger gifts and a bigger donor base. Speak with our platform experts today for a live demo of our AI.

Journey mapping: why 71% of nonprofits made the switch (plus the 6x results one achieved)

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 14:00:00 GMT

The era of standalone donor personas is over.

What was a standard tool in 2017 has been abandoned as a solo strategy. Today, fewer than 10% of nonprofits rely solely on personas. The rest have moved to something that actually digs into donor behavior: journey mapping.

According to the 2025 Digital Outlook Report:

Nearly three-quarters (71%) of nonprofits now map the behavioral paths donors take, rather than relying on demographic profiles alone
Another 60% layer in behavioral science principles
88% are using or developing AI frameworks to personalize experiences in real time

The reason is clear: personas or journeys alone are static, and they can't predict dynamic giving behavior. But real-time behavioral data — tracked through journey mapping then superimposed on donor personas — gives you better information about what donors are likely to do next.

The journey to better mapping

While the sector is still mid-transformation, many organizations are transitioning from process mapping and demographic-based to behavioral approaches — and not all journey mapping is sophisticated yet.

True success might be gained with a hybrid model: using personas and mapping behavioral journeys for each. Only 37% have the cross-functional collaboration between fundraising, communications, and IT needed for true journey optimization.

But here's what matters: Even partial modeling is outperforming personas-only approaches. As behavioral approaches mature, the performance gap will widen. The organizations that move now will compound their advantage. The ones that wait will be playing catch-up in a market where donor expectations are already ahead of most nonprofits' capabilities.

What this looks like in real life

How to transition to journey mapping — and use it most effectively — will look different for every nonprofit. Your goals, available resources, and creativity will determine the best path for your organization. Here are two real-life examples of how this process worked for two very different nonprofits.

Case #1: BC Children's Hospital Foundation

BC Children's Hospital Foundation had generous donors, but was offering a fragmented donor experience. As a result, opportunities to deepen donor loyalty were being missed and the Foundation risked losing engagement between a donor's first and second gifts.

The Foundation took a hybrid approach to the problem — and this is the key insight: they didn't abandon personas entirely. Instead, they used personas as starting segments, then layered behavioral journey mapping and behavioral science on top.

They started by creating a cross-functional team of 24 staff from various departments, including Donor Services, IT, and Major Gifts. The team created two personas: "Jasmine," representing new donors under $1k, and "Sarah" for mid-level donors who had gifted between $1k and $10k.

They mapped behavioral journeys for each persona, designing specific onboarding flows, gratitude touchpoints, and identity-affirming communications that responded to what donors actually did — not just who they were.

Results:

The Foundation didn't have to wait long to see the results of their efforts. Improvements included:

"Jasmine" donors gave a second gift six times more often than before
The size of the average "Jasmine" gift increased by $92
"Sarah" donors were three times more likely to give second gifts, with 28% upgrading their support level
"Sarah's" second gifts were sent twice as fast — from an average of 42 days to 21

Why the strategy worked: BC Children's Hospital Foundation's success came from combining the best of both approaches. Personas gave them manageable segments to focus on. Journey mapping showed them what those donors actually did. Behavioral science helped them design interventions at the right moments. The result: they focused on actual donor behavior instead of demographic assumptions, creating experiences that reduced friction and deepened emotional connection.

Case #2: augedo

Here's a challenge many nonprofits face: performance media and face-to-face campaigns are effective at getting people to sign up — but many of those leads never make it to their first donation. And among those who do give once, a significant percentage cancel within the first year. The initial spark that made them say "yes" fades quickly.

augedo helps organizations solve both problems — initial conversion and long-term retention — by creating truly personal connections.

For an animal rescue organization, augedo asked donors for their birthday. Then, it matched each donor with an animal rescued on that same date. The donor would receive a message featuring that animal "sharing" its story: "I'm Glikamu. Once scared of everything, I've learned to feel safe and hopeful again. Funny enough, we share a special day — June 12 (best day). Would you sponsor me, so we can celebrate our day and my second chance together?"

Subsequent messages would continue from the donor's "birthday buddy," rather than generic organizational news. This creates an ongoing journey — one that evolves based on the beneficiary's progress and the donor's engagement.

As a donor, it's one thing to hear the story of a beneficiary of an organization's mission. Hearing such a story when it feels like you have a personal connection to it makes it that much more powerful.

Results:

Conversion rates increased by over 80%
Early cancellations saw a significant decrease as ongoing updates from the donor's matched beneficiary maintained emotional connection over time

Why the strategy worked: This is journey-based fundraising in action. Rather than static demographic targeting ("women ages 35-54 who love animals"), augedo creates dynamic, personalized journeys that evolve over time. Any shared detail — a birthday, a hobby, a hometown — can create that initial connection.

But it's the ongoing narrative, with updates tied to that personal bond, that keeps donors engaged. The story continues based on what happens (the animal's progress, the donor's engagement patterns), not on who the donor is demographically.

How to make the shift

Ready to move beyond demographic assumptions and start optimizing for actual donor behavior? Here's what to look for as you build or evaluate your journey-based fundraising capabilities:

Prioritize behavioral data over historical demographics

The most effective systems adjust in real-time based on what donors actually do: device type, time of day, how long they engage with content, which pages they visit. Look for tools that track behavior, not just characteristics.

Optimize the full journey, not isolated touchpoints

Rather than perfecting individual emails or donation pages in isolation, design for the complete donor experience. Each interaction should inform the next, creating a cohesive path from first awareness to long-term loyalty.

Enable dynamic personalization

Static segmentation can't keep up with donor behavior. Look for platforms that can make real-time decisions about which messages to show, when to prompt for recurring gifts, or whether to surface cost coverage options — all based on behavioral signals rather than demographic rules.

Build journey analytics into your workflow

You need visibility into patterns: when do donors typically give their second gift? Which engagement sequences lead to recurring conversions? What paths do your most loyal supporters take? Heatmaps, funnel analysis, and cohort tracking help you understand journeys, not just segments.

Give donors control over their own journey

Self-service portals that let supporters manage their giving, pause payments, update preferences, or access their history recognize that donors are active participants in their relationship with you — not passive recipients of your segmentation strategy.

Platforms like Fundraise Up integrate these capabilities, using AI to optimize donor journeys in real-time while giving nonprofits the analytics to understand what's working. But regardless of which tools you choose, the principles remain the same: track behavior, design complete experiences, personalize dynamically, measure continuously, and empower donors to control their progression.

Download the 2025 Digital Outlook Report to learn how journey mapping, AI frameworks, and behavioral science are reshaping nonprofit fundraising.

Reliability in fundraising: a guide for high-volume donation processing

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

When the biggest giving moments of the year arrive, whether it’s Giving Tuesday, year-end appeals, or a live national telethon, reliability becomes the single most important part of your digital fundraising setup.

A donation form that is fast, responsive, and dependable can mean thousands of additional gifts. A platform that slows down or crashes under load can mean lost donations and lost trust.

Moreover, reliability is not just about uptime or performance. It is about trust.

For donors, trust means confidence that their gift will go through without error. For nonprofit teams, it means peace of mind that the technology behind their campaigns will perform flawlessly, no matter the scale or urgency.

This guide explains how to approach system reliability ahead of high-volume campaigns and Giving Season: what questions to ask, what to test, and what safeguards to put in place. It also shares how we at Fundraise Up prepare our own systems for those same peak moments.

When generosity surges, your technology can't fail

Digital fundraising is increasingly real-time. A single campaign announcement, influencer post, media mention, or emergency can cause donor traffic to surge within minutes.

For nonprofits running national telethons, disaster response efforts, or year-end appeals, that can mean tens of thousands of donors visiting your website within a single day, often in concentrated bursts. Even brief slowdowns or temporary outages can translate into significant revenue loss and missed opportunities to engage supporters when they’re most motivated to give.

Reliability planning ensures that:

Every donor who’s ready to give can complete their gift without error.
Your team isn’t forced into manual troubleshooting during a live campaign.
You preserve donor trust — the hardest thing to rebuild once it’s lost

How to assess your readiness for high-volume days

So how can you tell if your systems are ready for those bursts of donor activity?

Whether you build your donation technology in-house or use an online donation platform, the same principles apply. A reliable donation system should be tested, resilient, and prepared for the unexpected.

Step 1: Prepare the basics

Before diving into technical setup, start with a few simple but often overlooked steps:

Notify your vendors early: let every provider you rely on, from email delivery to payment gateways, know that you’re expecting an increase in donor traffic and transactions. This gives them time to prepare and monitor performance on their end.
Check service limits and quotas: review your usage caps for services like email sending, address validation, or payment APIs. For major campaigns, it’s wise to raise these limits in advance. If a service bills by usage, make sure your balance or credit is topped up.
Prepare your website for high traffic: keep it updated, optimized, and performance-checked. Have your IT or web team confirm that hosting, caching, and speed essentials are in place.

Step 2: If you’re choosing a platform — what to ask

When evaluating donation platforms, these questions will help you gauge reliability and transparency:

Experience: how long has the platform been operating, and have they supported large-volume campaigns before?
Uptime: what’s their historical uptime record? Do they publish incident logs or real-time status updates?
Preparation: how do they plan for Giving Tuesday, telethons, or major fundraising events?
Performance under load: have they ever had to reject donations due to server overload?
Capacity: how many transactions per second (TPS) can their system handle — and what happens when traffic exceeds that limit? Compare their tested capacity to your organization’s historical peak data.

What’s a good transactions-per-second (TPS) rate? For context, PayPal has over 430 million users handles around 475 TPS, while modern neobanks with tens of millions of users process between 100 and 300 TPS. Global payment networks like Visa, serving 4 billion+ cardholders, reach about 8,500 TPS. For a donation platform, anything around 200 TPS is typically more than sufficient to handle even the largest giving moments.

The right vendor should be transparent, tested, and confident in their ability to deliver.

Step 3: Check system-level practices

Once those basics are covered, look deeper into the technical and operational practices that define true reliability.

At a minimum, your donation tech should have:

Scalable infrastructure that automatically handles traffic spikes and distributes load efficiently
Regular load testing to confirm that donation flows stay fast and stable under pressure
Fallback mechanisms for third-party services so one vendor outage doesn’t impact donors
Frequent backups and restoration drills to protect data integrity in every scenario
Prioritization of real-time giving over background tasks during peak hours

These are the foundations of a dependable donation system — the structures that let your fundraising run smoothly even during record-breaking days.

Now, let’s walk through how we implement each of these practices at Fundraise Up, as an example of what reliability looks like in action.

300 transactions per second, 99.99% uptime: engineering reliability at scale

For fundraisers, few things are more stressful than seeing donation systems falter when generosity is at its peak. Even a brief outage or technical hiccup can mean lost revenue, stressed teams, and missed opportunities to connect with donors.

We’ve heard stories from nonprofits that made the switch to Fundraise Up after their previous platforms failed right at the start of Giving Season, and they never wanted to experience that again.

At Fundraise Up, reliability is built into everything we do. We design, test, and monitor our systems to deliver the same high performance whether it’s a quiet weekday or a record-breaking Giving Tuesday.

While some donation platforms have gone down during peak giving moments, Fundraise Up has never failed to process donations when it mattered most.

At a glance

99.99% uptime
300 transactions per second (TPS) in real-time (with automatic queuing that processes any overflow within the next second)
Zero rejected donations due to server overload or downtime during Giving Season, year after year
Trusted for high-volume live events like Stand Up To Cancer’s telethons and the everyday giving of major nonprofits such as UNICEF USA

1. Scalable infrastructure and content delivery

When a major event or crisis happens, donor traffic can surge within seconds. During the February 2023 earthquake in Turkey, for example, we saw nonprofit websites' traffic spike by as much as 5–10 times in a matter of minutes.

Traffic surge during the Turkey earthquake, February 6, 2023

What this means in practice

We design our infrastructure to handle sudden traffic spikes on nonprofits’ websites. At any given moment, tens or even hundreds of thousands of visitors may arrive. Not all will make a donation, but every one of them needs a fast, frictionless experience: pages must load instantly, Elements must render, and Checkout must open without delay.

To achieve this, we use Cloudflare’s distributed content delivery network (CDN) to serve static assets directly from servers closest to each donor.

This setup dramatically reduces latency and offloads traffic from our core systems, ensuring that even under extreme demand, giving experience is quick and reliable.

Performance in numbers: our Checkout Modal opens in 1.7 seconds on average throughout the year. For comparison, Google recommends a target under 3 seconds, while Shopify reports that load times over 5–6 seconds lead to high drop-off rates.

2. Load testing: the foundation of reliability

The best way to ensure reliability is to test for it long before real donors arrive.

Load testing validates that a donation system can handle the traffic, transaction volume, and API activity expected during major campaigns without slowing down or breaking under pressure.

What this means in practice

Each month, our engineering team runs load tests that simulate real donor behavior — a full checkout journey from donation to confirmation. These tests trigger every critical part of the system involved in processing a gift: front-end forms, payment gateways, APIs, databases, and background processes. The goal is to confirm that performance stays consistent and responsive, even as demand scales up.

Throughout the year, we complement these monthly checks with additional testing cycles:

Event-specific tests: conducted ahead of high-traffic periods like Giving Tuesday or year-end giving. We also run extra tests before large customer events, such as national telethons, to verify readiness for anticipated spikes.
Change tests: completed after major infrastructure updates, performance optimizations, or before the release of significant new features.
Stress tests: run quarterly to deliberately push the system beyond its normal capacity, helping us identify potential bottlenecks and reinforce them before peak season.

This layered approach ensures we’re ready not just for what’s expected, but for what’s possible.

Beyond load testing, our system reliability framework also includes unit tests (validating every business function in isolation), integration tests (ensuring compatibility between services and configurations), and end-to-end tests (verifying full user and API workflows, from click to confirmation).

3. Smart failovers and dynamic resilience

Reliability doesn’t depend on your donation platform alone, it also relies on the network of third-party services that support it. Every donation journey typically involves several external providers, from address and email validation to payment confirmations and other background operations.

What this means in practice

In a typical “full donor checkout” scenario at Fundraise Up, multiple systems work together to complete a single gift. These may include services for:

Address lookup and validation (Google Places, Lob, or Loqate)
Email verification and delivery (Bird or Zerobounce)
AI-powered personalization
And other background operations essential to the donation flow

During high-traffic moments, any of these third-party services can slow down or temporarily degrade. To keep donations flowing smoothly, we’ve built multiple layers of resilience into our system:

Dynamic provider switching: if one provider shows signs of degradation, we automatically reroute requests to an alternative vendor. For every major service type, we maintain multiple providers and can switch between them instantly to preserve performance and uptime.
Deferred processing for non-critical tasks: some actions, like address validation, can safely happen after the donation is processed. When traffic spikes or an external service becomes unresponsive, we temporarily delay these non-essential tasks until the system load normalizes.

With these safeguards in place, even if an external provider experiences an outage, donors enjoy a fast, smooth, and uninterrupted giving experience.

4. Backups and data recovery

Even the most reliable system needs a plan for recovery. Backups protect critical data and ensure that operations can resume quickly and securely, even in the rare event of an incident.

What this means in practice

Fundraise Up maintains a comprehensive backup and recovery process as part of our Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) framework:

Comprehensive coverage: all critical databases and application data are backed up and managed centrally.
Frequent backups: incremental copies run hourly, with full backups daily and retention up to one year.
Redundant infrastructure: data is stored across AWS and OVHcloud in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and the EU, meeting regional compliance standards.
Regular restoration tests: we routinely verify data integrity and readiness for recovery.

Learn more about how Fundraise Up keeps your fundraising secure and compliant.

5. Intelligent resource prioritization

During peak giving windows, every millisecond counts.

Fundraise Up automatically prioritizes real-time donation processing over background tasks like scheduled recurring charges. This ensures that live donations always come first, protecting both donor experience and your revenue.

Learn how to grow recurring giving with Fundraise Up.

Real-world success stories

From national telethons to Giving Tuesday campaigns, nonprofits rely on Fundraise Up to process large donation volumes quickly and securely, even at peak moments.

High-volume performance across the platform

During peak minutes across the system, some nonprofits processed up to 1,000 donations per minute and 400,000 donations per month through Fundraise Up.
On Giving Tuesday 2024, more than 3,500 nonprofits ran their campaigns on Fundraise Up, seeing +12.4% year-over-year growth in the U.S. and +28.3% in Canada.

Discover more insights in the Pulse of the Donor report from Stripe and Fundraise Up.

Staying online during the AWS outage

When a major AWS outage affected thousands of websites and platforms, Fundraise Up maintained full platform functionality. Donation processing, checkout performance, and uptime were not affected.

This reliability comes from how our infrastructure is built. Fundraise Up runs on bare-metal servers distributed across multiple data centers, minimizing dependency on third-party cloud providers and protecting the platform from widespread service disruptions.

In addition, our content delivery network (Cloudflare) serves cached elements and assets globally, allowing donation pages and checkout experiences to stay live even if a regional cloud provider experiences disruptions.

That combination of distribution and intelligent routing means that even when major providers experience outages, Fundraise Up continues to operate, keeping donations flowing and trust intact.

Stand Up To Cancer

Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) runs one of the largest televised fundraising events in North America, processing thousands of donations live on air.

With Fundraise Up, SU2C was able to handle real-time donation spikes with ease, keeping the declined payment rate at just 0.97%.

The platform’s intuitive interface cut staff training time in half, while real-time fraud detection ensured every transaction was processed safely and accurately.

SU2C has trusted Fundraise Up since 2020, running its telethons with zero downtime and consistently higher conversion rates year after year.

Sandra Schmirler Foundation

For the Sandra Schmirler Foundation (SSF), the annual telethon is its most important fundraising event.

With Fundraise Up’s high-volume infrastructure and Virtual Terminal, SSF processed donations faster and with fewer manual steps.

The impact was immediate:

$1M+ raised in a single day, more than double the previous year
Nearly 8,000 donations processed seamlessly
300% growth in recurring donors, adding $150K annually in sustained revenue
95% of donations processed digitally, reducing manual entry from 81% to nearly zero

“The numbers speak for themselves. I’d say to any of my nonprofit counterparts: if you’re considering Fundraise Up — go for it.”
— Darren McEwen, Executive Director, Sandra Schmirler Foundation

Pinky Swear Foundation

The Pinky Swear Foundation Radiothon supports children with cancer and their families. Before switching to Fundraise Up, legacy tools slowed down phone donations and limited payment options.

By adopting Fundraise Up’s Checkout, Elements, Virtual Terminal, and HubSpot integration, the team modernized their operations and made giving effortless for donors.

The result: a record-breaking $423,000+ raised, with 40% of day-of revenue processed through Virtual Terminal and an average donation of $237.

“This year’s Radiothon proved that removing barriers for donors leads to greater impact. Fundraise Up helped our team streamline donations, enhance the donor experience, and ultimately helped us raise more funds for children with cancer and their families. This technology is a game-changer, allowing us to focus on what matters most — providing timely assistance when families need it. Building on the success of this proven method, we are now poised to replicate the Radiothon in new markets. Our vision is clear: a future where we can say ‘YES!’ to every family who reaches out for our help.”
— Marybeth Meyer, Director of Marketing, Pinky Swear Foundation

Looking ahead: continuous readiness, continuous improvement

Reliability isn’t static — it’s a discipline of continuous improvement.

As our Engineering Team Lead from the Billing team explains, preparation evolves with every peak giving season:

“The overall trend we see is clear: the volume of online donations continues to grow every year. Each Giving Season, the number of donations we process on peak days reaches new highs.
To stay ahead, we continuously revisit our performance benchmarks and system capacity based on real-world data. Whenever we anticipate higher-than-usual load, whether from a global event or a specific customer campaign, we proactively prepare the system to handle it.
Reliability is never a one-time achievement; it’s an ongoing process of forecasting, testing, and scaling to meet the next challenge.”
— Oleg Koltunov, Engineering Team Lead, Billing

Our engineering, DevOps, and infrastructure teams collaborate year-round to ensure we’re ready for whatever your next campaign brings.

A platform you can trust when the world is watching

When your biggest fundraising moments arrive, there’s no room for downtime or uncertainty.

Fundraise Up gives you peace of mind — knowing your campaigns, donors, and mission are supported by technology built for the moments that matter most.

Because when the world shows up to give, your platform should be ready to rise with it.

Book a demo and see how Fundraise Up keeps your fundraising reliable, fast, and ready for anything.

Our stance on donor trust and transparency

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 10:00:00 GMT

Donor trust was a core theme at our Donor Experience Summit this October. It's a fragile currency, and it begins before a donation is ever made. A donor’s first touchpoint with a nonprofit is often not a conversation or an event, it’s search.

They type the organization’s name into Google, click the top result, and assume the page they land on is the nonprofit’s chosen doorway into the relationship.

When that page was created without the nonprofit’s knowledge or consent, something subtle but significant changes: trust becomes conditional. The donor’s intent is sincere, but the context is uncertain. And uncertainty is the opposite of confidence.

This is what many leaders are now confronting as reports spread of “nonprofit pages” being automatically created without organizations’ awareness. Some of these pages appear official, others route donors through an experience the nonprofit did not design or control. The funds may still flow to the organization but the trust does not.

This is not about platform mechanics. It's about governance, consent, and clarity in the donor relationship. When a platform inserts itself before the organization, the nature of stewardship shifts. Assumed relationships erode confidence rather than build it.

The distinction that matters: ownership vs. listing

Nonprofits operate in a decentralized discovery environment. That part isn’t new but the expectation that platforms can “stand in” for a nonprofit without consent is. A donation experience is not a commodity; it is part of the organization’s brand promise. It signals who is stewarding the relationship.

This is why so many leaders I've heard from feel blindsided: they were not asked whether this representation of their brand and donor experience was one they approved of.

Trust is not created by technical routing. Trust is created by agency.

There is also an operational dimension to trust. When a nonprofit didn’t activate the giving pathway, it may not control receipting, data intake, or long-term stewardship. The funds might arrive but the relationship may not. And it is the relationship that sustains generosity.

Many nonprofits using GoFundMe or Classy are doing so intentionally and in good faith. These tools can be valuable when chosen. My concern is not which platform is used but who made the choice. When a relationship begins with consent, it is grounded in legitimacy. When it is assumed, trust weakens before it begins.

The nonprofit sector does not need louder technology

This is a governance issue, and a reminder that governance is not separate from generosity. It's foundational to it.

4 brain mechanisms that drive donations (and how to trigger them)

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:00:00 GMT

No two donors think exactly alike. But when you understand the mind behind the money, you’re in a better position to craft messages that hit both the head and the heart.

From sparking empathy to showcasing impact, there are various mental shortcuts and emotional triggers that push people from intention to action. And the more your appeals align with how the brain actually works, the more natural (and rewarding) the act of giving becomes.

Put simply, when you find ways to connect with both logic and emotion, giving becomes a no-brainer.

The head and the heart: understanding donor motivation

You likely already know firsthand that there isn’t a single appeal formula that resonates with everybody. That’s because people are unique — and so are the psychological drivers that push them to donate.

However, emerging research suggests that donors tend to show different patterns in how they process decisions. While these are interconnected processes that most people use together, many donors lean toward either empathy-leading or analysis-leading approaches.

Analysis-leading: These donors approach giving with systematic evaluation, wanting to understand the problem and how their donation contributes to an effective solution.
Empathy-leading: These donors often respond strongly to emotional connections, with decisions frequently sparked by personal stories or images that evoke compassion.

Colloquially speaking, you could say that decisions are driven by the head or heart.

Trigger these 4 cognitive responses

How can you create donor appeals that resonate with people who are motivated by different triggers? Neuroscience has some guidance.

Think of empathy-leading and analysis-leading as broad categories. Within each, there are specific influencing mechanisms that nudge your supporters to contribute.

1. The reward system

Category: Universal (affects all donors)

Part of the brain involved: brain reward regions, such as the ventral striatum or the ventral tegmental area (although results vary by study). Regions like these light up when we anticipate or experience something enjoyable — such as the act of giving.

How it works: Giving just feels good, and science backs this up. Giving activates the regions of the brain associated with pleasure, triggering what’s often described as a “warm glow” feeling. Even better? These warm feelings last longer than material satisfaction.

When this region is engaged, the brain releases the feel-good neurotransmitter, dopamine. It also releases oxytocin, commonly called the “love hormone” because it facilitates feelings of trust and empathy. These responses not only make giving enjoyable in the moment, but also encourage repeat donations — because the brain starts to associate giving with positive emotions.

How to use this in your messaging:

Highlight the immediate impact of a donation so donors can feel the effect right away.
Example: “Your $25 gift today provides blankets for three families affected by the storm.”
Show social proof, such as how many others are giving, to amplify the positive emotional response.
Example: “Join the 1,200 people who have already helped rebuild homes this month.”
Send timely confirmation and thank-you messages to fuel the “warm glow.”
Example: “Thank you! Your donation just provided clean water to a family in need.”
Use celebratory or positive language that emphasizes the satisfaction and joy of helping.
Example: “You’re making a difference! Because of your generosity, communities are taking steps toward recovery.”

2. The empathy process

Category: Empathy-leading

Part of the brain involved: the anterior insular cortex, a region that automatically processes the emotional states of others and helps us feel what someone else is experiencing.

How it works: The empathy process is all about appeals that strike a chord with supporters. When donors see someone in need — in a story, photo, or video — the anterior insular cortex helps them form an immediate emotional connection.

This connection can drive fast, compassionate giving, especially when the need is personal or tangible for the donor. While empathy alone isn’t the only factor in donation decisions, research shows that appeals that trigger strong emotional responses — particularly those that foster hopeful feelings — are more likely to inspire action.

How to use this in your messaging:

Share personal stories with names and faces to make the need feel real.
Example: “Meet Maria, a 7-year-old who dreams of going to school every day.”
Use photos and videos to show real people affected by the cause.
Example: A short video clip of volunteers helping a community recover after a wildfire.
Highlight immediate, tangible ways the donation can help.
Example: “Just $10 provides a week of meals for a child in need.”
Use emotional language that connects with feelings, without being manipulative.
Example: “Your support can bring hope and comfort to someone who feels forgotten.”

3. The perspective-taking process

Category: Analysis-leading

Part of the brain involved: the temporoparietal junction, which helps people evaluate other people's situations, consider different viewpoints, and assess the effectiveness of helping.

How it works: There's little that can be more motivating than stepping into somebody else's shoes, and that's exactly what's happening with this neural process. When the temporoparietal junction is active, donors don't just feel for others — they cognitively evaluate the situation, weigh different outcomes, and figure out the best way to help through logical reasoning.

Neuroscience research shows that higher activity in this region is linked to increased prosocial behavior, including charitable giving. It links empathy to reason, leading to thoughtful and intentional giving.

Effective appeals will:

Provide clear explanations of how programs work.
Example: “Our mobile clinic visits three neighborhoods each week to provide vaccines to children.”
Highlight the effectiveness of solutions with real outcomes.
Example: “Last year, 92% of students in our literacy program improved their reading level by a full grade.”
Show systematic approaches to solving problems.
Example: “Each donation supports our step-by-step disaster recovery plan, from immediate relief to long-term rebuilding.”
Offer transparency about operations and impact.
Example: “Here’s how every dollar is spent: 80% on direct services, 15% on program support, and 5% on administration.”

4. The attention-shifting process

Category: Analysis-leading

Part of the brain involved: brain networks involved in attention control (specific regions are still being researched)

How it works: This process helps redirect focus from self-interest to others’ needs, which is a crucial mental shift for more generous behavior.

When this region is engaged, the brain minimizes the typical self-focused thoughts and self-interested impulses. This allows the person to shift their focus to other people and better understand how their actions can benefit someone else.

How to use this in your messaging:

Frame impact on recipients, not donor cost.
Example: "Provide meals for three families" instead of "Donate $50."
Use imagery that directs attention to beneficiaries.
Example: Feature photos of recipients prominently on your CampaignPage.
Guide attention from action to impact.
Example: “Donate now to ensure help reaches those in need today.”
Remove unnecessary distractions.
Example: Avoid lengthy instructions or multiple competing requests on the same page.

Deciding whether or not to donate isn’t a snap decision — there’s a lot going on in the brain. Understanding these different cognitive processes can help you connect more effectively with your donors and, in turn, boost your revenue and results. Even better, you don’t need a medical degree in neuroscience to put them to use.

Why nonprofits are like Sicily: beautiful but broken

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 19:00:00 GMT

I recently took a six-week trip to Sicily with one simple goal: unplug from work. So naturally, I came home with some very deep revelations about work.

One of those revelations is about something I’ve labeled “the Sicily syndrome.” And yes, this condition is as terribly exotic and ultimately doomed as it sounds. And yes, I, Dr. Sal, am diagnosing the nonprofit world with this lingering affliction.

What do nonprofits and Sicily have in common?

Picture this: You're at a resort in Sicily with a million-dollar beach view (on a hundred dollar budget). Maybe it looks a little something like this.

If you’re going to get out of your comfort zone, this is a stunning place to enjoy some discomfort.

The food is incredible, the people are passionate, and you can’t help but feel like you’re experiencing something special.

But when you need towels, the beachside hotel doesn't have any towels. The poolside hotel across the street has plenty of towels but no beach access.

The hotel WiFi works on your balcony and in the hallway but not your room. And the reservation system is a massive paper ledger that looks like a prop from “Game of Thrones.”

Let’s review how this compares to the nonprofit world.

Sicily and nonprofits both have lots to love, but that love comes with compromises.

Both have beautiful hearts, passionate people, and resources that should be changing the world. But both are also stuck with dated technology and poor user experiences that undermine everything they're trying to achieve.

The difference? We can let Sicily off the hook. It has a struggling economy and a complicated history. But nonprofits sitting on transformative AI tools while donors abandon their donation forms? That's a choice. No excuses.

Beautiful missions can't compensate for ugly user experiences

These are donation form screenshots I’ve collected over the past few months. These aren’t from the “Back to the Future,” “Hot Tub Time Machine,” or the Wayback Machine. Every single one represents an organization raising $10 million or more annually. And they look exactly the same as they did seven years ago (the one on the far right is from 2018).

Year these forms were created, from L-R: 2025, 2025, 2025, 2025, 2018.

Meanwhile, I can accidentally subscribe to three streaming services while ordering pizza from my phone.

The gap isn't just noticeable — it's existential.

Here's the dark comedy: according to data from NextAfter, 27% of nonprofits don't even send donation receipts. Address autocomplete — which increases conversion by 2% according to research — is virtually nonexistent on nonprofit forms. We're talking about organizations that desperately need every dollar, yet they're making it harder to give than it is to buy detergent on Amazon.

Donors will only be patient for so long

Your donors live in an Uber world. They expect McDonald's to know their last order, their location, and exactly what offer will work based on time of day. They get frustrated when Netflix doesn't remember where they paused their show.

This is how your donors pay for things every day.

Then they try to donate to your cause.

The cruel irony is that when someone buys something, they get a tangible product that justifies a little friction. When someone gives to your organization, they only get good vibes - that feeling of being generous. But if your donation process is clunky, they still got what they came for: confirmation of their own generosity. They just didn't complete the transaction. But hey, they tried.

That's why nonprofits have to work even harder than e-commerce. We're selling intangible rewards — and if the experience sucks, people can feel good about themselves without actually giving you money.

Don’t tempt people to take their dollars elsewhere

Sicily is resource-strapped — salaries are about 30% lower than mainland Italy, which is already lower than the rest of Europe. Sound familiar? Nonprofits face similar resource constraints compared to the broader economy.

But here's what both are missing: their "tourists" — whether actual tourists or potential donors — have expectations set by the best experiences in their daily lives. When you don't meet those expectations, it doesn't matter how beautiful your mission is or how passionate your people are.

As charming as this is, people only have time for quaint experiences when they’re on vacation.

Sicily will always be beautiful, but its tourism struggles because beauty isn't enough when expectations aren't met. The same is true for nonprofits - your mission's beauty won't save you if donors can't easily give to it. The tools to fix this exist. The question is whether you'll use them before your “tourists” take their money elsewhere.

What’s the next chapter for nonprofits? Learning how to embrace technology without losing the heart of your mission.

Read this next: 10 donor engagement strategies that let tech supplement tradition

Dream bigger, design better: key takeaways from DXS 2025

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 16:00:00 GMT

Just the process of dreaming big is transformative. It's worth half a day brainstorm with your best people — what's the biggest thing we can do? Can we send chills down the donor's spine?

— Chris Anderson, Curator, TED, TED Talks, TED Conference, speaking at DXS 2025

Fundraise Up's 2025 Donor Experience Summit wasn't your typical conference. Speakers challenged conventional wisdom and reminded us that nonprofits have more power than they think.

The conversations spanned four key themes:

Global giving at scale
AI-powered optimization
Trust & transparency
Donor experience

Here are some of the quotes we can’t stop thinking about.

On donor experience…

"Listen with your eyes." (Quote from a five-year-old friend on how to make people feel seen.)

—Neen James, Client Experience Expert, Neen James Inc.

"Our most loyal donors feel that they matter. On an emotional and rational level they feel that they are stakeholders."

—Francesco (FDF) De Flaviis, CMO, The National MS Society

"We can't change behavior. We can only change the pressures that people interact with to cause behavioral change."

—Matthew Wallaert, Chief Experience Officer, Oceans; former head of Behavioral Science at Microsoft

"Expectations are set by the consumer experience… People want to pay how they want to pay. The minute they cannot do that, you risk losing them. Cart abandonment is about 70%. If you don't have someone's preferred payment, that jumps to 85%."

—Yana Gutierrez, Head of Platforms, Customer Success, Stripe

On setting suggested donation amounts: "If the anchor is too high, people feel like they're being used as a means to an end."

—Michael Hallsworth, Chief Behavioral Scientist, The Behavioral Insights Team

"Urgency and scarcity work well when they're genuine."

—Clare Purvis, Behavioral Scientist, Founder of WELL

"65% of donors indicated they would give more if they knew the impact of their charitable investments."

—Michael Thatcher, President and CEO, Charity Navigator

"Anyone selling you a persona is an a**hole — all personas do is layer biases on biases."

—Matthew Wallaert, Chief Experience Officer, Oceans; former head of Behavioral Science at Microsoft

On AI-powered optimization…

"AI represents the single biggest opportunity for organizations to catch up."

—Mahin Samadani, SVP Experience AI Growth, Publicis Sapient

"Every single time there's been progress in human history there's an enormous amount of capital and wealth that's generated, and with that increase, there's been an increased gap in access to wealth and power. Maybe this time we don't do that."

—Calvin Abbasi, Director of Narrative and Communications/Strategic Advisor to the OpenAI Nonprofit, PICO California and OpenAI

"Data cleanup and integrity is not sexy. But without the data integrity you're not going to get to the fun stuff."

—Maya Samadani, Board Member, Rise Alliance for Children

"Don't look at AI as a cost center, look at it as a human force multiplier. You don't have to reduce the task force, just use the team to do the high value work."

—Nirmal Kaur, Google Marketing Platform, Google

"When everyone has access to the same tools and technology, humans become more important than ever. If you don't have the skill, AI won't make you better, it will make you more prolific."

—Scott Rising, Sr. Manager, Social Content Marketing, LinkedIn

"Stop thinking of AI as a tool and start thinking of it as an undercurrent of everything you do. It thinks faster than you do."

—Calvin Abbasi, Director of Narrative and Communications/Strategic Advisor to the OpenAI Nonprofit, PICO California and OpenAI

On trust & transparency…

"Four-star charities receive 900% more dollars donated than two-star charities."

—Michael Thatcher, President and CEO, Charity Navigator

"AI is going to be democratized, but taste is not. Tech hasn't been able to tap into that—heart, mind, humanity — so real and so true."

—Courtney Richardson, Creative Director & Founder, Droga5

"Trust is declining. For the nonprofit you love and trust—maintain that through authentic storytelling."

—Rasheeda Childress, Senior Editor, Chronicle of Philanthropy

"Trust is not starting when you think you're starting. It's a good will bank that you're depositing in all along the way."

—Kevin Wong, Senior Vice President of Marketing, The Trevor Project

"I was struck by how much our legal team put in the contract. If it's not in the contract, it's hard to address it later. We have all these great first meetings—but the level of detail matters: asking for the social content, PR, field marketing up front." (On the importance of detailed contracts in brand partnerships)

—Rebecca Moeller, VP, External and Movement Communications, Girl Scouts of the USA

Global giving at scale…

"Nonprofits do have power. There's a lot of name recognition. If you come out against something with other nonprofits, they'll have to listen. The truth is a great disinfectant."

—Calvin Abbasi, Director of Narrative and Communications/Strategic Advisor to the OpenAI Nonprofit, PICO California and OpenAI

"Urgency always wins. On Giving Tuesday, we send 12 emails that day and all the money comes in at 8-10 PM."

—Jessica Bernat, Director, Digital & Sustainer Marketing, Canadian Red Cross

On the key questions to ask when evaluating potential brand partnerships: "How big are the audiences? What other value can you give us? Marketing dollars? You do have to make sure the brands align."

—Lucy Casey, Product Innovation Lead, Supply Division, UNICEF

"94% of all donor dollars flow to nonprofits outside the donor's home state."

—Michael Thatcher, President and CEO, Charity Navigator

"50% of new traffic to NGOs are coming from social and search. But the average donor value is low. So this means you need to make your donor experience mobile first."

—Nirmal Kaur, Google Marketing Platform, Google

"Billionaires wanted to make philanthropy a part of their lives, they did exciting things, but causes seemed boring […] We take the people who want to change the world and ask them to spend 80% of their time fundraising."

—Chris Anderson, Curator, TED, TED Talks, TED Conference

Ready to step into the future of fundraising? Watch this space for more insights from DXS 2025.

GDPR and CCPA compliance for nonprofits: what you need to know about global fundraising

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Data privacy regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the UK and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the U.S. can feel intimidating for nonprofits.

And it’s not just organizations based in the EU, the UK, or California that need to pay attention — if you accept donations from supporters in these regions, compliance applies to you as well.

For fundraising teams, the biggest question is often: how do we make sure our donation technology is compliant without making giving harder for donors?

In this article, we’ll break down what GDPR and CCPA mean for global fundraising, what to look for in a donation platform, and how Fundraise Up helps nonprofits stay compliant — without adding friction to the giving experience.

Key takeaways for nonprofits

If you accept donations from the EU, UK, or California, compliance is mandatory.
Choose donation partners who prove compliance through audits, not claims.
Use built-in tools for consent and cookies to make compliance seamless.
Treat privacy as a trust signal — it builds confidence, conversion, and retention.

Which data privacy regulations impact your fundraising?

In Europe and the UK: GDPR and UK GDPR set the world’s strictest standards for data privacy.
In the U.S.: Privacy laws are emerging, with CCPA leading the way in granting individuals rights similar to GDPR — such as data access, deletion, and opt-out from sharing.
In Canada and beyond: Other regions are adopting GDPR-style protections such as PIPEDA, making global compliance increasingly important.

At their core, GDPR and CCPA are about respecting donor rights. That means:

Consent matters: You need explicit, informed consent before contacting supporters with marketing messages.
Donors control their data: Supporters can decide how their data is used, request access to it, or ask for it to be deleted (“the right to be forgotten”).
Vendors must comply too: It’s not just your nonprofit that needs to be compliant, your technology partners do as well.

Think of these regulations less as red tape and more as an opportunity: when donors feel their data is handled responsibly, their trust in your organization grows.

What if you’re outside these regions?

Even if your nonprofit isn’t legally bound by GDPR or CCPA, the principles still apply:

If you accept donations from Europe, the UK, or California, you must comply.
Even if you don’t, adopting these practices builds donor trust and prepares you for evolving privacy laws across North America and beyond.

What are the risks of non-compliance?

Regulators have shown they’re serious. Meta was fined €1.2 billion in 2023 for unlawful data transfers, Amazon €746 million in 2021 for cookie consent issues, and TikTok €345 million in 2023 for mishandling user data. Other examples include Google (€50 million in 2019, with larger penalties later) and H&M (€35.3 million for excessive employee monitoring).

While nonprofits won’t be hit with fines of this magnitude, these cases highlight why compliance can’t be ignored, and why choosing technology partners who are proactive about data privacy is critical.

Choosing a donation platform: what to check

If a vendor claims GDPR or CCPA compliance, don’t just take their word for it. Look for:

Proof of compliance (documentation, not just a marketing claim)
A Data Protection Officer or equivalent compliance lead
The ability to delete donor data upon request
Although GDPR is a set of guidelines, annual audits or reviews of compliance processes should be conducted
Built-in tools for cookies and consent, so you’re not left scrambling

💡 Tip: Compliance should be visible in both the platform’s technology and their internal governance processes. If your current donation platform can’t demonstrate these, it’s time to reevaluate.

See how Fundraise Up builds compliance into every part of the giving experience.

Marketing consents

Available in campaign settings, our consent options let you capture supporter preferences in line with regional requirements:

No consent – Skip consent prompts where not required
General consent – One checkbox for broad communication permissions
Customized consent – Donors choose preferred channels (email, SMS, phone, post, etc.) for granular control

You can also enable a smart setting so consent options only appear in regions where they’re required, such as the EU, UK, Canada, and California.

Data rights

We have implemented measures to ensure that all data collected through our platform is stored securely and that individuals have the right to access, delete, or opt out of sharing their personal information.

See how Thoropass and Fundraise Up work together to keep your fundraising secure and compliant.

Why compliance matters for fundraising results

Strong privacy practices aren’t just about avoiding penalties — they drive trust, loyalty, and repeat giving.

Donors who feel confident in your data practices are more likely to give again.
Clear consent flows reduce confusion and increase conversion.
Transparent cookie use makes your website feel trustworthy, not risky.

In the end, strong compliance strengthens relationships with supporters — and that translates into stronger revenue for your mission.

Want to see how Fundraise Up keeps your fundraising compliant and conversion-optimized? Book a demo.

Q&A: How to maximize donations during Giving Season 2025

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The giving season is almost upon us. As a crucial time for nonprofits to get that year-end boost, it’s essential to have a strategy that not only encourages donations but also fosters long-term relationships with donors.

So in the spirit of giving, we’re answering common Giving Season questions that nonprofits like yours have shared. Take these into consideration so your team can navigate the upcoming season with confidence.

How can we effectively communicate our mission to encourage more donations during the giving season?

Be clear and compelling. Highlight the impact of your work wherever possible — especially on donation pages and forms. That’s the critical point. With configurable donation forms, like Fundraise Up’s Checkout, you can add imagery and text to tell your story. And Fundraise Up Campaign Pages allow you to dedicate entire pages to a singular cause like American Humane’s Active Wildfire Rescue.

And don’t forget a popup message that overlays on your homepage. A popup message ensures that the first thing a website visitor sees is a call to action leading them to your campaign. This guarantees that your campaign won’t get overlooked and people know what your immediate need is.

What strategies can we implement to increase the average donation size from our supporters?

Consider suggesting higher donation amounts on your donation form and explaining the specific impact of each level. Our customers have seen incredible success with AI-powered personalized ask amounts.

Fundraise Up’s AI dynamically suggests donation amounts based on donor behavior.

Offer more payment options. Your donors have different giving preferences — why not meet them where they are? By limiting your options to credit cards and bank transfers, you could be missing out on additional revenue. That’s why we offer a wide range of payment options for nonprofits to add including credit cards, bank transfers, digital wallets, and even crypto. And don’t forget to share how larger donations can make an incredible impact. In this example using our mock nonprofit, here’s how Impact Descriptions can subtly encourage people to give more.

What tactics can we use to convert one-time donors into recurring donors?

Encourage monthly support directly in the donation checkout. When you offer a seamless and convenient way for one-time donors to become recurring, research shows that many people make that jump.

On average, nonprofits that use the Upsell feature see a 3.5% conversion rate from one-time donors to recurring donors.

Organizations like Animal Haven have tripled their recurring revenue by including an upsell in their donation checkout!

What successful campaign examples can we draw inspiration from to improve our giving season efforts?

We love to see Fundraise Up customers get creative for their Giving Season campaigns! Take American Heart Association’s engagement play.

By providing three ways for website visitors to offer their support, and including survivor stories, supporters are drawn into the mission and more likely to take action.

And there’s more! These examples are sure to get your creative juices flowing as you finalize outreach plans.

How can we collaborate with corporate partners to enhance our fundraising efforts during the giving season?

Just like with donors, make it easy and meaningful. Offer opportunities for collaboration, such as sponsorships, employee giving programs, or matching gift campaigns. Follow these steps for success:

1. Make it easy for companies to get involved

For example, Fundraise Up, in partnership with Double the Donation, integrates with its 360MatchPro solution to upsell to eligible match amounts, encouraging larger donations and a greater number of match requests.

2. Demonstrate campaign success viability

For example, incorporate a matching gift search tool in your online donation forms so donors can easily and quickly check if their employer offers a matching gift program during the donation process.

3. Assure companies and donors that their impact makes a real difference

For example, the Fundraise Up Insights Dashboard enables you to track performance, spot trends, and analyze key metrics such as campaign donation comparisons, donation frequency tracking, and popular giving times.

Here’s how to garner corporate support for year-end matching gift programs.

Supercharge Giving Season with Fundraise Up

The giving season presents a unique opportunity for nonprofits to engage with supporters and drive meaningful impact through donations. Implement these strategies with confidence, and you’ll be well-equipped to make the most of the Giving Season. Our platform experts are ready to help you get supercharged. Talk with our team today.

Donor thank-you gifts: converting appreciation into action

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:00:00 GMT

Your donors give because they believe in your mission, but like everyone else, they enjoy being thanked for what they do.

That presents a perfect opportunity for your organization to re-engage with them. Best of all, thanking them for their generosity can actually increase their gift amounts and help you drive more revenue.

Our new Donor Thank You Gift feature allows you to automatically reward and thank donors so you can create an even stronger emotional connection — without taking up your team’s time during an already hectic campaign season.

Get 2 benefits from a single feature

Year-end and seasonal campaigns are critical to nonprofits' financial health — and we've heard from organizations that providing donor gifts boosts responses. Whatever your key campaign season(s) may be, consider how our Donor Thank You option could help you meet your goals when launching your campaign.

For example, the American Heart Association sometimes offers a T-shirt as a gift during monthly campaigns.

Our Donor Thank You feature automatically presents gift options based on the giving thresholds you set. It's designed to address two critical fundraising goals:

Boosting donor engagement
Creating stronger emotional connections between your donors and your organization

And since it can be set up in just a few minutes, you can roll it out with your upcoming holiday/year-end campaigns.

Enhance donor acquisition

You’re already investing resources to drive potential donors to your website, so why not create a donor experience worth staying for? Display thank-you gift options by using the Image Cards Element in the Fundraise Up dashboard.

These tokens of appreciation can boost giving or encourage donors to give a little more. Donor thank-you gifts are ideal for time-limited fundraising efforts since they require no manual workarounds and work on Campaign Pages.

The set up is simple but flexible, so you can make adjustments as-needed. You can:

Promote up to five products
Customize size and/or color options
Specify goals, such as donation frequency
Launch within minutes from the Benefits section of your dashboard.

Make tax compliance easier

We've made tax compliance easier for you and your donors across multiple regions.

Each donor receipt automatically includes fair market value (FMV), which donors will need when they file their taxes.
For your Canadian donors, we automatically calculate the exact eligible amount for tax receipts.
For UK organizations, we've added intelligent Gift Aid handling — the Gift Aid option only appears when donations qualify, ensuring faster checkouts and compliance.

Improve the donor experience — with no extra effort on your part

Your donors will get an automatically generated — but no less sincere — thank you email that confirms the details of both their donation and their thank you gift. And if donors have questions later, they can use the "self-serve" Donor Portal to look up gift information such as shipping updates and FMV.

Offer a “no-thank you” option

We know offering a thank you gift can help drive revenue, but some of your donors may not want another mug… or would prefer to have the cost of their tote bag go toward your mission instead.

This is especially true for organizations with a focus on sustainability. We have a solution for them, as well.

Donors can opt out of receiving their thank you gift with a single click. It doesn’t get easier for you or them.

Track performance with ease

Of course, you’ll want to know how well your campaign (and the thank you gifts) performed. We’ve got you covered there as well.

We provide campaign revenue tracking through Fundraise Up Insights. If you want to track gift redemptions, you have two options:

Send data directly to your CRM
Export in one click from the dashboard

Ready to boost your next campaign? Set up Donor thank you gifts today.

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10 donor engagement strategies that let tech supplement tradition

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Traditional donor engagement strategies — from golf tournaments to personal phone calls to direct mail campaigns — have their time and place. They help you connect with supporters face-to-face and create memorable experiences.

But they're also time-consuming and expensive. When you add up venue rentals, catering, printing, postage, and the hours your team spends coordinating everything, traditional fundraising methods take a big bite out of every dollar you raise.

Tech-enabled tools can offer a more cost-effective path so more of your donors' money actually reaches your mission — but that doesn’t mean you have to abandon the events and campaigns that may be integral to the heart and soul or your organization.

Done right, digital fundraising can create a sustainable, lower-lift, and lower-cost fundraising pipeline that can supplement your other fundraising motions. In other words, there’s no need to choose between tradition and technology.

What is donor engagement in the digital age?

Donor engagement is the process of making sure your nonprofit's supporters feel acknowledged, valued, and important — so they feel inspired to continue donating and championing your cause.

Previously, this meant keeping donors in the loop through newsletters, phone calls, and events. Put simply, it was a lot of one-way information broadcasting to your donors.

Today, donor engagement is far less transactional. It's focused on personalized, meaningful interactions — from your actual donation experience to your marketing materials — that foster strong, lasting relationships with supporters.

10 examples of digital donor engagement strategies

Here’s how to boost your fundraising ROI while building lasting relationships with your digital-first donors.

1. Guide donors with dynamic experiences (not static pages)

Your donors (and people who are thinking about donating) are bound to visit your website. When they do, giant walls of text, generic stock photos, and a single CTA buried at the bottom of the page probably aren't going to inspire action and enthusiasm.

Incorporating more dynamic website components makes your fundraising pages more engaging, helps donors feel like they’re a part of something meaningful, and can help create a sense of urgency. For example:

Goal thermometers
Animated donation buttons
Impact sliders

Real results: Akashinga added a donate button to the header of its website and experienced a 41.6% increase in conversions from that button alone. Additionally, a Social Proof element on the website (which displays real-time notifications about recent donations) generated a 45.2% conversion rate.

2. Use personalized ask amounts (not generic “suggested donations”)

Suggested donation amounts have long been used as a tactic to inspire giving, but they can also miss the mark. Generic amounts don’t consider donor capacity, psychology, previous donations, or any other factors that have a significant impact on giving behavior. A $25 suggestion is too low for a major donor, but it could be too high for a first-time giver.

Forego the static donation amounts and use artificial intelligence to analyze patterns in donor capacity and behavior, and then suggest personalized donation amounts in real-time.

Real results: The Salvation Army UK uses AI to display personalized giving suggestions tailored to each donor. 70% of donors choose the AI-suggested giving amounts, and The Salvation Army UK saw a 49% donor conversion rate—far higher than the industry standard of 15% to 17%.

3. Reduce friction with an easy checkout (not clunky donation forms)

Looking at the world of e-commerce, the Baymard Institute says that 18% of people have abandoned a shopping cart just because the checkout process was too long or complicated. The same holds for your nonprofit: If you want people to donate, it needs to be easy for them to do so. Requiring account creation or multi-page forms increases their frustration—and makes them far more likely to abandon the donation process.

Minimize the complexity and reduce the number of steps required to complete a donation. Keep it to just a few essential steps, eliminate unnecessary form fields, and consider one-click donation options and mobile-optimized checkouts to make the entire experience as frictionless as possible.

Real results: World Hope International focused on optimizing its donor experience—including reducing the steps involved in completing a donation. As a result, the organization saw a 200% increase in online donation revenue.

4. Provide multiple payment options (not just credit cards)

While credit cards might seem like the universal payment method these days, there are still plenty of people who don’t have them (or just don’t want to use them). Requiring a credit card at checkout means alienating those supporters and missing out on a donation.

Allow people to donate using a diverse range of payment methods like digital wallets, bank transfers, and international currencies. Giving your donors options makes contributing easier, increases your conversions, and ensures everyone who wants to support your cause can do so.

Real results: Greater Good Charities optimized its donation experience, including offering a variety of payment methods for supporters. This contributed to a 161% lift in online revenue.

5. Make your donors feel celebrated (not cashed in on)

Understandably, you want your donors to donate. But constantly coming to them with your hand out will inevitably make them feel underappreciated and taken advantage of. Finding ways (even small ones) to recognize their support can keep your donor engagement strong.

Things like automatically generated lists of your top supporters, real-time notifications of donations, and personalized “thank you” emails can make them feel seen and valued—without being a super heavy lift for your team.

Real results: For its annual Radiothon, Pinky Swear Foundation incorporated displays of recent donations to instantly celebrate contributions and keep donors engaged and informed in real-time. The organization saw a $237 average event donation and raised more than $423,000 during the Radiothon.

6. Rely on strategic upsells (not aggressive monthly giving campaigns)

Think about the last time you were prompted to commit to a monthly charge for something. You were skeptical and hesitant, weren’t you? The same is true for your supporters. Jumping in mid-donation to ask for a recurring gift feels jarring and can prevent them from going through with their initial contribution.

Fortunately, intelligent upsell prompts are far less intrusive. They use AI to determine the right conditions and present an upsell at the optimal moment. It feels more like a natural progression, and less like an ambush in the middle of checkout.

Real results: UNICEF USA uses donation upsells to convert one-time donors into recurring monthly givers. That change alone has generated an additional $3 million in revenue for the organization.

7. Offer smart reminders (not guilt-driven follow-ups)

There’s little that’s more frustrating than a supporter leaving in the middle of the donation process—and that’s likely when you swoop in with a series of “last chance” emails to instill a sense of urgency and push them to seal the deal.

While there’s nothing wrong with a friendly nudge, heavy-handed and urgent emails can feel manipulative and damage long-term relationships with your donors.

Automated and intelligent email reminders are far gentler, acknowledge that life happens, and allow your donors to opt out at any time. They’re enough to provide a helpful tap on the shoulder, without making your supporters feel like you're holding their feet to the fire.

Real results: Using a reminder element, UNICEF USA captured more than 26,000 donations that would have otherwise been lost.

8. Make processing fees transparent (not tricky)

Nobody likes getting to checkout and seeing extra fees, which is why it’s so tempting to try to either sneak them by your donors or absorb those costs yourself. But both of those approaches backfire. Hidden fees create donor distrust and lead to more abandoned donations, while covering the fees on your end eats into what you get from each donation.

Instead, be upfront with your donors about the fees you incur from each donation—and then ask if they’re willing to cover those processing fees for you. It’s as simple as adding a checkbox to the checkout process. Worried it’ll send your donors running? AI can read the room and decide if asking the donor to cover the transaction cost will result in higher conversion.

Real results: An impressive 94.2% of Stand Up To Cancer’s donors covered their processing fees at checkout.

9. Tap into community-driven fundraising (not board member asks)

Your board members are passionate about your cause and committed to your organization, so there’s nothing wrong with asking them to draw on their personal networks when you’re fundraising. However, this arrangement can be awkward for both parties—particularly if they need to make repeated asks. Plus, your efforts are limited by your board size and their personal comfort level with fundraising.

Go beyond your board and empower your other supporters to fundraise. Provide easy-to-use tools and templates they can use to create their own fundraising pages. Offer shoutouts to successful peer fundraisers to applaud their efforts and encourage others to get involved.

Real results: Bringing Hope Home (BHH) made it easy for supporters to build their own campaigns. Doing so generated $84,960 in one quarter—a 138% increase in community-led fundraising revenue.

10. Use real-time data to understand what’s working now (instead of waiting for quarterly reports)

Quarterly reports might feel like they’re doing you a service, but they don’t give you the detailed or real-time data you need to understand what’s engaging your donors and what’s falling flat. You can keep those reports for your board meeting and your recordkeeping, but you also need a way to understand how every single element of your donor experience is (or isn’t) converting.

Use a dashboard that breaks down your performance, payment methods, popular days and times for donations, and even how all of your interactive elements are converting. This gives you the nitty-gritty insights you need to improve your donor experience and keep them engaged and invested.

Real results: Feed the Children tapped into its dashboard to understand performance and optimize its donor engagement strategies. As a result, the organization saw a 25% increase in Giving Tuesday donations and earned $40,000 in additional revenue in just three months.

Give your donors more (so they give right back)

It’s not that your traditional donor engagement strategies—dinners, phone calls, mailers, and more—are bad. It’s that donor expectations have evolved, and that means some other strategies might work better.

Fortunately, you aren’t in an “either/or” situation. You can blend your traditional, tried-and-true approaches with more tech-enabled tactics to connect with your donors on a deeper level and inspire them to take action. Much like with any other relationship, the more you give, the more you get.

Engage more donors and increase your revenue with Fundraise Up. Learn more now.

Not using AI for nonprofit fundraising? You’re leaving billions on the table

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 14:00:00 GMT

At a recent nonprofit AI summit, I shared data that should wake up every leader in our sector. After analyzing 15 million transactions and 1.3 billion website visitors through our Fundraise Up platform, I can tell you that nonprofits are leaving a staggering amount of money on the table by being overly cautious about AI.

Data from Giving Tuesday shows that there’s around $52 billion available in untapped fundraising dollars. Organizations that use AI-driven personalization are better positioned to capture those dollars. Our internal data shows:

63% increases in average one-time gifts
87% increases in monthly gift average
conversion rates around 30%, compared to the industry standard of 12-15%

Nonprofits can keep providing donors with a donation experience right out of 2010 and hope good vibes overcome poor execution. Or, they can acknowledge that in 2025, user experience isn't a nice-to-have — it's table stakes for survival.

So what does the arrival of AI in nonprofit fundraising mean for you? That’s the conversation we need to have.

The paradox that’s causing AI paralysis

The summit, hosted by our friends at Stratovation Partners, crystallized one thing: nonprofits are caught in a brutal paradox. They're terrified of AI risks — data privacy concerns, job displacement fears, and ethical implications — while simultaneously hemorrhaging potential revenue because they're not meeting the expectations donors have for a seamless user experience.

But even the willing are hindered by day-to-day challenges that can be a roadblock to progress.

Jamie Perez, Senior Vice President for the Center for American Progress, laid out the brutal truth about trying to innovate in the nonprofit space: dealing with approximately “35 crises in the first 26 weeks” due to changes in funding at the start of the new administration earlier this year. As a result, a project that should have taken one month stretched to eight months, with results still pending.

This is the nonprofit reality. While tech companies can move fast and break things, nonprofits operate in crisis-driven environments where the next emergency can instantly redirect all resources away from innovation efforts. The emotional and practical tolls are real — months of planning can get derailed with no warning by urgent mission needs.

Nonprofits don’t operate in a vacuum — and some are operating against a backdrop of chaos more often than not. To get ahead of the cacophony, organizations have to make some shifts in practices, but more importantly, mindsets.

Create a culture of innovation

To make the best use of technology, nonprofits need to have their houses in order. Pam Trzop, Managing Director of Firefly Partners, made a crucial point: "If your systems aren't connected, AI hits walls… If your technology and culture aren't aligned, AI just makes noise, confusion, and chaos faster."

She noted that nonprofits that see success with AI share a few characteristics:

Leadership actively participates in transformation rather than just approving budgets
Teams are trained on ethics, data, security, and privacy before tool implementation
Governance frameworks exist before experimentation begins
Data foundations are solid enough to support intelligent automation

Trzop also mentioned that The Rockefeller Foundation took a novel approach — they gave AI adoption to their Culture Department, not IT, recognizing that transformation was fundamentally about people and organizational change.

Prepare your teams: plan first, then add the tools

Rachel Kimber, Managing Director of Full Circle Impact Solutions, consults on nonprofit AI adoption and shared a blunt assessment: most organizations skip the “101-level” conversations and jump straight to tool implementation. This creates several risks:

Rogue usage without policy frameworks
Inconsistent approaches across teams
Missed opportunities for strategic implementation
Potential ethical and privacy violations

Her recommendation? Start with collaborative AI governance committees that include voices from technology, HR, communications, legal, and operations.

What it means to you

The path forward requires nonprofits to find a way to balance legitimate concerns while adopting these transformational tools. Strategic use of tech by nonprofits can reverse the negative trends you might be seeing and amplify the positive ones.

In practice, that’s going to look a little different for each organization. But the general steps are the same.

1. Build a foundation first

Before you enter your innovation era (if you didn’t know I’m a Swiftie, now you do), make sure you’ve nailed the basics. AI works best if your systems and processes are already working well.

Audit your current donor experience ruthlessly. Or, start with just making a donation to your own organization if you haven’t before. If you’re tempted to abandon your own donation process, fix it before even thinking of adding AI.
Connect your systems. CRM and email platforms need to be integrated before AI can optimize across touchpoints.
Establish governance frameworks. Form collaborative committees before experimenting with tools. There’s a great toolkit you can download from Microsoft, or look at Fundraising.AI for guidance.

2. Start small, but be strategic

Doing “all the things” may seem tempting if you feel like you need to make up for lost time. But it can be a path to even more chaos. Instead:

Choose one high-impact but simple tool or workflow for initial AI implementation — donor research, content personalization, or meeting summaries work well.
Implement with collaborative teams that include both technical and mission-focused perspectives.
Track concrete metrics: revenue impact, time savings, staff satisfaction. You need these numbers to justify expansion.

3. Scale thoughtfully

Again, you’re not going to jump from a Geocities-era website to the bleeding edge of technology. Focus your earliest innovation steps where they make the most sense — and can have the most impact.

Use AI to automate tasks nobody wants to do — data entry, report generation, administrative workflows.
Focus on personalization that improves donor experience rather than just internal efficiency.
Maintain the organization’s ethical guardrails while pushing operational boundaries.

4. Measure what matters

With more tech and more automation, you can quickly find yourself drowning in data — of varying levels of usefulness. Especially at first, focus on the figures that are most impactful. At most organizations, that’ll be:

Revenue per donor contact
Conversion rates across channels and demographics
Staff time allocation between administrative and mission-focused work
Donor retention and engagement metrics

Nonprofits are at a crossroads — which path will you choose?

There are billions of dollars in potential funding sitting out there waiting for organizations brave enough to balance legitimate concerns with transformational opportunity. The tools exist and the playbook is being written by the early adopters.

The only question left is: Will you be one of them?

Learn more about how you can improve donor experience and boost revenue using Fundraise Up’s AI capabilities.

Guide to A/B testing for nonprofits: how to experiment for fundraising success

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 19:00:00 GMT

How innovation is born in nonprofit technology

As a nonprofit leader, how do you improve, innovate, and get better fundraising results every time? The answer lies in data-driven decision-making, not assumptions.

Amazon, Netflix, Booking.com, Adobe, Salesforce, and Slack all rely on A/B testing to fine-tune every small detail of their platforms. Even the tiniest changes can have a big impact. As Amazon founder Jeff Bezos put it:

Our success at Amazon is a function of how many experiments we do per year, per month, per week, per day.

For nonprofits fundraising online, A/B testing is just as critical. At scale, even small optimizations in the donor experience can lead to significant revenue growth. Yet, many nonprofits lack the resources or infrastructure to conduct meaningful A/B tests.

That’s where Fundraise Up comes in. Every feature we build is backed by rigorous A/B testing to ensure nonprofits raise more while keeping donor experiences smooth and friction-free.

In this article, we’ll share key insights from A/B testing across 3,500+ nonprofits using Fundraise Up, explore how to design meaningful experiments, and reveal real-world results that have transformed online fundraising.

How nonprofits benefit from Fundraise Up’s testing

At Fundraise Up, we believe that a strong fundraising strategy starts with good data. That’s why we prioritize testing and experimentation. By continuously analyzing donor behavior and optimizing the giving experience, we help nonprofits raise more.

When selecting a donation platform, A/B testing should be at its core — without it, maximizing fundraising success is nearly impossible.

1. Innovation at your fingertips

Fundraising moves fast, and so should your technology. A/B testing allows us to identify and implement innovations faster than traditional development, ensuring nonprofits using Fundraise Up always have access to the latest, most effective fundraising tools.

2. Maximizing fundraising potential

Every test we run is about one thing: helping nonprofits raise more. Here’s how:

Friction-free giving: We fine-tune the donor experience to eliminate roadblocks and make donating effortless.
Higher conversion rates: Every tested improvement is designed to increase donation success.
Revenue optimization: Small tweaks can lead to big gains — our data-driven approach maximizes Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

3. Reduced risk and workload

Running A/B tests in-house takes time, expertise, and resources. But for nonprofits, the bigger challenge is scale: you need a large enough donor base and consistent traffic to generate statistically meaningful results and test with real velocity. It’s a steep hill to climb — especially when your team is focused on delivering impact.

That’s where we come in.

We handle the testing so nonprofits can focus on fundraising instead of experimentation.
Fundraise Up solves the scale challenge by tapping into a much larger donor data pool — built from over 3,500 nonprofit customers and millions of transactions over the past decade — to run meaningful experiments and surface insights that individual organizations couldn’t generate on their own.

By continuously optimizing every part of the giving experience, we take the guesswork out of fundraising so nonprofits can focus on their mission and raise more.

How a good A/B test works

To generate reliable results, an A/B test requires proper setup. Here’s how we ensure every test at Fundraise Up is set up for success:

1. Crafting a clear hypothesis

Every great test starts with a clear, well-defined hypothesis. We identify a specific change that could improve donation conversion rates or another key metric, ensuring it’s grounded in donor behavior and fundraising best practices. For example:

If we move the credit card entry step to the end of the donation flow, conversion rates will increase because users will be more committed to completing all steps before entering their payment details.

This structured approach ensures that every experiment has a purpose, and that purpose is making giving easier.

2. Creating multiple variants

Once we have a hypothesis, we develop multiple test versions with intentional design or functional changes. These may include tweaking the donation flow, adjusting button text, or repositioning key elements. Each variant is tested against a control group (no changes) to determine the most effective version for driving donations.

3. Respecting your existing campaign settings

When conducting tests, we always consider the current settings of each nonprofit organization. This means that elements like minimum donation amounts or required address fields remain unchanged to ensure the test does not interfere with an organization’s existing fundraising strategy. Our tests are designed to enhance, not disrupt, the donor journey.

4. Designing a fair experiment

For results to be trustworthy, the test setup must be rock solid. We ensure fair traffic distribution, typically split 50/50 but sometimes adjusted based on specific needs. Test duration is carefully calculated to reach statistical significance, ensuring decisions are driven by data, not guesswork.

Statistical significance in an A/B test means that the difference in results between version A and version B is unlikely to have happened just by chance. It helps to determine whether one version is truly better than the other based on the data.

To eliminate bias, we use a sophisticated distribution algorithm that assigns users to test groups randomly. This ensures a 0% probability of skewed results.

5. Launching the experiment

Once everything is set, we launch the experiment and collect real-time data on user behavior. We monitor interactions, conversions, and engagement to measure the impact of the proposed changes.

6. Analyzing results and implementing insights

Getting the numbers right is just as important as any other step. Once the test concludes, we dive deep into the results.

We measure more than 20 key metrics, such as Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), conversion rate, average donation amount, and many others. Each of these key metrics is further broken down by factors like operating system, country, and browser, providing a deeper understanding of donor behavior. Additionally, we measure test-specific metrics that are unique to each experiment. In total, every decision we make is based on 100+ indicators, ensuring a comprehensive and data-driven approach to optimizing the donation experience.

Only statistically significant findings drive action, meaning every improvement is backed by real data. If a test delivers better results, we roll out the change across the platform, ensuring all Fundraise Up nonprofits benefit from the latest optimizations.

Safe and secure testing is our priority

Every test we run is designed with security and compliance in mind. We follow strict best practices to protect donor data and ensure a risk-free testing environment.

Risk-mitigation protocols: We handle sensitive tests with extra safeguards to balance innovation with security.
Data protection: Donor privacy and security are never compromised, no matter how advanced the testing methodology.

Real-world results: what we’ve learned from A/B testing

At Fundraise Up, every experiment is backed by data from hundreds of thousands of donations, ensuring that our findings are statistically significant and reliable.

We run over 50 experiments each year, with 2-10 tests running at any given time, depending on their scale.

The examples below represent just a small fraction of our findings: behind the scenes, we are continuously testing, learning, and optimizing to enhance the donation experience and maximize fundraising outcomes.

Through rigorous testing, we’ve pinpointed what truly drives donations and what doesn’t. Here’s what we’ve learned.

What worked: game-changing improvements

Some tests led to breakthroughs in fundraising performance, unlocking new ways for nonprofits to boost donor engagement and increase revenue.

Tribute donations: a small change with a big impact

Simplifying the tribute donation process and repositioning it as a post-donation upsell dramatically increased donor engagement.

Test	Hypothesis	Result
Tribute Checkbox	A simplified tribute option increases donation conversions.	✅ Significant conversion increase and more tribute donors.

Social proof boosts donations

People are more likely to give when they see others doing the same. Enabling a subtle "John just donated!" social proof message increased conversion rates by 3.5%.

Test	Hypothesis	Result
Social Proof Notification	Displaying real-time donation activity increases donor trust and conversion rates.	✅ We compared the social proof element and its absence and observed a +3.5% increase in conversion when it’s switched on.

Removing friction in the checkout process

Sometimes, less is more. We found that requiring a mailing address during checkout hurt conversions, especially on mobile.

Test	Hypothesis	Result
Mailing Address Requirement	Making the mailing address field optional improves donor conversion.	✅ -3.4% drop in conversions when required (higher on mobile: -4.3%).

What didn’t move the needle: tests with no significant impact

Not every test leads to game-changing results. Some ideas seemed promising but didn’t significantly impact donor behavior.

Design tweaks that didn’t influence conversions

Visual elements like color didn’t have the expected effect on donation behavior.

Test	Hypothesis	Result
Checkout Accent Colors	Matching the checkout color to the nonprofit’s branding increases conversions.	❌ No significant increase.

Testing donor-advised funds (DAF) as a payment option

We tested whether adding a DAF payment option directly in Fundraise Up’s checkout would increase donations and improve the donor experience.

Test	Hypothesis	Result
DAF in Checkout	Adding a direct DAF payment option will increase donations by 2-4%.	❌ No meaningful lift observed: DAF donations made up only 0.3% of total donations and 0.55% of revenue, falling short of the 2-4% target.

The results also showed that the DAF payment option had no impact on the overall conversion rate (within the observed confidence interval), meaning these donations were cannibalized from other payment methods.

What this means for nonprofits

By continuously refining the donor experience, Fundraise Up ensures that nonprofits always have access to the most effective fundraising technology. More conversions, more revenue, and less friction — that’s the power of smart, ongoing optimization.

Check our optimizations hub to read about our most-recent tests.

Want a double-digit boost in recurring donations? 2 tests that delivered

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Would you believe you could boost recurring donations by 27% or more with two small tweaks?

If you think this sounds too good to be true, we couldn’t blame you. We didn't believe it, either. But then we ran the tests and crunched the numbers — and then crunched the numbers again.

The results didn't just meet our expectations — they blew past them by 20+ percentage points.

These findings couldn’t be more timely. Recent data shows that overall monthly giving increased by 5% last year, while one-time giving remained flat. That means optimizing for recurring donations is essential for sustainable growth.

The good news: you don’t have to worry about running A/B tests to reap the benefits we’re about to share. We’ve already done the work for you.

27% increase by using AI to suggest default donation frequency

Knowing how important recurring donations are to creating sustainable revenue for nonprofits, we wanted to see how well AI could determine the optimal default frequency settings for individual donors–and if that would boost monthly giving conversions.

What we tested

We enabled AI at the first step of Checkout, using existing donor data to determine whether each donor’s frequency default should be one-time or monthly.

Result

After testing for approximately four weeks with 600,000 visitors, we expected to see an increase of about 4% in monthly giving conversions. We’re happy to say we vastly underestimated the impact. Instead, we saw a 26.76% increase in recurring donation conversion and a 4.12% increase in average revenue per user.

What it means to you

By taking the guesswork out of how to prompt donors, you can have more recurring donors and increase the revenue per supporter, creating more — and more sustainable — revenue.

The power of this AI-driven approach lies in its real-time optimization. Rather than relying on broad assumptions about donor behavior, the system analyzes each individual donor's profile instantly during the donation process to present the most effective default option.

Best of all, if you want to use this tool in Fundraise Up, it's as simple as checking a box to enable it in Checkout. The AI handles the complex decision making automatically, ensuring that donors see the prompt most likely to result in a conversion. For example, a donor wouldn’t be prompted to designate a recurring gift if they’ve entered an amount that’s more consistent with a one-time major gift.

This intelligent approach removes the guesswork from donation optimization, allowing you to focus on your mission while the technology works behind the scenes to maximize both donor satisfaction and recurring revenue.

33% increase by reordering payment steps

The donation checkout process is as utilitarian as it is necessary, but we wondered if small changes to the sequence could make a big difference.

What we tested

Based on patterns we’ve seen in e-commerce, we thought moving payment collection to the end of the interaction could boost recurring donation conversions. Our hypothesis: donors would feel more committed and confident by the time they reached payment, leading to a modest 1% increase in conversions.

Result

After testing for approximately six weeks and 14,000 potential donors, we saw a 33% increase in recurring donation conversions for desktop users. There was also a modest lift of just over 2% in average revenue per user.

What it means to you

By moving payment information to the end of the process, donors can focus on the more emotional aspects of their giving: How much they can give, the purpose those funds will serve (children, health care, etc.), and the eventual impact. Establishing those further commits the donor to the process and means they’re less likely to abandon it.

It also helps establish more trust. If you ask for payment information before they fully understand what they’re supporting, how often they’ll be charged, or even your privacy standards, they’re more likely to hesitate. But when you move payment to the end you build trust. That trust is particularly crucial for recurring donation optimization. No one is going to convert to a monthly donor if they don’t fully trust the organization.

We test so you don’t have to guess

Every update to Checkout is backed by A/B testing across hundreds of thousands of donor sessions, ensuring you get proven strategies that increase conversions, boost revenue, and deliver an exceptional donor experience.

You can see the details of these and other experiments in our A/B testing hub.

The psychological signals that drive 3‑second donor decisions

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 13:00:00 GMT

Web designers have long followed the three-second rule: the idea that people will linger on your site for only three seconds before deciding to stay or go.

But when you start digging into the psychology of attention, it turns out that three seconds is actually a lifetime. The reality is that potential donors are making rapid-fire judgments within milliseconds of landing on your donation page.

Do you know what psychological signals your organization is sending? Here’s how to make the most of those first crucial moments of the donor experience.

0-100 milliseconds: Build immediate visual credibility

During the first 50-100 milliseconds, potential supporters form snap judgments about your website's visual appeal — and it turns out that those judgments are hard to change. Seminal research on attention shows these split-second assessments remain consistent even with longer viewing times, suggesting first visual impressions are lasting.

But here's the catch: if your page doesn't load fast enough, visitors never get the chance to make that visual judgment at all. According to a 2009 Forrester study, 40% of consumers will abandon a website that takes longer than three seconds to load.

To ensure a strong, positive first impression, you need to focus on two things: speed and design.

Ensure lightning-fast load times

Compress images: Reduce image file sizes while maintaining quality using tools like Photoshop, TinyPNG, or other image compression software. Use PNG files for logos with transparency and JPEG files for photographs.

Enable caching: Caching stores frequently accessed data locally so visitors don't need to re-download the same files on repeat visits, improving load times.

Use a CDN provider: A content delivery network (CDN) serves your content from servers closest to your visitors. Providers like Google Cloud CDN, Cloudflare, or AWS CloudFront can significantly improve global load times.

Prioritize clarity in design

Create a professional first impression with clean, accessible design elements:

Use high-contrast color schemes and clear typography
Maintain consistent branding across your page
Display your official nonprofit logo and verified social media icons prominently
On desktop: Focus on balanced white space and logical visual hierarchy
On mobile: Prioritize larger touch targets (minimum 48x48 pixels) and readable font sizes that don't require zooming

200ms-3 seconds: Optimize for focused attention and scanning

Once visitors pass the initial visual appeal test, their eyes begin deliberate examination of your content. Eye-tracking research shows fixations typically last 200-300 milliseconds as users process information. During this phase, page speed and mobile optimization become critical.

Include security signals

Research shows that 85% of people are more likely to complete transactions if a trust badge is included.

State your security compliance directly on your donation page, so supporters are left in no doubt. Look for payment platforms backed by enterprise-grade certifications for security and privacy, including:

Optimize mobile navigation and usability

To eliminate any barriers to giving, optimize your donation page for both desktop and mobile.

That includes having thumb-friendly navigation, with buttons that are easy to access without needing to stretch.

Simplified payment is also important. Offer easy mobile payment methods so people don't need to enter card information manually. Popular payment types include:

Apple Pay
Google Pay
Paypal
Venmo
Bank transfers, including ACH (US), BACS (UK), SEPA (EU), PADs (Canada), BECS (AUS), and iDEAL (NL)
Credit and debit cards
Cryptocurrency

Beyond 3 seconds: Test and optimize the complete experience

Eye-tracking studies reveal that users spend approximately 2.6 seconds scanning a website before focusing on particular sections. During this critical window, they're gathering information to answer: "Where am I? What can I do here? Why should I care?"

Good conversion is an important indicator that your donation page is landing well with your supporters — but there are other feedback metrics you can collect for insight and actionable next steps.

Track donor behavior patterns

Use heat-mapping tools to track where donors first click when visiting your donation page. This helps determine if your current setup aligns with your desired user flow.

Many analytic platforms let you track high-abandonment points on your page. If you see patterns of high abandonment early on in your desired user flow, you likely need to refine your first impression and iron out some friction points.

Gather real-time user feedback

Hold moderated usability sessions to observe people navigating your donation form in real-time. Note any initial reactions, confusion, or emotional responses. Show participants your donation page for just three to five seconds, and ask for their feedback. What do they notice? Is your intention and call to action clear?

Run A/B tests on key elements

Try out different versions of your donation form, changing elements such as images, form optimization, and social proof elements. Measure conversion, bounce rate, and the average time spent on each page. Remember to test drive your digital fundraising software frequently so you can understand where friction might exist. As you do, ask yourself this: Does our donor experience pass the three-second test?

Want to learn more about how to optimize your digital fundraising? Check out our A/B testing hub to find out how to fine-tune your digital donation operations.

From reactive to ready: Lessons from 3 nonprofits that mastered emergency fundraising

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 20:30:00 GMT

What separates nonprofits that raise millions during crises from those that scramble for thousands? It's not budget or team size—though those help. It's having the right systems ready before disaster strikes.

We talked to three nonprofit leaders who transformed their emergency responses from reactive to systematic. Their stories aren't just about raising money fast—they're about turning a crisis situation into sustainable growth that lasts years beyond the headlines.

Creating a first-mover advantage

Organization: International Medical Corps (IMC)

Challenge: Support wildfire victims in Los Angeles as the crisis unfolded just miles from their headquarters

Focus: Multi-channel coordination and segmentation

For IMC, a global humanitarian organization that delivers critical medical care, emergency situations are constant. But some hit closer to home than others.

When Jessica Smit, IMC's Senior Director of Digital Marketing, could see the Los Angeles wildfires from her office window earlier this year, she knew she was witnessing what IMC classifies as a "rapid onset crisis." Unlike hurricanes that may allow for days of preparation, wildfires, earthquakes, and flash floods demand an instant response.

IMC needed to deploy its crisis protocols while keeping an eye on emerging threats to their own physical safety.

The response

In any urgent situation, IMC's goal is to be the very first fundraising message that a potential donor sees. "We wanna be that first person in your inbox, in your text messages, anywhere in your organic social feed,” said Smit.

It’s a strategy that sounds deceptively simple, but there’s a lot preparation involved. Before the wildfires, IMC had already analyzed its existing data. "We'll pull donor data from people who have responded to similar emergencies in the past and do more personalized outreach," Smit said.

Their urgent outreach for the wildfires involved four coordinated tactics:

Updating their website
Sending targeted emails and text messages, including personal outreach to major donors
Launching paid media
Running lead generation

The lead generation approach may seem surprising during a crisis, but Smit noted that a percentage of leads acquired during urgent situations become long-term donors. "Strike while it's hot, because you're gonna get your [lead-gen] list fulfilled right away," she said.

Using the right messaging is key. In rapid-onset situations such as a wildfire, the first message is intentionally simple, with clear language and a striking visual, like a Doppler radar image.

For slower-building crises like hurricanes, IMC prepares in advance. Donation pages, creative assets, and paid media drafts are built and approved ahead of time.

The results

Despite the immediate threat to their headquarters and concerns about potential evacuation, IMC successfully executed their emergency response plan.

Their coordinated approach across multiple channels generated donor engagement from both domestic and international supporters. "The LA fires had tremendous coverage in Europe," Smit notes. "So we were able to raise funds from there, too."

The wildfire response validated their rapid-onset emergency protocol and highlighted the importance of having pre-written templates and established approval processes—infrastructure that proved invaluable when every minute counted and their own operations were under direct threat.

The most important thing is to notify our donors that we're responding, because people oftentimes latch on to that first person who reaches out to them.
–Jessica Smit, Senior Manager of Direct Marketing, International Medical Corps

Building years of growth with same-day response

Organization: International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)

Challenge: Provide support to animal shelters in Ukraine after the country was attacked with zero warning

Focus: Day-of response and timeliness

"You might wonder what war has to do with animals or wildlife. It is a lot, actually," said Anita Yankova, IFAW's Deputy Vice President of Digital Marketing and Fundraising.

So when Russia attacked Ukraine without warning on February 24, 2022, it didn't just create a humanitarian crisis—it sparked an animal welfare situation that most of the world didn't see coming.

Ukraine housed major wildlife reserves, animal shelters, and rescue centers that were suddenly in the path of warfare. Ukrainian citizens fleeing for their lives desperately wanted to bring their beloved pets, but European Union vaccination requirements created seemingly impossible barriers at border crossings. Most shocking of all, Ukraine's extensive illegal big cat breeding operations—housing lions, tigers, and other dangerous animals—left these creatures abandoned in deteriorating facilities as caretakers fled.

For IFAW, a 55-year-old global conservation organization that rescues, cares for, and releases animals back to their natural habitats, Ukraine was familiar territory. The organization had first mobilized there in 2014 when Russia first occupied Crimea.

The response

Before diving into IFAW's Ukraine response, it's important to understand their approach to urgent decision-making. IFAW has a three-tier system for categorizing disasters that determines reponse:

Tier 1 (Large Scale): Catastrophic impact with global media coverage, triggering full campaigns with ground deployment
Tier 2 (Moderate Scale): Regional events with global coverage, such as Los Angeles wildfires
Tier 3 (Small Scale): Limited area impact with local coverage, warranting partner support only

"That tier structure is not set in stone," Yankova noted. "A disaster could become longer than expected. So that's a very fluid situation."

After the Russian attack, IFAW launched their tier one response. Their approach included:

Same-day activation: On February 24th—the day war broke out—IFAW instantly updated their website with videos and communications from their contacts on the ground. "We put an update on our website with those videos, with our concern, with empathy, with anything we had heard from them on the ground," Yankova said.
Immediate communication: The following day, they sent stewardship emails to their donor base—messages that updated supporters on the situation and IFAW's response without making donation requests.
Rapid deployment: Within days, they were sending urgent funding to partner shelters and launching full fundraising drives.
A single source of truth: IFAW established a single URL for ongoing updates, posting over 60 updates over two years to maintain donor engagement and transparency. "We were posting […] on the same web thread. So it's one URL, and you can follow all of those updates that continue for two years on the same place at the website," Yankova said.

The results

IFAW's systematic approach generated remarkable outcomes:

80,000+ new donors acquired during initial response
Millions raised in urgent funding within months
458% revenue growth over five years, largely from disaster initiatives
Top Google search ranking for Ukraine animal rescue terms
Celebrity support from Leonardo DiCaprio and Alicia Silverstone
$200,000 corporate donation from a Japanese pet food company that found IFAW through search
$600,000+ generated from a DailyKos story that mentioned IFAW as a top organization offering support for Ukraine

Immediately post on the website. There is opportunity there. Just do something right away. Timeliness is of the essence.
–Anita Yankova, Deputy Vice President of Digital Marketing and Fundraising, IFAW

Eliminating crisis chaos with a system overhaul

Organization: Union Gospel Mission - Vancouver (UGM)

Challenge: Identify and overcome operational weaknesses

Focus: Building robust preparedness frameworks

UGM Vancouver serves people experiencing homelessness, addiction, and poverty. During their 80-year history, UGM has grown to provide meals, shelter, addiction recovery programs, and supportive housing at 11 locations.

Often, their emergency responses are dictated by weather. "When it snows one inch in Vancouver, that's good for fundraising. When it goes below zero in Vancouver, that's good for fundraising," said Chris Mah, UGM’s Director of Strategy and Marketing.

But the Covid pandemic tested their urgent-response workflows. They quickly discovered that operational challenges they'd grown used to living with became major obstacles under crisis conditions.

"It was an event where we literally didn't know what we didn't know," said Mah. "No one in our lifetime [...] experienced those conditions."

The response

The pandemic forced UGM to address gaps in their workflows and technology. "We did not fully understand our tech stack, and there were so many loose ends and different people using different things [...] we had to consolidate," Mah said.

UGM discovered they were using multiple donation processing platforms, different email systems, and various databases that didn't communicate with each other. When staff needed to work remotely during the pandemic, these remaining disconnected platforms created chaos.

Most critically, their donor data was scattered across different platforms with no way to get a complete picture of their supporters, or to easily handle compliance issues.

Finally, they had to get real about their over-reliance on institutional knowledge. "A lot of the steps we do just live in everyone's heads," said Mah. "And in an event like a pandemic, we realized, oh my goodness, there's so many things happening and most of us don't know what they are."

That prompted the UGM team to create detailed project templates, including:

Team responsibility matrices
Asset checklists
Timeline templates
Approval workflows

The results

UGM's infrastructure investments paid off. Mah recalled how quickly they could pivot when an opportunity arose for an emergency campaign with the Salvation Army. "We threw it together in about a week and a half," he said. The campaign raised $2 million over two weeks.

The partnership highlighted UGM's technical capabilities. While the Salvation Army paid for advertising, UGM handled all the complex backend work, including payment processing, receipts, and website development.

"We've tripled our size in the last decade, raising $30 million," Mah said, crediting their systematic approach to preparedness. UGM’s investment in documenting processes and consolidating technology enabled them to react effectively to multiple crises, from extreme weather events to postal strikes.

Looking back, Mah emphasized the foundational importance of preparation: "If you do that, you'll be in a great position to […] act quickly and react to things with [less] stress."

Understand and scrutinize your strategy, your processes and your technology... you'll be in a great position to be agile.
-Chris Mah, Director of Strategy and Marketing, Union Gospel Mission

What it means to you

If there's one lesson that connects IMC, IFAW, and UGM, it's this: crisis response isn't about reacting faster. It's about being ready before the urgent situation begins.

Here are five strategies you can use to prepare in advance of disasters:

1. Build infrastructure before you need it

Organizations with strong systems in place can launch initiatives in minutes, not days. With roles defined, templates approved, and assets ready to go, you eliminate delays and move fast when it matters most. In practice:

Define roles, tools, and workflows in advance to eliminate delays and keep teams moving during a crisis.
Prepare pre-approved assets and templates so you can launch messaging and donor outreach immediately.
Use donation technology built for speed with instant page creation, flexible goals, and scalable localization.

2. Leverage speed to gain first-mover advantage

In crisis fundraising, speed is often the single biggest differentiator. Teams with a documented process, ready-made content, and frictionless donation experiences can capitalize on moments of urgency while others are still preparing. Specifically:

Prioritize speed to secure early attention and gifts while donor intent is at its peak.
Launch prebuilt efforts across email, social, and paid channels with real-time approvals to maximize reach.
Deliver mobile-friendly, low-friction donation flows to turn urgency into completed gifts on the spot.

3. Coordinate outreach across channels

No single channel is enough in a crisis. The most effective urgent fundraising drives use coordinated website updates, emails, SMS alerts, and paid media to create a unified donor journey. With every touchpoint reinforcing the same urgent message, you can multiply reach, build trust quickly, and convert intent into immediate response. This involves:

Activating donor outreach across all channels from day one to maximize visibility.
Keeping messaging consistent to build urgency and strengthen trust.
Using donation systems that adapt content and asks by channel and device to personalize every interaction.
Coordinating timing and delivery across touchpoints to boost engagement and drive stronger conversion at every stage.

4. Track performance using real-time analytics

Disasters evolve quickly, and so should your strategy. Real-time analytics allow your teams to track performance mid-initiative, identify what's working, and adjust messaging, channels, or audience targeting on the fly. This kind of agility ensures that energy is focused where it will have the most impact while there's still time to make a difference. Specifically:

Set up real-time dashboards to track top-performing channels, assets, and donor behaviors as programs unfold.
Use live data to optimize mid-initiative, doubling down on what works and adjusting quickly to stay on track.
Choose donation technology with embedded analytics to monitor program health and make smart decisions under pressure.

5. Improve future response with post-crisis analysis

Every urgent situation is a learning opportunity. The strongest teams prioritize post-crisis reviews to capture insights, identify gaps, and make improvements before the next event. Whether it's a quick internal debrief or a full program report, documenting what worked (and what didn't) is how you turn each response into a stronger one and build long-term resilience. This involves:

Conducting structured post-program debriefs to document wins, gaps, and process improvements while they're fresh.
Analyzing system data to track retention, second gifts, and donor lifetime value after the crisis.
Building a feedback loop that turns each urgent response into a strategic advantage through continuous improvement.

Start preparing for your next emergency campaign today. Get your emergency fundraising toolkit now.

5 ways to optimize digital fundraising without IT support

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Discover how nonprofits achieved measurable results with these low-effort, high-impact strategies

You need fundraising wins now. But between donor stewardship, board reports, campaign planning, and a dozen other priorities, everything feels urgent. Meanwhile, your board is asking about ROI while donors abandon donation forms that haven't been updated since 2015, and you're still hand-entering event gifts instead of cultivating your next major gift prospect.

The good news is that you can optimize your digital fundraising funnel with just a few clicks, often without any help from IT. Check out these easy-to-use features in Fundraise Up that can help you drive immediate, measurable results.

1. Make checkouts smarter and faster

As you probably know all too well, nonprofit leaders often have limited resources for updating their digital fundraising systems. That’s why so many nonprofit donation pages appear virtually unchanged from a decade ago. They're plagued by excessive form fields, awkward navigation flows, and designs that only work well on desktop computers. Today's donors expect a better experience—and when they don't get it, they simply abandon the donation process.

That’s where Fundraise Up’s Checkout feature comes in. It’s built for modern behavior. Mobile-optimized, frictionless, and smart enough to recommend the right gift amounts and frequency, it’s designed to get donors through the finish line without hesitation.

The Greater Vancouver Food Bank saw the difference right away. After embedding Fundraise Up’s checkout, they saw a 42% lift in donation conversions in just the first month. That kind of change doesn’t require a rebrand or a big campaign. Just better UX, live on day one.

2. Launch high-impact campaigns in minutes

When every minute counts, so does every click. In moments of urgency, you need more than a standard donation form. You need the ability to launch compelling, high-converting campaigns instantly, with messaging and visuals tailored to the moment.

Fundraise Up’s Campaign Pages solution provides a branded, mobile-optimized donation experience that adjusts to the donor’s context. The result is a streamlined, relevant journey that improves conversion and supports immediate action.

The Canadian Red Cross used Fundraise Up’s Campaign Pages to launch an emergency appeal in minutes and raise significant funds within 48 hours. In a separate holiday campaign, the same feature helped them raise $7 million with a 25% conversion rate and an 84% revenue increase, proving how fast, personalized donation pages can drive major impact.

3. Accept donations anywhere with a Virtual Terminal

Fundraising doesn’t only happen on your website. It happens on phone calls with major donors, during telethons, at galas and conferences. If your tools only support online transactions, you’re missing big opportunities.

The Virtual Terminal tool makes it easy for any staff member or volunteer to accept donations on the spot. It’s built directly into your Fundraise Up dashboard, so there’s no need for extra merchant accounts or reconciliation headaches. Just login, enter the gift, and it processes immediately–securely and in sync with your CRM.

Pinky Swear Foundation put it to the test during their annual radiothon. With a mix of online and call-in donors, they needed a flexible tool that could support rapid, high-volume giving. The Virtual Terminal helped them raise over $400K in a single day and made gift processing seamless for their team.

4. Turn one-time donors into recurring supporters

Recurring giving is the lifeblood of sustainable fundraising. But all too often, that option isn’t front and center in the donor experience. Fundraise Up flips that logic with the Recurring Giving feature.

From the moment a donor lands on your checkout page, the platform aims to build a long-term relationship with them. If they give a one-time gift, it offers a well-timed prompt to turn it into a recurring one. These upsells are tested, proven, and ready to go from the moment you launch.

Animal Haven tripled the value of its recurring giving program and increased annual revenue. With the extra help, they can keep ahead of the demand for medical services and the rising costs of care. And thanks to the monthly support of hundreds of donors, Animal Haven now has a strong, predictable source of funding year-round.

5. Get your data when you need it

If you feel like you lack immediate visibility into your digital fundraising performance, you’re not alone. We often hear that fundraising pros have to wait days for reports, can’t access donor data without IT help, or have to piece together insights from multiple exports.

Fundraise Up gives you immediate access to the data that matters. Donation performance, recurring gift trends, mobile versus desktop behavior, and more, with Insights Dashboards anyone can use. You can also sync all the donation and supporter data with any other external tool, like your CRM or BI, through powerful native integrations, exports, or APIs.

Salvation Army UK had a goal of accessing clear, actionable data insights to inform fundraising strategies and make data-driven decisions. After launching with Fundraise Up, they gained instant visibility into all their fundraising data, giving them the insights they needed to optimize their strategies. Salvation Army UK achieved an incredible 49% donor conversion rate, far exceeding the industry standard of 11%.

Ready to see more impact from your digital fundraising? Book a demo today, and we’ll show you how fast smart fundraising can move.

The secret to fundraising for international aid: boosting global donor engagement

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Fundraising for international aid and global relief is a complex endeavor. Nonprofits operating across borders face the challenge of connecting with donors from diverse cultures, each with unique values, economic realities, and expectations.

To succeed, it’s not enough to simply ask for support — nonprofits must engage donors on a deeper level, building trust and fostering connections that transcend geographic boundaries.

So, what’s the secret to unlocking this donor engagement in global fundraising? We’re revealing the hidden strategies you can use to connect with global audiences, broaden your impact, and sustain org’s your vital work.

Understanding the importance of localization in global fundraising

We all know that effective international fundraising demands a thorough understanding of the cultural and regional nuances that influence donor behavior. A one-size-fits-all approach just doesn’t work; what resonates with donors in one region might fall flat in another. To succeed, nonprofits must tailor their strategies to engage meaningfully with the diverse audiences they serve.

The team at Fundraise Up is a huge reason for our success. We weren’t just sold a product — it was the product along with a partner that helped us choose the best strategy for MAP International. — Janice Bryant, Senior Director, Marketing and Communications, MAP International

➡️ Read MAP International's success story with Fundraise Up

Effectively engaging global donors requires localized experiences. Localization isn’t just about translating language; it’s about adapting every aspect of the donor experience to reflect their customs, traditions, and financial practices. This approach shows donors that their contributions are valued and understood within their own cultural framework, which is vital for building lasting connections.

By tailoring campaigns to the specific cultural and economic contexts of each region, nonprofits can do more than just raise funds — they can build trust and establish long-term relationships with donors.

A four-part strategy: global fundraising for international aid

Successful international fundraising relies on a thoughtful, strategic approach that speaks directly to the diverse global donor base. By focusing on four key areas, you can drive engagement and maximize contributions.

1. Customizing language and dialect for donor engagement

Connecting with donor audiences using local languages and dialects is a vital strategy in international fundraising. Effective localization involves adapting messaging to reflect cultural nuances, idioms, and preferences, ensuring the message resonates authentically within each target group's cultural context.

Why it matters

Language is a powerful tool for building connections in international fundraising. Donors are more likely to engage when addressed in their native language or dialect, fostering a sense of familiarity and trust. For example, we offer both Canadian English and Canadian French languages for our neighbors to the north. Rather than defaulting to American English, it’s critical to go that extra mile to enhance donors’ connection to the cause.

Features loved by Canadian nonprofits: Our suite of Canada-specific features are designed to address regional needs.

Customizing language shows cultural understanding and respect, deepening the relationship between donors and the nonprofit. This personalization not only increases the likelihood of donations but also enhances donor loyalty, ultimately boosting the effectiveness of fundraising campaigns.

How to do it

Nonprofits should research the full range of linguistic and dialect variations in their target regions. Localization involves not just translating text but also adapting it to reflect local idioms, cultural references, and tone. Working with native-speaking translators can help capture these nuances and make communication more engaging.

We simplify this process with comprehensive language customization features. Our platform supports 22+ languages and dialects, so nonprofits can cater their messaging to different cultures. A fully-localized, highly-accurate experience ensures that every communication feels personal and resonates deeply with donors, no matter where they are.

2. Adapting to regional payment methods and currencies

Payment methods and currencies are critical components of successful international fundraising. Since different regions have varying payment preferences and capabilities, nonprofits must offer multiple options to accommodate these differences and make it easier for donors to contribute.

Why it matters

Flexible payment options help donors feel confident and comfortable during the transaction process. Offering a variety of payment options tailored to regional preferences makes it easier for donors to give, which increases the chances of completed donations. For instance, accepting iDEAL in the Netherlands makes donations more accessible to Dutch donors.

Payment flexibility demonstrates inclusivity and an understanding of different financial situations, building trust and encouraging more frequent and generous contributions. By adapting to local payment practices, nonprofits can significantly enhance donor engagement and campaign success.

How to do it

To effectively implement this strategy, nonprofits should identify the payment preferences of each target region. In addition to standard payment options like credit cards, consider regional options like PADs in Canada. Giving donors the choice of contributing in their native currency further simplifies the process.

Fundraise Up supports this approach with a wide range of payment options and country-specific features, allowing nonprofits to adapt to local practices. The platform enables donations in over 135 currencies, including cryptocurrency, and suggests amounts based on local purchasing power. These features enhance donor satisfaction, streamline transactions, and maximize global fundraising potential.

Varied payment methods improve conversion rates. When PayPal is enabled, our nonprofit customers see up to 19% in conversion lift.

3. Tailoring landing pages for global audiences

Designing landing pages that resonate with diverse donor audiences is also critical to effective international fundraising. These pages must be both visually appealing and culturally relevant to engage potential donors and convert them into contributors.

Why it matters

Landing pages are a critical touchpoint when fundraising for international aid and may influence donors' decisions to contribute. To establish a positive connection with donors, symbols, colors, and language must be culturally appropriate — otherwise, they may backfire. For example, in China, the color red symbolizes luck, happiness, and prosperity, but in many Western cultures, it conveys danger or warning.

Showcasing this social awareness and sensitivity can deepen connections, build trust, and encourage donors to take action. An appealing landing page can ultimately yield a higher conversion rate, resulting in more successful campaigns.

When tragic wildfires struck Alberta, the Canadian Red Cross had to respond quickly. We leaned on our strong processes and documentation, alongside Fundraise Up’s Campaign Pages and Elements. The outcome was a record time launch for the 2024 Alberta Wildfires Appeal — and, most importantly, more resources made available quicker for our frontline teams and people needing support on the ground. — Jessica Bernat, Director of Digital Marketing, Canadian Red Cross

➡️ Read Canadian Red Cross’ success story with Fundraise Up

How to do it

When designing campaign landing pages, nonprofits should ensure that visual elements align with the cultural values of their target audience. Including regionally relevant images, videos, and impact descriptions that connect donors to your cause can further strengthen the connection with potential donors.

Fundraise Up offers customizable Campaign Pages that make it easy to provide international donors with a personalized experience. These turnkey donation pages allow nonprofits to reach diverse audiences with customized language, payment methods, and currencies, ensuring that every campaign is both culturally relevant and effective.

4. Ensuring compliance and data security for donor trust

Ensuring data security and compliance with regional regulations is crucial in international fundraising. Nonprofits must protect donor information by adhering to data protection standards and maintaining secure transactions to build and preserve donor trust.

Why it matters

Trust is a critical component of international fundraising, and concerns about data security can undermine it quickly. Donors need to feel confident that their personal and financial information is safe and that an organization complies with local regulations. For example, being compliant with GDPR in the EU is crucial for building trust with European donors.

A breach of data security can lead to lost donations and long-term reputational damage, jeopardizing future fundraising efforts. Nonprofits that prioritize data security and compliance show their commitment to protecting donor information, providing ongoing support, and fostering long-term relationships.

How to do it

Nonprofits must implement robust data security measures that align with regional regulations, such as GDPR in the EU and PIPEDA in Canada. Clearly communicating these measures to donors will reinforce transparency and credibility. Regular security audits and advanced fraud protection are also crucial for protecting donor information and maintaining donor confidence.

Fundraise Up supports this strategy with comprehensive security tools and compliance features that safeguard donor data to the highest standards. With certifications like ISO 27001 and PCI DSS Level 1, the platform ensures that organizations can manage sensitive information securely, maintaining the trust essential for successful international fundraising.

Leveraging Fundraise Up’s global fundraising features

Fundraising for international aid involves more than increasing donations — it requires building deep connections that lead to lasting donor loyalty and greater impact. Fundraise Up’s global fundraising tools, including multi-currency payments, language customization, and localized donation forms, empower nonprofits to engage donors worldwide effectively. With AI-driven insights, robust fraud protection, and top-tier data security, Fundraise Up helps nonprofits streamline their efforts and maximize results.

Ready to elevate your international fundraising? Schedule a demo to see how Fundraise Up unlocks generosity around the globe.

How region-specific requirements shape the donation experience

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Fundraising beyond borders is full of possibility, but also full of rules. From privacy regulations to tax requirements, every country adds its own layer of complexity to the donation process. And while these rules can feel like barriers, they’re actually opportunities to build trust and improve donor experience.

At Fundraise Up, we help nonprofits meet these region-specific requirements automatically, so you don’t have to worry about technical setup, legal risk, or donor confusion. Here’s how it works, and why it matters.

Protecting donor privacy, wherever they give

Whether your supporters are in the EU, Canada, or anywhere else, laws like GDPR, PIPEDA, and Quebec’s Law 25 set the standard for how you collect, store, and manage donor data.

With Fundraise Up, you get:

Built-in tools to collect and manage donor consent
Controls to support data access, correction, and deletion requests
Secure data infrastructure that respects donor rights and expectations

Why it matters: Donor trust starts with privacy. When people feel their information is respected, they’re more likely to give and come back again.

In the UK? Gift Aid is a must

Gift Aid allows UK nonprofits to claim an extra 25% on eligible donations. It’s an incredible benefit, but only if you ask for it the right way.

With Fundraise Up, Gift Aid is built in:

Forms prompt for a compliant declaration and required details
Field labels and logic are tailored to UK standards

Why it matters: Every missed Gift Aid opt-in is money left on the table. We help ensure you’re not missing out.

For Canadian donors

Canadian organizations are required to issue donation receipts that meet the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) standards, and those receipts must be bilingual.

Fundraise Up supports this by:

Generating CRA-compliant sequential donation receipts with donor name, amount, and registration number
Automatically localizing receipts into Canadian English and Canadian French

Why it matters: Language is trust. Bilingual communication ensures every donor feels seen and supported, especially in provinces like Québec where French is the primary language.

Familiar forms create smoother experiences

It may seem small, but even the order of address fields or the label of a ZIP code can create confusion if it doesn’t match a donor’s local format. That’s why Fundraise Up automatically adjusts donation forms based on location.

This includes:

Showing country-specific labels (e.g., postal code vs. ZIP, province vs. state)
Matching the field order to regional expectations—for example,
- In the US, forms start specific (street address) and get broader (ZIP, state)
- In the UK, it’s the reverse, starting with the general and narrowing down

Why it matters: When donation forms feel familiar, donors complete them faster and with fewer errors. That leads to fewer drop-offs and more gifts.

Want to see everything Fundraise Up supports? Explore all region-specific features →

Real results: The Salvation Army UK

The Salvation Army UK, one of the country’s largest faith-based charities, turned to Fundraise Up to help modernize its digital donor experience, while staying fully compliant with UK regulations like Gift Aid and GDPR.

After adopting Fundraise Up’s platform, they saw:

49% average conversion rate, smashing the sector average of 11%
Up to 75% conversion during peak campaigns
Gift Aid opt-ins increased from 66% to 74.5%

They also deployed crisis campaigns in record time: just 10 minutes to launch a localized Ukraine relief effort with the right payment methods, currencies, and languages.

“We’ve seen a noticeable difference in new recruits with Fundraise Up — those who might not have donated on our previous platform because the donation experience wasn't as good. We're seeing a real impact and a lot of good feedback from the donors about how easy it is.” — Emily Casson, Head of Digital

Read the case study →

Compliance without complexity

At Fundraise Up, we believe nonprofits shouldn’t have to choose between meeting regulations and delivering a great donor experience. We’ve made it simple to do both.

Whether you're fundraising in Europe, Canada, the US, Australia (or all of the above), we’ll help you stay compliant, look professional, and give your donors the clarity they need to give with confidence.

Part of a fully localized experience

Compliance is one part of a broader localization strategy. To build a truly global giving experience, it’s important to also consider:

The missing link in your donation form: local payments and currency

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Your donor is ready to give. They’ve clicked through your campaign, read your mission, and landed on your donation form. But when they’re met with an unfamiliar currency or payment method, they hesitate. And just like that, the gift is lost.

It’s not that they didn’t care. It’s that the experience wasn’t built for them.

Why payment localization matters

Imagine a donor based in the Netherlands ready to support your cause. They click “Donate” and land on a form in U.S. dollars, with no option for iDEAL, their most common way to pay online.

They pause.

How much is that in euros?
Will there be hidden fees?
Why can’t I use the method I trust?

That moment of friction is all it takes for a donor to bounce. They still want to support you, but they think, “I’ll do it later.” And as we all know, later never comes.

But that scenario is avoidable.

Nonprofits that embrace localized payment methods and currencies remove these doubts, reduce friction, and build trust, leading to more gifts and stronger donor relationships.

The data is clear

Online donors expect the same comfortable experience they get from e-commerce. And when they don’t see familiar options, they walk away.

Here’s what the data tells us:

13% of donors abandon the checkout when their preferred payment method isn’t available (PayPal, 2024).
Adding local payment methods can result in a 46% lift in conversion (Stripe).
Bank debit options like ACH Direct Debit in the US and Bacs Direct Debit in the UK bring entirely new donors to the table, donors who wouldn’t give otherwise (Stripe).

Here are some specific examples of how localized options impact conversion, according to Stripe:

Local payment method	Conversion lift
iDEAL (Netherlands)	+39%
PayPal (Germany)	+47%
SEPA Direct Debit	+12%

What we’ve seen at Fundraise Up

At Fundraise Up, we analyzed donation data across thousands of nonprofit campaigns. Here's what we found:

In Australia, nearly 30% of donations come through PayPal, more than any other country.
4% of donors in the UK and Australia opt to give in a non-default currency when given the choice.

Want more insights? Download the full Pulse of the Donor report for region-specific data and trends.

How Fundraise Up makes it easy

We’ve designed our platform to help nonprofits offer a frictionless, localized giving experience without the complexity. Here’s how:

135+ currencies supported
Dozens of global payment options, including:
- Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo
- PayPal, cryptocurrency
- ACH (US), PAD (Canada), SEPA & iDEAL (Europe), BECS (Australia)
Smart Checkout that automatically prioritizes the most relevant payment methods and currency for each donor, while still giving them the option to choose others if preferred.

We’ve seen it time and again: when donors see their currency and preferred payment method, they give more and give again. That’s why nonprofits using Fundraise Up consistently outperform industry benchmarks.

Metric	Industry average	Fundraise Up customers
Conversion rate (click-to-donate)	11%	28%
Average one-time donation	$126	$169
Average monthly donation	$24	$32

Real results: Canadian Red Cross

The Canadian Red Cross (CRC) partnered with Fundraise Up to modernize its donor experience, starting with payment flexibility.

And with support for 20+ languages and 135+ currencies, Fundraise Up gave CRC the global reach and localization needed to engage international and multilingual donors.

The impact:

24% increase in monthly donor revenue and a 51% increase in new monthly donors year-over-year.
$2.3M CAD in new revenue from digital wallets: Adding Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PADs in Canada made giving easier and more accessible.
99% of existing monthly donors retained during the platform migration.

CRC also enabled multilingual donation flows for Canada’s French-speaking population and strengthened fraud protection using Stripe Radar, resulting in a 40%+ decrease in chargebacks.

“Finding the right, modern, user-friendly donor platform was mission-critical to our future. I can’t speak more highly of Fundraise Up and its team.” — Jessica Bernat, Director of Digital Marketing, Canadian Red Cross

Read the full case study →

Friction-free giving, from anywhere

When donors see their currency and the payment methods they know and trust, they’re more likely to give, and to keep giving. Fundraise Up helps nonprofits remove technical barriers and build trust at checkout, all without adding operational complexity.

Localized payments and currencies are foundational. But creating a truly local donor experience also means speaking the right language and meeting region-specific regulations.

Explore the rest of our localization series to discover how to build donor trust and increase giving at every step:

Drive donations with multilingual giving experiences →

Meeting region-specific compliance requirements →

Make every donor feel at home: the power of multilingual giving experience

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Fundraising today knows no borders. Whether your supporters are based in Berlin or Buenos Aires, they come to your website with one simple intent: to give.

But too often, their journey stops short, simply because the giving experience isn’t built in a language they’re fully comfortable with.

That’s where multilingual support becomes more than a nice-to-have. It removes friction. And friction, even small, can interrupt the giving impulse.

When donors can give in their own language, it’s smoother, faster, and more intuitive. It signals respect and builds confidence in the choice to support your mission.

Which fundraising software is best for international NGOs?

Fundraise Up is built for international NGOs, supporting fundraising from any country with 135+ currencies, 25 language localizations, and country-specific payment methods. Donors give in their own language and currency through a localized, conversion-optimized checkout, while NGOs manage recurring giving, designations, and CRM sync from one platform.

This multi-country experience helps global organizations like UNICEF USA reduce friction and grow cross-border revenue.

Which platforms offer the best donor experience for nonprofits?

The best donor experience platforms for nonprofits combine mobile-first checkout, personalized AI, localized language support, and modern payment methods into a single frictionless giving flow.

Fundraise Up delivers all four: its conversion-optimized checkout supports 23 professionally translated languages, 135+ currencies, and country-specific payment methods, while AI personalizes suggested amounts and recurring-gift prompts for each donor in real time. With express checkout via Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal, donors complete gifts in under 2.5 minutes.

The result is a giving experience that feels local and intuitive regardless of device, language, or location.

Why language localization matters

Many nonprofits operate in linguistically diverse regions or receive donations from international supporters. But offering English-only donation forms can unintentionally exclude potential donors, especially when giving involves sensitive personal and financial information.

Language barriers don’t just lead to confusion. They create hesitation, and hesitation leads to drop-off.

Behavioral insight: Stripe calls this hesitation the “immediate disconnect” — that moment when a French-speaking donor, for example, encounters an English-only checkout and starts to second-guess their decision. Untranslated field labels, unexpected date formats, or error messages in another language introduce doubt at the exact moment when clarity matters most. On the flip side, when the experience feels local, right down to address formatting and cultural norms, donors are far more likely to follow through.

In a nutshell, when donors understand every step of the process, they're more likely to complete their gift, return to give again, and build a deeper relationship with your cause.

The data tells a clear story

In partnership with Stripe, Fundraise Up analyzed thousands of global nonprofit campaigns. Here’s what we found:

International giving is growing. In countries like the UK and Australia, 5–7% of donations come from outside the country. That figure is 2–3% in the United States and Canada. These gifts rely on language accessibility.

Moreover, our own research reveals the following trends:

While English remains the most-used language across Fundraise Up campaigns, there are significant pockets of donors that prefer European languages like German and French.
In Canada, 1 in 5 donors uses Canadian French as their primary language, overlooking this audience means introducing friction for 20% of supporters.

What multilingual giving looks like in practice

Multilingual support means more than translating a headline or CTA. It’s about delivering a complete, consistent experience from start to finish.

Fundraise Up supports 23 professionally translated languages across:

Website Elements like donation buttons and banners
Checkout Modal and Campaign Pages
Donor Portal for managing recurring gifts
Email confirmations and receipts

Every translation is crafted by native speakers, not machines, because tone, clarity, and context matter.

We also support:

Regional language variants, like:
- Canadian French vs. European French
- Brazilian Portuguese vs. European Portuguese
- U.S. Spanish (based on Latin American Spanish) vs. European Spanish
Different dialects reflect different donor communities. Offering the right version helps you connect more personally and reduce friction.

European Portuguese vs. Brazilian Portuguese

All six UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish
These are spoken by over 2.8 billion people, and supporting them is essential to any global strategy.

Character-based languages like Chinese (both Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, and Korean
Not all platforms support these languages well. Fonts, line spacing, and formatting need to be optimized to ensure legibility and consistency.

Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum is using localization for the Japanese version of its website.

Right-to-left (RTL) layouts, like Arabic
Most platforms skip RTL support because it’s technically complex. We didn’t.
Supporting right-to-left languages like Arabic requires more than just flipping layouts. It means rethinking the entire interface. Arabic poses unique challenges: text flows right to left, but numbers still read left to right. Abbreviations, common in English, are rarely used, which makes fitting information into small UI elements like buttons or form fields even harder. We solved all of that.
By studying regional leaders like Qatar Airways and Emirates — widely trusted services with large local audiences — we developed mirrored layouts, RTL-native UI components, culturally appropriate spacing, and locale-specific logic to ensure the experience feels intuitive.

We invest heavily in thoughtful language localization because we believe great donor experiences matter.

As our Head of Design says:

For someone making a donation, the journey should feel like a water slide—smooth, fast, and free of obstacles. Everything should guide them forward, not slow them down.

How it works (and how easy it is)

Fundraise Up makes localization powerful, yet incredibly simple. From your organization’s settings, you can enable supporter-facing languages in just a few clicks. Check the boxes, set your defaults, and you’re ready to go.

You choose which languages to enable, and we take care of the rest. From smart language detection via browser or URL, to correctly formatted dates and addresses, everything is handled automatically.

Localization settings are flexible: apply them across your entire organization, tailor them by campaign, or even customize individual website Elements to meet supporters where they are.

We’re always expanding our language support, so you can connect with more donors worldwide.

A real-world example: Canadian Red Cross

The Canadian Red Cross (CRC) set out to modernize its donor experience and knew localization would be a critical part of the transformation. With supporters across Canada, bilingual fundraising wasn’t optional. They needed a platform that could speak to donors in both Canadian English and Canadian French, meet strict privacy standards, and scale fast.

With Fundraise Up, CRC:

Nearly doubled its year-end fundraising, from $3.8M to $7M
Enabled fully bilingual donation flows and receipts, in compliance with CRA standards
Streamlined compliance with PIPEDA and Quebec’s Law 25, ensuring donor trust
Achieved a 25% click-to-donate conversion rate on Fundraise Up-powered Campaign pages

Finding the right, modern, user-friendly donor platform was mission-critical to our future. I can’t speak more highly of Fundraise Up and its team. — Jessica Bernat, Director of Digital Marketing, Canadian Red Cross

Read the case study →

Thoughtful language support, made simple

You don’t need a dev team or an expensive localization vendor. With Fundraise Up, offering multilingual donation experiences is intuitive and turnkey. And adding a new language is as easy as checking a box.

From browser-based language detection to native-formatted addresses and RTL layouts, every detail is designed to reduce friction and foster connection, because when donors feel understood, they give with confidence.

Learn more about the full localization experience

Language is just one part of creating a truly local giving experience. To fully meet donors where they are, it’s important to consider payment and currency preferences as well as regional regulations.

Discover more localization features for global fundraising →

The redesigned Donor Portal — a smarter, simpler giving experience

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Donors want simplicity, transparency, and control. Your nonprofit needs efficient tools to keep donors and grow, without extra admin work.

The refreshed Donor Portal delivers all of this. It's a sleek, intuitive dashboard where donors can easily manage their giving while reducing your team's workload.

77% of all recurring donation upgrades happen directly through the Donor Portal, making it a primary driver of revenue growth.

What it is and why you’ll love it

The Donor Portal is a self-service donor dashboard where donors can manage everything about their donations in one place. Donors can easily view their donation history, download their receipts, and make changes to their recurring donations whenever they want.

Benefits for you and your donors

This helps solve two big challenges: keeping donors engaged and reducing staff workload. Instead of contacting your team for help, donors can now handle everything themselves - from changing payment details to adjusting donation amounts or downloading tax receipts.

Ready to use

The best part? The Donor Portal is ready to use right out of the box with Fundraise Up with no development or hidden fees. It’s reliable, secure, and designed to grow with your support base.

One of the main benefits we’ve experienced since moving our recurring donations to Fundraise Up is a reduction in the number of people reaching out for support since they can use the Donor Portal. — Brian Phair, Director, Donor Relations, Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance

Here’s what’s new — inside the updated portal

Personalized, streamlined home

Supporters land on a home page that feels more personal and intuitive. The new sidebar keeps key features within easy reach, making navigation a breeze. A larger, more flexible hero image allows your organization to vividly showcase your mission and programs.

Try it out: Explore the Donor Portal demo

Simpler, actionable subscription management

Managing recurring gifts is more intuitive than ever. Donors can easily edit, resume, upgrade, or reactivate their subscriptions—all from a single, streamlined interface.

1 in 3 donors increase their recurring donations with upgrade prompts

Fundraiser tools that drive engagement

Supporters now see richer, more visually appealing fundraiser views. Card-style details make information clearer, and sharing options are just a tap away—making it simple for your supporters to spread the word and help your campaigns reach more people, faster.

Instant access to donation history

No more digging through cluttered pages for receipts. The new “Show all donations” link makes it simple for supporters to view their entire giving history with one click—saving time and support requests.

Proactive, transparent gift statuses

Supporters see what they need to know, right away. When a payment issue occurs, action buttons like “Retry” or “Resume” appear instantly, enabling supporters to resolve problems themselves.

What’s next

Your success depends on strong, loyal supporters. Give them a platform that matches their commitment—and watch your organization thrive.

See how Donor Portal can level up your fundraising: explore the docs or talk to our team.

Fundraise Up + Zapier

Wed, 28 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Work smarter with connected nonprofit tools: Fundraise Up + Zapier

Most nonprofit teams use multiple digital tools to manage donor data, but these tools often don’t work together seamlessly. By connecting Fundraise Up with your team’s daily apps through Zapier’s automated workflows (called "Zaps"), you can save time on repetitive tasks like sending thank-you emails and updating donor records. There’s no need for developers — Zapier connects your essential tools without requiring technical knowledge, helping your team create automated workflows so they can focus on more impactful work.

Read on to discover how your team can start automating today.

Simplify your nonprofit’s daily tasks with Zapier

Think of Zapier as your digital assistant that helps connect all your tools and automates repetitive tasks. Instead of manually copying information between apps or updating your donor database, Zapier does it all for you automatically. This frees up your team to focus on what really matters —building stronger relationships with donors and working on bigger strategic projects.

Connect your favorite apps

Understanding Zapier basics

Zapier works with over 8,000 popular nonprofit tools like Mailchimp, HubSpot, Quickbooks, and more. The best part? You don’t need any technical expertise to set it up.

How Zaps work

First, there’s a trigger — something that happens in your donor journey. For example, when a supporter makes a donation (this is the when)
Then comes the action — what you want to happen next. For example, sending that donor a heartfelt thank-you email (this is the do)

You’re now ready to use Zaps: when something happens, Zapier will automatically do what you've asked it to do.

Let’s explore each component in detail:

Trigger

A trigger is the event that starts your automation workflow. You can customize triggers to match your fundraising processes and donor journey.

For example: When a new donor makes their first contribution, Zapier springs into action. It automatically collects the donor’s details from Fundraise Up and sends a welcome email through your email service, such as MailChimp or ActiveCampaign. This ensures every new donor receives a timely welcome.

Action

An action is what happens after a trigger occurs. For example, when your automation detects a new donation, it can send a welcome email through your marketing platform (e.g. HubSpot or MailChimp) using a specific template. The action works with the donor information that the Fundraise Up trigger collected.

Zap

A Zap is an automated workflow that connects a trigger with one or more actions to perform tasks across multiple applications.

5 popular apps to connect with Fundraise Up through Zapier

HubSpot for donor management

HubSpot helps you manage donor relationships effectively. Save time and reduce manual errors by automating donor-related tasks, and keep your records up-to-date by connecting HubSpot and Fundraise Up.

Benefits include

Real-time donor follow-up and engagement triggered by specific events
Smart outreach timing based on comprehensive donor history
Targeted communications using segmented data and filtered donor groups

Zap idea: When someone makes their first donation through Fundraise Up, automatically send them a welcome email through HubSpot.

Zap idea: When a donor upgrades from a one-time gift to a recurring donation, automatically update their HubSpot record and send them a thank you email.

QuickBooks Online for accounting

QuickBooks is accounting software that streamlines financial tracking for nonprofits. When you connect QuickBooks Online and Fundraise Up, you can automatically sync transactions and donations in real time. This makes your financial tracking easier and saves you from having to check everything by hand.

Benefits include

Automated tracking of donations, expenses, receipts, and bank transactions
Streamlined bill management for timely payments
Comprehensive capture of all eligible tax deductions

Zap idea: When a new supporter donates to your Fundraise Up campaign, create a new customer record in QuickBooks.

Slack for productivity

Slack is a messaging app that helps teams stay connected and share key information. When you connect Fundraise Up to Slack, teams can instantly communicate about donations, campaigns, and other important activities.

Benefits include

Real-time notifications in dedicated Slack channels for new donations
Immediate team alerts for large donations, enabling prompt celebration and follow-up
Automatic notifications when campaigns reach milestones or fundraising goals, allowing teams to celebrate achievements and plan next steps together

Zap idea: When a supporter donates a major gift, send a notification to my #major-donors Slack channel.

Mailchimp for email

Mailchimp is a marketing and email automation platform that helps you communicate with donors through email, social media, and landing pages. Save time and improve data accuracy by having Zaps automatically sync your new donors from Fundraise Up to your existing Mailchimp campaigns.

Benefits include

Automatically segment donors based on giving patterns and engagement levels
Track donor interactions and history in one central location
Identify cancellation trends, address donor concerns proactively, and develop targeted retention strategies based on direct feedback

Zap idea: When donors update their recurring plan by increasing their donation amount, automatically enroll them in a MailChimp nurture flow to celebrate their increased support.

Zap idea: When a supporter decides to cancel their plan, send them a quick "Why are you canceling?" question to better understand your donors’ cancellation reasons.

Airtable for productivity

Airtable is an app that helps nonprofits manage marketing, operations, and data across teams. Save time and streamline your data management by connecting Fundraise Up with Airtable through Zapier to create a centralized hub where teams can track, analyze, and act on donation data instantly.

Benefits include

Track large donations in real time through instant notifications
Build automated workflows that trigger tasks based on donation activity
Create automated reports to monitor campaign performance and guide decision-making

Zap idea: When a supporter makes a large gift, create a task in Airtable prompting your Major Gift Officer to send a personalized, high-touch message.

Looking ahead

By connecting your tools with Fundraise Up through Zapier, you’ll discover new automation opportunities, from automated donor journeys to cross-platform data syncing. As you explore different app connections, you’ll find innovative ways to engage donors, track impact, and scale your mission efficiently without expanding your team.

Fundraisers, leveled up: explore scalable tools to grow your mission

Thu, 15 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Peer-to-peer fundraising continues to be a powerful way for nonprofits to grow support and revenue by turning donors into champions. At Fundraise Up, we believe giving supporters the tools to fundraise should be easy, fast, and cost-free.

With Fundraisers, our community-driven giving tool, your donors can launch personalized fundraising pages in minutes. This helps your mission go further through the power of their networks. It’s simple to set up and optimized to convert.

The peer-to-peer program was almost so easy to use that I felt like I was missing something. The program is a really great way to give people the ability to take ownership over their own fundraising. — Brieanne Repp, School Program & External Events Manager at Bringing Hope Home

Now, we’re building on that foundation, introducing new tools for nonprofits that need more flexibility and scale.

Turn your supporters into fundraisers in minutes.

Fundraisers: built for modern, community-driven giving

Fundraisers helps nonprofits expand their reach by giving supporters the tools to fundraise on their behalf. Here’s how it works:

Add customizable Fundraisers Elements to your website to encourage supporters to start their own fundraising campaigns.
Supporters can then launch personalized fundraising pages in seconds, adding photos, stories, and campaign goals with no technical skills required.
Once the campaign is live, fundraisers can track progress, update content, and manage their pages in real time through the Donor Portal.
With optimized Checkout and Campaign Pages, every donation flow is designed to convert and maximize the impact of each Fundraiser.

Your community gets a frictionless way to share their passion. You get a scalable, efficient way to grow giving without adding operational complexity.

See Fundraisers in action

What’s new: more flexibility, greater scale

Nonprofits told us they loved Fundraisers but needed more control, especially when managing high-volume or team-led campaigns. We have listened and delivered major updates to meet that need.

Sharper storytelling and better visuals

Descriptions now support up to 280 characters
High-resolution images (1248×702 px) make fundraiser pages more visually compelling

With these upgrades, fundraisers have more space to tell their stories and donors more reasons to give.

API-powered scale

You can now create, update, and manage Fundraisers through our REST API. This means your team doesn’t have to manually set up each page.

With this update, you can:

Launch hundreds or thousands of Fundraisers at once
Automatically populate each page with custom content
Plug Fundraisers into your existing systems and workflows

This shift transforms Fundraisers from a tool for supporter-led campaigns into a powerful platform for enterprise-scale fundraising.

New use cases unlocked

These updates open up entirely new possibilities. For example:

Missionary fundraising at scale. Faith-based nonprofits often need personalized fundraising pages for each mission unit or staff member. With Fundraisers API access, these organizations can auto-generate and manage such pages from their CRM or other systems without manual work.

More scale, more stories, less admin

This is more than a product update. It’s a redefinition of what Fundraisers can be:

A simple tool for individual supporters
A storytelling engine for large teams
A scalable system for mission-critical fundraising at any volume

Whether you're launching a single grassroots campaign or managing thousands of pages, Fundraisers works harder for you with less admin and more meaningful donor engagement.

What’s next

This update is about giving you more control, reducing overhead, and raising more to power your mission.

And we’re just getting started.

See how Fundraisers can level up your fundraising: explore the docs or talk to our team.

What hyper-personalization really means for nonprofits

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 18:00:00 GMT

Let’s be honest. In the nonprofit world, personalization is often treated like a buzzword. Adding someone’s first name to an email or sending the same appeal to your entire list isn’t personalization. It’s a digital courtesy. And donors can tell the difference.

Real personalization takes curiosity. It means understanding what drives your supporters and responding based on how they actually engage with your organization. Hyper-personalization takes things further, using behavior, preferences, and giving patterns to shape more timely, relevant experiences.

That might sound like something only major brands or big tech companies can pull off. But the truth is, it can be as simple as tailoring a thank-you based on the campaign a donor supported or inviting them to an event in their local community. It’s about meaningful intent.

So why aren’t more nonprofits doing this? Two reasons: the assumption that personalization is too resource-intensive and the concern that treating donors differently might feel too invasive. But ignoring donor behavior sends a different message, one that says we’re not really paying attention.

Done right, personalization isn’t a gimmick. It’s a sign of respect. And for organizations that claim to build community, listening and responding is one of the most authentic ways to show it.

You probably already have the data (just haven’t activated it)

You don’t need a team of data scientists or a next-gen CRM to get started. Most nonprofits already have the essential data: donation history, event registrations, email activity, and survey feedback. The issue isn’t access. It’s action. Start by looking at what’s already in front of you:

Giving history — Not just how much, but when, how often, and to which campaigns.
Campaign engagement — What causes spark action? What gets ignored?
Event attendance — Showing up is a signal. Use it.
Email behavior — Who's opening, clicking, and reading?
Volunteer involvement — These supporters are already going deeper.

Many nonprofits are still sending blanket messages, not because they lack data, but because using it can feel overwhelming. The good news? It doesn’t have to be.

How to use donor data without overcomplicating things

You don’t need a perfect system. You just need a purposeful one. Here’s how to begin:

1. Start with segmentation

Break your donor base into a few manageable groups: new, recurring, lapsed, or highly engaged but not yet giving. Speak to each group like they matter; because they do. Even basic segmentation boosts relevance. Don’t ask for another gift right after someone just donated. And don’t welcome a longtime donor like it’s their first gift.

2. Personalize with purpose

Use names. Reference a donor’s specific action or campaign involvement. Skip the generic thank-yous. The tools you’re already using, whether it’s Mailchimp, Excel, or your donor database, are likely enough to get started.

If you’re looking for a change, Fundraise Up offers automatic, campaign-specific email templates to customize for different audiences.

3. Align with donor interests

Use previous giving behavior to guide future messaging. If someone supports environmental causes, don’t lead with a message about the arts. Every touchpoint should feel like it was meant for them.

4. Automate thoughtfully

Automation can save you time, but it shouldn’t replace authentic connection. Use it to free up bandwidth for real engagement, not to eliminate it altogether.

Every personalized message strengthens trust. And trust is what keeps donors coming back.

Data ethics aren’t optional, they’re foundational

With increasing scrutiny on data privacy, how you manage donor information matters as much as how you use it. Supporters want to know their data is safe, handled with care, and used in ways that genuinely benefit them.

Ethical data practices include:

Being clear about what you collect and why
Asking for permission before outreach
Making it easy to opt out or update preferences
Only collecting what’s necessary
Training staff on data handling best practices

Handled properly, ethical data use doesn’t limit personalization, it enables it. When donors trust you with their information, they’re more likely to engage, contribute again, and share your cause with others.

Start small. Stay human. Build from there.

You don’t need a complex digital transformation to begin personalizing. You just need to care enough to stop treating every donor the same. Use the data you already have. Segment meaningfully. Speak to people like people. Then, iterate and grow from there.

Because in today’s noisy world, it’s the personal touch that breaks through. For nonprofits, this isn’t just a trend. It’s the future of sustainable, donor-centered fundraising.

Pulse of the donor

Personalizing the donor experience: how 3 environmental nonprofits found Earth Day success

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 20:20:00 GMT

Earth Day, or Earth Month, is an opportunity to engage new donors, re-energize existing supporters, and create lasting change. In this article, we’re spotlighting three environmental nonprofit organizations that ran exceptional Earth Day campaigns.

They’ll share:

What made their best Earth Day campaign successful
How they turned one-time donors into repeat supporters
How nonprofits (even those outside of the environmental sector) can take action on Earth Day

Hear it straight from nonprofits: In our Fundraiser 2 Fundraiser video series, each nonprofit sits down with Fundraise Up to talk through their Earth Day strategies.

The best of the best: Earth Day campaign wins

1% for the Planet, Ocean Wise, and Trees for the Future work year-round to address some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges:

1% for the Planet connects businesses and individuals with high-impact environmental nonprofits, encouraging them to commit 1% of their annual sales to sustainability initiatives. Their work ensures that funding flows directly to organizations on the frontlines of climate action, conservation, and environmental advocacy.
Ocean Wise is dedicated to protecting and restoring the world’s oceans through conservation, research, and education. From reducing plastic pollution to advocating for sustainable seafood, their initiatives help safeguard marine ecosystems for future generations.
Trees for the Future is on a mission to combat deforestation, restore degraded land, and improve livelihoods through regenerative agriculture. By planting trees and training farming families in sustainable land management, they create lasting environmental and economic change.

1% for the Planet: an integrated approach for Earth Month

In 2022, 1% for the Planet’s multi-faceted approach led to their most successful Earth Month campaign yet, driving an increase of over 400% in donations compared to the previous year and securing several planned gifts.

Rather than relying on a single fundraising push, 1% for the Planet provided their network with branded social media assets to amplify the messaging, sent personalized donor appeals, and shared impact-driven stewardship materials to showcase donor contributions over time.

In addition to digital engagement, 1% for the Planet prioritized community-building through their Global Social Hour, a virtual event that brought together different stakeholders in their network.

Hear more about 1% for the Planet’s Earth Month strategy

Stewardship made easy: Fundraise Up’s features include automated follow-ups, personalized thank-yous, and tax receipts to help improve the donor experience.

[video:https://engage.fundraiseup.com/hubfs/Videos/1%25%20for%20the%20Planet%20Earth%20Day%20Campaign.mp4 video_caption:]

Ocean Wise’s A/B testing win for Earth Day

For Earth Day 2024, Ocean Wise leveraged A/B testing to refine its email appeals and maximize donor engagement. By analyzing response rates, they discovered that the first email in their appeal series performed the best, generating a 20% higher response rate than other messages. This insight helped them optimize their messaging for maximum impact.

The results were impressive: Ocean Wise successfully met its $15,000 fundraising goal, and, even more exciting, secured a high-value monthly donor.

Hear more about Ocean Wise’s Earth Day strategy

Why prioritize A/B testing? Because better data leads to better fundraising results.

[video:https://engage.fundraiseup.com/hubfs/Videos/Fundraiser%202%20Fundraiser%20Ocean%20Wise%20Earth%20Day%20Campaign.mp4 video_caption:]

Trees for the Future’s timely Earth Day message and match

Each year, Trees for the Future uses this global day of action to mobilize donors, raise awareness, and drive meaningful change. Their 2024 campaign, Stand for What You Stand On, was an urgent call to protect the planet, rallying supporters at every level to take action.

A key factor in their Earth Day success was a strong, cohesive marketing campaign that aligned brand messaging and resonated with their audience. The campaign was made even stronger by a timely donation match, which created urgency and motivation to give on Earth Day.

Hear more about Trees for the Future’s Earth Day strategy

[video:https://engage.fundraiseup.com/hubfs/Videos/Trees%20for%20the%20Future%20%7C%20Best%20Earth%20Day%20Campaign.mp4 video_caption:]

Turning Earth Day donors into repeat donors

The most successful Earth Day campaigns can be defined by building lasting donor relationships. Organizations like 1% for the Planet, Ocean Wise, and Trees for the Future have all found that ongoing engagement is key to turning one-time Earth Day donors into recurring supporters.

But how do you scale that kind of engagement? The answer: smart technology.

With Fundraise Up, nonprofits can deliver personalized donor experiences at scale. Here’s how our platform helps turn awareness day momentum into sustained support:

Upsell opportunities: Offers donors the opportunity to make an even bigger impact by upgrading their one-time gift into recurring support.
Frictionless upgrades: Donors can increase their monthly support with a single click.
Self-serve Donor Portal: Donors can update their payment information, download receipts, or upgrade gifts any time.

From Earth Day to every day: read more ways to turn Earth Day generosity into lasting, repeatable support.

Ways you can take action for Earth Day

There are countless ways to integrate sustainability into your mission and show support for Earth Day or Earth Month, even if your organization does not have an environmental focus.

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How Fundraise Up can help you personalize the donor experience

Fundraise Up helps nonprofits maximize movements like Earth Day with smarter technology that personalizes the giving experience at scale. With features like intelligent donation suggestions, frictionless payment options, recurring giving upsells, and more, Fundraise Up turns moments like Earth Day generosity into lasting donor relationships.

Earth Day Guide

Fundraise Up + Omatic Cloud integration: a flexible way to sync your donor data

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 13:23:00 GMT

Development teams rely on accurate, up-to-date donor data to build strong relationships and drive meaningful impact. But if your CRM and digital donation data aren’t in sync, things get messy — manual data entry, duplicate records, and frustrating delays that slow down your team.

That’s why Fundraise Up and Omatic Cloud have teamed up to create a powerful integration that connects your data to your preferred CRM — whether it's Blackbaud, Raiser's Edge NXT, or Salesforce.

An integration built for digital fundraising success

The most successful digital fundraising has seamless, connected data at the center of its strategy.

When your donor records are accurate, up-to-date, and accessible in real time, your team can spend less time on data management and more time building authentic relationships that drive impact.

With Fundraise Up’s API-powered integration with Omatic Cloud, you can:

Sync donation data seamlessly — no manual data transfer or entry required
Eliminate duplicate records and keep donor profiles clean
Customize data mapping to fit your preferred CRM setup
Focus on your organization’s mission instead of data cleanup

The new Omatic Cloud Fundraise Up Connector will be a game-changer for social good organizations and institutions who want to be more data-driven and have a complete view of supporters in their CRM. Many organizations choose to partner with Fundraise Up to modernize the donor experience. Now, those organizations can run digital fundraising campaigns with confidence, knowing that all relevant data will be integrated appropriately within their full technology stack. — Chanler Cox, Vice President of Sales & Partnerships at Omatic

How Fundraise Up elevates the donor experience

At Fundraise Up, we put the donor experience first. From AI-optimized donation forms to frictionless payment processing options, our technology is built to help organizations maximize every opportunity to connect with supporters.

And we have data to back it up. Organizations that integrate Fundraise Up with their CRM see outstanding results:

83% recurring donor retention rate
$1.4M in annual recurring revenue

By integrating Fundraise Up into their CRM, Northwest Harvest increased their online revenue by more than 6x the original amount.

Fundraise Up sets a new standard for online giving. You can read more about our product and different features here.

Why Omatic Cloud?

While Fundraise Up offers native integrations with many popular CRM platforms, we understand that some organizations need a more customizable option to configure donor data. Omatic Cloud presents a powerful alternative, offering a greater degree of customization so that you maintain complete control over your processes while automating routine tasks.

Customization includes:

Flexible data mapping: Easily map and transform data to meet format requirements across systems and set rules for how, when, and where data gets sent. The best part about it is that there’s no coding required.
Controlled automation: Review and take action on records that need attention before data goes to your CRM, and automate the rest.
Duplicate record identification and prevention: Automatically route records flagged for duplication before they are pushed to your system of record.
360-degree supporter view: Omatic offers a suite of connectors linking data sources across your organization’s applications so that your data is truly all connected.

Join the webinar and say goodbye to tedious data entry

Want to see how it works? Check out our on-demand webinar, Fundraise Up + Omatic Cloud integration demo. In this recorded session, we’ll show you how to eliminate data headaches and boost your fundraising efforts.

Access the Fundraise Up + Omatic demo webinar here.

FAQs: PCI DSS compliance for nonprofits

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

This article was written for the March 31, 2025, PCI DSS 4.0 requirement deadline. If you missed the deadline, be sure to check the PCI website for more details.

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) introduced new requirements that affect nonprofit organizations around the globe. With changes taking effect by March 31, 2025, we hosted an on-demand webinar that covers changes to PCI and how nonprofits can respond.

Watch the on-demand webinar here: PCI DSS 4.0 Explained: Preparing Your Nonprofit for Changes

Here are the most frequently asked PCI questions

What is PCI compliance?

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a global compliance standard to protect cardholder data. It matters to any organization that handles credit card payments, including nonprofits, and it's meant to safeguard sensitive payment information.

Read more about 2025 PCI compliance requirements

How do PCI changes affect nonprofits?

In short: PCI DSS 4.0 changes will require nonprofits to become more involved. But, your nonprofit's level of involvement will depend on how cardholder data is processed, stored, and transmitted.

Nonprofits will be required to complete an annual Self-Assessment questionnaire or a PCI SAQ.

What is a PCI SAQ?

A PCI SAQ is a PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire, and the questions you are asked are determined by how your organization processes donations. The goal of the SAQ is for nonprofits to confirm that their website and vendors are PCI compliant.

How do I know which PCI SAQ to fill out?

Most nonprofits will fall under SAQ A or SAQ D, depending on how cardholder data is stored, processed, or transmitted.

Here's a breakdown of SAQ A vs. SAQ D:

SAQ A	SAQ D
No cardholder data is stored, processed, or transmitted on merchant systems.	Applies to businesses that store, process, or transmit full cardholder data. (Note: This doesn't apply to only storing the last four digits.)
Fully outsourced payment processing to PCI DSS-validated third-party service providers.	The most comprehensive SAQ with full PCI DSS requirements.
Applies to businesses using hosted payment pages or iFrame solutions.	Required for merchants who don't fit into other SAQ types.

If you're not sure which questionnaire applies to you, reach out to your Qualified Security Assessor (QSA).

Nonprofits that work with Fundraise Up only have to complete the SAQ A form. Here's a free SAQ A template to get you started.

What is a QSA?

A QSA is short for a Qualified Security Assessor. QSAs are independent organizations that are certified through the PCI Security Standards Council. They can help determine your merchant type and ensure your nonprofit is PCI compliant.

You can find more information about QSAs here.

Where do I find the PCI SAQ form?

Once you've determined your merchant type, check the PCI website for instructions and documents to complete the Self-Assessment.

If you're an SAQ A merchant and customer of Fundraise Up, download our pre-filled SAQ A template to get started.

Where do I submit the PCI SAQ form?

Your payment processor (Stripe, PayPal, Square, etc.) should ask for your annual Self-Assessment questionnaire. You'll be able to submit your questionnaire through your payment processor.

How do I know if my vendors are compliant?

Ask your vendor how they secure 3rd-party JavaScript on their donation pages. Does your solution provider support custom JavaScript, tag management systems, etc.? If so, work with your provider to confirm they're fully PCI DSS 4.0 compliant.
Note: Fundraise Up customers can be confident that we are fully compliant and have already implemented the required security measures.
Use automated compliance tools going forward. The new PCI standards focus on script management and tamper detection, which can be very difficult and time-consuming to audit and monitor manually. Fundraise Up recommends DomDog* as an automated solution to help facilitate compliance.
*DomDog is not a QSA, but they will work with you to ensure all necessary implementations meet PCI DSS requirements 6.4.3. and 11.6.1.

Is Fundraise Up PCI compliant?

Yes! Fundraise Up is a PCI Level 1 4.0 certified provider, which eliminates the need for our customers to inventory, authorize, and monitor pages with custom JavaScript. Fundraise Up is the only solutions platform to offer enterprise certifications for fundraising anywhere in the world.

If your organization already works with Fundraise Up, you can simply complete this pre-filled SAQ A form.

What countries do the PCI DSS 4.0 updates apply to?

PCI DSS updates apply to all countries. PCI is a global standard implemented by credit card companies (Visa, Mastercard, etc.) regardless of geographic location.

Are PCI updates urgent?

Yes. PCI DSS 4.0 changes will be implemented on March 31, 2025.

What happens if I'm not PCI compliant?

Non-compliance could result in:

Payment processors (Stripe, PayPal, Square, etc.) may suspend services
Costly PCI fines
Loss of donor trust

Does PCI only apply to online donations?

No, PCI applies to online and offline donations that require credit card holder data. This includes direct mail, virtual terminals, call centers, events, etc.

What are the next steps to ensure my nonprofit is PCI compliant?

Confirm your merchant type: Understand where your organization processes credit card donations and how those donations are being processed today.
Engage your qualified security assessor (QSA). If you need additional guidance, a QSA can help you understand your merchant type and ensure your organization is fully prepared for PCI DSS 4.0.
Check your online donation platform's compliance. Ensure your provider has a plan for passing standards to ensure your nonprofit is compliant and stays compliant.
Secure your website's JavaScript. You can do this by logging, authorizing, and monitoring JavaScript files on your website. Fundraise Up recommends automating this process, even if it's not required.

Ready to take action? Follow this plan of action for PCI compliance

Watch the on-demand webinar: PCI DSS 4.0 for nonprofits

The updates to PCI DSS can seem overwhelming, but it's a great opportunity to build donor trust and security. And with the right donor platform, it can be much easier than you think!

If you want to learn more about PCI compliance, check out our on-demand webinar. In this webinar, our experts break down PCI compliance updates, what it means for nonprofits, and how you can continue to keep your donor data safe.

Access the on-demand webinar here

The best nonprofit technology stacks don’t ignore offline giving — here’s why

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 16:01:00 GMT

Ask any nonprofit, and they’ll tell you: fundraising isn’t just digital. While digital is absolutely essential to any nonprofit’s strategy, offline marketing channels like direct mail, events, and phone fundraising still play a major role in driving donations.

Fundraisers need a modern nonprofit technology stack that can connect the online and offline giving experience. A disconnected system — no matter how advanced — can slow down operations and create gaps in donor engagement.

In this article, we’ll explore how your organization can build a fully connected technology stack that works together to strengthen all of your fundraising efforts.

How does Fundraise Up work with your nonprofit technology stack to integrate offline channels? Here’s a brief walk-through:

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What is a nonprofit technology stack?

There are two ways that nonprofits can approach technology: the all-in-one solution or a more advanced technology stack.

The all-in-one solution means your nonprofit relies on one system to support all fundraising efforts. On the other hand, a nonprofit technology stack (or “tech stack”) is a group of top-of-the-line technology solutions that can help your nonprofit raise more money over time.

The ideal tech stack varies depending on your nonprofit’s needs but can include a customer relationship management system or donor management system, fundraising software, email marketing and marketing automation, analytics, donor intelligence, a content management system, search engine optimization tools, a payment processor for online and offline donations, and an integration system.

But the key to a really good nonprofit technology stack? It works together seamlessly.

Online fundraising platforms 101: Read the nonprofit’s guide to building a fundraising tech stack on our blog.

Traditionally offline fundraising channels that should connect to your tech stack

Even in a digital-first world, traditional fundraising channels remain relevant and powerful ways to connect with donors. By connecting these offline channels with modern technology, nonprofits can create a more cohesive donor journey while reducing some administrative headaches.

Direct mail appeals

While digital fundraising is known for being efficient and cost-effective, many donors still prefer to give through direct mail. The challenge with direct mail is the manual nature of processing donations, which can lead to delays in donor acknowledgment and data entry.

Integrating direct mail into your nonprofit’s tech stack ensures updated CRM records and provides donors with instant touchpoints, like digital receipts and follow-ups.

How it works with Fundraise Up: Nonprofits or vendors can process mailed-in donations in real time through Fundraise Up. Once the donation is received, each donor receives instant confirmation and Donor Portal access to help increase retention.

Face-to-face fundraising (F2F) and events

Face-to-face (F2F) fundraising and in-person events are two of the most personal and effective ways to engage donors. Whether you’re managing door-to-door campaigns, taking in-person donor meetings, or hosting a gala, these types of in-person fundraising tactics build trust and deepen donor relationships.

The challenge is managing in-person transactions and keeping donor records accurate. But an integration that synchronizes donor data can help build on the foundation of trust that these fundraising channels are known for.

How it works with Fundraise Up: Fundraise Up integrates with event and F2F fundraising tools, enabling automatic donation processing and real-time CRM updates. With donor data instantly synced, nonprofits can ensure timely follow-ups and deeper engagement.

Integrating tools like Stripe Terminal is a great example of enhancing in-person fundraising efforts. The Fundraise Up and Stripe Terminal integration allows fundraisers to process credit card donations on the spot, instantly updating donor records and triggering automated follow-ups.

Phone fundraising or telefundraising

Phone-based fundraising is an impactful way to engage donors, especially for annual appeals and crisis response efforts. Speaking directly with donors adds a personal touch, increasing the likelihood of securing gifts.

Without a seamless system, over-the-phone donations often require manual entry, which can lead to errors and delayed acknowledgments. Integrating telefundraising efforts into your tech stack can make the process more efficient and accurate for everyone.

How it works with Fundraise Up: Whether you partner with a vendor or have an in-house call center team, Fundraise Up offers integration options for seamless payments over the phone. Integrating your telefundraising efforts with Fundraise Up can help upgrade one-time donors into recurring donors through AI-driven upsells and the Donor Portal.

How to connect offline giving with your nonprofit tech stack

A well-integrated nonprofit tech stack makes sure that offline donations are as efficient and trackable as online contributions. It ensures that the donor experience is not interrupted, no matter how a donor chooses to give.

This can be done through an Application Programming Interface (API) or by using other tools that natively bridge the gap between offline and digital fundraising.

What is an API, and why does it matter?

An API allows different software systems to communicate and share data in real time. In nonprofit fundraising, APIs ensure that offline donations don’t remain siloed but instead flow seamlessly into the same system managing online contributions. An API is what connects your systems and ensures an integrated fundraising technology stack.

Using the Fundraise Up API for a seamless giving experience

Integrating Fundraise Up’s API into your tech stack creates a seamless donation experience, enhancing donor engagement while driving fundraising success.

If you’re working with a vendor for offline fundraising, our API is the easiest way to bridge the gap. It connects Fundraise Up with your existing tools across all channels, streamlining operations and creating a unified donor experience. Keep in mind that implementation may require collaboration with your IT team or vendors for setup and updates.

The benefits of using Fundraise Up’s API go beyond just convenience. Syncing Fundraise Up with your CRM eliminates manual data entry, keeping donor records accurate and up-to-date. Combined with our turn-key Donor Portal, this makes it easier for donors to manage their giving and ultimately increases retention and lifetime value. Plus, with automated follow-ups and AI-driven insights, you can create more opportunities for donors to deepen their support.

Other Fundraise Up tools to support your offline giving

In addition to Fundraise Up’s API, our Virtual Terminal is another Fundraise Up tool that can integrate traditionally offline fundraising channels like in-person and over-the-phone donations.

With Virtual Terminal, your operators have an easy-to-use intuitive tool to securely process donations over the phone or in person, right from the Fundraise Up dashboard. This ensures every donation is instantly recorded and synced back to your CRM.

Nonprofits running high-volume campaigns benefit from Fundraise Up’s ability to handle large-scale events. For example, Pinky Swear Foundation partnered with Fundraise Up to optimize their annual Radiothon event, raising over $423,000 using the Virtual Terminal.

Integrate your efforts with Fundraise Up

Offline donations are still a major revenue source. And the best nonprofit technology stacks don’t ignore offline donations — in fact, they work to amplify offline giving efforts.

With Fundraise Up’s API and Virtual Terminal, organizations can unify all fundraising channels, ensuring that every donor interaction — whether online or offline — contributes to a seamless and optimized giving experience.

Fundraise Up REST API

From Earth Day to every day: how environmental nonprofits can grow recurring giving

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 21:37:00 GMT

Earth Day is one of the most powerful days for environmental advocacy, raising awareness about conservation, and the urgent need for action. And it's also one of the biggest fundraising opportunities for environmental nonprofits.

On average, the Fundraise Up platform shows that environmental nonprofits may see 5x more donations on Earth Day than on your average day.

There's no question that Earth Day brings together supporters who care about our planet, but how do you build on this momentum and create engagement that goes beyond one day?

The answer: invest in sustainable fundraising strategies.

Environmental nonprofits can turn Earth Day supporters into long-term donors by focusing on recurring giving. It can start with Earth Day, but a strong recurring giving strategy can ensure that your mission is supported every day of the year.

Recurring giving — an answer to sustainable fundraising

2025 has changed the conversation around fundraising, especially for environmental nonprofits. As public funding for environmental initiatives fluctuates and policies shift, finding new, creative ways to secure reliable funding has become top-of-mind.

And these uncertainties highlight the critical role recurring giving plays in sustainable fundraising. Ongoing support from your most dedicated donors ensures a reliable stream of donations and can foster overall program resilience.

Earth Day can help get the conversation started with your donors. It's the perfect opportunity to introduce Earth-conscious donors to the concept of making a more sustainable impact on the environment.

Features to grow your recurring giving strategy

As you think about your Earth Day campaign's messaging and calls to action, consider your fundraising technology. If you ask supporters to make a recurring contribution this Earth Day, is it easy for them to say yes?

AI-driven tools like Fundraise Up can easily convert one-time supporters into recurring donors with features specifically designed to convert, upgrade, and nurture. Here's how we recommend using technology as part of your recurring giving strategy.

Intelligent prompts are the way to grow

Most one-time donors don't start planning to give monthly, but they are much more likely to convert with the right timing and messaging. Fundraise Up’s AI-driven Upsell feature at checkout encourages one-time donors to become recurring supporters through intelligent prompts. The feature considers the timing, messaging, and likelihood of conversion when suggesting the option for recurring giving.

Fundraise Up users see up to 5% of one-time donors convert into recurring donors using AI-driven prompts.

This optimized upgrade feature is proven to increase the number of recurring donors, reduce the number of lapsed donors, and boost the average dollar amount of recurring gifts for nonprofit organizations. For example, Akashinga, an organization dedicated to sustainable conservation, earned an average of 145 recurring monthly donors the year they partnered with Fundraise Up.

Recurring donations need to be the number one priority. We needed to build for the long-term community. Fundraise Up has given us the ability to realize that strategy, and it’s working really well.”
— Erin Mullikin, Director of Brand & Marketing, Akashinga

Flexible giving = sustained giving

Whether they've made one or one hundred gifts, donors crave flexibility and personalization in their giving experience. It's the key to converting donors, but it's also the key to sustaining donors. By leveraging technology that offers donors more control over their contributions, nonprofits can enhance donor engagement and retention.

Localized payment options

Imagine donating to a cause you care about, but the payment methods don't align with what's common in your country. You might abandon support if your preferred options aren't offered to you.

Giving donors localized payment options is an easy way for environmental nonprofits with a global mission to offer donors flexibility and ultimately increase recurring giving numbers. For instance, Rainforest Trust, dedicated to preserving critical habitats worldwide, saw a 25% increase in donors giving in international currencies and a 6% growth in recurring donations every month when they upgraded to Fundraise Up.

Empower existing recurring donors

Your existing recurring donors are your environmental nonprofit's most prominent advocates and strongest supporters. By empowering your existing recurring donors with the option to change their gift, you can open the opportunity to save a canceled donation or even upgrade donations.

According to our platform's data, around 10% of recurring donors about to cancel their gift will choose to modify their gift instead of canceling when given the option. Fundraise Up's Donor Portal allows donors to change their giving amount, the preferred payment method, and the frequency of giving.

Engaging existing recurring donors with the opportunity to increase their gifts is another way to drive meaningful growth in recurring revenue. Nonprofits that leverage Fundraise Up's Upgrade Links see about 20-60% of recurring donors increase their gifts by 75-120%, which underscores the potential of empowering donors with easy and flexible opportunities to deepen their support.

Plant the seed with more personalized donor stewardship

A strong, sustainable fundraising strategy starts with donor trust. And donor trust is earned with transparency and intentional donor stewardship. Generic thank-yous no longer cut it, but that doesn't mean some personalized touch points can't be automated.

Fundraise Up's advanced email features send campaign-specific thank-yous, updates, action items, and fully customizable tax-compliant receipts. Fundraise Up integrates with many popular CRMs to take your donor stewardship strategies to the next level.

Take the next step in sustainable fundraising

Earth Day is a powerful moment for fundraising, but it's also an opportunity to engage with your supporters to make a more significant impact through recurring giving. Set up your environmental nonprofit for success this year by making it easy for Earth Day supporters to say yes to recurring giving.

Ready to launch your Earth Day campaign? Download our Earth Day Guide for more tips on strengthening your fundraising strategy.

Earth Day Guide

6 immediate PCI compliance actions to take before March 31, 2025

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 14:21:00 GMT

This article was written for the March 31, 2025, PCI DSS 4.0 requirement deadline. If you missed the deadline, be sure to check the PCI website for more details.

The deadline to fully comply with new PCI DSS 4.0 requirements is quickly approaching on March 31, 2025. If you haven’t already, it’s time to take action to ensure your nonprofit stays compliant and continues processing donations securely.

In addition to fines and penalties, not meeting PCI compliance standards can put donor data at risk and expose your organization to security breaches. To help you stay on track, here are six immediate actions you can take today.

New to PCI compliance? Check out our frequently asked questions to better understand what PCI means for nonprofits.

Immediate actions to stay PCI compliant

PCI DSS (or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a mandatory security framework for all organizations that handle credit card transactions. For nonprofits, this means any online donation or payment processing must adhere to PCI standards to reduce the risk of data breaches, fraud, and cyberattacks.

1. Audit your PCI compliance status

Before making any updates, start by assessing your nonprofit’s current PCI compliance standing. This includes determining which Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) applies to your nonprofit and identifying potential security gaps.

Determine your merchant type: Most nonprofits fall under SAQ A or SAQ D, depending on how they handle transactions.
Access website security: If your nonprofit qualifies for SAQ A, pull in your IT team to ensure your website is not vulnerable to script attacks that could compromise donor data.

Not sure what defines a merchant type? Read more about merchant types and completing the Self-Assessment Questionnaire.

2. Confirm compliance with vendors

Your nonprofit may be PCI compliant, but are your vendors? Any third-party payment processor, CRM, or software handling transactions must also be PCI compliant.

To verify compliance, you can ask each vendor for their Attestation of Compliance (AOC) or certification as proof of PCI DSS compliance. If your vendor does not have an AOC or if you have concerns, ask to review their security measures to ensure they meet PCI standards.

3. Update your policies

PCI DSS 4.0 requires stricter security measures, which means your internal policies should follow suit. Review your current policies to make sure they include:

Stronger passwords: Implement passwords that are at least 12 characters long, including special characters, uppercase and lowercase letters, and numbers.
Multi-factor authentication: PCI mandates MFA for all access to cardholder data to prevent unauthorized access.
Streamlined website policies: Ensure your nonprofit’s website maintains up-to-date SSL certificates, firewall protection, and real-time monitoring to detect and mitigate threats.

Here’s an in-depth plan of action for strengthening your website security.

4. Consider switching from legacy vendors

Many nonprofits unknowingly fall out of compliance because of outdated practices or legacy vendors with older platforms. And if your vendors can’t provide proof of compliance, or if they push the compliance work to you, it may be time to seriously consider switching providers.

No matter which direction your nonprofit chooses to go, be sure that your payment process partners offer built-in PCI compliance or have a plan to follow best practices.

Looking for a new vendor? Check out these tips to help you choose secure software vendors.

5. Understand the importance of PCI compliance

Beyond avoiding fines, PCI compliance makes a difference in fundraising success. It’s a big lift, but your efforts to comply contribute to protecting donor data, strengthening cybersecurity, and helping your nonprofit build long-term trust with supporters.

PCI DSS 4.0 updates address new cybersecurity threats. And a strong security posture can reassure donors that their sensitive information is safe and protected. By prioritizing compliance now, your nonprofit can stay ahead of security risks while demonstrating accountability to donors.

6. Get the guide and template

At Fundraise Up, we see PCI compliance changes as an opportunity to reassure donors. But we also understand that it can be a big lift for nonprofit organizations around the globe.

To simplify the compliance process, check out this comprehensive breakdown of PCI DSS 4.0, which includes a ready-to-use SAQ A template for nonprofits.

Download the pre-filled SAQ A template.

Take action now to stay compliant

March 31 is almost here. By taking these six immediate steps, your nonprofit can ensure continued PCI compliance, protect donor data, and build long-term trust. Check out these 2025 PCI requirements or watch our on-demand webinar here for more information on PCI.

Pulse of the Donor

9 nonprofits to donate to on International Women’s Day

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Every year on March 8, we come together to celebrate International Women’s Day. It’s a time to honor women’s achievements, reflect on the journey toward gender equality, and advocate for a more inclusive and equitable world.

Rooted in the women’s suffrage movement of the early 1900s, International Women’s Day remains as relevant as ever today. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Gender Gap Report, progress is being made, but it could still take 134 years to achieve full gender parity.

Change starts with action. To celebrate International Women’s Day and show support for women everywhere, we’ve put together a list of women-empowering nonprofits you can support — not just today, but every day.

1. United Nations Population Fund

United Nations Population Fund is the United Nations’ sexual and reproductive health agency. With so many women and youth suffering from poor healthcare systems, UNFPA is dedicated to delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled.

Support UNFPA here.

2. Women for Women International

Women for Women International is a global community that invests in women of war and conflict. The goal is to help give women the social and economic skills and support they need to rebuild their families and communities.

Support Women for Women International here.

3. Susan G. Komen

In 2025, it’s estimated there will be more than 316,950 new cases of invasive breast cancer diagnosed in U.S. women. Susan G. Komen’s mission is to empower people with resources and invest in breakthrough research to prevent and cure breast cancer.

Support Susan G. Komen here.

4. Huru International

Huru’s mission is simple: to deliver high-quality, reusable menstrual pads and sexual and reproductive health education to girls and their peers. Huru has reached over 200,000 deserving girls across underserved communities in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Support Huru International here.

5. Exodus Cry

Exodus Cry fights against sexual exploitation by uprooting the underlying causes in our culture that allow the industry of sexual exploitation to thrive and helping those who have been sexually exploited. It believes that every person should be offered real choices, empowerment, and true freedom.

Support Exodus Cry here.

6. Equality Now

Equality Now is dedicated to advocating for girls and women’s rights worldwide. Through legal advocacy, strategic litigation, and grassroots partnerships, Equality Now works to end practices like child marriage, sex trafficking, gender-based violence, and more.

Support Equality Now here.

7. Forgotten Women

Forgotten Women is a UK-based charity dedicated to providing aid and opportunity to vulnerable women around the world. Founded and operated by women, the nonprofit focuses on delivering assistance directly to women in emergency situations.

Support Forgotten Women here.

8. Refuge for Women

Refuge for Women provides long-term residential healing and recovery programs for women who have escaped sex trafficking and exploitation. With locations across the U.S., Refuge for Women works to empower women to achieve independence and sustainable futures.

Support Refuge for Women here.

9. Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund

The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) is a Canadian nonprofit organization that is focused on creating gender equality through legal advocacy, education, and law reform. LEAF’s cases have addressed reproductive freedoms, maternity benefits, pay equity, and more.

Support LEAF here.

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4 trends in online giving that every faith-based organization should know

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 17:22:00 GMT

Generosity is at the heart of almost every faith-based organization. From religiously affiliated nonprofits to ministries, these organizations often depend on donor support to provide aid, support communities, or spread their message.

As online giving continues to grow and evolve, donors have increasing expectations of their online giving experience. For faith-based organizations, this shift is an opportunity to innovate. It opens the door to new ways of engaging younger donors, strengthening faith-related missions, and even inspiring greater generosity.

So, what’s trending in online giving? And what does it mean for faith-based organizations? Let’s find out.

Trend #1: Optimizing the giving experience on mobile

How many times do you reach for your mobile device on any given day? In 2024, the average person spent 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phone and checked their mobile device an average of 58 times each day.

This trend in how much time we spend on our mobile devices is also reflected in mobile giving today. About 33% of total donations are given through a mobile device, and our platform shows that this increase in mobile giving continues to grow year over year.

Nonprofits that embrace mobile-friendly donation experiences can tap into this trend to engage new — often younger — audiences who prefer a mobile giving experience.

Why does mobile optimization matter for faith-based organizations?

Optimizing the mobile giving experience is relevant to all nonprofit organizations looking to engage younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z, but it’s particularly relevant to faith-based organizations.

Based on our data, 53% of faith-based donors prefer to donate through their mobile devices.

For many faith-based donors, giving can be an act of praise or community engagement. Mobile-friendly payment options, like digital wallets or QR code-enabled giving, make it easier for supporters to make a donation while in the moment. For example, during Ramadan, many people will pray at mosques and choose to give online shortly after.

Faith-based organizations are uniquely positioned to capture an inspired audience ready to give by investing in an optimized mobile giving experience.

Trend #2: Personalizing donation forms with AI

It’s not news that artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming our online experiences. And it may not be news to you that nonprofits are some of the leading adopters of AI. About 58% of nonprofit leaders use AI in their digital communications and see AI as an opportunity for better analytics.

But how is AI being used today to improve the online giving experience for donors?

Using AI in donation forms can personalize and make the donor experience more relevant to the individual. AI can populate dynamic amounts based on donor behavior or location and intentionally align with what a donor will likely give.

For example, someone who previously donated $100 could see giving options ranging from $75 to $300, whereas a first-time donor would likely see a lower, more accessible amount.

To make it even easier for donors to give, consider personalizing payment options with AI. An AI-integrated donation form can detect a user’s device and suggest the most relevant, convenient payment options. For example, an Apple device user might see an option for Apple Pay, while a Google Chrome user might see an option for Google Pay.

AI can also decide when and how often to ask for a recurring donation. A donation form that leverages AI will consider the type of nonprofit and suggest timing, an ideal amount, and giving frequency tailored to a potential donor.

While the industry average is a 12% conversion rate on donation forms, Fundraise Up customers typically achieve 20-40% by integrating AI into the donor experience.

What is the best online giving platform for churches and faith-based organizations?

The best online giving platform for churches and faith-based organizations makes tithing, recurring gifts, and multi-fund designations simple on any device. Fundraise Up offers conversion-optimized, mobile-first checkout with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal, AI prompts that grow recurring giving, and fund designations so members can direct gifts to specific ministries — all under your own branding. Trusted by 3,500+ organizations, it helps congregations turn one-time givers into committed monthly supporters.

Why does AI matter for faith-based organizations?

According to our platform’s data, 70% of gifts to faith-based organizations are made using a personalized ask amount. Faith-based organizations that leverage AI to improve the online donor experience see higher conversion rates on their donation forms, but they also see larger gifts and increased recurring donations.

See how World Hope International increased online donation revenue by 200% by investing in Fundraise Up, an AI-powered tool.

Using AI to personalize giving frequency can also help connect a donor’s interest in faith-based causes with important religious holidays like Lent, Advent, Passover, Dhu al-Hijah, or Muharram. During Ramadan, AI-powered giving frequency options can allow donors to spread out their Zakat and Sadaqah contributions over weeks or months.

Fundraise Up also enables faith-based nonprofits to set up daily giving by adding an end date at the campaign level, making it convenient for supporters to commit to giving back during special religious holidays.

Trend #3: Engaging with global audiences through localization

Localization is the process of adapting technology to align with the expectations of an audience based on their location and country of residence. At Fundraise Up, we consider browser preferences, website URLs, and the javascript parameters to accomplish localization.

This process is essential as online giving grows because donors worldwide expect an online giving experience that they can understand and feels relevant. Localization ensures that every donor is included, no matter where they give from.

The key to localization is to remove any disruption from the user experience. This can look like:

Language adaptation: Solutions like Fundraise Up can automatically localize the preferred language and currency based on a donor’s browser settings.
Region-specific payment methods: Different countries have different preferred ways to give. By using Fundraise Up, nonprofits can ensure donors see the most relevant payment options based on their region.
Compliance with country-specific regulations: Some countries require specific donation receipt formats or data privacy protections. Fundraise Up offers country-specific tools so your nonprofit stays compliant with local regulations.

Fundraise Up supports 23 native languages, including Arabic. We're the only solution offering language options like UK English, Canadian English, French Canadian, and Spanish based on Mexican dialect. Here are the many ways that Fundraise Up supports localization and global fundraising.

Why does localization matter for faith-based organizations?

Faith-based organizations often have missions that extend beyond borders, supporting international causes, disaster relief, and humanitarian efforts. And if your mission extends across the globe, localization makes a difference in removing friction from the online giving experience and plays a key part in fostering trust.

Investing in localization acknowledges that your organization cares about donors and their giving experience, no matter where they are in the world. It also recognizes and respects the differences in language, giving preferences, and regulations based on your donor’s country.

Trend #4: Investing in the online experience of recurring donors

In 2024, donor retention declined for the fourth consecutive year. Nonprofits across sectors are raising funds from a smaller pool of donors every year. In addition, fluctuations in policy changes have caused some uncertainty in funding for many U.S.-based nonprofits.

These trends have opened the conversation globally about creating more sustainable funding streams. And finding new ways to engage recurring donors is central to these conversations.

While new donor acquisition is still essential, investing in the online experience of recurring donors is a high priority for a sustainable fundraising strategy. This is because recurring donors have higher lifetime value and deeper engagement with an organization’s mission.

The right donation platform matters if you want to invest in this audience’s experience, and it should be able to:

Allow supporters to easily adjust their giving preferences. By providing a self-service option for supporters to increase or decrease their giving, change the cadence of giving, and update payment methods, you empower your supporters to give in a way that’s right for them.
Offer clear and accessible tax documentation. A platform that can give donors convenient access to their donation receipts (especially during tax season) will make it an easy choice for donors to continue supporting your mission.

Fundraise Up’s Donor Portal was designed to prioritize the donor experience. Take a look at how the Donor Portal makes donor retention easy.

Why do recurring donors matter for faith-based organizations?

Faith-based organizations have one of the highest donor retention rates in the industry. Fundraise Up partners with many faith-based organizations that retain about 75% of their donors annually, making an investment in the online recurring donor experience even more important.

There’s also a great opportunity for faith-based organizations to instill even more trust in their recurring donor base by making it easy for them to change their giving contribution amounts and frequencies.

Giving donors the option to change their gifts often will work in your organization’s favor. By investing in the recurring donor experience, Fundraise Up customers will see between 20% and 60% of supporters upgrade their support when given the option.

We're looking into donors being able to change their gifts, which is going to be huge for us. Fundraise Up’s Donor Portal is going to save so much time and provide an overall better user experience to the donor.”

– Chris Mah, Union Gospel Mission

Fundraise Up: a partner for faith-based organizations

Fundraise Up helps faith-based organizations optimize online giving by leveraging these trends to enhance the donor experience, increase generosity, and build lasting relationships with supporters. Learn more about how we work with nonprofits to put these trends into practice and keep our partners ahead of the industry average.

In-person payments made easy with Stripe Terminal

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 15:27:00 GMT

For nonprofit organizations that host in-person fundraising events, integrating Stripe Terminal with Fundraise Up offers a seamless and secure way to take in-person payments while enhancing the donor experience.

This guide walks you through the advantages of using Stripe Terminal with Fundraise Up and how to set up the integration to maximize your fundraising impact.

What is Stripe Terminal and how do nonprofits use it?

Stripe Terminal is a powerful tool for nonprofit organizations to accept donations in person. It provides a secure and efficient way to collect donations using physical payment methods, ensuring smooth donor experiences during fundraising events or in-person campaigns.

The platform can cover a range of devices, including standalone smart terminals and portable card readers, ideal for retail-like setups, events, and on-the-go fundraising. These devices support multiple payment methods, including chip cards, contactless payments (e.g., Apple Pay, Google Pay), and magnetic stripe cards, making it easy for supporters to give.

Stripe Terminal + Fundraise Up’s benefits to in-person payments

Stripe Terminal makes the experience of taking payments easier, but Fundraise Up is a fundraising solution that improves the overall donor experience.

The integration between Stripe Terminal and Fundraise Up uses the REST API, which allows organizations to securely process payments collected through Stripe devices. In short, it ensures a seamless donor experience while maintaining industry-standard security.

What is Fundraise Up’s REST API? It’s a powerful tool designed to process donations from non-digital channels and integrate essential donor and transaction data into your CRM, BI tools, and other platforms. Read more about Fundraise Up’s REST API here.

There are many reasons why nonprofits choose to integrate Stripe Terminal with Fundraise Up. The integration offers:

Next-level donor experience: Once a donation is made on-site, donors quickly receive confirmations, receipts, and access to the Donor Portal via Fundraise Up, ensuring a seamless experience. Plus, features like Upgrade Links gently encourage supporters to increase their recurring contributions, further increasing engagement. This top-notch donor experience fosters long-term relationships and increases donor retention.
Comprehensive analytics: Fundraise Up's Insights Dashboard consolidates all donation data, including in-person transactions. This centralized view enables informed, data-driven decisions to optimize fundraising strategies.
Streamlined donor data: Fundraise Up’s integrations and API make it easy to sync donation data with your CRM and other platforms, reducing administrative work.
Robust security and compliance: With Fundraise Up’s adherence to industry-standard security practices and Stripe Terminal’s PCI-certified payment processing, donor data remains safeguarded at every step.

Organizations like Shalom World have successfully integrated Stripe Terminal and Fundraise Up to efficiently process in-person donations. And the experience is seamless — supporters can simply tap or swipe their bank cards on a Stripe Terminal, knowing that payments are secure.

Steps to integrate Stripe Terminal with Fundraise Up

To start the integration process, you’ll need to be set up with Fundraise Up. If you don’t yet have a Fundraise Up account, contact our sales team to learn about the options that are right for your organization.

If you already have a Fundraise Up account, here are five easy steps to get started:

Set up Stripe Terminal devices: Ensure your Stripe Terminal device is configured with your Stripe account and ready for in-person payment collection. This includes connecting the device to your system and ensuring that it’s compatible.
Securely collect donor payment information: Set up the terminal to securely collect donor payment details through swiping, inserting, or tapping their card. Stripe uses SetupIntent technology* to save this information securely without processing an immediate charge.
Generate a payment method ID: After collecting the donor’s payment details, the terminal generates a Payment Method ID, which is securely stored within Stripe’s system. Note: If you process payment information through a partner, ensure the partner is PCI-certified. If you handle this directly, you must also have a valid PCI certification to comply with industry security standards.
Create a donation with Fundraise Up REST API: Use the REST API endpoint to process the donation. Include the Payment Method ID and all necessary details, such as the donation amount, supporter information, and campaign ID.
Submit and confirm the donation: Complete the process by submitting the API request. The donation is securely processed and logged into your Fundraise Up account.

Find detailed instructions for organizations in our support article: Fundraise Up API and Stripe's Payment Method ID

*Important note: Not all Stripe Terminal devices support SetupIntents without triggering a payment. You must specifically use Stripe Smart Terminals, which can collect supporter payment information and generate a Payment Method ID without immediately processing a charge.

More about Fundraise Up’s API + integrations

The Stripe Terminal integration with Fundraise Up allows nonprofits to engage donors with personalized follow-ups and real-time updates. It’s a streamlined approach that not only enhances the donor experience, but also provides fundraisers with clear analytics and insights.

Did you know? Fundraise Up's powerful, two-way API offers many different integrations to help nonprofits optimize the giving experience — both online and offline. Learn more about how it works.

REST API

How to get donations in 2025: empowering this year’s nonprofit fundraising strategy

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The nonprofit world deserves a change. With decreasing numbers in gifts and declining donor retention rates, it’s clear that the legacy ways of fundraising are fading.

According to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, donor retention rates have declined for the fourth consecutive year, with only 13.8% of new donors retained in Q3 of 2024. The smallest donor segments, particularly those giving under $100, experienced a significant 12.4% year-over-year decrease. While this recent data shows challenges, it also presents an opportunity for innovation and growth in 2025.

In this post, we’ll talk about how to get donations from new donors, retain current donors, and encourage upsells. We’ll also share some tips on how to better engage website visitors, even without a team of developers.

How to get donations in the socioeconomic landscape of 2025

Telethons and direct-mail appeals are tried-and-true ways of requesting donations, but the way nonprofits approach these tactics needs a modern refresh.

Digital fundraising efforts help nonprofits supercharge expansion by reaching a global audience, often through low-overhead initiatives with high-impact results. In 2025, these are exactly the kinds of donor engagement strategies forward-thinking organizations are using to generate revenue during challenging times.

Case Study: Integrating digital efforts can revitalize and strengthen traditional tactics like telethons. Read how the Sandra Schmirler Foundation optimized their telethon event by elevating its online donorship strategy.

Now, let’s look at some key ways nonprofits are ramping up online fundraising in 2025.

Asking for donations effectively with AI-powered personalization

What dollar amount should be suggested when soliciting donations? How should those amounts differ for one-time or recurring donation suggestions? Those questions are difficult to answer without proper visibility into the demographics of a potential donor pool. AI-powered fundraising technology provides valuable insights that allow organizations to easily personalize donation requests without devoting unrealistic amounts of time and financial resources.

AI-informed fundraising tools suggest recommended donation amounts based on a large dataset of donor data points, encouraging donors to give to the best of their ability without alienating those who might otherwise feel intimidated by larger suggested figures. Adopting AI-powered digital fundraising methods can also help organizations identify the donors most open to covering transaction fees.

Leveraging web traffic to refine and amplify impact stories

Donors want to know how their contributions make a difference, and whenever possible, it’s always better to show instead of tell. An impact story with images of the people who’ve benefited from charitable donations is a great way to show donors their dollars at work. Plus, organizations can repurpose impact stories across relevant channels to build awareness about their cause.

An impact story doesn’t need to be long. It just needs to connect with readers on a visceral level. Here’s an example from One Mind:

Organizations with corporate donors should create impact stories that feature real-world wins and data that illustrate outcomes

Appealing to generosity during peak giving periods

Setting up a campaign for GivingTuesday is a must, but there are other peak giving periods that present opportunities for raising donations. Ramadan, for example, is a peak giving period for more than 300 million people, and with fundraising software that has Arabic-language support, organizations can easily set up one or more campaigns during this month-long observation.

Mother’s Day and the days leading up to it represent another peak giving period, especially when it comes to tributes. Here’s an example of how to ask for a donation with an email tribute campaign:

Enabling cryptocurrency donations

Once an obscure novelty, cryptocurrency has been gaining momentum in recent years and is expected to account for $10 billion in donations by November 2032. Crypto gifts typically exceed standard currency gifts by 142 times, so enabling these donations should be a priority.

Organizations that set up their site to accept cryptocurrency donations can hold fresh appeal for crypto’s primary users: young, affluent donors who are eager to support worthy causes. Crypto donations can also move across international borders with no red tape or lengthy bank processing times.

Revamping the website

If someone is interested enough to visit a nonprofit’s website, they are prime for conversion. These are some Elements organizations can use to nudge site visitors toward conversion:

Graphic page Elements

Progress bars, stat counters, and donor maps are persuasive page Elements that could motivate potential donors to commit to a donation or increase the size of their donation. With the right software, organizations don’t need a developer to add these eye-catching features to their site.

Some of Fundraise Up’s Elements features, with copy-and-paste code

Another Element that’s great for boosting conversions is a popup. This exit-intent popup makes a final appeal that would be hard for a philanthropist to ignore:

Fundraise Up’s Popup feature

Lastly, trust signals are another component that can be used to encourage donors and boost conversions. This automated feed of real-time donations (featured below) can enhance trust and validate that others are donating, too.

This concept relies on social proof—a psychological phenomenon where individuals are more likely to engage in an activity if they see others doing the same.

Fast fact: Adding a component of social proof can increase your donation conversion rates by 3.5%.

Fundraise Up’s recent donations feed

Campaign Pages

Organizations can maintain laser focus on objectives and give donors all the information and functionality they need with Campaign Pages. These pages should explain the campaign, include an image, and allow a visitor to make a donation without navigating to another page.

Fundraise Up’s Campaign Pages feature

Optimized checkout

Lengthy forms and limited payment options are examples of barriers in the checkout process that could cause potential donors to abandon their transactions. Streamlined checkouts with one-click donations, drop-down currency selection, and the option to choose one-time or recurring donations are much more effective in driving conversions.

Fundraise Up’s Checkout feature, with links to three commonly asked questions

As part of the checkout process, donors should have the option to check for company matching, as shown here:

Fundraise Up integrates with Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro platform to streamline company-match donations

Ask for donations more effectively with Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up offers the tools nonprofits need to create a better digital experience for donors, without a team of developers and designers. And with AI to personalize and automate donation appeals, organizations can maximize donations, upsells, and recurring donations with minimal resources required.

If you’re interested in more tips for how to get donations in 2025, check out our Digital Fundraising Guide.

Fundraise Up + Beacon CRM: A powerful new integration for UK nonprofits

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

At Fundraise Up, we’re always looking for ways to help nonprofits raise more and do more. That’s why we’re excited to announce our latest integration with Beacon CRM, the #1 CRM in Fundraising Magazine's 2024 CRM Survey in the UK.

This partnership brings together Fundraise Up's conversion-boosting technology with Beacon's flexible, cloud-based donor management system, creating a powerful solution for UK nonprofits.

Beacon’s CRM and Fundraise Up’s fundraising tools feel like a natural pairing: both teams are really passionate about getting modern technology into the hands of nonprofits. Charities now have access to a world-class, AI-powered, and end-to-end donor management system like never before, and it’s really exciting! — David Simpson, CTO & Co-Founder

Streamlining digital fundraising

Nonprofits need tools that work together to streamline fundraising and donor management. With this integration, you can:

Sync donor and transaction data: Fundraise Up donation data flows directly into Beacon CRM within minutes, reducing manual data entry and ensuring accuracy.
Improve donor stewardship: Use automation to trigger personalized thank-you emails, follow-ups, and engagement strategies based on donor behavior.
Save time and reduce admin work: Focus more on fundraising and less on manual imports with automated processes that keep your CRM up to date.

Get a deeper look at how it works.

Why Fundraise Up: Investing in the donor experience

With a highly optimized donation checkout, Fundraise Up delivers industry-leading conversion rates of 30%, helping nonprofits across the globe maximize their revenue.

Another major advantage of Fundraise Up is the personalized donor experience. Fundraise Up uses AI-suggested donation amounts and upsells for recurring giving. We even support a variety of giving frequencies, allowing nonprofits the opportunity to provide donors with even more choices in how often they give.

Here’s how The Salvation Army UK converts 49% of donors with Fundraise Up.

UK Compliance and localization

Fundraise Up has helped many nonprofits across the globe exceed their fundraising goals. With support for over 135 currencies and multiple localized payment methods and more than 20 language options, it makes it easy to engage with donors.

Also, Fundraise Up is fully compliant with UK laws. Country-specific features like Gift Aid for the UK and tax-compliant receipts allow nonprofits to rest easy knowing they’re adhering to regional compliance standards, including GDPR.

See the integration for yourself

Access the on-demand webinar to learn more about the Beacon CRM + Fundraise Up integration and how it can help your nonprofit raise more.

Webinar

A PCI compliance plan of action for nonprofits

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

This article was written for the March 31, 2025, PCI DSS 4.0 requirement deadline. If you missed the deadline, be sure to check the PCI website for more details.

With the introduction of new PCI compliance requirements, understanding what’s required of your nonprofit is critical to avoid costly penalties or frozen payment processing. Note: Depending on what donation platform you use, this may be a light lift or a heavy lift.

With Fundraise Up, it’s a simple as completing an SAQ A form. But other donation platforms require a significant amount of work. So if you’re using another donation platform, let’s walk through what’s expected and how to get this done before the deadline of March 31.

Recap: What is PCI compliance for nonprofits?

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a set of security guidelines created to protect cardholder data during and after a financial transaction. Nonprofit compliance ensures that organizations handling credit card information — like nonprofits accepting online donations — have measures in place to reduce the risk of breaches and fraud.

What is PCI compliance? More details can be found here.

Follow this plan of action for PCI compliance

Step 1: Understand Your Role

Assess whether your organization directly processes, transmits, or stores cardholder data.
If you do rely on a third-party processor, identify whether you’re using custom JavaScript on your donation and payment pages. If you do, proceed to Step 2.

Per Requirement 6.4.3, JavaScript embedded in your website can potentially introduce vulnerabilities, especially on payment pages. PCI DSS 4.0 requires organizations to manage and secure scripts to prevent data breaches.

Step 2: Manually inventory JavaScript files:

Identify all JavaScript files on web pages that link to or contain payment forms.
Maintain an up-to-date list of these scripts, noting their source and purpose.

Step 3: Authorize each script:

Review and explicitly approve the use of each JavaScript file to ensure it is necessary and secure.

Step 4: Implement a content security policy (CSP):

A CSP restricts which JavaScript files are allowed to execute on your website.
Configure your CSP to whitelist only authorized scripts, blocking unauthorized or potentially harmful ones.

Per Requirement 11.6.1, nonprofits are required to ensure web pages, including payment forms, remain secure by detecting unauthorized changes.

Step 5: Implement monitoring solutions:

Use automated services to continuously monitor web pages and scripts for unauthorized modifications or tampering.

Step 6: Detect and respond:

Ensure your chosen solution provides real-time alerts for unauthorized changes, allowing you to respond quickly and mitigate risks.

Here are the most frequently asked questions by nonprofits about PCI compliance.

Or, choose a simpler, safer solution

Fundraise Up: PCI compliance out-of-the-box

Nonprofits that work with Fundraise Up just have to complete the SAQ A form. And we have a free template right here.

We’re already a PCI Level 1 certified provider. That eliminates the need for you to manually inventory, authorize, and monitor hundreds (even thousands) of pages with custom JavaScript. Instead, we have trusted partners that automate the processes of:

JavaScript inventory and authorization
Content Security Policy configuration
Real-time anti-tamper monitoring

Get started today

With the right donation platform, PCI compliance doesn’t have to be daunting. In fact, moving from another platform to Fundraise Up will save you a ton of work! We’ve simplified the process so you can focus on your mission. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out for support. Together, let’s build a secure and compliant future for your nonprofit.

compliance

Navigating the federal grant freeze: A nonprofit toolkit

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

In the wake of the recent federal grant freeze risk, the nonprofit sector finds itself at a crossroads. Whether the news changes, the freeze has uncovered a significant risk factor for many nonprofits — there is no single source of consistent, reliable funding. And that’s a very risky position to be in for both your team and your beneficiaries.

In the past 24 hours, we’ve been in constant conversations with our customers, our partners — these wonderful people who we call friends — to understand what they need and how we can help. We don’t have all the answers, no one does at this point. But we’re here to support your mission like always, no matter how this event plays out.

And with the ripple effects still to come, we want to support you right now. Our team is monitoring the situation and have built this resource toolkit for you:

Nonprofit toolkit for digital fundraising

One of the key advantages of digital fundraising is its agility. Unlike federal grants, which can be subject to political whims and bureaucratic delays, online donations can be solicited and received quickly. This flexibility is crucial in times of crisis, allowing nonprofits to respond rapidly to changing circumstances. The recent stories from organizations like UNICEF USA and Feed The Children demonstrate this incredible potential.

With billions of dollars in community grants, university research funding, and nonprofit support, this freeze is challenging organizations to rethink their funding strategies and operational models. To adapt, to change, to diversify.

So as we all navigate this unanticipated turn, it’s critical to note this: nonprofits cannot wait to see what happens. By leveraging digital giving now, you can mitigate the consequences of this freeze.

Nonprofits that invest in and optimize their digital fundraising efforts are better positioned to withstand external pressures. And we’re here to help you get there successfully.

Fundraise Up secures $70 million: our investment is your win

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Your personal invitation to the future of fundraising

We're thrilled to announce that Fundraise Up has secured a $70 million growth capital investment, marking a pivotal moment not just for us, but for the nonprofit sector. This funding isn't just an investment in our company. It's the resources to build tools that will help you raise more funds with less effort. It's the means to create technology that will connect you with donors in deeper ways. It's an investment in your mission and the future of fundraising.

Read the official press release on Business Wire.

[video:https://engage.fundraiseup.com/hubfs/PByrnes.SeriesBAnnouncement-1.mp4 video_caption:]

What this investment means for you

Accelerated innovation at your fingertips

With this substantial investment, we’re ready to supercharge our AI-driven technology. This means nonprofits can expect even more cutting-edge features designed to boost donor engagement, improve donor conversion, and streamline fundraising efforts.

The nonprofit sector deserves cutting-edge technology that matches the scale of their ambitions. With this growth investment, we're positioned to deliver exactly that — expanding our product capabilities, enhancing our AI-powered features, and creating tools that will set new standards for online fundraising. This isn't just about growth — it's about empowering every nonprofit to achieve more for their mission. — Roman Sulla, Fundraise Up VP of Product.

Global reach, local touch

Whether you're a local charity or an international NGO, our expanded global presence will equip you with tools to reach donors anywhere, anytime. This investment will bring increased support, more localized features, and a broader network of resources to organizations across different regions.

Scalable support for your growing mission

Your success is our success, and we're scaling up to ensure you have the backing you need every step of the way. This investment will support hiring and team growth, meaning even better customer support, more robust infrastructure, and a platform that can grow alongside your organization.

By the way! We’re hiring for positions across the company and across the globe.

This investment allows us to continue to bring the most innovative and the most impactful product to market for many, many years to come. — Adam Johnson, Fundraise Up President.

This $70 million investment is a commitment to the future of nonprofit fundraising. In an era where effective fundraising can make or break a nonprofit's mission, having a technology partner that’s innovative, growing, and committed to driving impact — can be transformative. As we look to the future, it's clear there's never been a better time to join our community and leverage these upcoming advancements. Read our exclusive profile with TechCrunch.

Skyrocket donor retention rates with the Donor Portal

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The best way to increase donor retention rates and build trust is by giving supporters easy-to-use tools to manage their contributions. With Fundraise Up's Donor Portal, your donors can edit recurring plans, dedicate donations, manage fundraisers, download receipts, and more — all within a sleek, user-friendly interface, and without having to reach out to your support team.

Let’s explore the latest innovations we’ve made to the Donor Portal to help nonprofits like yours raise more and engage better with supporters.

Donor Portal innovations to improve donor retention rates

1. Empower donors with “Give More” buttons

The most dedicated supporters often visit the Donor Portal. Recognizing this, we saw an opportunity to empower them to contribute even more.

By strategically placing “Give More” buttons across key areas of the Donor Portal, including the homepage and one-time donations pages, we’ve made it easier for supporters to increase their giving.

Why does it work? Because these are your most engaged donors — they already believe in your cause and are happy to give more when the opportunity is presented clearly and conveniently.

Did you know? 40% of donors who engage with Upgrade Links double their donations. Get the details on this impressive feature.

2. Offer options with “Resume” buttons

Sometimes life gets in the way, and donors pause their recurring donations. Our data shows that financial challenges are a common reason for cancellations, but most donors don’t want to stop contributing entirely — they just need to pause them. In fact, 1 in 4 potential cancellations remain donors when they discover how simple it is to pause or adjust their contributions instead.

Fortunately, the Donor Portal offers donors the ability to pause their recurring donations. This functionality allows donors to step back temporarily without ending their commitment to your cause.

To make it even easier for donors to re-engage when they’re ready, we’ve introduced the “Resume Donation” button. Strategically placed throughout the Donor Portal, this feature gives donors full control over their giving and ensures they can restart their support when the time is right.

“The main benefits we’ve experienced since moving our recurring donations at the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance to Fundraise Up include having everything in one place, a more user-friendly backend, how easily the donor information flows into Salesforce which saves administrative time, and a reduction in the number of people reaching out for support since they can use the Donor Portal.” – Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance

3. Build trust with an improved Donation History

Transparency builds trust. That’s why we’ve enhanced the “Donation History” section of the Donor Portal. Supporters can now easily track every contribution they’ve made — or see when a transaction didn’t go through — in a clean, polished interface. These improvements give donors a clear picture of their impact while reinforcing their confidence in supporting your cause.

4. Seamlessly integrate with your custom Donor Portal

Already have your own donor portal? No problem. With our seamless Donor Portal access feature, you can integrate Fundraise Up’s powerful tools directly into your existing platform via API.

And the Fundraise Up REST API does even more! Check out these creative use cases.

Supporters enjoy a streamlined experience without needing multiple logins, and you get the best of both worlds: your custom portal enhanced by Fundraise Up’s innovative features.

With the API, you can direct donors to either the main Donor Portal page or specific recurring plan management, providing even greater flexibility.

Why nonprofits love the Donor Portal

Happier supporters: A turn-key, self-serve experience fosters trust and donor satisfaction.
Increased revenue: Features like the “Give More” and “Resume” buttons, combined with the frictionless giving experience, encourage greater contributions and long-term engagement.
Fewer support requests: Empowering donors to manage their giving reduces administrative overhead for your nonprofit.

Innovation, always

At Fundraise Up, we put stellar donor experiences at the heart of everything we do. The Donor Portal is a cornerstone of that mission, and we’re committed to continually innovating it to help you build better relationships and raise more for your cause. Book your personalized demo of the Donor Portal today.

Features Page

Just 5 minutes to optimize the online giving experience

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

What if we told you that in just a few clicks, you could unlock features that not only increase revenue but also make the online giving experience easier and more enjoyable for your donors?

Fundraise Up’s AI-powered tools are designed to help you:

optimize fundraising campaigns
increase donation revenue
grow your recurring donor base
reduce processing fees

And that’s all while delivering a top-notch donor experience. Best of all, setup takes less than 5 minutes. Here’s how you can make it happen:

1. Smarter donation suggestions in real-time

The challenge: Asking for the right donation amount is tricky. Too high, and you might scare donors away. Too low, and you leave money on the table.

The solution: Fundraise Up’s AI takes the guesswork out of the equation. It analyzes real-time data — like device type, location, time of day, and user behavior — to suggest the perfect donation amount for each donor.

Why it works: Whether it’s a mobile user giving in the evening or someone on a desktop during the day, our AI adjusts the ask to feel personalized and natural.

The impact: Nonprofits using AI-powered suggestions see a 10–15% increase in revenue and up to 2x more donor conversions.

How to enable: Go to your campaign settings and enable this option in one click: Dashboard > Campaigns > [Your campaign name] > Settings > Suggested amounts > Use personalized suggested amounts. Learn more about suggested amounts here.

Real-life example: 73% of donations to World Hope International used personalized ask amounts, significantly increasing revenue.

2. Smart recommendations for covering transaction fees

The challenge: Most donors are willing to cover transaction fees, but how you present the option can significantly impact whether they follow through.

The solution: Fundraise Up’s AI intelligently decides whether to pre-check the option to cover costs for each donor. By analyzing real-time signals, our AI determines the setting most likely to increase conversions and revenue.

The impact: On average, 84% of donors on our platform cover transaction fees, compared to an industry average of 50–60%.

How it helps your mission: Additional revenue from covered fees goes straight into funding your programs and services.

How to enable: Select “Adaptive cost coverage” in your campaign settings - “Transaction costs” tab. Learn more about cost coverage here.

“68% of our donors now cover transaction fees, which means we can redirect more resources to our programs.” - Erin Bialecki, Director of Development and Communications, RedRover

You can be confident that this feature aligns perfectly with compliance requirements and global best practices. Learn more about compliance here.

3. Turning one-time donors into long-term supporters

The challenge: Recurring donors are the backbone of nonprofit sustainability, but converting one-time givers into loyal supporters can be difficult.

The solution: Fundraise Up’s AI identifies the best moments to encourage recurring donations. Whether it’s before, during, or after the donation process, the system makes it easy for donors to choose monthly online giving.

The impact: Nonprofits using this feature see up to 2.3% of one-time donors convert to recurring donors.

How it helps your team: With recurring donors, you gain a predictable revenue stream, allowing you to plan programs and services with confidence.

How to enable: Check “Suggest a recurring plan before donation” and “Suggest a recurring plan after donation” in your campaign settings. Learn more about upselling.

Don’t worry about the dreaded “ask”. Our AI considers the perfect time to present an upsell option, ensuring the donor experience stays positive while increasing your chances of conversion. Nonprofits using this feature see up to 30% of one-time donors convert to recurring donors.

“The recurring upsell has been a game-changer for us. We’ve seen a huge increase in monthly donations, and Fundraise Up makes it so easy for donors.” - Maggie McBride, Digital Marketing Manager, Community FoodBank of New Jersey

4. AI-powered donation frequency optimization

The challenge: Choosing the default donation frequency (one-time vs. monthly) is key to increasing revenue, but manually setting this for every campaign can be time-consuming and less effective.

The solution: Fundraise Up’s AI can now optimize the default donation frequency in real time. Our AI analyzes donor behavior to suggest the frequency most likely to drive conversions — monthly or one-time — ensuring donors see the option that resonates best with them.

The impact: Organizations using frequency optimization have seen revenue increase by up to 15%.

Why it matters: Giving donors the right option at the right moment makes it easier for them to commit to monthly online giving — without additional manual work for you.

How to enable: In your campaign settings, go to the new “Default Frequency” block and choose “AI-Optimized Frequency.” Learn more about Checkout frequencies here.

We discovered 5 unexpected outcomes of AI in digital fundraising. Take a look.

Why it’s worth 5 minutes of your time

These AI-powered features don’t just increase your revenue, they create an engaging experience for your donors that keeps them coming back. And with just a few clicks, you can start seeing results:

Increased revenue from smarter donation suggestions.
Sustainable growth through recurring donor acquisition.
Reduced costs with strategic fee coverage.

At Fundraise Up, we designed these tools to work for you, so you can spend less time worrying about donation mechanics and more time focusing on your mission. Get a deep dive into Fundraise Up’s AI in this FREE guide.

AI page

The digital fundraising imperative: Why nonprofits must embrace online fundraising now

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Nonprofits today raise money through a variety of channels and, in spite of the fact that we live in a largely digital world, many of those channels are very ‘analog’. This is a product of a couple factors: these channels cater to a majority of the current donor base and change management against this is difficult to manage when the existing channels are ‘working’.

So, what’s the disconnect?

The problem is that this will create a massive trough in donation revenue for nonprofits that do not properly address digital fundraising in the very immediate future. And the challenges of not addressing digital are going to be felt across a variety of fundraising channels, not just classical online donations.

Before we address the future challenges it’s important to talk about today; the pandemic was a forcing function that caused most nonprofits to address their digital experience. As a result, many nonprofits believe that digital has been addressed and is ‘working’ for them today. In spite of this sentiment, however, we know that most nonprofits are leaving digital donation revenue on the table every single day.

The challenge is that most nonprofits don’t have the resources necessary to manage a constant cycle of iteration and improvement of their digital channels. This creates what is called a ‘false ceiling’; we don’t have the resources to do better so, we are doing as well as we can expect to do.

It’s time to expect more from digital

But, this does not have to be the case. Every day we see nonprofits surpassing industry averages and improving upon their previous benchmarks for digital productivity. Still, so many organizations feel that they shouldn’t expect to do more through digital.

NextAfter’s 2024 Fundraising Benchmark Report tells us that organizations who are leaning into digital are already growing faster than those who are not. In today’s world of fundraising it’s estimated that 10-20% of donation revenue is generated through online channels; that number is projected to grow to 30-50% by 2034. This represents either great opportunity, or great risk depending upon the approach nonprofits take to addressing this channel. Lets take a look at a couple of examples to help bring this to life.

In the table above you’ll see that — even if you do nothing to improve the channel — the % of digital donation revenue grows from ~10% (low end of the current low estimate) to ~30% (low end of the projection for 2034) ie. your online donation revenue will grow materially.

Note: the table also assumes that your capture rate remains the same over time, which should not be taken for granted; M&R benchmarks reports 2024 report states that conversion rates industry wide actually went down from 15% to 12% last year to this year. This is part of what contributes to the sense that ‘digital is working’.

For most nonprofits, digital revenue is only growing because digital’s slice of the pie is growing. Actual execution on digital conversion may be staying the same, or even degrading for some. Given the pace of change in technology and donor behavior, your approach to digital needs to be constantly iterated upon in order to ensure it’s operating at optimal performance. Most organizations do not have the resources to support constant testing and iteration: either internal resources are scarce, outsourcing testing is too expensive, or the volume of traffic is not high enough to quickly make a determination as to whether the results of a test are conclusive.

The scenarios in the table above consider both the growth of digital and improvement in capture rate; as you can see the compounding impact of capture rate improving, while the market grows, leads to significant impact on total digital donation revenue over that span of time.

Conversion increases are almost guaranteed

Now, it’s important to note that even though this improvement sounds like a huge change, we actually see this consistently. While industry average conversion is now reported at 12%, across our customer base we see an average of 28% conversion. So this improvement compared to industry averages would not be the outlier, but rather would be closer to the average improvement our customers are seeing. And that’s not all. Take a look at the performances differences below.

What also needs to be considered is the volume of donor acquisition that will be moving to digital during the next decade. Digital, in large part, will be the way organizations acquire a large % of their new donors. This is going to impact fundraising channels that remain more ‘analog’ even as more fundraising transitions to digital.

Let’s use major giving as an example; many major donors don’t start that way, they grow into that over time as their comfort level with the organization and their attachment to the mission grows. Consider this: the percentage of future sustainers with the potential to be major donors are more and more likely to be initially acquired through digital channels. If organizations do not prioritize digital, it’s not great news for the pipeline of major donors into the future. The same challenge of top of funnel donor acquisition applies to other channels like events as well.

This becomes a significant risk for organizations, especially in times where they are behind their targets and are chasing to catch up. The first instinct is to remove focus from broad based donor acquisition channels and place that emphasis on things like mid and major donors. This is a predictable response to a moment of challenge but is not with out mid to long term consequences. Eventually, the effectiveness of that short term strategy will wane and if the organization will find themselves facing a trough in performance across all channels that will be difficult to manage out of.

Embrace revenue growth, embrace digital

In conclusion, the future of nonprofit fundraising lies in the digital realm. While traditional methods still hold value, the potential for growth and increased donor engagement through digital channels cannot be ignored.

Nonprofits that embrace and invest in digital fundraising strategies today will not only secure their financial stability but also position themselves as leaders in the sector. By overcoming the ‘false ceiling’ and continuously iterating on their digital approaches, these organizations can unlock new levels of success and ensure their missions thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Raising the standards: Accessibility in nonprofit web design

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Accessibility: a foundation for inclusive fundraising

When orgs choose technology to power their campaigns, one crucial factor often flies under the radar: accessibility, especially in terms of nonprofit web design. Making donor-facing tools accessible isn't just about meeting standards — it's about opening doors for everyone to participate in your mission.

At Fundraise Up, accessibility is woven into everything we do, so nonprofits can focus on fundraising with confidence that their tech stack supports every donor.

Why accessibility matters for your mission

Disabilities take many forms — hearing, vision, motor, cognitive, or even situational. Accessibility in nonprofit web design means creating tools that work for everyone — whether it’s a donor navigating your page with assistive technology, someone experiencing temporary limitations like an injury, or anyone interacting with your campaign in less-than-ideal circumstances (think bright sunlight or a noisy environment).

Accessible platforms not only comply with legal standards; they foster inclusivity, expand your reach, and enhance donor experiences. Here’s why accessibility is non-negotiable:

Reaching more donors: Accessible platforms resonate with a broader audience, including the growing population of older adults and those with situational challenges.
Legal compliance: From Section 508 in the U.S. to the Equality Act in the UK, compliance isn’t optional - it’s essential.
Building trust: Thoughtful, inclusive design signals you care. That builds loyalty and makes your campaigns stand out.

How Fundraise Up leads the way in accessibility

At Fundraise Up, accessibility isn’t an afterthought — it’s at the heart of our design philosophy. Here’s what sets us apart:

WCAG AA standards
Everything we create is designed to meet or exceed WCAG AA guidelines — the global gold standard for accessibility. Think of WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) AA as the accessibility equivalent of GDPR. It sets clear, actionable rules for inclusivity, ensuring we meet the needs of most users.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) define three levels of accessibility to meet diverse user needs:
A (Basic Accessibility): This is the minimum level, addressing critical barriers that prevent access for users with disabilities.
AA (Mid-Level Accessibility): The most commonly adopted standard, AA addresses a broader range of accessibility issues. It focuses on creating inclusive experiences for a wide audience, such as ensuring sufficient contrast and avoiding color-dependent cues.
AAA (Enhanced Accessibility): The highest standard, AAA targets advanced accessibility needs, such as offering multiple methods of navigation or providing sign language translations. This level is often reserved for platforms specifically designed for users with disabilities.
At Fundraise Up, we adhere to WCAG AA standards. While AAA compliance is reserved for platforms explicitly designed for those with disabilities, WCAG AA allows us to strike the right balance for the nonprofit sector.
Beyond automation
Automated tools for accessibility checks? Great in theory, shaky in practice. That’s why we’ve partnered with a top-tier third-party auditor. They perform rigorous evaluations, ensuring our platforms don’t just check boxes but truly serve the people using them.
Accessibility is never finished — we’re always improving to ensure we meet the highest standards and keep our platform as inclusive as possible. — Ivan Yarikov, Fundraise Up Compliance Manager.

How Fundraise Up builds accessibility into every interaction

Accessibility isn’t just about meeting guidelines — it’s about creating intuitive and thoughtful design. At Fundraise Up, we embrace the core principles of WCAG to ensure inclusivity in every interaction.

From our Checkout to our Campaign pages, Elements, and Donor Portal, accessibility is at the core of our design process. Here's how we make it happen — and these are just the essentials of our comprehensive accessibility work:

1. Perceivability

We ensure all content is discernible, whether visually, audibly, or through assistive technology.

Contrast
We design with high contrast ratios, following WCAG AA standards, so text and interface elements are easy to see for all users, including those with low vision or color blindness.

Colors
Color alone is never the sole means of conveying information. Instead, we use additional text cues and icons to ensure accessibility.

Alt text
We provide alternative text for all non-text elements, ensuring users who rely on screen readers can access the same information.

Fundraise Up enhances accessibility for donors with visual impairments by making the platform compatible with a variety of screen readers. This includes built-in tools like VoiceOver (for macOS) and Narrator (for Windows), as well as popular third-party applications and browser extensions.

Interface scalability
We ensure our platform supports zooming up to 400% using browser or operating system settings without losing functionality or clarity. This allows users to magnify content for better readability while maintaining a fully accessible experience.

2. Operability

Interactive elements are designed for ease of use across devices and assistive technologies.

Keyboard navigation
Interactive elements are structured to follow predictable navigation patterns, moving seamlessly from one to the next.

Focus visibility
All the interactive elements across the platform have a visible focus indicator when navigating with a keyboard.
Touch-friendly areas
Buttons and controls in our interfaces are sized optimally to ensure easy interaction across all devices, whether users are on small screens or using assistive devices that may require more precise targeting.

3. Understandability

We prioritize clear, simple communication to make every interaction intuitive.

Clarity in texts: Across the platform, from Checkout to Campaign Pages, we use simple, purposeful language that avoids jargon and also accommodates localization needs. Our approach is guided by established UX writing principles that focus on clarity and user-centric messaging.
Tone of voice: Our communication respects the user, focusing on guidance and solutions instead of assigning blame for errors.

4. Robustness

Ensuring a robust interface means creating designs that adapt seamlessly across different devices, browsers, and user needs:

Native Elements: We use native elements such as <button> and <input> to ensure compatibility with screen readers and assistive technologies.
Clear Form Labels: All form fields are properly labeled using <label> tags, making them easy to understand and navigate.
Role Attributes: For complex controls, we specify roles using role attributes to clarify their functionality.

Accessibility in action

Accessibility isn’t a "set it and forget it" task — it’s an ongoing commitment. That’s why we review our platforms annually with our auditing partner and ensure nonprofits using our platform have the tools and knowledge to create inclusive campaigns. Together, we can ensure fundraising reaches every donor, in every context, with ease.

Here are some of the examples of how we build the platform with accessibility in mind:

1. Auto-generated Alt text for images

To simplify accessibility for nonprofits, we introduced AI-generated alternative text (alt text) for all images used in the donation process.

The AI-generated alt text provides clear, descriptive information about images, making content accessible for users relying on screen readers.
This feature reduces the manual workload for nonprofits while ensuring compliance with legal accessibility requirements.

2. Floating Labels

To enhance the user experience, we use floating labels in the Checkout and Campaign pages.

When a donor interacts with an input field, the label “floats” above the field, transitioning from its placeholder position.
This ensures the input’s context remains clear, improving usability, especially for assistive technology users.

By implementing features like these, we’re not just keeping up with accessibility standards—we’re setting the bar for accessible design in the nonprofit sector.

The future of accessibility: personalization powered by AI

What’s next for accessibility? We believe AI will play a transformative role, enabling dynamic, adaptable interfaces. Imagine a platform that tailors itself to individual users — simplifying navigation for newcomers, providing advanced tools for experienced donors, or adjusting text size and contrast in real-time.

Our journey has already begun with AI-powered alt text generation, ensuring every image is accessible without added effort for nonprofits. And the possibilities ahead? They’re limitless.

Accessibility isn’t just about compliance — it’s about creating a world where every donor can support your mission. Together, we can push boundaries and build a future where fundraising is inclusive, impactful, and designed for everyone.

AI Page

Simplify nonprofit data management with Marketing Consent

Sun, 05 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

When it comes to donor communication, the stakes are high. Donors want transparency, trust, and choice. Nonprofits want compliance, connection, and growth. But finding the balance between these priorities — especially in a world of ever-changing data protection laws — can feel like an uphill battle. That’s why we built Marketing Consent to support nonprofit data management.

This new feature is here to simplify compliance with laws like GDPR, CCPA, and others while creating a seamless experience for donors. With Marketing Consent, nonprofits can ask for permissions their way — tailored to their organization’s needs and legally aligned with their region’s requirements.

Fundraise Up takes compliance seriously. Explore our certifications in the United States, Canada, and European Union.

Real-world benefits for everyone

For nonprofits: Simplify compliance and data management while growing your communication lists.
For donors: Offer clarity and control, fostering trust in every interaction.
For fundraising success: Increase engagement, increase opt-in rates, and expand your communication reach.

Looking ahead

Marketing Consent is the latest in a series of innovations designed to make fundraising easier and more effective for nonprofits. We believe that when nonprofits are equipped with tools that simplify compliance, optimize communication, and respect donor preferences, everyone wins.

Ready to see what Marketing Consent can do for your organization? Contact us today to learn more about implementing this feature and building stronger connections with your supporters.

Compliance Page

Demystifying AI in fundraising: Privacy, ethics, and donor trust

Fri, 27 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Nonprofits that integrate AI into fundraising operations are seeing significant improvements in conversion rates, donor retention, and overall revenue. But even with the benefits AI offers, some organizations remain hesitant. Concerns about data accuracy, complexity, or fear that AI might diminish personal connections are understandable but often misplaced.

AI, especially as implemented by platforms like Fundraise Up, is designed to work alongside your team, not replace it. It enhances your ability to connect with donors by handling technical, data-driven tasks, freeing up more time for that human touch.

To make the most of this powerful technology, there’s a need for trust — trust in the data-driven insights AI provides and trust that AI can enhance, rather than replace, human decision-making in the fundraising process. Let’s talk about it.

Common concerns about AI in fundraising

Concern: Data privacy and security

Nonprofits often express concerns about how AI handles personal information given the sensitive nature of donor data and the potential consequences of data breaches. Here’s how we approach privacy.

Solution - Non-PII data usage:

Our AI operates using non-personally identifiable information (non-PII) data. This means that the most sensitive personal details of donors are not processed. Instead of relying on sensitive personal information, we focus on behavioral and engagement data. This includes analyzing patterns such as:

Donation frequency
Preferred communication channels
Interaction with fundraising campaigns
Time and device used for engagement

By focusing on these less sensitive data points, we’re still able to provide valuable insights without compromising donor privacy.

Solution - Regulatory compliance:

Our AI complies with major privacy regulations such as GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, and more. These compliance help nonprofits meet their legal obligations regarding data protection.

Explore all Fundraise Up compliance certifications.

Solution - Transparency:

We emphasize transparency in how our AI operates, allowing nonprofits to understand and explain to their donors how personalized recommendations are generated. This includes open communication about the types of data used, how we gather data, and freedom for nonprofits to manage donor consent options.

Concern: Complexity and integration

Nonprofits often express concerns about the complexity of implementing AI into their existing systems and workflows. However, AI solutions like ours are addressing these concerns through several key approaches:

Solution - Built-in AI features:

Modern AI platforms for nonprofits come with pre-configured, ready-to-use AI-driven features. This eliminates the need for extensive customization or technical knowledge, making it easier for organizations to adopt AI technology without significant upfront investment in time or resources.

Solution - Seamless integration:

Good AI solutions are designed to integrate smoothly with existing nonprofit systems. This means minimal disruption to current operations and a reduced learning curve for staff. The goal is to enhance existing processes rather than replace them entirely, allowing for a gradual and manageable transition to AI-assisted workflows.

Check out the Fundraise Up REST API: a two-way API that processes donations from non-digital channels (telethons, events, F2F) and seamlessly integrates with your CRM, BI tools, and other platforms.

Solution - Rapid impact assessment:

One of the most valuable aspects of AI implementation is the ability to quickly measure its impact. Nonprofits can easily track key performance indicators such as:

Conversion rates for donation campaigns
Changes in average donation sizes
Acquisition and retention rates for recurring donors

This data-driven approach allows organizations to make informed decisions about their AI strategy and adjust as needed.

Concern: Maintaining personal connections

A significant concern for many nonprofits is that increased reliance on AI might lead to a loss of the personal touch that is so crucial in donor relationships. However, when implemented thoughtfully, AI can actually enhance rather than diminish these connections:

Solution - Complementary role:

AI is not designed to replace human fundraisers but to work alongside them. By handling routine tasks and data analysis, AI frees up fundraising teams to focus on building and nurturing relationships with donors.

Solution - Task optimization:

AI excels at managing technical and data-driven aspects of fundraising, such as:

Analyzing donor behavior patterns
Personalizing communication timing
Optimizing donation ask amounts

This allows human team members to dedicate more time to high-value, relationship-building activities that require empathy and personal understanding.

Solution - Enhanced personalization:

By leveraging AI-driven insights, nonprofits can create more tailored and relevant experiences for donors. This can lead to stronger connections as donors feel more understood and appreciated by the organization.

Solution - Increased efficiency:

With AI handling time-consuming administrative tasks, fundraising teams can dedicate more energy to personal outreach, storytelling, and donor stewardship activities that truly resonate with supporters

Concern: Flexibility and control

Knowing you have control over AI, or even the ability to test its effectiveness before full adoption, can help alleviate concerns about AI mismanagement. That’s why we offer several features to address these needs:

Solution - Customizable AI features:

We provide the ability to switch AI features on or off as needed. This granular control allows nonprofits to tailor AI's involvement to their specific needs and comfort level.

Solution - Gradual testing:

Nonprofits have the option to gradually test various AI-powered features. For example, they can start with personalized suggested donation amounts or Adaptive Cost Coverage, allowing for a phased approach to AI adoption.

Learn more about our AI-powered features that donors love.

Solution - Experimentation and adjustment:

Our platform offers the flexibility to experiment with different AI features and adjust based on what works best for each organization. This allows nonprofits to find the optimal balance between AI assistance and human-driven fundraising strategies.

Embracing AI in fundraising

58% of nonprofits have already integrated AI into their daily operations, and it’s reshaping how orgs connect with donors and manage their fundraising efforts. So as donor expectations evolve, it’s critical to keep up.

By addressing concerns, testing features, and gradually implementing AI-driven solutions, nonprofits can harness AI to improve donor engagement, increase donations, and ultimately further their missions more effectively. Learn more about predictive AI and how Fundraise Up uses it to 2x donation conversions for orgs like yours.

AI page

Nonprofit compliance: 2025 PCI requirements you need to know

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

This article was written for the March 31, 2025, PCI DSS 4.0 requirement deadline. If you missed the deadline, be sure to check the PCI website for more details.

If your nonprofit accepts online donations, PCI compliance is more than just a best practice — it’s a requirement. While the technicalities may feel daunting, understanding the basics is crucial to safeguarding your donors’ trust and their sensitive payment information. Let’s break it down so you know exactly what nonprofit compliance with PCI entails, what your responsibilities are, and what changes are coming in 2025.

What is PCI compliance for nonprofits?

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a set of security guidelines created to protect cardholder data during and after a financial transaction. Nonprofit compliance ensures that organizations handling credit card information — like nonprofits accepting online donations—have measures in place to reduce the risk of breaches and fraud.

For nonprofits, PCI data compliance is often simplified because the actual processing of payment data is outsourced to third-party online donation platforms like Fundraise Up or payment processors like Stripe and PayPal. These providers manage much of the heavy lifting for compliance requirement, but nonprofits still have key responsibilities.

Don’t forget about ISO 27001 certification, either. Bookmark this breakdown.

The new 2025 PCI requirements: breaking it down

Despite existing safeguards, cyberattacks have grown increasingly sophisticated and this is a driving force behind the new PCI DSS Version 4.0.1, which takes effect on March 31, 2025.

The upcoming changes focus on two key areas: script management and tamper detection.

PCI Requirement 6.4.3: Inventory and Secure Scripts

Organizations will need to inventory, authorize, and secure all JavaScript files interacting with their payment forms. This ensures:

Only authorized scripts are allowed.
Unauthorized changes are detected and addressed quickly.

PCI Requirement 11.6.1: Anti-Tamper Detection

This mandates the use of automated tools to monitor web pages for unauthorized modifications. Such tools provide real-time alerts to prevent breaches before they happen.

How do nonprofits fit into the PCI compliance ecosystem?

PCI compliance isn’t a solo effort; it involves a collaborative chain of custody. Here’s how the responsibility is shared:

1. Nonprofits

Nonprofits are responsible for ensuring their website and third-party vendors are PCI compliant. This includes:

Embedding secure payment forms (like Fundraise Up’s JavaScript).
Completing SAQ A annually.
Maintaining a secure environment for their website.

2. Solution providers (e.g., Fundraise Up)

These platforms provide the tools nonprofits use to collect donations. Their responsibilities include:

Embedding secure JavaScript and ensuring safe transmission of data.
Implementing robust security measures to meet PCI standards.

Fundraise Up is fully compliant with 2025 PCI standards. See all our compliances here.

3. Payment processors (e.g., Stripe, PayPal)

The processors handle the actual storage and processing of cardholder data. They adhere to the most stringent PCI standards, including encryption, network security, and regular audits.

Each party’s compliance strengthens the overall system, creating a secure environment for online giving.

A nonprofit compliance checklist for PCI 2025

Nonprofits accepting credit card donations are required to meet specific PCI standards annually. For most, this means completing SAQ A (Self-Assessment Questionnaire A). This is the simplest PCI form and applies to organizations that:

Outsource all cardholder data processing to third-party vendors.
Do not store, process, or transmit credit card information on their systems or premises.
Rely on secure, hosted payment forms or JavaScript embeds (like Fundraise Up’s donation platform).

Three actions you can take right now

Preparation is key to ensuring compliance with the new standards. Here’s how you can stay ahead:

Complete your annual SAQ A: Download our SAQ A template or reach out to our team for assistance.
Engage your QSAs: Contact your Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) for guidance on preparing for the new standards.
Check your online donation platform’s compliance: ensure they have a game plan for passing standards so you’re not left in breach.

Fundraise Up is fully compliant with the upcoming PCI DSS 4.0.1 standards. Our platform already includes the secure, scalable tools nonprofits need to meet these new requirements with confidence. By working with Fundraise Up, you can trust that your donation processing infrastructure is aligned with the latest security standards.

What does this mean for nonprofits like yours?

You can confidently embed our secure JavaScript without worrying about compliance gaps.
Our platform already incorporates the advanced security measures mandated by the new standards, including those for script management and tamper detection.
We’re your partner in compliance, making it easier for you to focus on your mission while we handle the technical complexities.

FREE nonprofit compliance checklist: Learn how to choose secure software vendors.

Let’s sum it up

PCI compliance is a requirement for all nonprofits accepting donations.
As a nonprofit, you should take key actions, like completing your annual SAQ A and ensuring your tech stack is compliant.
Prepare for PCI DSS 4.0.1, which takes effect on March 31, 2025.
You can be confident that Fundraise Up is already fully compliant with the upcoming PCI DSS 4.0.1 standards.

Here are the most frequently asked questions by nonprofits about PCI compliance.

A clear path forward

Here’s the good news: while PCI DSS 4.0.1 introduces new complexities, it also represents an opportunity to strengthen donor trust and build resilience against cyber threats. By leaning on trusted platforms and smart tools, nonprofits can turn these requirements into a stepping stone for growth.

At Fundraise Up, we’re committed to helping you navigate these changes with confidence. If you have donation compliance questions, our experts are here to help.

Compliance page

Adapt or become obsolete: digital is essential for lasting donor engagement

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Nonprofits today face a defining choice: evolve to meet donors' digital expectations or risk losing donor engagement. Digital giving has shifted from a convenience to an expectation. Whether it’s frictionless donation processes or hyper-personalized engagement, today’s donors want their interactions with causes to reflect the seamless experiences they encounter in other areas of their lives.

This change is particularly evident in the growing dominance of mobile devices. According to our platform’s year-to-date data, 57.9% of donations now come from mobile devices, marking a significant shift compared to just a few years ago (the industry average for mobile device donations is 33% according to the 2024 M+R Benchmarks Report). In 2022, Fundraise Up’s mobile donations accounted for 50.1% of total transactions. This growth illustrates that nonprofits must prioritize mobile-first strategies to capture the increasing number of donors who prefer to give via their smartphones.

Digital donor engagement is no longer a “nice-to-have.” It’s the foundation for building stronger donor relationships, increasing loyalty, and unlocking long-term impact. Nonprofits that embrace tools designed to meet donor expectations — especially on mobile — will thrive in an increasingly competitive fundraising environment.

Why digital channels matter for donor engagement

Digital channels give nonprofits an unparalleled opportunity to connect with donors in the spaces they already occupy — whether that’s browsing social media, reading emails, or exploring a nonprofit’s website. Today’s donors are accustomed to seamless online interactions, and they expect nothing less from the causes they support.

According to an article by Candid, nonprofits risk losing support if the donor experience isn’t seamless, engaging, and empowering. Friction, confusion, or outdated processes can break the connection, but a smooth digital experience strengthens it. Nonprofits that prioritize a seamless digital experience are better positioned to strengthen their relationships with donors and inspire lasting loyalty.

This shift isn’t just about convenience; it’s about creating meaningful experiences. Donors want to feel valued, understood, and deeply connected to the missions they support. Nonprofits that can provide seamless, mobile-first interactions are uniquely positioned to transform transactional giving into lasting donor engagement built on trust and shared purpose.

Nonprofits need to meet these expectations through 3 critical checkpoints:

A streamlined giving process: Mobile-first, intuitive design ensures that donating is fast, easy, and frustration-free — no matter the device.
Personalized donor journeys: Data-driven insights allow nonprofits to craft interactions that resonate with each donor’s unique preferences, giving history, and interests.
Flexible payment options: From credit cards to digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, offering diverse payment methods ensures every donor can give in the way that works best for them.

With mobile use continuing to grow, nonprofits that optimize for mobile-first giving are not just keeping up — they’re setting the standard for what donors expect in the digital era.

Personalization: the key to building sustained donor engagement

The future of donor relationships lies in personalization. Today’s donors expect nonprofits to engage with them as individuals, not just names in a database. They’re accustomed to highly tailored interactions in their daily lives — from Netflix suggesting the next show to binge-watch to online retailers offering curated recommendations based on past purchases. This level of personalization has become the standard and nonprofits that fail to meet these expectations risk being seen as out of touch.

Personalization is more than just a buzzword — it’s a proven driver of donor loyalty. When donors feel understood and valued, they are far more likely to stay engaged, increase their giving, and advocate for your cause.

In fact, organizations that prioritize personalized communication consistently report higher retention rates and larger donation amounts. According to NextAfter, nonprofits that embrace a digital-first approach to fundraising see an average overall retention rate of 53% across all channels, compared to the typical 40-45% retention rate. This underscores the significant impact that tailored communication can have on sustaining donor engagement and enhancing overall fundraising success.

This level of personalization not only builds trust but also drives retention and increases average donation sizes. According to Fundraise Up’s data, AI-driven donation prompts and personalization tools significantly boost conversion rates and donor engagement, particularly on mobile devices.

By personalizing every interaction, nonprofits can demonstrate to donors that they’re not just another transaction — they’re an integral part of the mission. As digital engagement evolves, personalization will continue to be the foundation of strong, lasting donor relationships.

The role of data in modern fundraising

Data isn’t just a tool for tracking past behavior — it’s a window into donor motivations and preferences. It’s a critical resource for understanding motivations, predicting future actions, and tailoring donor engagement strategies that resonate. For nonprofits, leveraging data isn’t optional; it’s the key to building trust and fostering long-term relationships with supporters.

Data gives nonprofits the ability to move beyond one-size-fits-all approaches, allowing them to craft campaigns that speak directly to the individual donor. Organizations that embrace data-driven strategies consistently see measurable results, such as increased donation amounts, higher retention rates, and more impactful outreach.

The ability to analyze and act on data is changing the way nonprofits engage with donors, and Fundraise Up is at the forefront of this shift. By providing tools that turn insights into action, Fundraise Up helps nonprofits connect with their supporters in meaningful, personalized ways, ensuring that every interaction drives greater impact.

Meeting donors’ expectations today and tomorrow

In recent years, donor expectations have evolved rapidly, with a significant shift toward mobile-first giving, the adoption of modern payment options like Apple Pay, Google Pay — even Venmo donations — increasing demand for transparency and personalized experiences.

This trend is exemplified by the rise in mobile donor payment adoption, which is projected to reach 4.8 billion users by 2025. Additionally, donors now seek hyper-personalized communication based on their interests, behaviors, and giving histories, moving away from generic appeals. These developments underscore the necessity for nonprofits to adapt to these changing expectations to maintain and grow their donor base.

To stay relevant, nonprofits must be agile enough to adapt not only to today’s trends but to anticipate what’s coming next. The most successful organizations aren’t just reacting to donor expectations — they’re proactively shaping experiences that donors didn’t yet know they wanted (think crypto donation buttons). Agility isn’t simply about keeping pace; it’s about leading the way, understanding that donor behavior, preferences, and technology will continue to evolve rapidly.

For example, as digital wallets like Google Pay and Apple Pay for nonprofits become standard, orgs must prepare for an era where donors expect instantaneous, secure transactions. Simultaneously, the rise of micro-donations, peer-to-peer giving on social platforms, and AI-driven personalization will redefine what donors see as meaningful engagement. Organizations that anticipate these shifts and act decisively will be the ones to foster lasting loyalty.

The risks of standing still are stark. Outdated, clunky processes create friction, and disconnected, generic messaging fails to inspire. Donors encountering these experiences are far more likely to disengage. Conversely, nonprofits that view adaptability as a strategic priority are better positioned to thrive.

Platforms like Fundraise Up ensure nonprofits are always one step ahead, not just keeping up with donor expectations but setting the standard for innovation. Mobile-friendly donation forms, AI-powered suggestions, and actionable data insights aren’t just tools—they’re game-changers for organizations ready to embrace the future.

Adaptability isn’t just an advantage — it’s a necessity. Nonprofits that lean into this mindset will not only meet the moment but seize it, building relationships that last far into the future. With Fundraise Up, nonprofits have a partner to help them stay agile, proactive, and prepared for whatever’s next.

Actionable strategies for nonprofits

To stay relevant and foster lasting donor relationships, nonprofits must embrace a digital-first mindset. This approach isn’t just about adopting new tools — it’s about fundamentally rethinking how to engage with supporters in a way that meets their expectations and inspires lasting loyalty. Here’s how to get started:

1. Prioritize mobile-first design

With a significant amount of online traffic now coming from mobile devices, a mobile-first donation experience is essential. Donors expect smooth, responsive forms that work seamlessly on their phones, without slow load times or cumbersome inputs.

How to implement: Our mobile-optimized donation forms, which adapt to any screen size and offer an intuitive user experience.

2. Leverage personalization tools

Personalization builds trust and makes donors feel seen. Generic messaging no longer resonates in a world where tailored recommendations are the norm.

How to implement: Our AI-powered tools dynamically suggest donation amounts, identify ideal moments to prompt recurring gifts, and help you craft personalized email campaigns based on donor behavior and preferences.

3. Offer flexible payment options

Donors have diverse payment preferences, and providing a variety of options can make the difference between a completed donation and an abandoned form. From digital wallets like Apple Pay to ACH and cryptocurrency, flexibility is key.

How to implement: We support a wide range of modern payment methods, ensuring every donor can give in a way that’s convenient for them.

4. Invest in insights

Data is the backbone of successful fundraising. Regularly analyzing donor behavior and campaign performance can help nonprofits refine their strategies, identify opportunities, and make data-driven decisions that maximize impact.

How to implement: With our robust analytics tools, nonprofits can track key metrics, test campaign variations, and adjust strategies in real-time to achieve better results.

By taking these steps, nonprofits can position themselves as leaders in the digital era—organizations that not only meet but exceed donor expectations. Each of these strategies reinforces trust, builds loyalty, and ensures that every interaction with a donor is meaningful and effective.

Fundraise Up does donor engagement better

The digital transformation of the nonprofit sector isn’t just a passing trend — it’s a fundamental shift redefining how organizations connect with their supporters. As donor expectations continue to evolve, the nonprofits that thrive will be those that embrace digital tools to create seamless, personalized, and impactful giving experiences.

Our online fundraising platform enables nonprofits to meet and exceed these expectations by delivering tailored experiences at scale. Using data from donor behavior, preferences, and giving history, we help organization personalize the giving journey through features like:

Suggested donation amounts that reflect what’s meaningful and realistic for each donor.
Smart recommendations that prompt donors to cover transaction costs
Upsell asks to encourage one-time donors to become recurring supporters.

By turning raw data into actionable insights, we help nonprofits develop smarter, more targeted engagement strategies. With our Insights Dashboard, organizations can:

Understand donor behavior at a granular level: Track how donors interact with campaigns and uncover trends that inform future strategies.
Segment donors for highly targeted outreach: Deliver personalized messages that resonate deeply with donors based on their giving history and interests.
Test and optimize campaigns for maximum impact: Use A/B testing and real-time analytics to refine campaigns and achieve better results.

Platforms like ours aren’t just part of the solution — they’re the foundation for nonprofits looking to stay relevant and impactful in an increasingly digital world. By leveraging innovative tools, nonprofits can deepen donor loyalty, drive recurring support, and achieve their missions with greater efficiency and effectiveness.

Adaptation is no longer optional. Nonprofits face a defining choice: evolve to meet the moment or risk losing the trust and engagement of their supporters. For those willing to embrace digital-first strategies, the future holds incredible opportunities — not just to keep pace with change, but to lead the way in building stronger, more impactful donor relationships.

The time to act is now. With Fundraise Up as your partner, the challenges of the digital era become your greatest opportunities for growth and transformation. Let’s get started today.

Case studies page

Innovation meets impact: Fundraise Up helps nonprofits break records in 2024

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

That old saying, ‘No good deed goes unpunished’.

How many of us have experienced that firsthand? And, really, it’s almost the genesis of Fundraise Up. When Peter Byrnes, Fundraise Up CEO and co-founder, attempted an online donation all those years ago, he found the experience clunky, slow, and frustrating. How many of us can relate to that? But it inspired him, COO Yuriy Smirnov and CTO Anton Isaykin to build Fundraise Up — an online donation platform that values the donor experience.

[video:https://engage.fundraiseup.com/hubfs/2024%20Year%20Wrap-Up%20Pt1.mp4 video_caption:]

And the rest is history…

Not really.

We’re as passionate about improving the donation journey as ever, and 2024 is the biggest evidence of that fire yet.

The idea is simple. Nonprofits need donations to further their mission. Donors are the primary source of that revenue. Engaged donors = more donations.

Here’s where it gets complicated: How can nonprofits engage supporters to give, give more, and give again? Let’s talk about this year’s innovations.

A look at the most impactful innovations from 2024

Throughout the year, we've introduced continuous improvements to maximize funds for nonprofits. These enhancements include new ways for nonprofits to attract donors' attention, a smoother donation experience that increases completion rates and average donation amounts, and backend improvements to simplify the delivery of this best-in-class experience.

[video:https://engage.fundraiseup.com/hubfs/2024%20Year%20Wrap-Up%20Pt2.mp4 video_caption:]

Innovation 1: Capture donor attention

With Fundraise Up, it’s a quick set-up to grab attention during timely fundraising events. Add Elements to existing web pages, or create a dedicated no-code Campaign Pages to direct in just minutes.

When tragic wildfires struck Alberta, the Canadian Red Cross had to respond quickly. We leaned on our strong processes and documentation, alongside Fundraise Up’s Campaign Pages and Elements. The outcome was a record time launch for the 2024 Alberta Wildfires Appeal — and, most importantly, more resources made available quicker for our frontline teams and people needing support on the ground. - Jessica Bernat, Director of Digital Marketing, Canadian Red Cross

Innovation 2: Maximize the chance and size of donations

Our Checkout experience has been fine-tuned to offer the best donor experience possible, and is optimized to increase conversions and donation amounts so that you can earn more revenue to support your cause.

The average recurring donation through Fundraise Up is $33, significantly higher than the industry average of $24.

We don’t rest on our laurels — we prioritize continuous A/B testing because it allows us to deliver a platform that is not only feature-rich, but also rigorously tested and constantly evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of the nonprofit sector.

Organizations can be confident that they're using the most innovative and effective tools available to achieve fundraising goals. Throughout 2024, we introduced both small improvements that were proven to move the needle for conversion, as well as new features including Abandoned Donations and Impact Descriptions.

In the world of nonprofit fundraising, every missed opportunity for donation completion represents a potential lost impact. We introduced a feature specifically to address this challenge: Abandoned Donations. This functionality empowers nonprofits to capture and re-engage supporters who have initiated but not completed a donation.

Our stats show that 10.2% of users who provided their email on the Remind Me Later checkout screen and received a reminder email went on to make a donation.

We understand that every donation is more than a transaction — it's a powerful story waiting to be told. With our new Impact Descriptions feature, you can now show donors the impact their generosity will have — whether it's building a school, providing medical aid, or supporting a local community project.

68% of donors have said it's important for them to understand the impact their donation has.

Finally, Fundraise Up’s simple and secure Virtual Terminal allows nonprofits to process in-person and over-the-phone donations. Plus, it integrates with your existing tech stack (including CRMs). Improvements to this feature included adding saved payments and a language selector.

Innovation 3: Grow and retain your recurring donor base

At Fundraise Up we always say “the only thing better than a donor, is a recurring donor”. We introduced innovative new features this year to help our nonprofits increase their sustainer programs.

Upgrade Links are the golden ticket for recurring donations. When your recurring donors visit an Upgrade Link, they can select from a series of personalized upgrade amounts and increase the size of their donations without having to reenter payment method information.

With just one click, they can easily increase their recurring donations or cover transaction fees. Nonprofits using these links have seen impressive increases in recurring donations — think 50-110%. This year, we made Upgrade Links easier and more efficient to create with a new automation to streamline the process.

Success stories

Partners In Health used a multi-channel strategy to send personalized Upgrade Links not just through email, but also via SMS text messages. Across both channels, the campaign reached an impressive 6,000 donors who were giving monthly to the nonprofit's unrestricted funds. This multi-pronged approach paid dividends with 72% of those who clicked through from email going on to upgrade their monthly gift. On average, donors upgraded their gift by 34%.

We now offer the ability to add an end date to recurring plans, which is ideal for giving periods such as Ramadan.
The Donor Portal is a key part of retaining and nurturing donors. We added the ability to increase donation amounts in the Donor Portal, as well as make new donations.

With Fundraise Up’s AI, one-time donors are intelligently prompted to upgrade to recurring support. As a result, Sandra Schmirler Foundation’s monthly recurring donor base, Champions Circle, grew 300% and generates $150K per year — a 96% increase in monthly donation revenue.

Innovation 4: Tech stack integrations

Effortlessly connect Fundraise Up to any app in your tech stack, including the most popular CRMs. With our native, API-based integrations, you can scale your donation resources while delivering an optimized experience to prospective donors. These integrations allow your teams to make data-driven decisions by ensuring insightful donor information flows seamlessly in and out of your systems. We’re continually improving how Fundraise Up integrates into your tech stack, and introduced a new REST API, and added to our Salesforce integrations.

With Fundraise Up’s powerful two-way API, you can open up new giving channels and automate workflows for smarter analytics and deeper donor engagement. Process one-time and recurring donations from face-to-face fundraising, direct mail, telethons, events, and more — directly in Fundraise Up. Plus, sync donation data with your CRM, BI tools, and beyond.
Our new integration lets you connect Fundraise Up to Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack to create a robust and fully integrated fundraising and marketing platform.
Organizations with custom donor portals can connect directly to the Fundraise Up Donor Portal via API, providing supporters with seamless donor portal access without needing multiple logins.

Innovation 5: Offer best-in-class, enterprise-level experience

Some of the largest nonprofits in the world use Fundraise Up, making it essential for us to offer an enterprise-level platform. Secure your data, adhere to government standards, and check the box for every compliance with Fundraise Up, the only platform to offer enterprise certifications for fundraising anywhere in the world.

This year, we added ISO 27001 compliance which ensures that Fundraise Up has appropriate policies, procedures, and safeguards in place as part of its information security management system.
We’ve maintained our best-in-class 99.9% uptime and phenomenal processing speed of 200 transactions per second.
For enterprise nonprofits, managing user access across numerous applications can be a significant challenge, leading to security risks and operational inefficiencies, which is why we added Single-Sign-On (SSO) for our platform this year.
The new Audit Log for recurring plans provides detailed logging of user and system-initiated changes, so organizations can now easily navigate through historical data, troubleshoot issues promptly, comply with financial audits, and analyze trends in donation plan modifications.

Innovation 6: Easy-to-use analytics

The Insights Dashboard gives you instant, easy-to-understand data on how your fundraising is doing, saving you the hassle of putting together reports and data. It provides a clear, complete view of success at your fingertips.

Earlier this year we gave the Insights Dashboard a refresh based on customer feedback, significantly enhancing charts to provide a more comprehensive understanding of fundraising activities. This knowledge will help you improve your campaigns to strengthen your impact.

Surpassing industry-averages

We’re focused on helping nonprofits increase their impact in the world. As donor behavior changes, the opportunity for digital is only growing. Throughout this past year we have continued to innovate to provide a best-in-class experience so that nonprofits can earn more donation revenue online than they ever thought possible.

Many don’t realize just how big the potential for digital donations is, and once moving to Fundraise Up, they’re blown away by the increases they see from online giving, unlocking a whole new level of generosity potential.

Fundraise Up customers are seeing 30% conversion rates on their online donation forms compared to the industry average of just 12%.

Success story

With the implementation of Fundraise Up, the International Committee of the Red Cross Brazil achieved significant results. Since partnering with FRU, the organization successfully increased its average donation amount by 28% with absolutely zero software costs associated with Fundraise Up thanks to the Adaptive Cost Coverage feature.

Backed by the best-in-class AI

Our dataset stands alone in that it doesn’t pull from crowdfunded donations. Instead, it’s powered by almost a decade of worldwide nonprofit donor data. Donors just like yours inform our AI, ensuring its predictions are compelling and accurate.

And while many of our competitors try to play catch-up by adding AI to their donation forms, it’s simply not possible to match the dataset and innovations that we’ve accumulated over the years.

We deeply believe in the power of innovation to tap into the world’s generosity—which is insanely huge. People want to help, we strive to make that easy for them to do. Nonprofits do an excellent job making their case and inspiring potential donors. It’s tragic if they lose them because of poor tech. Let’s not let that happen anymore! - Peter Byrnes, Fundraise Up CEO and co-founder

As 2024 wraps up, we’re motivated by past wins, excited for the new year, and ready to help even more nonprofits raise the revenue they deserve. If you’re ready to start 2025 on high note, book a personalized demo with our platform experts. Let’s make this the happiest year yet.

Features Page

6 Donation receipt best practices to simplify tax season for donors

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Let's talk about everyone's favorite time of year — tax season! While most people see it a stressful time, we see it as a chance to show your donors some love.

By providing seamless and accurate donation receipts, you can make tax time a lot less stressful for your supporters. It’s all about building trust and keeping that engagement going strong! Doing your part to help donors gather proper documentation is a golden opportunity for your org to strengthen relationships.

We’re exploring some savvy strategies that organizations can implement to simplify tax season for donors, focusing on efficient practices for issuing those all-important tax receipts. So, let’s roll up our sleeves and dive into how we can make this time of year work in everyone’s favor!

The importance of efficient donation receipts

Despite their significance, donation receipts often receive less attention in the donor experience. While necessary for complying with tax regulations, these documents can also strengthen relationships and encourage donor engagement.

Properly managing receipts can significantly impact how donors perceive an organization and influence their future engagement. Optimizing the donation receipt process can lead to notable benefits:

Enhancing donor trust: Accurate and timely receipts reassure donors that the organization handles their contributions professionally, reinforcing confidence in its operations.
Improving donor retention: A seamless receipt experience fosters positive sentiments, encouraging donors to continue their support and deepen their commitment.
Demonstrating transparency: Clear and comprehensive communication about donations promotes openness, strengthening credibility and accountability.

Efficient donation receipts transform a routine obligation into a meaningful interaction. Investing additional focus and strategy into this aspect of donor communication allows organizations to build trust and encourage ongoing support.

6 Donation receipt best practices to simplify tax season and engage donors

Even established nonprofits can improve the efficiency and donor-friendliness of their donation receipt processes. Implementing advanced strategies leads to smoother operations and more satisfied donors. Here are key practices nonprofits can adopt to simplify the process and engage their supporters.

1. Ensure compliance

Regularly reviewing receipt templates and processes ensures alignment with current tax regulations related to tax receipt donations. Staying compliant avoids legal complications and reinforces the organization's credibility.

Keeping informed about changes in tax laws that could affect donation receipts allows for proactive adjustments, demonstrating professionalism and a commitment to adhering to all regulatory requirements. Fundraise Up supports these efforts by providing up-to-date compliance features and adhering to international standards such as PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 2, and GDPR.

2. Protect donor data and be transparent

Alongside compliance, protecting donor data is equally crucial. Safeguarding donor information builds trust and confidence. Implementing strong security measures — such as encrypted systems and secure databases — protects sensitive data from unauthorized access.

Being transparent about data usage and privacy policies is also important. Clearly explaining how information is collected, stored, and used reassures donors of the organization's commitment to protecting their privacy. Providing easy access to these policies and promptly addressing any concerns further strengthens donor confidence. Fundraise Up adheres to strict security standards, helping organizations maintain donor trust.

3. Automate receipt issuance

With compliance and security measures in place, automating the sending of donation receipts can further enhance efficiency. Advanced digital donation platforms like Fundraise Up can automate this process, reducing the chance of human error and ensuring that donors receive their documentation without delay.

Digital donation receipts are legally acceptable for tax purposes in most jurisdictions. Utilizing digital receipts offers convenience by providing immediate access and easy storage, aligning with modern expectations.

4. Personalize communication

Adding a personal touch to donation receipt emails can make donors feel more valued. Tools that allow for personalization at scale, such as those offered by Fundraise Up, enable organizations to include personalized messages that acknowledge specific contributions.

Tailoring receipt content based on donor segments — such as major donors, recurring supporters, or first-time contributors — also makes communications more relevant and engaging for each group.

5. Centralize donor access

Providing donors with a single place to access all their donation receipts and summaries empowers them to manage their records easily. Platform features like Fundraise Up's donor portal enhance their experience while also reducing the number of inquiries the organization receives.

Keeping donation information updated in real-time also ensures donors have access to the most current data, which is especially important during tax season.

6. Offer multiple receipt options

Providing donors with choices regarding their donation receipts enhances satisfaction by catering to individual preferences. Offering email, PDF and downloadable receipts ensures accessibility for all donors, regardless of their comfort with technology.

Additionally, allowing donors to select their preferred receipt frequency — such as one-time, recurring, or annual — further underscores a donor-centric approach and can significantly improve the overall donor experience. Fundraise Up enables organizations to easily configure receipt settings to meet donor preferences.

More ways to deepen engagement with recurring donors

Recurring donors are vital to sustained support. Beyond customizing receipt preferences, organizations can strengthen their connection with these loyal supporters by:

Sharing impact updates: Communicate how their ongoing support advances the mission, making their contributions feel meaningful.
Offering exclusive opportunities: Provide access to special events or personalized content as tokens of appreciation.
Acknowledging milestones: Celebrate significant moments in their giving journey to reinforce their importance to the organization.

And there are even more ways to retain donor generosity beyond the year-end! Just follow these 6 tried-and-true steps to donor retention.

Fundraise Up simplifies donation receipts

Implementing these best practices can transform the donation receipt process into a powerful tool for donor engagement. With customizable receipt templates, global fundraising support, and comprehensive analytics, we’re here to enhance donor satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Ready to elevate the donation receipt process? Discover how we can empower your org during tax season and beyond, transforming administrative tasks into opportunities for deeper donor engagement. Schedule a personalized demo today.

Feature Page

5 ways to improve donor experience using Open Checkout method

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Increased conversion rates and higher donation revenue? Yes! Nonprofits worldwide are seeing incredible results by using Fundraise Up's Checkout Modal donation form.

A recent release of the Open Checkout method allows organizations to trigger the Checkout Modal based on specific triggers and by pre-filling donor information to further improve the donor experience.

What is Fundraise Up’s Checkout Modal? It’s our modern version of the donation form which appears as an overlay on top of your website's content. Like this:

By prompting donors when they’re most engaged, you create a contextualized giving experience that boosts conversion rates at check out. Below are a few creative examples of how organizations can launch the Checkout Modal to capture donors’ attention.

Let’s look at a few scenarios…

1. Include campaign links in donor emails

When you send emails containing personalized links, include a unique identifier for each donor. When donors follow these links to your website, it automatically retrieves their data (if already known) and pre-fills the Checkout Modal.

Initiating the Checkout Modal in this way significantly simplifies the donation process and reduces the number of steps needed to complete a contribution.

To implement this scenario, you can set it up as follows:

Create targeted links in an email campaign: Each link in the email will contain a unique user identifier, which is encoded and added to the URL. This can be a user_id or donor_token parameter.
Automatically retrieve donor data: When a donor follows the link, your website checks for the identifier. If the donor's data is already known, it automatically pulls the information into the profile.
Open and pre-fill the Checkout Modal: After following the link and loading the page, the Checkout Modal opens with pre-filled fields: donation amount, currency, name, email, and other data that can be extracted from the user's profile.
Send relevant campaigns with segmentation: Links can include details about specific campaigns and offers, enabling customized messages and donation amounts that enhance personalization of the donor experience.
Did you know? Fundraise Up Campaign Pages are another way to use the Checkout Modal. These no-code landing pages are perfect for special events and timely appeals.

2. Send personalized offers to your donors’ accounts

To encourage donors to give again and increase the likelihood of successful checkout completion, you can set up the Checkout Modal to open when a donor clicks on a personalized offer in their account on your website.

To implement this scenario, you can set it up as follows:

Create personalized offers: Show tailored offers in donors’ accounts, such as opportunities to support new projects. These personalized offers can be based on donor data, previous contribution history, and other expressed interests creating a more engaging and relevant experience for each supporter.
Pre-fill the Checkout Modal: When a donor clicks on a personalized offer, the Checkout Modal automatically opens with pre-populated fields. These can include suggested donation amounts, designated causes, preferred currency, and the donor's contact details. This approach simplifies the process of making repeat contributions, enhancing donor convenience and potentially increasing giving frequency.

3. Encourage additional giving post-donation

To maximize donor engagement, initiate the Checkout Modal automatically after a first-time donor completes their initial contribution. This strategic timing creates an opportunity to suggest additional causes, effectively cross-promoting your organization's initiatives while the donor is already invested in your mission.

By capitalizing on this moment of engagement, you can potentially increase overall contributions and deepen donor involvement.

To implement this scenario, you can set it up as follows:

Display relevant content after a donation: After a donor completes their contribution and closes the Checkout Modal, present them with targeted content or a popup offering an additional giving opportunity. This could include information about related projects or a special offer connected to their recent donation. Use the FundraiseUp.on JavaScript API function to track donationComplete and checkoutClose events, triggering the display of new content at the optimal moment
Automatic opening of the Checkout Modal: If the user is interested in the offer, the Checkout modal will open up automatically with pre-filled parameters, including the amount, fund designation, and contact details.

4. Using your CRM ID to auto-fill donation form

Optimize the donation experience for returning or known supporters by tapping into your CRM data. Launch the Checkout Modal pre-populated with donor information by simply passing the CRM ID through the URL. This can significantly increase the chances of completed contributions by reducing donor friction and expediting the donation checkout process.

To implement this scenario, you can set it up as follows:

CRM ID in URL: The donor receives a unique link containing their CRM ID as a URL parameter, for instance, https://example.com/donate?crm_id=12345. This link can be shared through various channels, such as QR codes in printed materials, direct messages on social media, donor email communications, direct mail, etc.
Retrieve CRM Data: When the page loads, the website extracts the crm_id parameter from the URL. The system then matches this ID with the donor’s information stored in a CRM database or lookup table (such as name, email, or previous donation preferences).
Automatically pre-populate the Checkout fields: Once the match is found, the donor's data is automatically passed to Fundraise Up’s JavaScript API, allowing the Checkout Modal to open with pre-filled fields, such as name, email, and donation amount. Increase the likelihood of successful donations by personalizing your donation form for known donors as much as possible.
Let’s get technical: Take a deep-dive into the AI that powers our online donation platform. If you’re on the IT team, you’ll love this!

5. Test your donation cart experience

Simulate your donation "cart" checkout to ensure seamless donation experience on your website. Use the FundraiseUp.openCheckout function to collect donations, while using custom fields helps you analyze fund allocations.

To implement this scenario, you can set it up as follows:

Cart elements: Your website page uses HTML components representing "designations" or "projects" to which donations can be made. Each has a description, image, the ability to select a donation amount, and an "add to cart" button.
Select multiple projects: The donor can select the desired projects, set amounts, and add them to the cart.
Data transfer to Checkout Modal:
- When clicking the "Proceed to cart" button, the Checkout Modal opens.
- The Checkout Modal opens with a pre-filled total donation amount, including all selected items.
- In the Custom field (e.g. checkout_content), a hashed list of selected projects and their amounts is passed. This can look like a JSON string with information about each project.
Data export: You can fully analyze fund allocations by exporting donation data, including the custom field checkout_content, where the value of this field will include the project and the corresponding donation amount.

Fundraise Up’s Open Checkout method offers nonprofits like yours innovative ways to optimize the donation experience. When donors feel engaged, they’re likely to give more (and more often) so tailor your digital giving efforts for today’s digital donor. Book a personalized demo with our platform experts to learn how Open Checkout method could work on your website.

Features

More than messaging: why donor retention begins with the donor experience

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT

When it comes to fundraising, success isn’t just about delivering the right message—it’s about creating a smooth, positive experience for your donors. For nonprofits, the donation platform you choose can really make a difference. Sure, powerful messaging can tug at the heartstrings, but the actual journey your donors take when they decide to give is crucial for keeping their support in the long run.

Donor retention strategies need to focus on enhancing that donation experience. With the right tools, nonprofits can keep their supporters engaged and coming back for more. So let’s talk about turning that donation process into a seamless experience that leaves a lasting impression—because happy donors? They’re the ones who stick around! Let’s get into it!

Why is donor retention so important?

Donor retention is essential for the sustainability and growth of any nonprofit. Retaining donors costs significantly less than acquiring new ones, and loyal donors are more likely to increase their contributions over time.

In addition, retained donors often become advocates for your cause, helping to expand your reach and influence. Donor retention helps nonprofits build a strong foundation of support, ensuring they have the resources required to fulfill their mission and make a lasting difference.

The importance of the donor experience

Communication and messaging are often the primary focuses of donor retention strategies — thanking supporters, personalizing outreach, gathering feedback, and sharing impact stories are all common techniques. However, although messaging plays a critical role in retaining donors, the physical experience of donating is just as crucial.

A seamless, positive donation process builds trust and satisfaction, encouraging donors to continue supporting your cause. The opposite is also true: if your site's too complicated or frustrating, you might lose donors, no matter how compelling your message is.

For nonprofits, optimizing the donation experience means ensuring that every interaction is smooth, intuitive, and supportive of the donor’s emotional connection to your mission. From ease of donation to follow-up communications and receipts that reinforce their decision, everything counts.

In addition to making the donor experience more pleasant and rewarding, a well-designed donor experience strengthens the relationship between the organization and the donor and increases the likelihood of repeat donations.

The critical role of recurring donations in donor retention

Donor retention thrives on recurring donations because they transform one-time supporters into long-term partners. Recurring giving allows nonprofit organizations to plan ahead and sustain their mission with consistent funding. Regular contributions also deepen donors' connections to the cause, increasing the likelihood of continued support.

To secure these long-term commitments and improve donation conversions, it’s essential to optimize for recurring donations at every touchpoint. The option to upgrade to recurring giving should always be available to donors, whether during the donation process or in follow-up communication. Keeping this choice visible boosts the chances that donors will commit to ongoing support.

Digital fundraising tools simplify this process by integrating recurring donation options into every donor interaction. Upsells at checkout encourage donors to convert from one-time to recurring gifts, and Upgrade Links can help existing donors quickly increase their monthly giving. These tools ensure nonprofits can consistently engage donors and foster sustained support with minimal friction.

Leveraging AI to scale donor retention

Scaling donor retention is crucial for driving greater impact while maintaining efficiency. As organizations expand, managing personalized donor engagement can become increasingly challenging. Artificial intelligence (AI) can help nonprofits scale their retention strategies without straining resources.

AI tools automate essential tasks, such as segmenting donors according to their preferences and behavior so they can receive messages tailored to their needs. By analyzing donor data, AI can identify supporters at risk of lapsing and automatically trigger personalized interventions to re-engage them. This proactive approach helps maintain strong donor relationships with minimal manual effort.

A digital fundraising platform with AI-driven capabilities makes it easier for nonprofits to keep donors engaged and committed over time. With AI handling the details, nonprofits can focus on their mission, confident that their donor retention strategies are running smoothly in the background.

Digital donor retention strategies: Tips to enhance recurring giving

Providing a smooth, positive experience at all touchpoints is essential to retaining donors. A smart blend of technology and strategic planning is key. The following strategies, supported by Fundraise Up features, can significantly enhance recurring giving programs and drive long-term donor engagement.

Minimize churn with an Automatic Card Updater

One of the most common reasons for lost recurring donations is outdated payment information. When a donor’s credit card expires or changes, it can disrupt the donation process and lead to unintended cancellations.

Fundraise Up’s Automatic Card Updater is a powerful tool that updates payment information automatically so recurring donations can continue seamlessly without requiring manual updates. By reducing the churn rate caused by expired or changed cards, this feature keeps donor contributions consistent and reliable.

Maximize successful donations with Intelligent Charge Retries

Failed transactions and abandoned donations can significantly disrupt recurring contributions. To address this, intelligent charge retry technology can automatically reattempt failed payments at optimal times, increasing the chances of success.

Fundraise Up’s Intelligent Charge Retry system automatically reattempts failed transactions at optimal times, increasing the likelihood of successful payments. A proactive approach to transaction failures ensures that recurring donations continue uninterrupted, maintaining donor commitments and providing more stable funding streams.

Strengthen engagement with personalized Emails

Regular, personalized communication is crucial for maintaining donor engagement. Generic emails, however, often fail to connect, leading to a decline in donor interest and support.

Fundraise Up’s advanced email features allow nonprofits to customize communication based on donor behavior, preferences, and giving history. This ensures that emails are not only tailored to each donor but also emphasize the impact of their recurring contributions. In addition, the platform's automated features keep donors emotionally connected to the cause by sending timely updates, thank-yous, and reminders.

Build trust with detailed PDF Receipts

Transparency is essential in building and maintaining trust with donors. Without clear records of their contributions, donors may feel disconnected from the impact of their support.

Fundraise Up’s PDF Receipts feature provides detailed, professional summaries of a donor’s contributions over time. These receipts reinforce transparency and serve as tangible reminders of the donor’s ongoing commitment, strengthening their relationship with the organization and encouraging continued support.

Fundraise Up's proven impact on donor retention

The key to donor retention is to provide a smooth, positive experience at every stage of the supporter journey. By focusing on recurring donations, leveraging AI, and implementing effective retention strategies, nonprofits can strengthen their donor relationships and secure ongoing support.

Nonprofits using Fundraise Up’s tools see significant gains in their recurring giving programs. The average recurring donation gift is $44 — nearly double the industry average of $24. Plus, 76% of recurring plans are kept over 12 months, well above the 61% average. Results like these show how the right tools can build stronger, longer-lasting relationships with donors.

Fundraise Up empowers nonprofits to grow their impact by personalizing the donation experience for their supporters. Check out how these features are helping nonprofits succeed, or get an in-depth look with a personalized demo.

Features Page

Fundraise Up: the AI online donation form that pays for itself

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Resources are finite so let’s get smart about your operational costs. We offer an AI-powered online donation form that not only boosts donations but also effectively eliminates transaction fees for many organizations. Yes, really! Here’s how it works.

How Fundraise Up becomes virtually free

At the heart of Fundraise Up's cost-savingsness is its AI-driven Adaptive Cost Coverage. This tool encourages donors to cover transaction fees (both our platform fee and payment processing fees from Stripe or PayPal).

The result? An astounding 87% of donors opt to cover all transaction costs. This leads to an average fee of less than 0.5% per donation for orgs using our online donation form.

Benefits for nonprofits and donors

For nonprofits:

Cost savings: With most donors covering fees, organizations can allocate more funds directly to their mission.
Increased revenue: Research shows a .25% jump in conversion rates and up to 3% increase in donation revenue when Adaptive Cost Coverage is enabled.
Seamless integration: The feature can be easily toggled on without additional costs.

Product screen above: Nonprofits can see the percentage of covered costs and the amount of additional revenue netted just from this feature.

For donors:

Tax deductibility: The entire donation amount, including covered fees, is tax-deductible for supporters.
Transparency: Donors clearly understand how their additional contribution directly supports your mission.

Why does Adaptive Cost Coverage work so well?

This feature’s success isn't just about numbers; it's about understanding donor psychology and leveraging smart design. Our AI analyzes dozens of factors to determine the optimal moment to present the fee coverage option to donors. This strategy ensures that the request occurs when donors are most likely to say yes. This increases the chances of covering fees without hurting conversion rates.

A hypothesis proven: the success behind the science

RedRover - 68% of donors cover transaction costs

When we gave donors the ability to opt-in to cover transaction costs, we found that 55% of our donors chose to cover those costs – even large donors who were making significant contributions.
Today, data shows that 68% of our donors now cover the cost of transaction fees, resulting in additional revenue that we can put back into services. — Erin Bialecki, Director of Development and Communications

International Committee for the Red Cross Brazil - 91% of donors cover transaction costs

Spoken Gospel - 82% of donors covers transaction costs

Around 82% for fees covered. And that’s a lot of our donors! So it's just offloading the cost to the right group and they're [donors] helping us grow. In the process, we're able to fund our operations. — Eric Smith, Co-founder & COO

Stand Up To Cancer - 94% of donors cover transaction fees

More than just a cost-saving feature

Our AI-powered Adaptive Cost Coverage feature is more than just a cost-saving tool; it's a paradigm shift in how nonprofits can approach online fundraising. By effectively eliminating transaction fees, we help nonprofits focus more resources on their missions rather than operational costs.

For organizations looking to maximize their fundraising potential while minimizing costs, we offer a compelling solution that quite literally pays for itself. Win-win! For a personalized walk-through, book a call with our platform experts right here.

AI Feature Page

Building a smart fundraising tech stack: How to choose the best AI tools for nonprofits

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT

If you’re in the nonprofit game, you know that innovative technology isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s become a must-have for fundraising these days. Organizations are getting creative with digital tools, whether it’s launching those online peer-to-peer campaigns, automating outreach like pros, or throwing virtual fundraising events that really get people talking.

And let’s not forget about AI-powered tools! These are game changers for nonprofits, helping to stretch those fundraising dollars further by streamlining processes, taking care of routine tasks, and making donor experiences feel personal and engaging.

We’re diving into the nitty-gritty of how to choose and integrate AI tools that can supercharge your nonprofit efforts. We’ll cover key considerations and share some actionable strategies to boost donor engagement, streamline your processes, and ultimately make a bigger financial impact. So let’s get into it!

How nonprofits use AI for fundraising

As artificial intelligence becomes ubiquitous in everyday life—powering everything from kitchen appliances to self-driving delivery trucks—the nonprofit sector is increasingly applying AI technology to fundraising efforts in three key areas:

Donor data analysis: AI can analyze vast amounts of donor data to uncover trends and patterns, helping nonprofits make data-driven decisions and allocate resources more strategically.
Personalized communication: AI-powered fundraising tools can personalize and target outreach efforts based on donor preferences, behaviors, and demographics, increasing donor engagement, retention, and satisfaction.
Process automation: Using AI to automate routine tasks—such as data entry, donation processing, and reporting—frees staff to focus on high-impact activities.

Key considerations when creating an AI fundraising tech stack

When leveraging AI to enhance your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts, it’s important to understand what you are trying to achieve so you can select the most appropriate tools to meet those goals.

Below, we look at four of the most impactful outcomes of introducing AI tools for nonprofits and how to select solutions that enable your nonprofit to achieve them.

Outcome: Alignment with organizational goals

Select AI tools that offer features that make it easy to align your tech stack with your nonprofit’s mission and fundraising objectives.

For example, if your nonprofit’s goal is to increase donor retention, invest in AI tools that offer advanced analytics for tracking donor engagement over time.

Outcome: Scalability and flexibility

Choose AI solutions that allow your team to customize and scale as your organization’s fundraising needs evolve.

If your organization plans to expand its fundraising efforts to new regions or demographics, select tools that can handle increased data volumes and diverse donor profiles.

Outcome: Data privacy and security

Ensure that AI tools comply with regulations such as GDPR, PIPEDA, and ISO 27001 (if applicable).

Additionally, AI tools with robust security features—including encryption, access controls, and regular security updates—add extra layers of protection to sensitive donor information.

Outcome: Ease of integration

Prioritize tools that offer application programming interfaces (APIs) and pre-built connectors for smooth integration with your nonprofit’s existing tech stack and minimal disruption to current workflows.

Not every nonprofit has a dedicated IT team, so selecting tools with user-friendly interfaces and strong customer support can help overcome this resource gap.

Strategies for integrating AI into your nonprofit’s fundraising tech stack

A step-by-step approach to implementing AI tools for your nonprofit will help ensure maximum ROI and reduce strain on limited resources. Here’s how to get started.

Conduct a technology audit

Take inventory of your organization’s current tech stack to identify gaps where AI could add value.
Map out existing workflows and identify bottlenecks that AI could alleviate.

Involve stakeholders early in decision-making

Engage key stakeholders from across the organization in the AI tool selection process, including IT, fundraising, and donor-relationship management teams.
Collaborate cross-departmentally to ensure that the AI tools meet the needs of various functions across the organization. This proactive effort will lead to smoother implementation and greater technology buy-in from staff.

Provide training and support

Provide ongoing training to ensure everyone in the organization who will use the new AI tools knows how to operate them.
Partner with a solution provider that offers detailed documentation, live support, and regular updates to help your nonprofit maximize the tool’s potential.

AI tools for nonprofits are shaping the future of fundraising

AI tools for nonprofits enable organizations to maximize their resources, improve donor relationships and engagement, enhance operational efficiency, and make data-backed decisions.

By strategically selecting the right tools and technologies, nonprofits can build a powerful fundraising tech stack that will scale as the digital landscape evolves and deliver long-term impact.

Find out how digitizing the donor experience smashed the Canadian Red Cross’s fundraising goals in our case study, Raising $7 million with the Canadian Red Cross in a historic holiday campaign.

AI Page

Make a global impact with the right nonprofit donation form

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

The challenge of fundraising in a crisis

In a world where crises can unfold in an instant, it’s critical to mobilize quickly to raise funds, but traditional donation methods can be clunky and slow. That’s where Fundraise Up is changing the game for nonprofits focused on international aid. We offer a nonprofit donation form that’s built for speed and maximum donation conversions.

A nonprofit donation form built for impact

We’re designed with one goal in mind: to make donating as easy and effective as possible. With impressive features that enhance user experience and drive donations, we offer a best-in-class experience for many international relief organizations.

Success story: Learn how the Canadian Red Cross raised $7M using Fundraise Up.

AI-optimized features

With nearly a decade of donor data to learn from, our AI deeply understands your ideal supporter. It’s able to intelligently predict how much a donor is willing to give, if they’re open to giving more and even if they’re likely to become a recurring sustainer (more on that below). And that’s not all, our AI even increases donor retention by offering alternative options to cancellation. More on AI here.

Handling high traffic with ease

One of the standout features of our platform is its robust infrastructure. With the ability to process 200 transactions per second and maintain a 99.9% uptime, organizations can rest easy knowing they won’t miss out on donations during peak times. This reliability is crucial during emergencies when every dollar can save lives.

Global fundraising made easy

Our nonprofit donation form enables orgs to engage with donors worldwide through a variety of features. With support for over 135 currencies and multiple localized payment methods — such as Direct Debit and iDEAL — nonprofits see improved conversion rates by making it easy for donors to give exactly how they prefer! Plus, with 20+ language options, you can connect with supporters in their native tongue — no Google Translate needed.

And with country-specific features like Gift Aid for the UK and tax-compliant receipts for Canada, nonprofits can rest easy knowing they’re adhering to regional compliance standards including GDPR, PIPEDA, and more. We’re here to help you break down geographical barriers and resonate with your donor base.

O, Canada! We offer a suite of Canada-specific features to help you maximize donations.

Sustaining support beyond crises

While international relief organizations often see surges in donations during times of crisis, sustaining that support long-term is crucial for ongoing impact. This is where we truly shine, offering robust recurring giving features that help nonprofits create a steady stream of revenue even after the immediate urgency has passed.

Flexible giving options

Understanding that donor circumstances can change, we offer unparalleled flexibility in recurring giving options. Via the Donor Portal, supporters can easily adjust their donation frequency — from daily to annual — or modify amounts as needed. This adaptability helps retain donors who might otherwise cancel their support due to changing financial situations.

Smart retention strategies

Fundraise Up employs intelligent features to minimize donor churn:

Automatic card updater: This feature reduces failed charges by automatically updating expired card information, ensuring uninterrupted support.
AI-powered retry logic: Intelligently optimize card retry attempts for failed charges, significantly improving success rates (nonprofits see churn rates decrease up to 3%!).
Upgrade prompts: strategically timed and personalized upgrade suggestions encourage donors to increase their recurring support over time.

A donor experience like no other

At the heart of our nonprofit donation form is the commitment to creating a frictionless donor experience. In fact, many organizations see conversion rates more than double the industry average! This means more visitors become donors, which is vital when every contribution matters.

Real success stories

The impact of our platform can be seen through numerous success stories:

Greater Good Charities experienced a staggering 161% increase in online revenue after switching to Fundraise Up. Read the success story.
World Hope International achieved a 200% increase in online donation revenue thanks to our UI kit, Elements. Read the success story.
The Salvation Army UK achieved an impressive 49% donor conversion rate, showcasing how effective our platform can be. Read the success story.

These stories highlight not just numbers but real lives being changed thanks to increased funding for critical relief efforts.

Making a difference together

With optimized nonprofit donation forms, international relief organizations can focus more on what truly matters — providing aid and support to those who need it most.

When crises arise and people around the world want to help, we’re here to help you capture that generosity and turn it into tangible support for communities in need. Speak with our team of platform experts today to get started.

GLOBAL PAGE

The importance of A/B testing for nonprofit donation campaigns

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

What does A/B testing mean?

Let’s take it back to grade-school science class. Remember hypotheses? A/B testing is a means of taking your hypotheses (in this case, with webpages or pages elements) and experimenting to determine which option achieves your goal the best. It involves creating a version A, a version B, and the third version which is the control group.

As we refer to it, A/B testing performance is measured based on predefined metrics, such as donation conversion rates or average donation amounts. Why we’re big proponents: even minor adjustments to content or design can significantly help nonprofits influence donor behavior and increase giving.

Why A/B testing is important for fundraising strategy

A/B testing helps nonprofits gain insights into donor behavior and preferences and make informed decisions that can lead to more effective fundraising campaigns.

Take this example:

To see if off-site donation forms affect click-to conversions, we conducted A/B tests with several nationally established nonprofits.

For the tests, each nonprofit's navigation bar donation button was set to direct 50% of website visitors to the organization's existing donation form (the control), and 50% to the Fundraise Up donation experience (the test).
Over the course of a year, we measured conversion statistics for more than 5.6 million website visitors.

Here’s what we found: The control form saw an 8% drop in views while the test form (Fundraise Up) saw just a 0.7% drop. From this, we have data-backed proof showing why it’s so important to have an on-page donation form.

Get more details on the donation form conversion test here.

A/B testing should be standard for nonprofit SaaS companies (but it’s not)

To us, experimentation is a core tenet. We test to understand what resonates with donors which helps nonprofits increase conversions and revenue for their mission. But despite the clear benefits of A/B testing, it remains uncommon among nonprofit technology providers for several reasons:

Concern 1: Resource constraints

Many nonprofit tech companies operate with limited resources, making it challenging to implement robust A/B testing programs:

Time constraints: A/B testing requires dedicated time for planning, execution, and analysis, which can be difficult for small teams juggling multiple priorities.
Personnel limitations: Effective A/B testing often requires specialized skills in data analysis and statistical interpretation, which may not be readily available in-house.
Infrastructure costs: Setting up and maintaining the necessary infrastructure for A/B testing can be expensive, especially for inexperienced companies.

Concern 2: Lack of expertise

Effective A/B testing requires specialized knowledge that many nonprofit tech providers may not possess:

Statistical literacy: Interpreting A/B test results requires a solid understanding of statistical concepts, which may be lacking in some organizations.
Experimental design skills: Creating valid and meaningful A/B tests demands expertise in experimental design and methodology.
Data analysis capabilities: Extracting actionable insights from A/B test data requires advanced analytical skills.

Concern 3: Status quo comfort

Some nonprofit tech providers may be hesitant to experiment with changes that could potentially change how they’ve always done things:

Resistance to change: Established companies may be comfortable with their current practices and resistant to adopting new methodologies.

We see A/B testing as the key to setting a new standard in the industry, demonstrating the value of data-driven decision-making in nonprofit technology.

Embrace: Continuous improvement

Regular A/B tests demonstrate a commitment to continuous improvement. This approach ensures that technology is evolving to meet the changing needs of nonprofits and their donors.

Embrace: Data-driven decision making

The results of A/B tests are based on concrete data rather than assumptions. This data-driven approach leads to more effective and reliable tools for nonprofits.

Embrace: Enhanced user experience

A/B testing allows nonprofit tech providers to experiment with different elements and find combinations that resonate most with users. This process ultimately improves the overall user experience for both nonprofits and their donors.

Embrace: Optimized fundraising performance

By consistently testing and refining their platform, tech providers can help nonprofits maximize their fundraising potential. This is particularly crucial during peak giving seasons, such as the end-of-year period.

Exploring future trends in A/B testing and fundraising strategy

It’s important to note that A/B testing should be an ongoing process that’s performed regularly to assess current trends — not a one-time analysis. Continually experimenting with and refining strategies helps ensure fundraising efforts always align with donor preferences and behaviors, even as they change.

AI plays an important role in A/B testing. Its ability to process immense data sets in real time, aptitude for pattern recognition, and utilization of predictive analytics present an opportunity to optimize fundraising with increased speed and accuracy.

The integration of A/B testing with other marketing channels has also become more prevalent as the emphasis on personalization in messaging grows. In other words, A/B tests aren’t just for webpages! Similar comparative experiments can be leveraged for email marketing, social media, and other channels to develop tailored, omni-channel campaigns that truly resonate with your nonprofit’s audience. Looking for support in these areas? Visit our Partner Marketplace to find a trusted company in our ecosystem.

Maximize on donor giving with Fundraise Up

With A/B tests, we do the hard work to understand what resonates with donors. You reap the rewards. And the numbers don’t lie.

Average conversion rate (click-to-donate) — 29% (Fundraise Up) vs. 12% (industry)
Average one-time donation — $189 (Fundraise Up) vs. $115 (industry)
Average monthly recurring donation — $44 (Fundraise Up) vs. $24 (industry)
Average recurring 12-month plan retention rate — 76% (Fundraise Up) vs. 61% (industry)

With the right nonprofit donation platform, you can both excite and encourage donors to give (and give again!). Join the 3,000+ nonprofits that already love us. Talk with our platform experts today.

Features page

3 AI features to drive animal welfare fundraising

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Fundraise Up: helping reach animal welfare fundraising goals

Let’s start with the facts: the average conversion rate (click-to-donate) on a Fundraise Up form is 29%. Now, compare that to the industry average of 12%. That’s a whopping boost in revenue just by using a donor-optimized platform. So how does it work? Let’s talk about features built for animal welfare orgs.

Did you know? Animal welfare groups using Fundraise Up have seen a 3x increase in monthly recurring giving.

Harness AI for smarter animal welfare fundraising

Imagine having a donation form that does more than just collect information – one that actively engages your supporters and communicates the impact of their contributions. That’s what our AI-optimized donation forms excel in.

Maximize donations with personalized ask amounts

Using AI to maximize donations? Yes! Our AI figures out the best amount to ask from donors based on their behavior, not just past donations. This smart approach helps organizations raise more money while making the experience feel personal.

Convert one-time supporters into recurring champions

With the Upsell feature, our AI-driven prompts help convert one-time donors into recurring supporters, both during and after the donation process. In fact, some nonprofits have achieved an impressive 81% retention rate for their recurring donation plans.

Increase sustainable support with Upgrade Links

Recurring donors tend to give an average of 42% more per year than one-time contributors. Take advantage of your most loyal supporters’ generosity with AI prompts to increase recurring gift amounts.

Choose from more than 20 customizable Elements, such as Image Cards, Goal Meters, Popups, Reminder and more to help donors engage with your mission on a deeper level.

Cater to your donors with innovative fundraising features

Configurable, no-code Campaign Pages

Create pages that resonate for a specific cause. Campaign pages can be set up in minutes with no coding experience necessary. These can serve as dedicated pages for immediate call-to-actions from email or social campaigns. This is especially handy for emergency campaigns, like raising funds during wildfires to help save animals.

Donor Portal

Empower your supporters to manage their own donations via the Donor Portal. Inside they’ll be able to alter recurring subscriptions, update payment information, download tax-compliant receipts and even create community-driven fundraisers.

International localization

Speak your donors’ language, literally, with over 20 supported languages including Arabic, Polish, Chinese (simplified and traditional) and more! We work with native speakers to ensure each language translation is perfect. Even localize date, time, and currency formats with Unicode’s Common Locale Database Repository. Plus, we offer country-specific features like Gift Aid, Direct Debit, SEPA, and iDEAL.

Success stories to inspire optimized animal welfare fundraising

Consider the transformative results experienced by fellow animal welfare organizations:

Akashinga saw a 41.6% increase in online revenue and achieved an 88% monthly donor retention rate.
RedRover experienced a 300% growth in monthly donorship and uncovered new revenue streams. Read the success story.
Animal Haven's recurring giving program grew by an astounding 305%. Read the success story.

The minute I saw Fundraise Up, I knew I wanted it. We saw so many opportunities to take our fundraising to the next level. From donation links and buttons to image cards, QR codes, upgrade links, and reminders, we had an amazing new toolbox of capabilities to try. — Erin Bialecki, Director of Development and Communications, RedRover

The whole team was so amazed with all the functionality, and the look and feel is phenomenal. And it pops right up — you don’t have to wait for another page to load when you’re ready to donate. The little reminders that follow you around the website — they work. They convert. — Michelle Husko, Director of Donor Services, Rainforest Trust

Embrace the future of animal welfare fundraising

As a professional dedicated to animal welfare, you're already committed to making a difference. By embracing digital fundraising strategies, you can amplify your impact and secure the resources needed to continue your crucial work. The success stories of organizations like Akashinga, RedRover, and Animal Haven show that this isn't just a possibility – it's a proven path to enhanced fundraising performance.

With no contracts, annual, or monthly fees, nonprofits that use Fundraise Up only pay a percentage of each transaction. Details on pricing.

Getting started with Fundraise Up

So there you have it! AI is an incredible tool for animal welfare organizations looking to boost their fundraising efforts and save more lives. If you’re ready to make a bigger difference for animals, download our Animal Welfare Donation Optimization Guide to see how it can elevate your mission!

get the guide

One-click, that’s it: Upgrade Links increase recurring donations up to 110%

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Really! With just one click, they can easily increase their recurring donations or cover transaction fees. Nonprofits using these links have seen impressive increases in recurring donations — think 50-110%. And now, with our automation, sharing these links is straightforward and efficient.

Retention tip #1: Use Upgrade Links every January alongside your sustainer acquisition campaigns.

What’s new?

We’ve taken Upgrade Links and supercharged them. Rather than manual processes, these links are now generated automatically for both recurring donations and transaction fee coverage. It’s like having a personal assistant who knows exactly what you need.

A few ways to add Upgrade links to boost recurring donations:

Generate Upgrade Links through Exports.
Create Upgrade Links on the spot for individual donors right from your Dashboard.
Map Upgrade Links in Integrations so every donor has their own personalized link in your CRM for mass outreach and targeted campaigns.

Retention tip #2: Set up an automated anniversary email to upgrade sustainers. Include personalized impact statistics and a CTA that uses an Upgrade Link.

How Upgrade Links support recurring donation goals

Effortless automation: Our system generates Upgrade Links quickly and efficiently. No more wasting time — just pure effectiveness.
Seamless integration: Whether you’re using Salesforce, Mailchimp, or another platform, these links integrate smoothly. Sharing Upgrade Links with your donors is now faster than ever.
Increased donor engagement: With these auto-generated links, you’ll see heightened engagement and increased donations, with nonprofits reporting growth in recurring donations of up to 110%. That’s significant progress!

Retention tip #3: Don't ask for upgrades too often. Experiment with what works best for your donors, but once every 3-6 months is common.

Why this feature matters

Automating Upgrade Links isn’t just about saving time (though that’s a big win). It’s about making a real impact. By simplifying the process for your donors to contribute more, you’re building lasting relationships.

Looking for more donor retention tactics? Check out these 7 tips to convert one-time gifts into ongoing support

So, what do you say? Ready to see how Automated Upgrade Links can transform your fundraising game? Check out our Docs guide for the technical breakdown.

Features Page

The API advantage: streamline fundraising with a REST API

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

At Fundraise Up, we're always seeking ways to help nonprofits expand their reach, engage more donors, and streamline their operations. That's why we're thrilled to introduce the Fundraise Up REST API — a powerful tool designed to process donations from non-digital channels and seamlessly integrate essential donor and transaction data into your CRM, BI tools, and other platforms.

[video:https://engage.fundraiseup.com/hubfs/REST%20API%2BAutomated%20Upgrade%20Links.mp4 video_caption:]

Two key functions of the Fundraise Up API

The Fundraise Up REST API offers two powerful functions, each designed to unlock new giving opportunities and provide the data you need to maximize your fundraising efforts.

1. Process donations from non-digital channels

Now you can process one-time and recurring donations in real-time, directly through Fundraise Up, whether it's face-to-face fundraising, direct mail, telethons, or events.

Nonprofits often struggle to process donations from non-digital channels while maintaining a smooth data flow and consistent donor experience. The Fundraise Up API simplifies this by enabling real-time donation processing, fostering long-term relationships, and increasing contributions — all while offering a unified platform for all donations.

Real-time processing: Instantly process one-time and recurring donations from any channel, and update donations made through the API within 24 hours.
Ensure consistent donor journeys: No matter where or how a donor gives, the Fundraise Up API ensures that they receive the same seamless experience. With automated thank-you emails, receipts, and follow-up communications, nonprofits can strengthen donor relationships and increase the likelihood of future contributions.
Comprehensive data overview: Manage and track all donations in real-time through the Insights Dashboard, gaining valuable insights to optimize your strategies.

Maximize donor retention: By automating workflows and creating a unified donor experience, you can foster long-term relationships with your supporters. This helps convert one-time donors into recurring contributors and keep them loyal, driving higher donor retention and increased revenue over time.

2. Retrieve donation data and sync with external platforms

We understand that access to the right data is crucial for maximizing your fundraising efforts. The Fundraise Up API allows you to seamlessly integrate donation data with your CRM, BI tools, and more.

Whether you're building custom CRM integrations, creating analytics reports, or connecting to SMS platforms for donor outreach, our API gives you the flexibility to use your data in ways that best suit your organization.

What can you retrieve?

One-time and recurring donation data
Supporter information
Audit log events

By providing fast and reliable access to real-time data, you can automate workflows, enhance donor engagement, and streamline your fundraising operations.

Consistent donor experience and smarter data management

At the core of the Fundraise Up API is our commitment to delivering a consistent, high-quality donor experience while providing you with the data needed to maximize your fundraising outcomes.

Whether you're managing donations from multiple channels or building custom integrations and reports, the API ensures smooth operations, allowing you to focus on what matters most — engaging and retaining donors.

Dive into the technical side of Fundraise Up’s REST API here.

Ready to elevate your fundraising operations?

Get a personalized look at how Fundraise Up’s REST API can transform the way you manage donations and data. Our platform experts are here to help.

REST API

Make it easy to retain donors after year-end fundraising

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Make it easy to retain donors after year-end fundraising

Giving season is here, meaning it’s a great time to take a final look at your nonprofit’s year-end fundraising strategy to ensure the right tools are in place to maximize donation revenue.

November through New Year’s Eve is widely considered the most generous time of the year, making it the ideal opportunity to not only attract new donors but also convert one-time donors into recurring or sustaining donors.

Discover how to prep your nonprofit for the giving season and fine-tune its tech stack for end-of-year fundraising and beyond.

Get ready for giving season

Although your nonprofit runs fundraising campaigns year-round, some preparation is needed to optimize conversion opportunities during the giving season.

First, look closely at your organization’s current processes to identify friction in the donation experience that may impact conversion rates. A few adjustments—such as improving page load time, reducing the number of data fields, recommending giving levels, or offering a range of payment options—could make a huge difference in boosting donor satisfaction and increasing overall contributions.

It’s also important to meet existing and potential donors where they are, both in terms of the technology they use and the messaging your organization delivers. Personalizing the experience can make a big difference when your nonprofit is competing with similar organizations for the same dollars.

Data shows that organizations that use advanced fundraising technology outpace those that don’t. Based on that information, one of the most impactful things your nonprofit can do to prepare for giving season is to evaluate its tech stack — including legacy and outdated technology — that may limit the effectiveness of marketing and fundraising efforts.

The tools to maximize donation revenue during and after giving season

As the giving season approaches, nonprofits face the daunting task of maximizing donation revenue while maintaining efficiency and controlling costs. Having the right tools in your organization’s tech stack can make all the difference in driving both one-time and recurring donations and effectively managing increased traffic and donor activity during this busy time.

Here are a few of the tools and technologies that can help your nonprofit increase donor engagement and maximize revenue.

Comprehensive campaign tracking

Understanding donor behavior and psychographics is essential for refining your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy. A comprehensive campaign tracking tool centralizes all of your organization’s data in one spot — eliminating data silos and providing a holistic view of each donor's journey.

The right solution enables nonprofits to track interactions, segment donors based on behavior, and gain insights into giving patterns to tailor campaigns more effectively and make smarter, data-backed decisions.

AI-powered donation recommendations

Automation is a game changer for nonprofits, especially when it comes to increasing recurring donations. Rather than relying on manual efforts to encourage repeat donations, AI-powered fundraising software analyzes donor behavior and triggers personalized suggestions for regular contributions at the optimal time in the donor journey.

These tools help ensure a steady, year-round revenue stream without additional manual outreach, allowing nonprofits to dedicate their resources to high-impact engagement while the technology manages donation optimization and donor retention.

Personalized communication

A personalized note can make a donor feel appreciated and may encourage future contributions. Whether it's a quick follow-up email or a beautifully designed thank-you letter, an automated email solution ensures that donors receive the attention they deserve while reducing your nonprofit’s administrative load.

Email automation tools also allow for segmentation, so thank-you messaging and other communications can be tailored based on donation size, frequency, geography, and other key metrics.

Donor self-service

Empowering donors to manage their own giving experience is a highly effective way to increase engagement and encourage giving. A self-service donor portal allows individuals to adjust their recurring donation schedules, update personal information, and access their giving history — all without contacting your organization’s staff.

Self-service portals offer donors greater control and flexibility over their giving while reducing the workload for your nonprofit’s team, freeing up resources to focus on high-level strategy and donor cultivation.

Every season can be giving season

Incorporating the right tools into your nonprofit’s tech stack is crucial for maximizing donation revenue during the giving season. By leveraging campaign tracking analytics, AI recommendations, personalized communications, and self-service options, your nonprofit will be equipped to focus on what matters most — building strong, lasting relationships that fuel its mission year-round.

Giving guide

Giving just got easier: tailor your donation flow with Open Checkout

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Want more donations? Make giving as easy as possible for donors with Fundraise Up’s new Open Checkout method. With this method, your nonprofit can offer a faster, more intuitive donation checkout experience. Creating a personalized donor experience during checkout can lead to increased donor engagement and support. Let’s talk about it!

What is the Open Checkout?

Fundraise Up’s JavaScript API now includes a new Open Checkout method. Using this method, teams can trigger the Checkout Modal to appear based on donors’ behavior and dynamically pre-populate the checkout flow with their information. Open Checkout is built with your supporters in mind to create a seamless, simple donation experience.

How does the Open Checkout work?

Open Checkout works through triggers or events based on donor behavior. You can customize triggers for many scenarios depending on your fundraising efforts. Here are some common suggestions to inspire you.

Trigger Open Checkout to appear when…

including campaign links in the donor emails
sending personalized offers to your donors’ account
cross-selling after a completed donation

But Open Checkout doesn’t stop there! The donation checkout flow itself can be personalized to each donor and configured based on giving history.

Using the Open Checkout method, you can create a cohesive donor experience by pre-filling the checkout form based on your donors’ data. For example, you can include pre-defined parameters, such as the donor's first and last name, email address, donation frequency, currency, amount, etc.

This expedites the donation process, personalizes the experience, and makes the overall giving easier and faster.

Big benefits to tailoring your donation checkout process

Increased conversion opportunities

You can time when the Checkout Modal is served up based on your donors’ engagement. So if you want the Checkout Modal to open after your donors click on the links in the email, you can!

By presenting the option to donate right after this experience, you’re ensuring that the ask to donate is contextually relevant. This relevance increases the likelihood for a positive conversion.

Improved donor portal experience

A dynamically prefilled checkout removes friction from the giving process. This can be useful for organizations with their own donor portal. By automatically populating Checkout with pre-defined parameters, donors can complete their transactions more quickly, minimize data entry errors, and increase the likelihood of completed transactions. This is especially useful for mobile donors or those with limited time. By reducing this friction, donors feel seen, valued, and satisfied.

Targeted insights for future campaigns

You can perform your own A/B tests on various campaigns or donor interactions to determine what offers the best results. As an example, you might test whether initiating the Checkout Modal after a donor spends two minutes engaging with your content leads to higher conversion rates compared to a longer reading time.

You can also explore whether campaigns that include a personalized donation link perform better than those that do not. Use the results from your tests to make data-driven decisions for success in future fundraising efforts.

Get started with JavaScript API Open Checkout

Open Checkout offers fundraising teams a way to streamline the donor checkout process in a more personalized way. Interested in learning more? Get the details in our JavaScript API documentation guide.

Features Page

Gearing up for Giving Season: A guide to maximize fundraising in 2025

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

What is Giving Season?

Occurring between late September and December, Giving Season includes charitable events and holidays like Giving Tuesday, Hanukkah, Christmas, and year-end giving. It’s the time of year when donors are most engaged and online fundraising is most effective.

With that in mind, how can nonprofits stand out during this busy time, accept donations online effectively, and elevate their online fundraising campaigns? Let’s talk about it.

How to capture the attention of donors

During a time when everyone wants to promote their favorite cause, grabbing and holding donor attention is the key to fundraising success. The following strategies can help organizations stand out and attract potential donors.

Create donor magnets on the website

Transforming the organization's website into an interactive hub can encourage donations. Utilize dynamic elements like buttons, embedded forms, pop-ups, goal meters, and links to make the site more engaging. These features are easy to integrate without any coding and increase the likelihood of visitor conversion by making the donation process more accessible and appealing.

How to convert more donors

Attracting attention is just the first step; converting that interest into action is where the real work begins. Here are a few strategies nonprofits can use to turn more visitors into donors and optimize conversion rates.

Enable popular payment types

Reducing friction by offering a variety of modern payment options is essential for fundraising online. Providing choices like credit cards, digital wallets, bank transfers, and non-cash methods caters to donor preferences. An AI-powered system can present donors with their preferred payment method, increasing the likelihood of completing the transaction and reducing the chances of abandonment.

Engage more donors with a localized experience

Localizing donation pages for international audiences can create a stronger connection with donors by making them feel understood and valued. Offering multiple languages and currencies simplifies the donation process for supporters worldwide, supporting a more inclusive environment.

The benefits of localizing the donor experience in global fundraising include:

Enhanced trust: Donors are more likely to contribute when the donation process feels familiar and secure.
Broader reach: Accommodating different languages and currencies enables engagement with a more diverse, global audience.
Regulatory compliance: Adhering to local laws and tax regulations builds credibility and ensures compliance, reducing legal risks.
Cultural relevance: Tailoring content to resonate with specific cultural norms and values can significantly boost engagement and conversion rates.

By creating a localized experience, nonprofits can demonstrate a commitment to inclusivity and accessibility, making it easier for donors around the world to support their cause.

How to optimize donations

To maximize their impact without requiring additional outreach efforts, it's crucial for organizations to maximize every contribution's value. Get more impact from existing donors by trying these strategies.

Personalize the donor experience with AI

Utilizing artificial intelligence to offer personalized donation suggestions can significantly boost fundraising efforts. AI can analyze donor behavior to recommend optimal donation amounts and payment methods, leading to a 10–15% increase in revenue and doubling donor acquisition rates. Personalized experiences like these make donors feel valued and more likely to contribute generously.

Convert supporters into recurring donors

Encouraging one-time donors to become monthly contributors can promote a steady revenue stream. Implementing AI-powered prompts during the donation process highlights the benefits of recurring donations and encourages donors to upgrade. This strategy not only increases the lifetime value of donors but also strengthens their relationship with the organization.

How to attract and retain donors

Sustainable fundraising relies on building lasting relationships with supporters. Here are some effective strategies nonprofit can use to cultivate loyal connections.

Improve donor engagement with a donor portal

Offering a self-service donor portal empowers supporters to manage their contributions online. Features like accessing donation history and receipts, updating preferences, and managing recurring gifts enhance donor satisfaction. When donors have control over their giving experience, they’re more likely to stay engaged and continue supporting the organization.

Show appreciation with donor thank you gifts

Offering tangible tokens of appreciation can strengthen emotional connections with donors while boosting engagement during critical campaign periods. The Donor Thank You Gift feature automatically presents gift options based on giving thresholds set by the organization, making it easy to reward supporters without manual effort.

Boost donation amounts: Displaying thank you gift options encourages donors to give a little more to qualify for items like T-shirts or tote bags.
Quick setup: Launch gift campaigns within minutes using the Image Cards Element in the dashboard, with options to promote up to five products and customize size or color choices.
Built-in tax compliance: Donor receipts automatically include fair market value (FMV) for tax purposes, with intelligent handling for Canadian eligible amounts and UK Gift Aid.
Opt-out flexibility: Donors who prefer their full contribution to go toward the mission can decline the gift with a single click—ideal for sustainability-focused organizations.

By automating the thank you gift process during Giving Season, nonprofits can enhance donor acquisition and create memorable experiences that drive both engagement and revenue.

Maximize online fundraising success this giving season

The Giving Season offers a unique opportunity for nonprofits to boost online fundraising efforts. By capturing donor attention, streamlining the conversion process, optimizing every donation, and nurturing donor relationships, organizations can make a considerable impact during this busy time.

With Fundraise Up, nonprofits can easily start fundraising online and maximize success this Giving Season. With tools that offer localized experiences, AI-driven personalization, and easy-to-use donation features, Fundraise Up provides everything needed to engage more donors, increase gift sizes, and build lasting connections.

Make this Giving Season the most successful yet — get a demo to learn how Fundraise Up elevates online fundraising today.

Level up donor engagement: Convert one-time gifts into ongoing support

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Building strong donor relationships helps secure sustained, growing funding for vital missions. Our research shows that Fundraise Up customers achieved an 8.5% increase in total revenue from recurring donations from 2022 to 2023.

Research also shows that donor engagement is the key to converting occasional donors into committed supporters. So let’s talk about some practical tactics nonprofits like yours can use to foster lasting relationships with donors.

Make giving easy with localization

Localization is a powerful strategy for increasing donor engagement by personalizing the giving experience for supporters worldwide. Two key ways of localizing fundraising include offering language options and diverse payment methods. In doing so, nonprofits create an inclusive environment where donors feel comfortable and connected.

Enhance engagement with language accessibility

Providing donation forms in the donor's preferred language makes the giving process intuitive and personal. Supporting multiple languages creates understanding and value among donors, which encourages trust. Often, this personal connection leads to recurring donations, as donors feel more comfortable supporting causes in a familiar language.

Did you know? Fundraise Up offers 20+ languages and dialects so supporters can easily donate in their native language, making them more comfortable and confident when giving.

Boost donations with flexible payment options

Offering multiple payment options is a key component of localization. When donors can use their preferred payment methods — whether it’s local currencies, digital wallets like PayPal, or bank transfers — it removes friction from the giving process. This ease encourages donors to contribute more frequently and increases the likelihood of setting up recurring contributions.

Feature focus: Fundraise Up integrates 135+ currencies and dozens of payment options, allowing nonprofits to accept donations in the currency and payment method that best suits their supporters.

An example of payment methods shown in the Insights Dashboard. Note: this is a demo with a faux NPO.

Empower donors with self-service upgrade tools

Donors value flexibility and control when it comes to their giving. Providing ways for donors to easily manage their contributions — whether by increasing amounts or adjusting frequency — empowers them to stay engaged. This sense of ownership encourages long-term commitment and recurring contributions.

The Donor Portal. A turnkey Fundraise Up feature that lets your supporters manage recurring plans, dedicate donations, manage fundraisers, and download receipts.

Simplify giving with a user-friendly experience

Giving donors easy-to-use links — whether through emails or during the donation process — simplifies the process of adjusting their contributions. When donors find the experience seamless, they’re more likely to engage regularly. This convenience not only improves donor satisfaction but also increases the chances of converting one-time donors into recurring supporters.

Pro tip: With Fundraise Up, one-time donors can effortlessly level up to recurring support with Upsell prompts or boost their recurring gift amounts through Upgrade Links.

Connect donors to their impact

Donors are more likely to remain engaged when they can see the tangible impact of their contributions. Highlighting the difference their gifts make helps encourage a deeper emotional connection between donors and the cause, which can promote continued support and a transition to recurring donations.

Use Impact Descriptions for increased connection

Clearly communicating how donations support specific projects helps donors see the tangible outcomes of their contributions. Offering specific details like "A $50 donation provides clean water for a family for a month" reassures donors that their gift is making a real difference. This transparency strengthens donor trust and increases the likelihood of future contributions.

Quick fact: Fundraise Up enables nonprofits to include detailed Impact Descriptions in the donation form, helping donors visualize the real-world outcomes of their support.

Personalize donations with tribute gifts

Allowing donors to dedicate their gifts in honor or memory of someone personalizes the giving experience. This feature creates an emotional connection between the donor and the cause, which often leads to recurring donations. When donors feel personally involved, they’re more likely to continue supporting the mission in meaningful ways over time.

Feature focus: Fundraise Up’s Tributes feature enables nonprofits to offer custom donation dedications, making it easier for donors to give in a way that resonates with them.

Stay top-of-mind with thank you emails

Regular, personalized communication is key to building strong and lasting relationships with donors. Sending thank you emails not only shows appreciation but also keeps donors engaged and invested in the mission. The consistency of outreach helps build loyalty and encourages long-term support.

Strengthen relationships with timely gratitude

Sending an immediate thank you email after each donation reinforces the donor's positive experience and ensures they feel appreciated. Prompt acknowledgment strengthens the emotional connection between donors and the organization, increasing the likelihood of continued support. Consistent and timely gratitude fosters trust and helps develop a lasting relationship with each donor.

Pro tip: Fundraise Up automates personalized thank you emails, allowing nonprofits to instantly acknowledge donors and nurture stronger, lasting relationships.

Encourage engagement with updates and stories

Sharing regular updates on funded projects and success stories keeps donors informed about the impact of their contributions. When donors can see the results of their gifts, they feel more connected to the cause. This transparency not only deepens the donor's involvement but also encourages continued support and helps build a community of recurring contributors.

Feature spotlight: It’s easy to stay tax-compliant with Fundraise Up. You can automatically include PDF receipts with your donation confirmation emails.

Strengthen donor engagement for sustained success

Fostering meaningful donor engagement is the foundation for building lasting relationships and ensuring sustained support. By creating experiences that resonate with donors and make giving seamless, nonprofits can inspire deeper connections and long-term commitment.

Fundraise Up’s platform helps nonprofits achieve this by offering the tools needed to engage donors at every step. From strategically placed Upgrade Links to engaging, personalized emails, Fundraise Up empowers nonprofits to build trust, simplify the giving process, and encourage recurring contributions.

Ready to take your donor engagement to the next level? Book a quick chat to see how the platform helps drive recurring donations.

Features Page

How to garner corporate support for year-end matching gift programs

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Matching gift programs allow employees to send a request to their employer to match their donation amount, making it possible for companies both large and small to essentially double donation amounts. Corporate giving initiatives like these are especially critical toward the end of the year when giving potential is at its greatest (nearly a third of annual giving occurs in December alone).

Presenting opportunities to make a larger impact means donors are even more likely to give, and you can make the most of year-end giving campaigns with a company matching gift program. However, that’s easier said than done. Today, we’ll discuss garnering corporate support to maximize year-end donation revenue.

3 approaches to maximizing matching gift programs at year-end

The end of the year has the greatest donation potential, so this season is incredibly competitive. Meeting donors where they are is more challenging because nonprofits are competing with similar organizations for the same dollars. Luckily, Fundraise Up features help you break through the noise with the following capabilities:

1. Make it easy for companies to get involved with automated donor outreach.

Ideally, you’ll want to remove friction in the donation process wherever and whenever possible, including for corporate sponsors. In other words, make it simple for organizations to sponsor and promote their matching gift program. Fundraise Up, in partnership with Double the Donation, integrates with its 360MatchPro solution to upsell to eligible match amounts, encouraging larger donations and a greater number of match requests and closing the donor awareness gap.

Your nonprofit can also use automated email campaigns to inform and remind donors about matching gift opportunities. Personalize these emails with information about their employer's matching policies, including amount minimums, maximums, and the ultimate fundraising goal.

Fundraise Up already uses innovative technology to drive donor conversion rates and satisfaction, so we are very excited to add an enhanced matching gift touchpoint to their donation flow. This enhancement will ensure no matching gift opportunities fall through the cracks. — Adam Weinger, President of Double the Donation

2. Demonstrate campaign success viability by enhancing online donation forms.

An optimized donation page is essential for converting website visitors. Widely accepted research states that nonprofit donation pages experience anywhere from a 50-70 percent abandonment rate on average, most likely attributed to unnecessary friction in the donation process. Essentially, the longer it takes a user to finalize the donation (i.e., the more fields they have to fill out or steps they have to take), the higher the chance they’ll abandon the page altogether.

Incorporate a matching gift search tool in your online donation forms so donors can easily and quickly check if their employer offers a matching gift program during the donation process. This effectively reduces steps for donors and increases match opportunities for your nonprofit.

3. Assure companies and donors that their impact makes a real difference with in-depth tracking and reporting.

Show companies that their impact is real by using analytics to show the results of campaigns. Many company leaders look for concrete data that offers actionable insights into how their organization is inspiring change. The Fundraise Up Insights Dashboard, for example, enables you to track performance, spot trends, and analyze key metrics such as campaign donation comparisons, donation frequency tracking, and popular giving times.

Additionally, the Recent Donations Element is a great feature for illustrating how donors are rallying around a cause. Try the Demo! This component allows you to show a list of up to 10 recent donations from your supporters, complete with customizable styles and settings. Other digital fundraising Elements, such as the Goal Meter, clearly display the total impact of giving by automatically updating after a donation is made.

Engage supporters with corporate gift matching and more

Seamless and effective corporate gift matching programs are just one way that Fundraise Up maximizes giving and makes supporting a meaningful cause easier for everyone. Our suite of UI Elements, global tools, and integrations are designed to make fundraising simpler, more engaging, and more rewarding. Ready to upgrade your matching program? Our platform experts can walk you through it. Let’s set up a call.

Features

SU2C success: Telethon fundraising with the Virtual Terminal

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

For nonprofit telethon fundraising events, efficiency and reliability in processing donations are paramount. Our Virtual Terminal feature has proven to be an invaluable tool for organizations like Stand Up To Cancer, enabling them to maximize their fundraising potential during high-stakes telethon fundraising events.

Real-time donation processing

During a telethon fundraising event, every second counts. Stand Up To Cancer leveraged the Virtual Terminal's real-time processing capabilities to handle donations swiftly and accurately throughout their telecast. This feature was crucial in maintaining a low declined payment rate of just 0.97%. By catching payment errors immediately, the organization ensured that more donations were successfully processed, maximizing their fundraising efforts.

The Virtual Terminal also offers autofilling for returning donors, which speeds up donation handling significantly. This feature contributed to a 9% reduction in call wait times, allowing Stand Up To Cancer to handle more calls and engage with more donors within the same timeframe.

How-to: optimize offline donations with Virtual Terminal.

Handling high-volume events

Telethons often involve managing a large number of transactions in a short period. The Virtual Terminal is built to handle up to 200 real-time transactions per second, making it the perfect solution for any high-volume event. In Stand Up To Cancer’s case, this capability ensured that the org’s telecast ran smoothly without any bottlenecks, allowing the team to focus on the mission rather than technical hiccups.

Empowering your team

The success of a telethon also depends on the efficiency of the team behind the scenes. Our Virtual Terminal is designed for simplicity, requiring minimal training for staff. Stand Up To Cancer experienced a 50% reduction in staff training time, enabling their team to hit the ground running and manage donations effectively. And the Virtual Terminal’s user-friendly interface allowed staff to personalize donations by easily filling in details such as tributes and comments, ensuring an engaging donor experience.

Secure and collaborative environment

Security is a top priority during telethon fundraising events, especially where sensitive donor information is handled. The Virtual Terminal provides secure access controls, allowing organizations to confidently grant access to internal specialists and external partners. This feature enabled Stand Up To Cancer to collaborate seamlessly with its event staff and volunteers, ensuring that all donations were processed securely and efficiently.

Security has never been so easy: enjoy enterprise-level Single Sign-On across your team.

A testament to innovation

Robyn Bucknam, VP of Innovation and Technology at Stand Up To Cancer, highlights the impact of the Virtual Terminal.

Fundraise Up made donation processing intelligent enough to correctly identify fraud and catch errors in real time. The processing power and flexibility also made on-the-fly coordination possible during the telecast so there was never a component that was down or processing slowly.

The Virtual Terminal is a game-changer for nonprofit telethon fundraising events. By providing real-time processing, handling high transaction volumes, simplifying team operations, and ensuring secure collaboration, it empowers organizations like Stand Up To Cancer and yours to meet (and exceed!) fundraising goals. Ask our team about a personalized demo of Virtual Terminal. Let’s make your next telethon the best one yet.

How-To: Improve your donation call center

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Improving your call center operations during fundraising events can help your team manage donations faster, improve donor experience and hit those campaign goals with ease. Following the blueprint of Sandra Schmirler Foundation's record-smashing annual telethon, let’s go through the Fundraise Up tips for success. Hint: the Virtual Terminal makes it all possible.

Sandra Schmirler Foundation grew from $400K in telethon donations to $1M+ using the Fundraise Up donation platform.

Implement real-time processing

Ensuring accurate payment processing is vital to maintaining donor trust and satisfaction. The Virtual Terminal’s real-time processing capabilities allow your team to catch payment errors immediately, reducing the need for follow-up.

The Virtual Terminal is a game-changer. It takes away all the friction for our volunteers. — Darren McEwen, Executive Director, the Sandra Schmirler Foundation

Not just telethons, all offline donations — optimizing with the Virtual Terminal Feature.

Take advantage of autofill features

Time is of the essence during high-volume fundraising events. Autofilling speeds up donation handling by automatically populating donor data for returning contributors. The result? An efficient and pleasant experience for supporters.

The Sandra Schmirler Foundation team shifted from 81% manual donation processing to 95% through automated tools, enhancing accuracy and efficiency.

Simplify the donation process

An intuitive platform means less training required for staff and volunteers. Save time for more donor relationship-building with the Virtual Terminal's easy-to-use interface. Plus! Staff and volunteers can add tributes, designations, and maintain accurate records as the donations process.

Secure and manage access

Security is paramount when handling sensitive donor information. Our platform allows you to grant specific access to internal specialists and external partners, ensuring that your data is secure and well-managed. With configurable settings, you can assign specific permissions to volunteers and staff for processing over-the-phone donations, while restricting access to sensitive account features.

The Virtual Terminal makes the entire fundraising process easier and safer for all. — Darren McEwen, Executive Director, the Sandra Schmirler Foundation

Centralize donation management

Forget data silos and juggling multiple tools. With our platform, you can view everything directly from your dashboard without requiring separate tools. It’s easy for anyone to manage donations in real-time, issue tax-compliant receipts and more. And with the Insights Dashboard, you can track campaign performance in one glance.

Go for scalable infrastructure

Fundraising events can experience peak donation times that strain your processing capabilities. Don’t miss donations due to system overload! The Virtual Terminal can handle up to 200 real-time transactions per second, ensuring smooth operations even at the most popular giving times.

The Sandra Schmirler Foundation processed nearly 8,000 donations seamlessly, thanks to the robust capabilities of Fundraise Up's Virtual Terminal.

By adopting these strategies and utilizing tools like Fundraise Up's Virtual Terminal, your nonprofit can improve call center operations, leading to more successful fundraising events and a better experience for both your team and your donors. Schedule a walk-through of the Virtual Terminal with our team. Let’s make telethoning easier, together.

Over-the-phone donations

The Virtual Terminal: a win for in-person and telethon donations

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Our mission to improve the donor journey doesn’t stop online. Fundraising methods like telethons and face-to-face events deserve a seamless donation process too. Problem meet solution:

Fundraise Up’s simple and secure Virtual Terminal allows nonprofits to process in-person and over-the-phone donations. Plus, it integrates with your existing tech stack (including CRMs). Plus, plus, both in-house specialists and agency partners can use this tool to process and manage donations.

Built for NPOs! With Fundraise Up's comprehensive set of features — like Virtual Terminal, Checkout, Elements, and Campaign Pages — you can manage both non-digital and online donations in one place. This eliminates the need for additional costly platforms and ensures a seamless, consistent donor experience across every channel.

Streamlined payment processing for fundraising efforts

The Virtual Terminal makes it easy to optimize the donation process for speed and accuracy. It’s ideal for nonprofits that run telethons, call centers, door-to-door campaigns, face-to-face fundraising, and other events. The best part? It’s easy to fix payment issues such as incorrect credit card numbers directly in the tool.

Accurate records: Designed for simplicity, the Virtual Terminal requires minimal training, allowing staff to process donations quickly. Your team can easily add more details like tributes and designations, ensuring personalized and accurate record-keeping.
Bigger gifts: The Virtual Terminal's real-time payment processing helps organizations spot payment errors right away. This leads to fewer declined payments and higher donation amounts.
Shorter call wait times: By automatically populating data for returning donors, the Virtual Terminal reduces call wait times as donors don’t have to refill all of their information.

Fundraise Up made donation processing intelligent enough to correctly identify fraud and catch errors in real time. The processing power and flexibility also made on-the-fly coordination possible during the telecast. — Robyn Bucknam, VP of Innovation and Technology, Stand Up To Cancer

Did you know? The Virtual Terminal has setting parameters such as 'Starting on,' 'End date,' 'Max plan amount,' 'Max plan installments' for recurring donations and the ability to schedule a date for one-time donations.

Seamless donor experiences across in-person and telethon efforts

In addition to call centers and telethons, face-to-face fundraising events benefit from Virtual Terminal features too. We’re talking about flexible and localized giving options.

Multiple accepted payment methods: provide supporters with more ways to give, including credit card, ACH direct debit, and Bacs Direct Debit (UK).
22+ languages and dialects: speak your donors’ language — literally — with localized communications, from Polish to Arabic and beyond, no matter where they are in the world.
Mobile-friendly: take Virtual Terminal with you! Collect non-digital donations while your team is on the move. It’s a must for easy giving at in-person events.

The Virtual Terminal is a game-changer. It takes away all the friction for our volunteers, auto-populates information, and makes the entire fundraising process easier and safer for all. — Darren McEwen, Executive Director, Sandra Schmirler Foundation

Read SSF’s success story with Fundraise Up.

Simplified technology integration

To support your organization's broader digital and non-digital fundraising strategies, Virtual Terminal integrates with the existing tools you use everyday including CRMs, analytics, single sign-on, and more.

No data silos: We easily connect with leading CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, Raiser’s Edge and more so you can track online and offline donations in one place.
Controlled access: You manage who has access to donation information, reducing the chances of breaches. Volunteers and partners can access the Virtual Terminal without worry about accessing personal donor data.

Did you know? Fundraise Up can process 200 real-time transactions per second, which is 25 times the processing demand of even the busiest days of the year. Our processing capacity scales to 1,000 transactions per second as needed.

Fundraise Up's Virtual Terminal is a powerful tool for organizations looking to amplify their fundraising potential. Its seamless integration into your existing fundraising toolkit makes it an ideal solution for telethons, call centers, door-to-door campaigns, face-to-face fundraising, and other significant giving events. Interested in learning more? Get a personalized demo with our team.

Virtual Terminal

The Insights Dashboard: Your favorite new tool for better data (and more donations!)

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Understand and appeal to donors like never before with the Insights Dashboard. It's more than just a reporting aid; it's your all-in-one tool with donor metrics to help you make smart choices quickly. Think of it as your go-to reference allowing you to make a bigger impact on what matters most — your mission.

More features are on the way! Our team is gearing up for the next level of insights. Stay tuned!

Insights built-to-size

Empowering enterprise-size nonprofits

For enterprise-size nonprofits, the Insights Dashboard is a game-changer. And with easily digestible reports, you can transform complex data into clear actionable insights, perfect for leadership and board stakeholders to run with.

Tailored solutions for mid-sized and small nonprofits

Medium and small nonprofits will find a partner with the Insights Dashboard. With ready-to-implement data, organizations have exactly what they need to start strategizing. Insights Dashboard is attuned to the nuanced needs of smaller entities, delivering powerful analytics straight out of the box.

Try it out: Explore the Insights Dashboard demo to see how it could work for your nonprofit!

Let’s dive into the Insights Dashboard

Seamless donor data access

The Insights Dashboard is more than just a tool; it's a gateway to instant clarity. Say goodbye to the era of delayed reports and disjointed analytics. With donor information at your fingertips, you can monitor fundraising efforts as they happens.

From live metrics to performance indicators, Insights Dashboard distills the essence of your efforts into a comprehensive, digestible format, ready for action at a moment's notice.

One centralized data hub

Gone are the days of fragmented data silos. The Insights Dashboard centralizes your fundraising data, offering a singular, comprehensive portal to every crucial metric. This consolidation eliminates the inefficiencies of juggling multiple platforms, granting you a streamlined path to informed decisions.

Discover the expanded capabilities of the Insights page, which offers a richer, more nuanced understanding of your fundraising endeavors through advanced data visualizations.

Features to love

Raised chart: Analyze fundraising performance by comparing collections over a chosen timeframe against a previous period, offering a clear view of trends and progress.

Performance overview section: Delve into campaigns to track how much additional revenue you’re raising with Fundraise Up features.

Saved recurring plans: Track the total number of saved recurring donation plans to understand how your revenue streams work.
Pre-donation upsell: Identify opportunities to prioritize upselling by viewing your total revenue increase from boosted one-time donations.
Post-donation upsell: Gauge additional revenue from upsells initiated after checkout.
Covered costs: Quantify how Fundraise Up’s adaptive AI is helping you raise revenue by intelligently prompting donors to cover transaction costs.
Fraud prevention: Quantify the tally of fraudulent transactions thwarted through Fundraise Up.
Mobile users: Assess the proportion of donations coming from mobile devices, reflecting donor behavior and preferences.

Donation day/time chart: An interactive heat map of donation activity by day and time so you’re able to plan and launch timely campaigns.

Plan and launch timely campaigns with the Donation Day/Time Chart.

Designations chart: Differentiate between unrestricted and restricted giving. You can now see which ones are driving the most donations and the median donation amounts for one-time and recurring contributions.

Frequencies chart: Compare all recurring gifts, with a breakdown of the total amount raised, the average gift amount and the median gift amount to track efforts.

Tributes chart: Understand the significance of tribute-based donations within your overall fundraising.

Countries chart: Gain insights, and tailor fundraising campaigns, to specific regions by examining donations by country.

Payment methods chart: Examine the usage of all available payment options to understand and prioritize preferred donor platforms

Fundraisers chart: Evaluate the success of peer-to-peer fundraising initiatives by observing donation distribution.

Data that works for you

The Insights Dashboard translates complex datasets into straightforward insights, enabling you to refine your campaigns for maximum impact. Comparative analyses across different periods reveal patterns and trends, providing a blueprint for strategic enhancements and pinpointing areas ripe for improvement. With instant, easy-to-understand data, you’ll have a clear and complete view of your fundraising efforts.

With comparative analyses across different periods, you can track patterns and trends.

Try the demo

In fact, you can check out every feature yourself with our guided Insights Dashboard demo! Get a feel for the intuitive design and seamless functionality then reach out to our team for more information!

Try it out: Explore the Insights Dashboard demo!

Like what you see?

Our Insights Dashboard is tailor-made for nonprofits like yours! Get a jump on donation data — contact our team today to get started. It’s time to unlock your nonprofit’s fundraising potential.

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4 Game-changing fundraising performance metrics every nonprofit needs

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

The Insights Dashboard from Fundraise Up means data-driven decision-making for nonprofits. With timely fundraising performance metrics, you can:

Make informed decisions quickly
Tailor strategies based on actual donor behaviors
Eliminate the guesswork in campaign planning

More features are on the way! Our team is gearing up for the next level of insights. Stay tuned!

Data-driven decision-making

With the centralized data hub of the Insights Dashboard, you can identify what works and what doesn't in your fundraising efforts. Nonprofits can allocate resources more efficiently, focusing on high-impact strategies and campaigns that are proven to work (and maximize return on investment!).

Fundraising performance metrics

Raised chart: Gain a deeper understanding of your fundraising efforts by comparing current donations against past periods. This analysis reveals key trends and showcases your progress, empowering you to make informed decisions.

Performance overview section — mobile users metric: decide where to focus communication with a breakdown of various Fundraise Up features, specifically the percentage of donations made on a mobile device.

No more abandoned donations! This clever tool keeps supporters in your giving circle.

Donation day/time chart: Understanding when audiences are most likely to donate can guide the customization of messaging, making communications more relevant and compelling at the right moments.

Designations chart: Tracking restricted donations helps NPOs understand what matters to their donors (ie. the why behind giving) which can inspire future fundraising campaigns.

Even more features to love: Here’s what else the Insights Dashboard can do for you!

3 big benefits of fundraising performance metrics

1. Strategic allocation of resources

With the Insights Dashboard's advanced fundraising performance metrics, nonprofits can identify which initiatives have the most impact! This enables organizations to allocate their resources—be it time, money, or manpower—to the most effective campaigns and channels.

By focusing on areas with proven success, nonprofits can optimize their operations for efficiency, including pausing underperforming initiatives and doubling down on what works, ensuring that every dollar spent contributes directly to mission impact.

2. Future-proofing fundraising efforts

The Insights Dashboard empowers nonprofits to not only understand their current fundraising landscape but also to predict future trends. By identifying patterns in donor behavior, such as preferred donation times or channels (e.g., mobile users), nonprofits can future-proof their fundraising strategies, staying ahead of the curve. With this kind of foresights, nonprofits can continually innovate their fundraising efforts, ensuring long-term sustainability and growth.

3. Data-driven fundraising campaigns

Advanced fundraising performance metrics such as donation day/time heat maps, designations, and mobile user rates enable nonprofits to tailor campaigns on a granular level. Plus, correlating these advanced fundraising metrics with broader engagement metrics (e.g., social media interactions, event attendance) may uncover deeper insights into donor behavior and preferences, informing a holistic campaign strategy.

Try the demo

Our Insights Dashboard is specifically designed for nonprofit organizations like yours. Explore each feature in our guided demo.

Try it out: Explore the Insights Dashboard demo to see how it could work for your nonprofit!

Like what you see? Take the lead with your donation data by reaching out to our team now. Unlock your nonprofit's fundraising capabilities today.

link to insights pillar blog

4 Factors to boost your nonprofit’s efficiency

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Are you ready to supercharge your nonprofit's operational efficiency? Say hello to the Insights Dashboard from Fundraise Up. This powerful tool is designed to help nonprofits like yours streamline operations and make data-driven decisions. With the Insights Dashboard at your disposal, you'll have the tools you need to drive your organization forward and make a bigger impact on your mission.

What is the Insights Dashboard? Your comprehensive fundraising metrics tool to track campaign progress and donor behavior.

So how does the Insights Dashboard improve nonprofit efficiency? Let’s talk about the four factors to consider.

Factor 1: Instant access

Imagine having access to actual donor behavior. That's exactly what the Insights Dashboard offers. No more waiting for delayed reports or spending hours trying to piece together information from different sources.

Through fundraising progress charts (like the example below), you'll have a comprehensive and easy-to-understand view of your fundraising efforts. Monitor your progress, track donor metrics, and make informed decisions on the spot. It's like having your very own data analyst on call.

Above: the Raised chart tool analyzes fundraising performance by comparing collections over a chosen timeframe against a previous period, offering a clear view of trends and progress.

Want to improve donor engagement? These analytics make it easy

Factor 2: Centralized data

Managing multiple platforms and dealing with fragmented data can be a headache. That’s where the Insight Dashboard differs. This all-in-one tool centralizes your donation data, including fundraising progress charts, giving you a clear and comprehensive view of your organization's performance. The Performance chart is a perfect example of multiple data points in a single view.

No more juggling between different tools or struggling to make sense of scattered information. With everything in one place, you can streamline your processes, save time, and focus on what really matters – your mission.

Factor 3: Actionable insights

Making data-driven decisions is crucial for improving operational efficiency. And that's where the Insights Dashboard shines. With its powerful features, like the donation day/time chart, you'll gain actionable insights to help you optimize fundraising efforts. Just think how your campaigns could improve if you knew the most popular giving times.

Whether you're analyzing campaign performance, tracking additional revenue generated, or understanding your revenue streams, the Insights Dashboard has you covered.

Data-driven decision-making: 4 metrics to guide your fundraising strategy

Factor 4: Comparative analyses

Easily see what’s working and what’s not. The Insights Dashboard allows you to compare fundraising performance across payment methods, designations, countries and more. Armed with this knowledge, you can make smart decisions on how to optimize your efforts, allocate resources effectively, and achieve better results. It's like having a crystal ball that guides you towards success.

Above: The Designations chart differentiates by what donors designate. You can now see which ones are driving the most donations between one-time and recurring contributions.

More features are on the way! Our team is gearing up for the next level of insights. Stay tuned!

The final factor

The Insights Dashboard is the key to unlocking your nonprofit's true potential. With centralized data, actionable insights, and every fundraising progress chart you’d need, you’ll have more time to make a greater impact on your mission. So why wait?

Try it out: Explore the Insights Dashboard demo!

link to insights pillar blog

Data-first fundraising with the Insights Dashboard

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

The Insights Dashboard is built to achieve big fundraising goals for nonprofits. It gives you the upper hand in planning fundraising strategies with metrics like campaign donation comparisons, donation frequency tracking, and popular giving times. Now you can analyze past performance, spot trends, and lay the groundwork for future campaigns. This proactive approach can help you set realistic goals and allocate resources wisely. Let’s talk about it!

More features are on the way! Our team is gearing up for the next level of insights. Stay tuned!

Proactive fundraising planning

Advanced features to meet fundraising goals for nonprofits.

How: Data-driven insights for targeted campaigns

The Insights Dashboard empowers nonprofits with data-driven insights to customize fundraising campaigns. With tools like the Donation Day/Time chart, mobile users tracker, and Countries chart, nonprofits gain valuable insights into donor behaviors, preferences, and geographic trends.

By diving into this data, you can pinpoint the best times, channels, and regions to focus campaigns and engage supporters to maximize fundraising potential.

Data-driven decision-making: 4 features that remove all the guesswork from campaign planning.

How: Performance evaluation for continuous improvement

Use the Insights Dashboard to drive improvement in fundraising goals for nonprofits. Features like the Designations chart, Payment Methods chart, and Fundraisers chart provide insights into donor preferences, giving habits, and the success of different fundraising strategies.

By evaluating performance, nonprofits can refine their tactics, tweak campaigns, and continuously enhance their strategies to boost fundraising effectiveness.

How: Streamlined decision-making for resource allocation

With the Insights Dashboard, nonprofits have access to clear and comprehensive data to make informed decisions on resource allocation.

Instant insights help you make smart choices about which campaigns to prioritize, where to invest resources, and which strategies to implement. Take the Payment Methods chart as an example. With a quick scan you can see how your donors prefer to give, helping you decide which payment methods to invest into more and which ones to deprecate.

This streamlined approach ensures nonprofits make the most impact with the least effort, using the resources at their disposal.

Efficiency for the win! Learn which features from the Insights Dashboard help you work smarter, not harder.

Get proactive with the Insights Dashboard from Fundraise Up

With cutting-edge features, data-driven insights, performance evaluation tools, and streamlined decision-making, you can rev up fundraising efforts, fine-tune campaigns, and amplify your overall impact.

Try it out: Explore the Insights Dashboard demo!

link to insights pillar blog

Get closer to donors with these 6 fundraising analytics

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Build better bonds with donors

The Insights Dashboard equips nonprofits like yours with detailed fundraising analytics to deepen your understanding of donor behavior. By tailoring outreach to match donor preferences, nonprofits can improve recurring donation rates and attract new supporters. Finally end the guessing game! Now you’ll know exactly when, where and how donors are giving to your cause.

More features are on the way! Our team is gearing up for the next level of insights. Stay tuned!

With the Insights Dashboard, you can find…

Key fundraising analytics to track donor behavior

Raised chart

Measure your success by day, weeks, months and years. Compare how much was raised in different time periods to easily see trends and improvements in fundraising.

Performance overview

Quickly see the extra campaign revenue gained from using Fundraise up features like covered costs, pre-donation upsells, post-donation upsells and more

What is adaptive cost coverage? Adaptive cost coverage uses AI to determine which donors should be prompted to cover their transaction costs. Here’s how the AI works.

Countries

By seeing where donations are coming from, you can tailor campaigns by region, culture or even local events.

Payment Methods

Make it easier to donate! Analyze how donors are giving so you can prioritize and promote their preferred payments methods.

Even more features to love: Here’s what else the Insights Dashboard can do for you!

Heat map

Schedule campaigns more effectively by understanding the most popular giving times of your donors.

Designations

Optimize and experiment with designations. Track restricted giving by median donation amounts for one-time and recurring contributions to see what donors are choosing.

With these 6 fundraising analytics you can…

Tailor campaigns

With donor insights like geolocation, heat maps and preferred payment methods, nonprofits can tailor campaigns to highly-specific audiences. For example, knowing your donors’ locations, you can capitalize on cultural events and local sentiments like Ramadan. The opportunity to segment campaigns opens the door to more communication strategies and more powerful outreach.

Optimize donation appeals

By understanding the timing, frequency and donation amounts that resonate with different donor segments, nonprofits can optimize their appeals to match donor behavior and increase donation rates. With appeals that resonate you can not only increase the number of donations but also foster stronger relationships with donors, leading to continued support in the future.

Build better stewardship plans

Armed with detailed fundraising analytics like designations, nonprofits can create customized stewardship plans that acknowledge donor contributions in a manner most meaningful to them. This fosters a deeper connection and enhances donor relationship management.

Source objective feedback

Metrics on donor engagement provide invaluable feedback on what strategies are working and what aren't. This allows for continuous improvement of engagement tactics based on data-driven insights, ensuring that nonprofits can adapt and evolve their strategies to meet the changing needs and preferences of their donor base.

Try it out: Explore the Insights Dashboard demo to see how it could work for your nonprofit!

In an era where people expect personalized and relevant communication, the Insights Dashboard is your key to improving donor engagement and strengthening the bond between your nonprofit and its supporters.

Your next big campaign is waiting

With the power of Fundraise Up’s AI-powered donation platform and Insights Dashboard, your donors will have the best giving experience on the market. Let’s talk about it.

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Fundraising for animal rescue: Maximizing online donation conversions

Tue, 03 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Animal welfare nonprofits are a powerful force for good, tirelessly working to rescue and care for animals in need. To extend their reach and impact, these organizations must effectively engage supporters and inspire generosity through digital channels. A thoughtfully designed donor experience is more than just a convenience — it's the key to successful online fundraising for animal rescue.

So let’s talk about actionable strategies for increasing online donation conversions by selecting the right digital donation platform. By prioritizing a platform that enhances the donor journey and supports long-term goals, animal welfare organizations can strengthen their fundraising efforts and continue making a meaningful difference in the lives of animals.

The importance of the digital donor experience

Making a strong first impression through an optimized digital donor experience is crucial. A well-crafted donation platform that provides a fast, straightforward, and secure process gives donors confidence their contributions will reach the right place and encourages future giving.

Digital donors expect a smooth and efficient experience when giving online. Fundraise Up's research shows that frustrations with donation friction — such as too many form fields, unclear navigation, or long wait times — can cause potential donors to abandon their gifts. But with a simple design adjustments you can increase conversions by nearly 40%.

In addition, donors expect to have control over their online giving. A digital donor portal that allows supporters to manage recurring plans, dedicate contributions, and view their donation history creates a more engaging and rewarding experience, leading to higher conversion rates and increased donations.

By focusing on elements that prioritize donor needs — like simplicity, transparency, and flexibility — organizations can enhance the overall giving experience.

Key features to enhance the donor experience

To create a donor experience that’s both engaging and effective, animal welfare nonprofits should focus on specific platform features that cater to the needs and preferences of digital donors. The right platform can help organizations build stronger connections with their supporters and increase conversions.

When fundraising for animal welfare, look for these features in a donation platform:

User-friendly interface: A clear and intuitive design that guides donors through the giving process smoothly, without confusion or frustration. Every interaction should be straightforward, instilling confidence that their transaction is secure and their contribution is valued.
Mobile optimization: Since many donors contribute via mobile devices, a mobile-friendly, optimized donation landing page is essential. This means quick loading times, seamless navigation, and a responsive design that adapts to different devices, ensuring a positive experience no matter how donors choose to give.
Personalized giving options: The ability to personalize donations — whether by selecting specific projects, setting up recurring gifts, or dedicating a donation in honor of a beloved pet — can greatly enhance donor satisfaction. Offering these choices encourages deeper engagement and builds long-term loyalty.
Secure payment processing: Trust is the foundation of the donor experience. A platform that implements advanced security tools and fraud protection reassures donors that their financial information is protected, building credibility for the organization.

By incorporating these features in online fundraising, animal welfare nonprofits can provide a frictionless and engaging donor journey that strengthens donor trust and loyalty. An optimized platform not only facilitates donations but also helps build meaningful relationships with supporters, paving the way for sustained fundraising success.

Choosing the right digital donation platform

Selecting the right digital donation platform can make or break an animal welfare nonprofit's fundraising efforts. The ideal platform does more than just process payments — it encourages donor engagement, increases retention, and optimizes conversion rates.

Rescue organizations should consider these advanced features when evaluating platforms:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning

Platforms with AI fundraising capabilities can elevate donor engagement by tailoring the giving experience. For instance, we have intelligent prompts that adapt in real-time, guiding donors toward recurring contributions. Not only does this boost conversion rates, but it also encourages consistent support for the organization's mission.

Recurring giving tools

Recurring donations make a massive difference in creating a steady revenue stream, and a fundraising platform should support that. Our tools, like automated prompts for monthly giving and one-click upgrades, that make it easy for donors to increase their support. Nonprofits using these recurring giving features achieve an average 81% retention rate for their recurring plans, highlighting the effectiveness in nurturing long-term donor relationships.

Diverse payment methods

Offering a range of payment options can significantly reduce barriers to giving and increase donor satisfaction. Platforms like Fundraise Up support a wide range of payment methods, from traditional credit cards to digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Venmo. This flexibility reduces barriers to giving and ensures all supporters have a convenient, trusted way to contribute.

Interactive donation tools

Successful fundraising requires engaging hearts and minds, not just wallets. An effective fundraising platform should make it easy to capture attention, convey urgency, and drive donations. Fundraise Up provides interactive donation forms with elements such as pop-ups, sliders, and social proof to engage users. These components help donors understand the impact of their contributions, increasing both initial and recurring donations.

Scalability and integrations

Animal welfare nonprofits often experience unpredictable donation volumes, particularly during critical campaigns or emergencies. A platform that scales effortlessly and integrates smoothly with CRM and marketing tools, like Fundraise Up, ensures nonprofits can manage data efficiently and maintain strong donor relationships, even during high-volume events.

Fundraise Up: The purr-fect partner in fundraising for animal rescue

Optimizing online donation conversions is an essential part of fundraising for animal rescue. By focusing on a donor experience that is engaging, seamless, and rewarding, animal welfare organizations can turn one-time supporters into lifelong champions.

Fundraise Up has everything to make this happen, from AI-driven personalization to flexible payment options and dynamic tools for recurring giving. Animal welfare nonprofits like Red Rover are already experiencing incredible results, such as quadrupling their monthly recurring donations.

Ready to see the difference? Schedule a personalized demo today.

Animal Welfare

From clicks to contributions: How to boost donation campaign performance

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

With the growing importance of online fundraising, optimizing online donation campaigns has become crucial for success. Understanding the factors that impact donation campaign performance can help nonprofit leaders and marketing professionals enhance their strategies and maximize their impact.

Let’s examine these critical factors and explore practical advice for increasing online donations and maximizing fundraising results.

Understanding donor engagement

Donor engagement is crucial for the success of any online donation campaign. As we all know, engaged donors are more likely to contribute, share your cause with others, and remain loyal supporters. One of the most important parts of optimizing donation campaigns is ensuring that people can easily donate. So let’s talk about key strategies to increase engagement and make your donation process seamless.

Desktop and mobile donation options

Optimizing donation forms for both desktop and mobile users is essential. Why? You need to be prepared for any way a donor may want to act. For example, potential donors might find a donation campaign on their desktops at work or on their smartphones during a morning commute.

Looking at our own data based on 3,500+ nonprofits and their donors highlights the importance of desktop and mobile donation options.

Average percentage of Fundraise Up-powered donations made on a mobile device by region:

United States: 46.1%
Canada: 34.7%
United Kingdom: 57%
European Union : 47.5%
Australia: 53.4%

A seamless experience across devices ensures donors can complete their transactions without frustration, significantly increasing the likelihood of donations.

Range of payment methods

Building on that seamless experience, let supporters donate how they prefer. That includes credit and debit cards, digital wallets, and bank transfers, and more. The Fundraise Up platform supports a wide range of payment options that we categorize into five families:

Cards
Bank debits
Bank redirects
Wallets
Crypto

Plus, we accept 135+ currencies! Aim for this level of flexibility to accomodate donor preferences and reduce friction in the donation process.

Fundraise Up’s Virtual Terminal: the go-to tool to collect donations during telethons and high-volume events

Localization

Providing donation options in multiple languages and currencies can make international donors feel more comfortable. Ensuring donors worldwide can support the organization without facing language barriers or currency conversion issues is crucial in attracting more donors.

Fundraise Up excels in localization, automatically adjusting to the donor's language and currency using customizable rules. Global fundraising is accessible with 23 languages and regional dialects developed by native speakers, not machines, and 135+ supported currencies.

Fundraise Up is trusted by nonprofits across the world. Here’s how we support Canadian organizations.

Utilizing analytics reporting

Analytics play a crucial role in optimizing donation campaigns. By understanding donor behavior and preferences, nonprofits can make data-driven decisions to improve campaign performance. Here are key factors that can help maximize donation campaigns through the effective use of donor analytics.

Geolocation

Identifying donor locations can help tailor campaign messaging to resonate better with specific demographics. Analytics tools allow nonprofits to gather geolocation data, enabling targeted communication strategies. For instance, if most donors come from a particular region, organizations can customize their messaging to better appeal to that audience.

Popular donation days and times

Analyzing data to determine peak donation times can help nonprofits schedule their campaigns for maximum impact. Insights into when donors are most likely to give allows organizations to time their donation campaigns effectively. For example, if data shows donors tend to give more on weekends, scheduling email campaigns and social media posts during these times can boost donations.

Designations tracking

Tracking which types of giving are driving the most donations helps nonprofits understand the impact of both unrestricted and restricted giving on their funding. This type of report can provide valuable information for one-time and recurring contributions.

For example, it may reveal that recurring donations tend to have higher median amounts compared to one-time donations, indicating that recurring donors might be more committed or have a greater capacity to give. This data can help organizations identify patterns and trends in donor behavior and preferences.

The Insights Dashboard from Fundraise Up: access these metrics and many more on your donor base. Explore the tool our customers love

Ensuring tool versatility

Having versatile donation campaign tools is necessary to meet nonprofits' specific needs. Adaptable tools help organizations tailor their strategies to suit their unique goals and challenges. Consider these top features of digital fundraising tools to enhance online donation campaign effectiveness.

Tailored landing pages

Customized landing pages for different campaigns can significantly enhance donor engagement. Creating and configuring donation-optimized pages in minutes ensures each campaign has a dedicated and compelling landing page that resonates with donors.

For example, Fundraise Up's Campaign Pages feature allows nonprofits to highlight specific projects, tell impactful stories, and present clear calls to action, making it easier for donors to connect with and support the cause. This flexibility ensures a personalized experience that can drive higher engagement and donations.

Learn how the Canadian Red Cross gained a 25% click-to-donate conversion rate with Campaign Pages.

Strategically-placed donate buttons

Putting donation buttons prominently on the homepage, blog posts, and social media profiles maximizes visibility and engagement. Donation buttons that are easy to find and use can significantly increase donations.

Fundraise Up's UI kit for digital fundraising, Elements, offers 20+ customizable drag-and-drop components, including various donate button options like sticky and group buttons. Using tracking data, nonprofits can test different placements and analyze results to determine the most effective spots.

AI support and machine learning

Artificial intelligence and machine learning can enhance donation campaigns by providing deeper insights into donor behavior. By leveraging AI capabilities, nonprofits can make data-driven decisions that lead to more effective and targeted fundraising efforts, ultimately boosting donor engagement and contributions.

As a leader in digital nonprofit fundraising tools, our AI tool analyzes donor data to identify patterns, predict preferences, and suggest personalized communication strategies. These insights enable nonprofits to tailor their outreach, optimize donation pages, and increase conversion rates.

Optimize any online donation campaign with Fundraise Up

Organizations can significantly improve their campaign performance by focusing on donor engagement, using analytics reporting, and ensuring tool versatility. Incorporating these strategies can make fundraising more effective.

We offer a comprehensive suite of tools designed to enhance online donation campaigns. With features like tailored campaign pages, drag-and-drop elements that allow for strategically placed donation buttons, and advanced AI integration, Fundraise Up makes it easier for nonprofits to connect with donors and maximize contributions.

Schedule a demo today to see how Fundraise Up can boost donation campaign results. Features Pages

Nonprofit compliance checklist: How to choose secure software vendors

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Nonprofits increasingly rely on technology to manage operations, engage donors, and advance their missions. But these digital tools often require partnering with third-party vendors, which can expose organizational and donor data.

That’s why it's crucial to select software vendors with strong nonprofit security measures. Inadequate security can lead to data breaches, exposing sensitive donor information and jeopardizing trust. Cyberattacks can also disrupt operations, causing financial loss and reputational damage.

To protect your donors and organization, security and compliance must be prioritized when evaluating software vendors. Here are ten questions to ask to determine a vendor’s security comprehensiveness.

Helpful resource: Download our 360-degree nonprofit compliance checklist here.

1. What is their compliance policy?

Compliance with industry standards and regulations ensures that a vendor adheres to best practices for data protection and privacy. This isn’t just a legal requirement — it’s essential for maintaining donor trust and safeguarding sensitive information.

Key compliances to evaluate include:

ISO 27001: Verifies comprehensive management of information security.
GDPR: Regulates data protection and privacy in the European Union.
PCI DSS Level 1: Ensures secure credit card transactions.
PIPEDA: governs how private sector organizations use personal information in Canada.
SOC 2: Aligns data management practices with industry standards.
WCAG 2.1 AA: Ensures web accessibility for all users, including those with disabilities.

Ensuring compliance with these standards demonstrates a vendor's commitment to security and privacy. It’s important to focus on certifications critical to your needs and verify that both the software and its data centers maintain up-to-date certifications. Maintaining compliance is crucial not only for legal reasons but also for preserving the trust of donors and stakeholders.

2. How do they ensure data privacy and protection?

Protecting sensitive information is vital for maintaining donor trust and ensuring the integrity of your organizational data. A robust data privacy and protection policy safeguards against unauthorized access and data breaches.

Among the key data privacy and protection measures to evaluate are:

Privacy settings: Ensure the solution offers configurable privacy settings to protect Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
Security features: Look for comprehensive security features like firewalls and encryption.

Any vendor should provide clear documentation on data storage, transmission, and protection, typically found in their security policy. It's also important to verify how each vendor uses AI to handle PII to ensure it doesn't compromise data privacy. Prioritizing these measures helps maintain transparency and secures sensitive information.

3. Do they perform regular security assessments?

Regular security assessments are crucial for identifying and mitigating potential vulnerabilities, ensuring ongoing protection for your organization's data. These assessments help uncover weaknesses in the system that could be exploited by cybercriminals, allowing for timely intervention and strengthening of security measures.

Key aspects of security assessments to evaluate include:

Comprehensive testing: Confirm if the vendor conducts thorough security testing and evaluations, including vulnerability assessments and penetration testing.
Assessment frequency: Ask about the frequency of security assessments.
Third-party evaluations: Check if third parties are involved in risk assessments and how these evaluations are integrated into the security strategy.

Ensure there’s ongoing evidence of security assessments, with penetration testing performed at least annually. Regular assessments help maintain a high level of security by identifying and addressing vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. This proactive approach is essential for protecting sensitive information and maintaining trust with donors and stakeholders.

4. Do they implement anti-fraud measures?

Effective anti-fraud measures are essential for protecting the donor experience and preventing financial losses to maintain the integrity of donation processes. These measures help ensure that all transactions are secure and that donors feel confident their contributions are handled safely.

Check on this important anti-fraud measure:

Advanced anti-fraud tools: Verify if the platform uses sophisticated tools like machine learning algorithms and behavioral analysis to detect and prevent fraudulent activities.

Anti-fraud measures should be integral to the platform's overall compliance and risk management strategy. Implementing these tools not only safeguards financial transactions but also enhances donor confidence, which is crucial for maintaining ongoing support and trust in the organization.

5. What is their history of security breaches?

Understanding a vendor’s history with security incidents is crucial for assessing their reliability and response capabilities. A company's track record with past breaches can provide valuable insights into its overall security posture and how effectively it manages and mitigates risks.

Essential aspects to evaluate regarding historical security breaches are:

Disclosure of past incidents: Ask about any previous security breaches or incidents, including how they were managed and resolved.
Mitigation and response strategies: Inquire about steps taken to prevent future incidents, including policy, technology, and process changes.

Security breaches can severely damage an organization’s reputation and erode trust. Evaluating how well a vendor has managed past incidents is essential. A transparent and proactive approach to handling breaches indicates a vendor's commitment to security and their ability to safeguard your organization’s sensitive information.

6. Do they have a comprehensive incident response plan?

A comprehensive incident response plan minimizes the impact of security breaches, ensuring a company takes swift action to respond to risks and maintain operations. This plan is essential for effectively managing and mitigating the effects of security incidents.

Key aspects of an incident response plan to evaluate include:

Notification timeliness: Verify the vendor’s commitment to timely notification (typically within 24 hours) in case of a breach.
Data classification matrix: Ensure the Incident Response Policy includes a matrix to prioritize responses based on data sensitivity.

The policy should outline procedures for detecting, reporting, and responding to security incidents. A well-defined incident response plan ensures that your organization can quickly and effectively address security breaches, minimizing disruption and maintaining the trust of donors and stakeholders.

7. Do they have reliable backup and recovery processes?

Reliable backup and recovery procedures ensure data integrity and operational continuity during data loss or system failures. These processes are essential for minimizing disruption and preserving trust.

Be sure to evaluate these key aspects of backup and recovery:

Backup frequency and encryption: Determine how often backups are performed and if they are encrypted.
Retention periods: Check how long backups are retained.

A Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan should outline the frequency of backups, retention periods, and encryption measures. Daily backups that are retained for at least a year are ideal to meet both operational needs and compliance requirements. Ensuring these processes are in place helps maintain data integrity and enables quick recovery in case of data loss or system failures.

8. How do they handle data retention and deletion?

Proper data deletion and retention are crucial for ensuring compliance with data protection laws and maintaining donor trust. Effective management of data lifecycle processes helps protect against unauthorized access, breaches, and misuse.

Evaluate the following aspects of data deletion and retention:

Data deletion procedures: Ensure that data is completely removed from all systems when no longer needed or upon request, including from backups.
Data retention policies: Review vendor policies to ensure they comply with legal requirements. Determine how long different types of data are retained and the criteria used for these periods.

The vendor’s Data Protection and Handling Policy should clearly outline data deletion methods. A company shouldn’t retain data longer than necessary, and should securely delete all data to avoid breaches. By ensuring robust data deletion and retention practices, nonprofits can maintain compliance with data protection regulations and safeguard donor information.

9. Are their staff members trained and aware of security issues?

Regular security training and awareness programs are essential for preventing security breaches and ensuring staff are informed about the latest practices and threats. A well-trained staff is a critical line of defense against cyber threats.

Key aspects of staff management to check include:

Background checks: Ensure comprehensive background checks for employees with access to sensitive data.
Annual security training: Verify that annual security training covers current practices, threat awareness, and incident response.
Role-specific training: Determine if the vendor provides role-specific training for different employee roles.

The vendor’s security policy should clearly outline their approach to security training and awareness. Regular and role-specific training ensures that all staff members, from general employees to IT professionals, are equipped with the knowledge needed to prevent breaches and respond effectively to security incidents.

10. What are the admin controls over roles and permissions?

Effective management of user roles and permissions is crucial for maintaining security within a nonprofit’s tech environment. Proper control ensures that only authorized personnel have access to sensitive data, reducing the risk of internal security breaches.

The following are important aspects of admin control over roles and permissions:

Flexibility of role assignments: Ensure the solution allows administrators to customize roles and permissions based on the specific needs of the organization.
Ease of management: Assess how easy it is to manage roles and permissions in the platform, including adding, modifying, or removing access without requiring extensive technical support.

Evaluating a vendor's role and permission management capabilities is essential for protecting sensitive information. Effective control over roles and permissions directly impacts data security and operational efficiency, ensuring that access levels can be tailored and quickly adapted to meet the organization’s needs.

Enhance nonprofit security and protect donor data with Fundraise Up

Selecting secure software vendors is essential for nonprofits to protect sensitive organization and donor data and maintain trust. By evaluating the key factors in this third-party security assessment checklist, nonprofit leaders can implement robust security measures, ensure compliance, and uphold operational integrity.

Fundraise Up excels in comprehensive security and compliance measures as the sole online donation platform to publicly affirm ISO 27001 certification. We also maintain SOC II Type 2 and PCI DSS Level 1 compliance as well as 256-bit encryption, tokenized payments, global infrastructure, secure backups, and regular penetration testing. Advanced anti-fraud tools and AI-enhanced monitoring provide additional layers of protection for donor data.

For more information on best-in-class security standards and how to assess potential third-party vendors, download Fundraise Up's comprehensive nonprofit compliance checklist.

Security page

Fundraise Up — your trusted fundraising platform for Canadian nonprofits

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Canadian nonprofits that use Fundraise Up know: a robust fundraising platform makes all the difference in both times of crises and year-round giving. We offer a suite of Canada-specific features designed to address these regional needs and empower organizations to achieve their fundraising goals.

Fundraise Up feels like software built by fundraising pros. It addresses the needs of the Canadian market in a really elegant way. — Jason Shim, Director, Digital Strategy, Pathways to Education Canada

Let’s dive into how our donation platform is built for Canadian localization, including how compliance with tax regulations, receipt management, Canadian French/Canadian English translation and more, play a pivotal role in the fundraising success of Canadian nonprofits.

Supporting Canadian nonprofits with a tailored fundraising platform

Streamlined tax compliance

Our fundraising platform isn’t just about donations; it's about making things easier for Canadian nonprofits. One standout feature is CRA-compliant donation receipts, allowing donors to qualify for charitable tax credits.

By default, a tax-compliant receipt is emailed to each supporter of one-time and recurring donations. But what makes our fundraising platform even more user-friendly is its ability to export PDF receipts in bulk through the Donor Portal. This thoughtful design motivates donors to give without worry, knowing they can easily pull donation receipts during tax filing.

Plus! For Canadian organizations, Fundraise Up displays the content of each receipt in both Canadian French and Canadian English languages automatically. Here’s an example of a localized receipt for Canadian nonprofits.

With streamlined receipt management, Fundraise Up's platform empowers nonprofits to boost donor relations, streamline processes, and meet regulatory requirements effortlessly.

Did you know? We guarantee 99.9% uptime. To support organizations that operate in Canada, Fundraise Up has data centers located across the country.

Localized donor engagement

With support for both Canadian English and Canadian French languages, Fundraise Up ensures that all donors across the country feel included. More than that, we simplify currency conversion and integrate Canadian-specific payment methods like pre-authorized debit payments (PADs).

Fundraise Up’s Campaign Pages are an effective feature to localize your campaign. With no coding needed, you can launch landing pages tailored to a specific message to drive targeted donations. Using Campaign Pages, the Canadian Red Cross made an incredible impact during the Alberta wildfires.

When tragic wildfires struck Alberta, the Canadian Red Cross had to respond quickly. We leaned on our strong processes and documentation, alongside Fundraise Up’s Campaign pages and Elements. The outcome was a record time launch for the 2024 Alberta Wildfires Appeal—and, most importantly, more resources made available quicker for our frontline teams and people needing support on the ground. — Jessica Bernat, Director, Digital Marketing, Canadian Red Cross

Learn more about the Canadian Red Cross’ success stories with Fundraise Up.

This personalized approach not only boosts donor satisfaction but also underscores your nonprofit’s commitment to Canada’s unique preferences.

Data-driven insights

Fundraise Up provides Canadian nonprofits with a robust set of tools, including advanced reporting features that track donor and donation patterns across different regions. Let’s talk about it.

The Insights Dashboard

The Insights Dashboard offers a detailed look at donor behavior, enabling real-time tracking of fundraising progress. It records important fundraising metrics in one central location, removing the need to navigate through multiple platforms. Valuable data from the Insights Dashboard include:

Raised amounts charts
Day/time donation heat maps
Payment methods ranked
Donations by country
Donations by designations
And more!

Armed with this wealth of information, Canadian nonprofit organizations can refine their fundraising strategies, customize messages for specific audiences, and foster deeper connections with their supporters. Explore the Insights Dashboard with this guided demo.

Certified compliances

Key to Canadian nonprofits, Fundraise Up complies with PIPEDA and Quebec’s Law 25 as part of our efforts to maintain donor privacy across the board. We also hold certifications for:

ISO 27001: we have the proper safeguards in place as part of our information security management system. Here’s why this unique cert matters for nonprofits.
SOC II type 2: we adhere to stringent security practices to provide protection for your nonprofit’s data. Learn why it’s an essential cert for NPO vendors to have.
PCI DSS Level 1: we meet security control requirements to protect your donor’s transactional data. See why Level 1 means more than Levels 2 and 3.

Did you know? We stand as the sole online donation platform to publicly affirm ISO 27001 certification.

A positive difference for Canadian nonprofits

Fundraise Up is fine-tuned to meet the specific needs of Canadian nonprofits and their donors. From ensuring crucial tax compliance and providing a localized giving experience to offering in-depth donor insights, our platform equips organizations to elevate their fundraising success.

Fundraise Up is the best fundraising platform choice for Canadian nonprofits to engage donors and increase donation conversions. Talk with our team to explore Fundraise Up’s entire suite of features built to support your fundraising efforts.

Global features

Fundraising best practices: 4 tips for maximizing key giving days

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Fundraising campaigns on important giving days, such as Giving Tuesday, Veteran’s Day, and World AIDS Day, offer tremendous potential for nonprofit organizations to amplify their impact. These days attract widespread attention and generosity, providing unique opportunities to engage with donors and raise significant funds.

By following fundraising best practices, your organization can maximize these opportunities with secure and effective campaigns. Using a robust platform like Fundraise Up enhances these efforts, offering essential tools and features for optimal performance.

Here are four key strategies to ensure fundraising campaigns perform optimally on these crucial days.

1. Offer a secure donation experience

Secure donations require a platform with critical security certifications to safeguard against data breaches and foster donor confidence. Key certifications include:

ISO 27001: Demonstrates a commitment to information security management systems. We stand as the sole online donation platform to publicly affirm ISO 27001 certification.
SOC II Type 2: Ensures that service providers manage data securely to protect the interests of the organization and the privacy of its clients.
PCI DSS Level 1: The highest level of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) certification, crucial for handling large volumes of transactions securely.
GDPR: Compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation is essential for organizations handling data from EU citizens.
PIPEDA: Compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act is necessary for organizations operating in Canada.

Did you know? Fundraise Up offers enterprise-grade compliance certifications so you fundraise anywhere in the world.

High vendor security standards protect your organization from financial losses due to fraud or data breaches, which can lead to lawsuits, bad public relations, and loss of donor trust. Solid security measures ensure sensitive data is encrypted and stored securely, complying with regulatory requirements and building donor confidence.

2. Use a platform that handles high-volume events

A donation platform capable of handling high-volume events is essential for successful fundraising. Keeping the platform up and running during critical giving days is essential to avoid missed donations caused by downtime or platform overload.

Investigate the platform’s transaction performance to understand its capacity. Look for a platform that can handle high transaction volumes and maintain a high uptime. For instance, our platform handles up to 200 real-time transactions per second, ensuring no downtime and readiness for traffic spikes by using machine learning to prioritize resources.

Regularly checking uptime metrics and performance reports helps ensure the platform is always ready for peak events.

Stand Up 2 Cancer’s biannual telethon is a prime example of how a reliable, digital-first donation tool can revolutionize fundraising. Our platform, easy for staff and capable of high data processing, helped SU2C cut training by 50%, reduce call wait times by 9%, and boost donations.

Built to scale: We have built-in tools to handle hundreds of donations per second. Here's why you’ll never miss a donation due to system overload.

3. Implement fraud prevention measures

Fraud prevention is essential for financial integrity and donor trust. Ignoring fraud prevention measures can lead to significant financial losses and erode donor trust. Nonprofits may face chargebacks, legal issues, and damage to their reputation, making it difficult to secure future donations. Additionally, compromised donor data can result in severe privacy breaches and regulatory penalties.

To ensure maximum impact on key giving days, your donation platform needs advanced fraud detection and prevention measures. A digital fundraising platform with real-time monitoring and machine learning algorithms ensures secure and legitimate donations by identifying and blocking fraudulent transactions.

Our fraud protection features not only detect and prevent fraudulent activity, but also provide tools like smart card verification and behavioral analysis to add extra security. These measures help maintain the trustworthy environment essential for donor confidence and sustainable fundraising efforts.

Prevention is key: Learn how we detect and mitigate fraud before it happens.

4. Optimize campaigns for specific giving days

Study data shows that nonprofits that use Fundraise Up’s advanced digital fundraising technologies can expect better fundraising outcomes, especially during the giving season and days like Giving Tuesday.

Campaign Pages from Fundraise Up are no-code and can be set up in minutes.

To make the most of these opportunities, nonprofits can utilize customizable Campaign Pages, high-conversion donation Checkout, and hundreds of other features to create impactful and engaging campaigns. These tools allow organizations to deliver personalized donor experiences that increase participation and contributions.

Make every giving day count

Strategic planning, advanced technology, and a focus on security and donor engagement are key to maximizing campaign performance on important giving days. By implementing these fundraising best practices, nonprofits can turn crucial giving days into powerful opportunities for growth and impact.

Our platform features ensure seamless, secure donation experiences and provide tools to tailor campaigns for specific giving days. From high-volume transaction handling to advanced fraud prevention, these tools help increase donor engagement and contributions.

To see how Fundraise Up can transform fundraising efforts, request a personalized demo.

Features Page

AI for nonprofits: 3 ways to maximize donor revenue with modern digital fundraising

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing a number of fields, including nonprofit fundraising. A nonprofit faces unique challenges, such as limited resources, donor retention, and the need for personalized communication. AI can address these challenges by offering smart, data-driven strategies that enhance efficiency and effectiveness.

By leveraging modern digital fundraising tools incorporating AI, nonprofits can optimize donation processes, personalize donor interactions, and maintain top-notch security.

Let's dive into three key areas where AI can significantly benefit nonprofits and how Fundraise Up supports these efforts.

1. Optimizing donation processes

AI can revolutionize how nonprofits boost conversion rates and increase donation revenue, making fundraising efforts more efficient and impactful.

Optimal donation amounts

For nonprofits, determining the perfect amount to ask from donors has always been a critical goal. Asking for too little can leave potential revenue on the table, while asking for too much might discourage donations altogether.

Our own AI fundraising tool analyzes donor behavior to suggest optimal donation amounts based on how the donor will likely respond. This approach helps tailor donation requests to each individual donor, increasing the likelihood of higher contributions.

When the AI-suggested gift amount is enabled, research shows the average impact to be an additional 1.5%-3% more revenue. The platform analyzes donor behavioral data and provides personalized donation prompts encouraging higher contributions. This data-driven approach ensures that donation requests are both strategic and effective, maximizing donor engagement and generosity.

Transaction cost coverage

AI can help by analyzing donor behavior and identifying the right donors to ask to cover these costs. This strategic approach ensures that more of the donated money goes directly to the nonprofit's mission.

One of the standout features of Fundraise Up is its ability to make smart recommendations that lead to 82% of donors covering transaction costs via Adaptive Cost Coverage. This means more of each donation goes directly to the nonprofit’s mission, increasing overall revenue. By subtly suggesting donors cover these fees during the checkout process, the platform enhances the financial efficiency of fundraising efforts.

Reducing cancellations

Recurring donations are a lifeblood for many nonprofits, providing a steady income stream. However, donor cancellations can disrupt this stability. Fundraise Up offers options to prevent cancellations, saving 27% of at-risk donors. When a donor attempts to cancel, AI prompts the donor with options like skipping a month or changing the donation amount, preventing some cancellations. This proactive approach facilitates donation retention and reduces churn rates.

Intelligent card retries

Payment failures due to card declines are a common issue that can lead to lost donations. AI can intelligently retry card transactions at optimal times, increasing the chances of successful payments. This reduces the number of failed transactions and helps maintain a consistent flow of donations.

When a transaction fails, Fundraise Up’s AI determines when to set a recurring plan's status to "failed" after charge attempts have been made. This feature significantly lowers churn rates while ensuring regular donations.

AI is the future of nonprofit fundraising: learn how AI is driving the next wave of forward-thinking digital fundraising strategies.

2. Personalizing donor interactions

Personalized interactions are key to building strong donor relationships and increasing engagement.

Utilizing donor behavioral data

Understanding donor behavior is crucial for nonprofits to create meaningful interactions. With Fundraise Up's Insights Dashboard, it's easy to see trends and patterns, like the main causes driving donations, with easy-to-use charts and data visualizations. This knowledge helps nonprofits improve their campaigns and strengthen their impact.

Recurring plan upsells

Converting one-time donors into recurring donors is a major goal for nonprofits, as it ensures a stable and predictable income stream. AI can identify donors who are likely to upgrade to recurring donations and present them with personalized appeals. This targeted approach can significantly increase conversion rates, the number of recurring donors, and overall revenue.

Fundraise Up’s AI prompts one-time donors to become recurring donors, increasing recurring gifts by 2-3x. The platform identifies donors likely to commit to recurring donations and presents them with personalized appeals to upgrade their giving. This strategy not only boosts revenue but also builds a reliable donor base.

Unique dataset

Nonprofits can benefit immensely from high-quality, targeted datasets that provide comprehensive insights into donor behavior. AI fundraising tools can utilize these rich datasets to develop precise strategies for donor engagement and fundraising.

Fundraise Up's AI for nonprofits utilizes an exclusive dataset of non-PII data points, including transactional, engagement, behavior, interest, location, technical, and other information. This data is limited to nonprofit donations and isn't skewed by other sources, like crowdfunding, which allows the platform to make accurate predictions and recommendations. The result is a more effective and efficient fundraising strategy.

Your favorite new tool for better data (and more donations!): the Insights Dashboard is your all-in-one tool with donor metrics to help you make smart choices quickly.

3. Maintaining top-notch security

Security is a top priority when handling donor information and transactions.

Fraud protection

Fraud is a significant concern for nonprofits, as it can undermine donor trust and lead to financial losses. AI fundraising tools can monitor transactions in real time, detect fraudulent activities, and block them before they cause harm. This proactive approach to security helps protect both the nonprofit and its donors.

Fundraise Up’s AI-driven fraud protection detects and blocks 98.8% of fraudulent transactions. By continuously monitoring transactions and identifying suspicious activities, the platform protects organizations from fraud. This high level of security fosters trust and confidence among donors.

Compliance

In an era where compliance is critical, nonprofits must ensure they handle donor information securely and comply with regulations. AI for nonprofits can help by implementing comprehensive privacy measures and processing data in accordance with the highest standards.

Fundraise Up emphasizes compliance with top security standards like ISO 27001 and is the only platform that offers enterprise certifications for fundraising. This approach ensures that donor data is handled carefully and meets stringent regulatory requirements. This commitment to compliance safeguards sensitive information and enhances donor trust.

Strengthening nonprofit compliance with ISO certification: why we stand as the sole online donation platform to publicly affirm ISO 27001 certification.

Benefit from AI for nonprofits with Fundraise Up

AI offers numerous benefits for nonprofits, from optimizing donation processes and personalizing donor interactions to maintaining top-notch security. Fundraise Up's innovative platform harnesses the power of AI for nonprofits, maximizing their fundraising potential and streamlining operations.

Nonprofits looking to enhance their fundraising efforts should explore AI solutions like Fundraise Up. With advanced technologies and data-driven strategies, organizations can achieve greater efficiency, higher donor engagement, and increased revenue.

Discover how AI for nonprofits is transforming fundraising — learn more about Fundraise Up's features with a personalized demo. Book a call today!

Features page

Simplified access, enhanced security: enterprise Single sign-on

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Managing user access poses a significant challenge for many nonprofits, especially large organizations. Fundraise Up's enterprise Single sign-on (SSO) is designed for the needs of security-minded nonprofits.

For nonprofits that use IdPs like Okta, Google SSO, Microsoft Entra ID, Auth0, ADFS and any other that supports SAML protocol, it’s easy to integrate with Fundraise Up’s SSO.

With our SSO integration, nonprofits can streamline their authentication processes, enhance security measures, and simplify user access management across various platforms and services. This feature not only addresses the immediate concerns related to user authentication but also creates a more efficient and secure operational environment for nonprofit organizations.

Embracing Fundraise Up's enterprise SSO integration

Fundraise Up's SSO solution helps nonprofits tackle user access management issues by seamlessly integrating with any SAML-compatible Identity Providers (IdPs) like Okta, Google Identity, Microsoft Entra ID, and others.

Fundraise Up's enterprise SSO doesn't just make authentication processes smoother; it also lightens the load on IT departments, giving them space to focus on important projects rather than getting caught up in password resets and login troubleshooting.

When nonprofits integrate our SSO, they create a frictionless and secure login environment that boosts user management efficiency and strengthens security measures across the organization. This doesn't just enhance operational efficiency; it also heightens data security by simplifying access to line-of-business apps, decreasing the chances of unauthorized entry and breaches.

Ultimately, embracing a SSO solution like Fundraise Up's not only simplifies user interactions but also fortifies nonprofits’ overall ecosystem.

Did you know? Fundraise Up employs multiple security processes to keep nonprofits safe including, tokenized payments, 256-bit encryption and the highest compliance certifications available.

Key benefits of Fundraise Up's SSO integration

Making sure user access is well-managed is key for smooth sailing and keeping sensitive info secure. That's where Fundraise Up's Single sign-on (SSO) integration steps in as a real game-changer. It brings a tailored approach to tackling the hurdles that large nonprofits face.

Enhanced security: by integrating SSO, nonprofit organizations can take advantage of advanced authentication methods to ensure that only authorized individuals have access to sensitive information, reducing the risks associated with data breaches.
Boosted productivity: by implementing SSO, nonprofits empower their teams to collaborate seamlessly and access critical tools promptly, fostering a culture of productivity and teamwork.
Cost-effective access: unlike other fundraising platforms, Fundraise offers this essential enterprise-level security features to all nonprofits at no extra cost.

Fundraise Up is ISO 27001 certified: it’s a big differentiator among donation platforms.

With SSO seamlessly combined into our wide array of security tools, nonprofits can not only make access management a breeze but also build a strong digital shield against any potential threats lurking around.

This combo leads to a safer and more efficient setup, boosting productivity and giving peace of mind to organizations like yours. Take that initial step towards a safer and more productive tech stack with Fundraise Up. Contact us to get started.

SSO Doc

4 reasons to consider reliability when assessing nonprofit software

Tue, 09 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Nonprofits depend on software to support a wide variety of functions, from accounting to operational logistics and, of course, fundraising. Ensuring these software solutions are available, especially on big giving days is fundamental to an organization’s ability to engage with donors, measure performance, and create a secure, donor-friendly environment.

Let’s take a closer look at four reasons why reliable, scalable software that minimizes downtime is a key factor in helping nonprofits reach their goals, further their mission, and deliver an exceptional digital donor experience.

Four key benefits of reliable nonprofit software

As the nonprofit landscape evolves in response to widespread digital adoption, post-pandemic behavioral shifts, and changing donor expectations, software reliability provides organizations with peace of mind that the fundraising tools they need to adapt and achieve key outcomes will be available and high-performing — even during their biggest giving days.

Here are four ways that the reliability of your organization’s tech stack drives nonprofit success.

1. Enhances donor retention and engagement

Experience is everything when it comes to donor retention and engagement. Selecting software solutions that instantly scale in response to traffic fluctuations help ensure your website users’ experiences are exceptional.

A dependable tech stack increases engagement and retention success by providing uninterrupted access to essential resources, including:

Self-service capabilities improve engagement and retention by giving donors the autonomy to perform tasks such as changing their recurring donation amount or date, pausing their plan instead of canceling it, and downloading receipts without the additional friction of a phone call or email to a help desk.
Personalization tools allow nonprofits to connect with donors on an individual level by using AI to suggest custom donation amounts.
Dedicated campaign pages allow nontechnical users to leverage AI to create, configure, and launch targeted donation pages that are optimized for conversions.

What does that look like in action? After switching to a high-performance digital donor management platform with robust donor engagement tools, RedRover’s monthly donorship went up 300 percent, and the number of donors who cover transaction costs increased from 55 percent to 68 percent.

AI is the future of fundraising: we’re discussing what you need to know to take advantage.

2. Improves access to data and insights

Without a comprehensive view of your nonprofit’s fundraising data, you aren’t getting the full story of your donors’ journeys.

Investing in technology that maximizes uptime helps ensure no fundraising data is lost and that it is always accessible to analytics and visualization tools. These tools are mission critical for nonprofit organizations as they use them to identify patterns and trends that allow decision makers to drill down into factors such as donation frequency, payment method, designation, donor preferences, and country of origin to make informed, data-backed adjustments to their fundraising strategies.

Data-driven decision-making: how Fundraise Up’s Insights Dashboard removes all the guesswork from campaign planning.

3. Reduces friction and increases conversions

Even minor friction in the donor journey can result in missed opportunities for your nonprofit. Implementing tools and technologies designed for high reliability can help provide a frictionless giving experience.

For example, if potential donors try to contribute during a major fundraising event but the donation page is slow to load or, worse, crashes, they may become frustrated and abandon the donation process.

Implementing a fundraising platform that is built to scale instantly on your busiest donation days ensures that the giving process flows seamlessly, making it simple for donors to complete the transaction without disruption, delay, or confusion.

4. Facilitates global giving

Selecting a fundraising platform that employs a global network of computing resources enables nonprofits to engage with donors worldwide and provide a seamless, highly localized giving experience.

Integrating advanced localization tools with a high-performance fundraising platform ensures language-specific subdomains, directories, and URL parameters are properly configured to automatically trigger accurate localizations. The consistent availability of multi-language, multi-currency capabilities elevates site visitor experience, builds trust, and increases engagement, which leads to higher conversions.

Go global with Fundraise Up: our donation platform is built to work for donors across the globe thanks to these features.

Selecting a reliable software solution that’s right for your nonprofit

Technology is a success driver in the nonprofit sector, shaping everything from fundraising events to targeted marketing efforts to back-office operations. Implementing a high-performance software solution that maximizes uptime and scales instantly is an essential step in harnessing the power of technology to enrich the donor experience, increase engagement, and drive more conversions.

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SOC 2 Type II: a nonprofit compliance essential

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

In a perfect world, a nonprofit’s tech stack would automatically uphold the highest standards of security and reliability. But often, it’s up to each nonprofit to determine credibility. So how can you be sure that your software is secure and compliant? Check for specific compliance certificates. They’re the key indicators to rely on.

Among crucial certificates, SOC 2 Type II is essential (along with PCI, ISO 27001, and others). For enterprise nonprofits especially, comprehensive risk assessment and management requires a step further than the standard compliances many software solutions offer.

Fundraise Up is ISO 27001 certified: it’s a big differentiator among donation platforms.

SOC 2 Type II compliance offers a framework to demonstrate an organization's commitment to data security. Let’s explore what SOC 2 Type II compliance is, its benefits, and why it is crucial for nonprofits looking to enhance their tech stack.

What is SOC 2 Type II nonprofit compliance?

SOC 2, or Service Organization Control 2, is a framework developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). It helps organizations, especially those in the tech sector, demonstrate their commitment to data security through stringent security controls known as Trust Services Principles. These principles cover five key areas:

Security: protecting systems against unauthorized access
Availability: ensuring systems are operational and accessible as agreed
Processing Integrity: ensuring system processing is complete, accurate, and timely
Confidentiality: protecting information designated as confidential
Privacy: managing personal information in accordance with privacy notices and regulations

SOC 2 Type II certification is more than a credential—it's an ongoing commitment to secure data management and operational excellence. It signifies that nonprofit software processes and policies are consistently followed and verified through annual audits.

The benefits of SOC 2 Type II for nonprofit compliance

Ensuring data protection

Nonprofits handle sensitive information, including donor details and financial records. SOC 2 compliance ensures that the platform used by nonprofit organizations follows the strongest security measures to protect this data from breaches and unauthorized access. This is particularly important in maintaining the trust of donors who expect their contributions to be handled securely.

Building trust and credibility

For nonprofits, establishing trust with donors and stakeholders is crucial. Using SOC 2-compliant software demonstrates a commitment to stringent security practices, ensuring that donor data is protected with the highest standards. The SOC 2 Type II certificate makes nonprofits more attractive to potential donors and partners.

Continuous security assurance

SOC 2 certification is an ongoing process with annual audits. This continuous oversight provides nonprofits with the assurance that their platform’s security controls are effective and up-to-date, helping to identify and mitigate any potential security threats promptly.

Future-proofing operations

SOC 2 certification ensures adherence to industry standards, maintaining long-term, robust internal practices to secure your organization's information. Partnering with a SOC 2 Type II compliant solution means you can rest assured you won’t need to change your technical provider anytime soon, as you can be confident in its security and operational excellence.

Expert talks: Watch Fundraise Up's latest webinar on tech and nonprofit compliance.

Takeaways on nonprofit compliance

It’s crucial for nonprofit technology providers, especially those that help process donations, to signal to customers and partners that robust security policies and procedures are in place to protect their data.

At Fundraise Up, we’re SOC 2 Type II compliant because we understand that nonprofits deserve the highest level of security for their organizational and donor data. This level of commitment to information security and compliance sets us apart from other solutions for nonprofits that may lack such rigorous certifications.

Expert-reviewed security checklist: Make it easier to assess software solutions based on security, privacy, and compliance with this resource.

Compliance Page

Why AI-driven tech is the future of nonprofit fundraising

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT

It's no surprise that AI is revolutionizing the nonprofit fundraising landscape. AI-powered tools are helping nonprofit organizations create content, cultivate prospects, and predict the most effective fundraising strategies.

At Fundraise Up, we’ve been at the forefront of innovation in online fundraising for years. Our journey began with the focus on a high-performing donor experience, available through our Checkout Modal and innovative digital fundraising elements.

We then took a significant leap forward by integrating AI predictive intelligence into our platform, transforming how nonprofits engage with their donors. Building on this foundation, we’ve continually advanced our AI models, culminating in a framework that empowers our platform to automatically determine the optimal next steps in the donation experience, ensuring personalized and impactful interactions.

Fundraise Up’s AI experience: how we make the donor journey frictionless.

As AI adoption continues to rise, it's clear this game-changing technology is shaping the future of online giving, enabling organizations to amplify their impact and build long-lasting donor relationships. Let’s talk about how AI is driving the next wave of forward-thinking digital fundraising strategies.

Leveraging AI to boost nonprofit fundraising outcomes

Modern digital fundraising solutions are the future of successful online giving initiatives. Using innovations in AI technology, organizations can improve donor engagement, increase donation volume, and create lasting relationships with their supporters.

Enhanced donor engagement and retention with AI

Connecting with donors is an important aspect of nonprofit fundraising, and AI can make this process easier and more effective. Smart fundraising solutions enhance donor engagement and retention by employing advanced strategies such as smart personalization and intelligent monthly giving suggestions.

Personalized donor checkout experience

AI for fundraising can take the guesswork out of donor outreach by analyzing data to understand individual preferences and behaviors. This feature allows nonprofits to tailor messages, ensuring each interaction resonates with the recipient.

Fundraise Up’s AI optimizations can suggest personalized donation amounts for each website visitor. It can also identify one-time donors likely to become recurring supporters and automatically prompt them to upgrade during checkout. The result? Higher conversion rates, increased revenue, and donors who feel valued through targeted communications.

Leveraging AI to increase recurring donations

Recurring donations are essential for nonprofit sustainability, providing reliable financial support that fuels long-term initiatives. By leveraging AI, nonprofits can optimize this process—AI algorithms analyze donor behavior trends to seamlessly encourage monthly contributions.

Fundraise Up utilizes AI to suggest monthly giving options with intelligent optimizations during the checkout process. Our platform employs targeted, AI-generated prompts tailored to each donor. This strategic approach significantly boosts monthly commitment rates, effectively increasing recurring donation revenues and fostering ongoing support for nonprofit missions.

Boosted donor revenue with AI optimization

Nonprofits can significantly increase donor revenue by using AI-driven tools that intelligently identify potential high-value donors and donors that are likely to cover donation transaction fees. This strategy not only optimizes fundraising efforts but also cultivates a culture of giving where donors feel invested in the organization's overall impact.

Identifying high-value donors

AI can help find donors with serious giving potential. By analyzing large data sets, AI-powered analytics tools can identify who may have the resources to make a larger impact. Maybe they're a loyal annual giver who's shown interest in a recent campaign or a new donor whose engagement patterns suggest they're ready to do more.

Whatever the specific use case, AI can help tailor strategies to turn these high-potential supporters into lifelong advocates for the cause.

Fundraise Up leverages AI to identify donors who are prime candidates for increased giving opportunities. We use AI to understand donors in the exact moment and optimize touch points across the entire donation experience so that organizations can ask for the right amount at the right time.

Increasing donor revenue with adaptive fee coverage

Donation fee coverage is an emergent element of the digital fundraising checkout process. Simply put, it gives donors the option to add a little extra to cover donation transaction fees. This option ensures the full intended amount of their contribution is available for the nonprofit's use, thereby optimizing fundraising outcomes and increasing impact.

AI technology is transforming donation fee coverage by cleverly tailoring the ask to each donor, enhancing their experience, and boosting your nonprofit's revenue without missing a beat.

Fundraise Up's Adaptive Fee Coverage feature employs AI to selectively prompt donors about fee coverage at the optimal moment in the checkout process. This strategic approach is designed to align with donor willingness, leading to improved conversion rates and an uplift in donation volume.

Privacy and Security with AI-driven nonprofit fundraising

AI-powered tools can keep donor information safer by improving security and facilitating transparency of fundraising efforts. Equally important are the ethical considerations of privacy that are the bedrock of world-class fundraising AI solutions.

Let’s dig into the ways that AI technology improves organizational security, and how modern fundraising solutions can deliver the best privacy and compliance standards for their product offerings.

Ensuring data privacy and security

When it comes to donor data, security is non-negotiable. Nonprofits must prioritize ethical data sourcing, rock-solid security measures, and compliance with relevant regulations. Fundraise Up takes this seriously. For example, advanced features like behavior analysis help detect and prevent fraudulent activities, protecting both the organization and its donors.

Compliance with stringent security standards like PCI DSS Level 1, SOC II Type 2, and ISO 27001 ensures that sensitive data is handled appropriately.

The Fundraise Up platform contains comprehensive security features and maintains compliance with data protection regulations. With features like encryption, secure backups, and regular penetration testing, nonprofits can trust that their donor information is in good hands. Learn more about security and compliance considerations with our checklist for selecting secure nonprofit software partners.

Maintaining donor trust

Donor trust is the foundation of successful nonprofit fundraising, and it's especially crucial when using AI tools. The key? Transparency and ethics at every turn. Nonprofits should be upfront about how they're using AI and donor data, with clear policies that prioritize privacy and security. Bonus points for giving donors control over their information and preferences.

Fundraise Up has AI-powered fraud protection that proactively identifies and prevents suspicious activity. Behavioral analysis combined with IP matching, and a sprinkle of machine learning magic, ensures secure transactions that donors can feel good about.

Privacy-first AI: selecting ethical software for AI-driven fundraising

Privacy-first is an ethical approach to AI tooling that places individual information privacy above all else. It’s crucial to select AI-driven digital fundraising technology that adheres to this stringent level of donor data security and privacy.

Although there may be multiple nonprofit software solutions claiming to leverage AI technology, not all are created equal. To foster donor trust and maintain ethical fundraising, nonprofits need software partners that implement privacy-first AI.

Donor data is sacred at Fundraise Up. Access is strictly limited and used solely for essential customer support, ensuring donor privacy remains intact. Our AI leverages anonymous data, ensuring donor privacy by excluding personal identifiable information (PII) in both past and future model training. Dive deeper into Fundraise Up’s security philosophy with our Security Measures Guide.

Elevate Your Impact with Fundraise Up’s AI for Nonprofit Fundraising

Fundraise Up's AI-driven platform enables nonprofits to implement effective and efficient fundraising strategies with ease. By integrating advanced AI into their online giving tech stacks, nonprofits can keep donors engaged, streamline operations, and unlock new revenue opportunities.

Our digital fundraising solutions empower nonprofits with intelligent tools to optimize high-impact factors like suggested donation amounts, monthly giving, and transaction fee coverage. The platform's plug-and-play features make optimizing websites and boosting conversions painless. Explore the platform's AI-powered features or contact the Fundraise Up team to get started with a personalized demo.

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PCI DSS Level 1: a must for nonprofit cybersecurity

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Securely handling donation transactional data is crucial for maintaining donor trust and safeguarding financial information. One key way to ensure the security of credit card transactions is through PCI DSS Level 1 compliance. This certification is fundamental and a must-have for all technology providers that assist nonprofits with online donations.

Fundraise Up is compliant: explore our security certifications.

Let’s talk about PCI DSS Level 1 compliance, its benefits, and why it’s a crucial certification for nonprofits to consider when evaluating software partners.

What is PCI DSS Level 1 compliance?

PCI DSS, or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, is a set of technical and operational standards designed to secure credit card transactions and protect cardholder data. Level 1 compliance is the highest level required for organizations processing over 6 million card transactions annually.

The benefits of PCI DSS Level 1 compliance for nonprofit cybersecurity

Top-level financial security

PCI Level 1 certification ensures that your donors' credit card data is protected with the highest level of security, minimizing the risk of data breaches and fraud. This is crucial for nonprofits handling significant amounts of donation data.

Building donor and partner trust

Using PCI Level 1 compliant software demonstrates your commitment to safeguarding financial information, which builds trust and confidence with your donors and partners. This is critical in maintaining and growing a nonprofit's support base.

Continuous security assurance

PCI Level 1 certification involves an ongoing process with annual audits. This continuous oversight provides nonprofits with the assurance that their platform’s security controls are effective and up-to-date, helping to promptly identify and mitigate any potential security threats.

Expert talks: Watch Fundraise Up's latest webinar on tech and nonprofit compliance.

Key aspects to consider

Ensure your software is PCI Level 1 compliant, as levels 2 and 3 are easier to achieve and don’t offer the same level of security.
Check that the payment processors used by your software partners are also PCI compliant to securely handle your donors' transactional data.

For example, at Fundraise Up, we help nonprofits increase donation revenue by providing digital tools like Checkout, website Elements, and more to enhance the donor journey and maximize conversions. While we are not a payment processor, we partner with PCI-compliant platforms like Stripe, PayPal, and Gemini. Learn more about the payment methods Fundraise Up provides to your supporters.

Partner with PCI DSS Level 1 certified software

At Fundraise Up, we take the security of your fundraising seriously, especially when it comes to transactional data. That’s why we maintain the highest PCI Level 1 compliance certificate, ensuring your donation and supporter data is secure.

In addition to PCI Level 1 compliance, we also hold SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications, demonstrating our comprehensive commitment to superior data protection.

Moreover, we protect your nonprofit from fraudulent activities by implementing anti-fraud measures. We use advanced machine learning algorithms and human oversight to detect and prevent fraud effectively.

Expert-reviewed security checklist: Make it easier to assess software solutions based on security, privacy, and compliance with this resource.

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Giving Tuesday 2024: Fundraise Up benchmarks predict nonprofit growth

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Getting the most out of nonprofit fundraising requires keen insights and data-driven decisions. Access to the right information is crucial for organizations, but understanding what that information means and how to use it effectively is equally important.

That’s where Fundraise Up benchmarks shine. We're comparing our user data with industry benchmarks to forecast digital fundraising trends for 2024 and beyond. Let’s drill into Giving Tuesday donation volume trends.

More insights: Dive into more online giving benchmarks by reading the previous installments of this series: recurring donation trends and annual giving volume.

The nonprofit sector generally saw a decline in year-end giving. However, we saw an uptick on Giving Tuesday among Fundraise Up users. How are these nonprofits bucking the trend?

Giving Tuesday 2023 takeaways

It’s no secret that Giving Tuesday is a significant event in the nonprofit calendar. This global giving day, held each year on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, consistently drives substantial donor revenue.

However, the 2023 M+R Benchmarks Study reveals challenging Giving Tuesday stats: a 7% revenue decline compared to 2022. This decrease reflects the broader changes in donor behavior and industry-wide downturns in annual giving.

Fundraise Up Giving Tuesday data outperforms the industry

Despite the industry-wide decline, Fundraise Up's user base experienced year-over-year Giving Tuesday donation growth. Take a look at these impressive 2023 results, drawn from over 230 nonprofit organizations using Fundraise Up across multiple industries:

The total number of donations processed on Giving Tuesday increased by 2.75% for Fundraise Up users.
Fundraise Up users also saw a 1.72% increase in total Giving Tuesday donation revenue — 8.72 percentage points higher than the industry average.

From these results, it’s clear that Fundraise Up nonprofit partners are benefitting from the optimizations of our tech-forward platform. In fact, Fundraise Up users saw a 6.9% increase in the total annual donor revenue compared to 2022. Let’s dig into how Fundraise Up’s high-performance features enabled Giving Tuesday donation growth.

Analyzing the data: how tech-forward optimizations drive donation volume

The 8.72 percentage point increase in Giving Tuesday donation growth for our users highlights how nonprofits with advanced digital fundraising tools can significantly outperform industry averages.

The cutting-edge technology and sophisticated optimizations of Fundraise Up gives our nonprofit customers a crucial advantage. Our platform includes industry-leading AI-powered fundraising features backed by a powerful machine-learning model informed by data unique to nonprofits.

From intelligent Campaign Pages that increase conversion to an upgraded Checkout that offers smart amount suggestions, Fundraise Up optimizes touch points across the entire donation experience so that you ask the right amount at the right time. Most importantly, we practice privacy-first AI to prioritize security and safeguard donor data.

The high-tech advantage: practical implications for nonprofits

The data is clear: nonprofits that leverage advanced fundraising technologies can expect better fundraising outcomes, especially during the giving season and days like Giving Tuesday. Here are some actionable insights for organizations looking to improve their fundraising efforts:

Adopt AI-driven solutions: leverage AI-driven tools to enhance donor engagement and increase donations. Our AI-powered Checkout suggests optimal donation amounts based on donor behavior, ensuring you maximize every contribution opportunity.
Focus on donor engagement: use data insights to understand donor behavior and tailor your strategies accordingly. Our Insights Dashboard makes learning about your donors easy, and plug-and-play Elements improve the donor experience from anywhere.
Streamline the donation process: simplify and optimize the donation process with a user-friendly platform. Our Donor Portal and recurring donation prompts make giving easy and ongoing, enhancing donor engagement and boosting overall donations.

Looking ahead

At Fundraise Up, we’re committed to continuously analyzing user data and industry benchmarks to provide actionable insights for nonprofits. Our goal is to help organizations harness the power of modern fundraising technology to achieve their goals and grow their impact.

Stay tuned for more insights as we explore nonprofit benchmarking and data-driven trends in fundraising. To learn how Fundraise Up can elevate your online fundraising, contact us for a personalized overview.

Recurring donations

More donations with just 1 click using Upgrade Links

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Chances are that your recurring donors are willing to give more — all you have to do is ask! Upgrade Links from Fundraise Up give you a tactful way to ask supporters to increase the size of their donations. And donor-specific Upgrade Links can be quickly added to existing and new fundraising efforts like marketing emails, SMS campaigns and other supporter communications.

How do Upgrade Links work?

With Upgrade Links, it’s now easy for donors to increase their support with one click. When your recurring donors visit an Upgrade Link, they can select from a series of personalized upgrade amounts and increase the size of their donations without having to reenter payment method information.

Did you know: using Upgrade Links can result in a 66-100% rise in average recurring donation amounts.

Example:

Consider a donor who opts-in to recurring giving when making a donation to your organization. Their monthly donation might begin as a $10 gift, but by incorporating Upgrade Links into an annual upgrade email that you send, you can create a seamless experience for the donor to increase their support. That original $10 amount can then easily become a $20 or $30 monthly gift.

Using Upgrade Links, you can multiply the lifetime value of individual donors and dramatically increase the output of your recurring giving program.

Try it: demo our interactive walk-throughs of Upgrade Links.

The power of AI with Upgrade Links

Upgrade Links solve another common problem with donations — determining how much more to ask for. Through the power of AI, you can put complicated spreadsheets and Excel formulas behind you. Let’s talk about it.

Fundraise Up’s AI uses more than 100 personalization data points to choose donation amounts that are most likely to be selected by a donor. These data points include:

Donation frequency (monthly, annually, biweekly, quarterly, etc.)
Donation installments (e.g. how many installments have incurred so far and the subscription start date)
Donation amount
Donation currency

And because Fundraise Up’s AI technology uses only first-party data, you can upgrade donors knowing their privacy comes first.

Compliance, certified: learn more about our security certifications here.

Upgrade donors with just one click

With Upgrade Links, the upgrade experience takes just one click. The best part? Donors don’t have to reenter their payment information! It’s a secure and seamless way to increase donations.

2 Ways to create Upgrade Links

Links with verification

One way to create Upgrade Links is with a verification step. In this approach, a donor will choose an upgrade amount and confirm it by simply verifying their email address.

Links with encryption

Upgrade Links created using this approach use SHA256 encryption to identify supporters and their recurring donation plans. Because each link includes a signature unique to individual donors, the upgrade experience can be completed without an email verification step.

2 Types of Upgrade Links

Main donation amount upgrade

This type of Upgrade Link encourages donors to increase their base donation amount. Supporters will see three AI-personalized upgrade amounts and a fourth donor-customizable amount to choose from.

Cost coverage upgrade

Cost coverage upgrades encourage donors to cover the transaction fees associated with their recurring donations. It’s an effective way of reducing costs and increasing revenue from recurring giving.

The ins-and-outs of Adaptive Cost Coverage: learn why more than 80% of donors cover transaction costs when given the option.

Tips from real-life applications of Upgrade Links

Our partners at Media Cause are leveraging Upgrade Links to grow giving for their nonprofit clients. Here are a few recommendations they have for getting the most out of Upgrade Links.

Use Upgrade Links every January alongside your sustainer acquisition campaigns, upsell existing donors.
Set up an automated anniversary email to upgrade sustainers. Include personalize impact statistics and an upgrade CTA that uses an Upgrade Link.
Include an Upgrade Link in an upgrade CTA that’s integrated into your email templates. Use a display rule to show the CTA when the email recipient is an active recurring donor.
Don't ask for upgrades too often. Once every 3-6 months is recommended.
Don't try to upgrade donors too soon. Wait at least 3 months before upgrading new recurring donors.
Focus most of your upgrade efforts on how you make the ask. Donors should feel that increasing their support will produce perceivable value.

Ready for more donations?

Upgrade Links are the perfect tool for nonprofits looking to engage supporters more effectively. Add them to your fundraising campaign tactics and watch the magic happen. Learn more about implementing Upgrade Links into your strategy with a discovery call today.

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Securing donor data: why nonprofit cybersecurity is critical in digital fundraising

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT

In 2021 and 2022, over 2.6 billion personal records were compromised due to targeted attacks by cybercriminals. Last year, data breaches among U.S. organizations reached an all-time high.

Donors trust nonprofit organizations with sensitive personal and financial data like contact information, payment details, medical records, and social security numbers. As data breach occurrence rates rise, protecting sensitive information from bad actors is more critical for nonprofits than ever.

Learn how to protect both donors and organizations with this guide to securing nonprofit donor data.

Why nonprofit cybersecurity is essential for digital growth

Expanding a nonprofit's digital fundraising efforts requires robust security to protect supporters' trust and ensure sustainable growth. Here's why:

Data privacy isn't just about compliance

Keeping sensitive information safe is deeply intertwined with donor expectations. The public is hyper-aware of how their personal data is collected and used online. Data breaches and mishandling can severely damage an organization’s reputation and relationships.

Data privacy is also very much about compliance

Privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA, which enforce strict standards around data handling, must be understood and followed by all companies that handle sensitive customer data. Violations can result in massive penalties that cripple an organization's finances and operations.

The bar is high — and getting higher — for data security

Major tech companies like Apple and Google are spearheading how data privacy is managed and prioritized — and raising consumers' expectations along the way. Their policies directly impact how nonprofits can leverage user data for targeted fundraising campaigns. Falling out of step with these evolving standards inhibits growth and creates vulnerability.

Putting donor data security first demonstrates a commitment to privacy

Emphasizing and focusing on securing data shows donors that their privacy is valued as much as their support. Implementing a secure fundraising platform with stringent certifications like SOC II, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS signals concrete steps taken to safeguard sensitive donor information across all digital channels.

Compliance Deep-Dive: Learn more about the importance of ISO 27001 certification

The challenges of safeguarding donor data

Cyber attackers are always finding new ways to infiltrate systems and exploit vulnerabilities. Nonprofit organizations face the daunting task of staying ahead of increasingly sophisticated attacks while navigating complex compliance landscapes.

Nonprofits also face data compromising threats from inside the organization. This is why organizations must approach privacy holistically, ensuring that employees are educated about the types of threats the organization faces and how every person and team plays a role in mitigating them.

Internal donor data security threats

Human error is a major obstacle to maintaining donor data security. A staggering 88% of data breaches stem from internal personnel mistakes, like falling for phishing scams and mishandling sensitive files. Most nonprofits struggle to properly train their staff on securing their data, providing only cursory annual training that quickly becomes outdated. Implementing robust and ongoing training keeps employees prepared and vigilant, though it’s still not enough.

Cyberattacks pose a high level of risk that goes beyond training. Comprehensive nonprofit cybersecurity education is most effective when coupled with rigorous data policies, access controls, and technology partners that offer enterprise certifications and security tools (e.g., AI-enabled advanced anti-fraud protection) that protects the organization and donors data.

External nonprofit cybersecurity threats

Third-party vendors are also a growing threat. Many nonprofits regularly grant access to donor data systems for functions like payment processing, cloud storage, or IT services. A compromised vendor creates an open door for hackers to infiltrate the organization’s systems. Properly vetting vendors' security protocols is essential.

Another nonprofit cybersecurity challenge is staying ahead of evolving technology and increasingly stringent data privacy regulations. Laws like GDPR and CCPA differ globally and are raising the compliance bar. Advanced attackers are weaponizing techniques like ransomware, which has seen a nearly 70% spike in the last year. Legacy systems and limited IT resources can make it extremely difficult to keep up.

Compliance concerns in a global ecosystem

Preventing disastrous breaches takes vigilance. It's also a matter of legal obligation. Global nonprofits must adhere to a complex web of varying data privacy regulations that govern donor information collection, storage, and usage. Nonprofit cybersecurity compliance challenges around the world include:

Global data protection laws

The EU's GDPR sets strict standards for any organization, nonprofit or otherwise, that handles the personal data of European citizens. Similarly, laws like Canada's PIPEDA extend data protection requirements across North America. Violations can result in massive penalties and lawsuits.

U.S. State data privacy acts

Data privacy is being enforced at the state level in the U.S. through comprehensive laws like California’s CCPA. In fact, 47 states have laws requiring organizations to notify individuals if their personally identifiable information has been breached.

In 2023, seven states, including Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Texas, passed comprehensive data protection and privacy legislation. California and Colorado also significantly revised their existing privacy laws.

Industry security standards

Beyond regional laws, nonprofits must meet industry-specific security certifications, such as PCI DSS for handling payment data and SOC II for securely managing information. Organizations are increasingly held to the same rigorous cybersecurity standards as commercial businesses.

Audits and compliance checks are becoming more common to ensure donors' sensitive information is properly safeguarded according to established frameworks and standards like PCI DSS.

Donor trust and transparency

Perhaps the biggest compliance issue nonprofits face is maintaining the trust and transparency expected by today's donors. Donors want assurances that their personal information is truly protected from misuse or exposure. Failing to prioritize data privacy can irreparably damage an organization’s credibility.

Make enterprise-level compliance a digital fundraising priority

Nonprofit organizations cannot ignore cybersecurity. The risks of data breaches, compliance penalties, and loss of donor trust are far too severe. Protecting supporters' sensitive information must be a top priority as organizations expand digital fundraising channels.

Fundraise Up provides the robust security and compliance nonprofits need for peace of mind. The platform is PCI DSS Level 1 certified for handling payment data, SOC II Type 2 certified for managing data securely, and ISO 27001 certified, ensuring appropriate safeguards for information security. Organizations also benefit from advanced fraud protection powered by proprietary AI that analyzes millions of transactions to detect and block suspicious behavior before it happens.

Security at Fundraise Up goes beyond just checking boxes. It's built into the platform's architecture, with features like global load balancing, DDoS protection, data encryption, and comprehensive access controls. Fundraise confidently knowing both the nonprofit and donors are safeguarded against modern cyberthreats.

Reach out to the Fundraise Up team to discover how the platform can help grow donation revenue through frictionless digital experiences secured by enterprise-grade technology.

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5 Strategies for successful nonprofit fundraising during an election year

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Election years present both challenges and opportunities for nonprofit fundraising. The political climate can sway donor behavior, creating a mix of competition and heightened engagement. This heightened awareness can be a powerful catalyst for charitable giving, presenting a unique opportunity for nonprofits to tap into this energized environment.

Navigating these dynamics is essential for nonprofits to leverage the election year effectively. This article outlines five smart strategies for ensuring continued donor support and engagement during an election cycle.

1. Stay calm and focused: Run the best program possible

Maintaining a consistent and effective fundraising program is crucial despite the noise and competition from political campaigns. Historical data shows that charitable giving tends to follow the same trend as previous years — whether upward or downward — regardless of election outcomes. This resilience demonstrates that philanthropy remains steady even in politically charged times.

Consistency is key to keeping supporters engaged. While experimenting with new fundraising strategies can be beneficial, the primary focus should always be on the mission. Emphasizing the ongoing importance of the organization’s work ensures that donors understand its vital role, independent of the election cycle.

To implement this approach, clearly communicate the organization's mission and its continuous impact. Regular updates and consistent messaging will reassure donors of the stability and ongoing relevance of the cause, encouraging sustained support throughout the election year.

2. Plan the calendar wisely: Timing is everything

Strategically timing fundraising efforts is crucial during an election year. Political campaigns can dominate social media and news networks, particularly in the weeks leading up to the election, making it difficult for nonprofit messages to stand out. Scheduling major campaigns earlier in the year or during quieter months can help avoid this competition and ensure better visibility.

Careful planning can maximize donor response and maintain momentum throughout the election cycle. Reviewing historical data and past campaign performances helps identify the optimal times for donor engagement, ensuring that fundraising appeals reach their audience without being overshadowed by election-related communications.

To execute this strategy, adjust the content calendar regularly based on political events and feedback from past campaigns. A multichannel approach, including email, social media, and direct mail, will help maintain engagement and visibility, even during politically busy periods.

3. Leverage the political climate: Align with current issues

Election years heighten public interest in social and political issues, offering nonprofits a unique opportunity to align their campaigns with public concerns. By tapping into voters' heightened emotions, nonprofits can make their causes more urgent and relatable.

This strategy is significant because it enhances donor engagement and broadens the supporter base. Positioning the nonprofit's mission within the broader political context can drive increased support and donations, showing donors the immediate relevance of their contributions.

To implement this, nonprofits should highlight how their work addresses pressing societal issues. Craft messages that intersect with current political topics and demonstrate the organization’s role in solutions. Engaging in relevant conversations ensures the mission remains compelling throughout the election cycle.

4. Diversify channels: Engage in new ways

With increased competition for attention during an election year, diversifying communication channels is essential. Incorporating SMS, social media, and other digital platforms into the strategy can effectively broaden outreach. Given the high volume of political messages, it’s crucial that nonprofit messaging is creative and engaging to capture attention and stand out.

Utilizing multiple channels ensures that donors receive consistent and cohesive content, which can reinforce their commitment. By engaging donors through various touch-points, nonprofits can create a far-reaching strategy that keeps supporters connected regardless of political distractions.

To implement this strategy, tailor content to each platform and regularly update messaging to maintain relevance and interest. Data-driven insights can optimize the timing and delivery of campaigns, ensuring maximum impact. By leveraging diverse communication avenues, nonprofits can enhance visibility and sustain donor engagement during election seasons.

Donor data deep-dive: Learn more about tracking donor engagement with the Insights Dashboard

5. Innovate and adapt: Embrace fresh approaches to fundraising

Election years provide an excellent opportunity to test new strategies and innovate fundraising efforts. Observing successful political fundraising tactics and adapting them for nonprofits can be highly beneficial. Creative storytelling, interactive online experiences, and personalized donor communications can help organizations stand out and engage supporters effectively.

Incorporating technology into fundraising efforts can streamline processes and enhance donor experiences. Digital fundraising tools offer new ways to engage through features like donor portals, campaign pages, and integrations with popular tools and websites. Advanced techniques like machine learning and AI insights can analyze donor behaviors and optimize interactions to increase conversion rates. These technological enhancements make fundraising more efficient and effective.

Refining approaches based on audience feedback is crucial when experimenting with new ideas. Leveraging data-driven insights and modern digital tools can help nonprofits create innovative and impactful fundraising strategies during election years.

Next-level fundraising: Learn about Fundraise Up’s features to fuel online giving

Fundraising during an election year? Ensure a winning campaign with Fundraise Up

Navigating fundraising during an election year requires careful planning and adaptability. By staying true to the mission and leveraging a few strategic innovations, nonprofits can successfully engage donors and sustain support.

Fundraise Up offers powerful tools to help nonprofits thrive during challenging times. With machine learning that intelligently identifies donors open to upsell offers and plug-and-play components that customize websites for increased donations, Fundraise Up ensures organizations can effectively navigate the complexities of an election year.

Learn more about how Fundraise Up elevates giving strategies or schedule a personalized demo today.

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Annual Giving Trends: Data forecasts boosted donor revenue for tech-forward nonprofits in 2024

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Nonprofit fundraising is a dynamic field where every donation counts and the stakes are high. Benchmarks and data are vital to keeping strategies on track and providing a strong foundation against persistent funding pressures.

In a series of blog posts, Fundraise Up is forecasting the future of digital fundraising by analyzing 2023 user data against industry reports. For this second installment in the series, we’re focusing on annual giving trends.

The series began with a deep dive into recurring monthly donation trends. Read the blog here.

Despite the 2023 nonprofit sector data showing stalled donation growth, Fundraise Up's nonprofit partners saw notable increases in 2023 annual giving volume. What's behind this positive shift for Fundraise Up users?

This article digs into annual giving volume data, offering insights and practical implications for nonprofits seeking to boost their fundraising outcomes in 2024.

Industry overview: annual and year-end giving volume trends

Year-end giving is one of the most lucrative times for nonprofits, often driving the bulk of annual fundraising revenue. However, a close examination of M+R's 2023 Benchmarks Study paints a challenging picture:

Giving Tuesday revenue saw a 7% decrease.
New Year’s Eve revenue also dropped by 7%.
Total online donor revenue declined by 1% from 2022 to 2023.

With key fundraising days like Giving Tuesday and New Year’s Eve showing significant drops, it's clear that donors' preferences and behavior are changing. This shift contributes to a general decline in donor revenue, emphasizing the need for nonprofits to adapt quickly to maintain and grow their donor base.

Fundraise Up users see annual giving growth

We analyzed Fundraise Up user data from over 200 nonprofits across various causes, including environmental protection, human services, and emergency response. Such a comprehensive dataset ensures that insights are relevant and useful for nonprofits of all missions and sizes.

In contrast to the broader industry's stagnation in annual giving trends, our users saw encouraging year-over-year increases:

Giving Tuesday donations increased 1.72% in value and 2.75% in quantity.
New Year’s Eve donations grew by 2.8% in value and 57% in quantity.
Total donations processed rose by 6.9% from 2022 to 2023.

Significant donor revenue growth on key fundraising days indicates how Fundraise Up's digital tools lead to higher donor engagement and fundraising outcomes. This remarkable rise in giving demonstrates the potential for advanced digital fundraising solutions to boost donation volumes and sustain revenue growth.

The future of fundraising: Learn how Fundraise Up is helping nonprofits adapt for the digital age.

Why Fundraise Up users are outpacing the industry

To fully appreciate the annual giving trends revealed through our data, we must compare them directly to the industry averages. Fundraise Up's user data is comparable with M+R Benchmarks Study data due to similar samples in size and industry — each involving just over 200 nonprofits. This alignment ensures that the analysis is statistically meaningful and representative of the field.

Technology and tools are the key differentiators here. While the exact tech stack of the industry sample is unknown, we do know that every user in our sample has access to the latest innovations in digital fundraising tools offered by the Fundraise Up platform — solutions like high-conversion donation pages, AI-driven optimizations, and intelligent engagement strategies.

Comparing Fundraise Up user data to industry averages clearly shows that organizations using advanced fundraising technology are outpacing the rest. These insights highlight the potential for tech-driven fundraising strategies to create a brighter outlook for the future of nonprofit giving. Organizations using Fundraise Up fundraising solutions not only avoided the industry’s decreased donor revenue trends — they reversed it!

Fundraise Up’s platform leverages machine learning to personalize donor interactions, streamline donation processes, and enhance the overall donor experience. Features like Al-optimized upsells and global payment methods help nonprofits increase conversions and drive successful fundraising campaigns. Our online fundraising tools boost donation volumes and increase revenue, while also strengthening donor relationships and saving organizational resources.

Looking ahead

We believe that ongoing user data analysis is key to uncovering valuable insights and evolving trends in nonprofit fundraising. Fundraise Up will continue to compare our data against industry-wide reports, identifying trends and essential insights to help nonprofits optimize their fundraising efforts.

Interested in learning how Fundraise Up elevates fundraising strategies? Reach out to learn more about how our platform can maximize your organization’s fundraising potential.

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Raise more than ever before with Campaign Pages

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT

No-code fundraising landing pages that you can publish in minutes? It’s possible with Fundraise Up’s Campaign Pages! Nonprofits can easily create and configure donation-optimized pages in just minutes, saving valuable time, effort, and resources.

Even better, nonprofits who use Campaign Pages see high conversion rates, better donor engagement and more successful online fundraising initiatives. Plus, every Campaign Page you create renders perfectly across mobile and desktop devices. It’s designed to guide donors through an effortless giving experience. Let’s talk about it!

Quick & easy creation

Creating a Campaign Page is a breeze, requiring no code and no technical expertise. In just a matter of minutes, you can set up a configurable page to use for a special event, seasonal campaign, urgent need, or any other fundraising initiative. This quick and easy creation process makes Campaign Pages a no-brainer for organizations looking to streamline their online fundraising efforts without losing impact.

Try it: Make a test donation using a Campaign Page

Compelling storytelling

Configurable content on Campaign Pages lets you tell compelling stories that resonate with donors. With unlimited space for text, images, and other content, nonprofits can craft a narrative that highlights the impact of contributions and resonates with people, driving meaningful engagement and ultimately enhancing conversion rates.

Reliable and speedy - Campaign Pages support up to 200 real-time transactions per second to deliver optimal performance, especially during high-volume days of giving.

High conversion rates

And speaking of conversion rates, a key benefit of Campaign Pages is their successfully high donation conversion rates. Take the Canadian Red Cross as an example. They saw a 25% click-to-donate conversion rate using Campaign Pages! Here’s how this feature engages donors and drives donations.

Features to love

Built-in Checkout

The optimized checkout process embedded in Campaign Pages means a seamless and secure donation experience, bolstered by AI optimization, suggested amounts, upgrade opportunities, and support for multiple payment methods.

Insightful analytics

Along with Fundraise Up’s powerful Insights Dashboard, the integration with Google Analytics, Meta Pixel and others from our approved list provide organizations with valuable insights into campaign performance.

Donation matching

Show supporters how much further their contribution can go with donation matching. And you can partner with any third-party sponsor to maximize the gift amount.

Localization

Support for 22+ languages and 135 currencies, coupled with device optimization, ensures that you can reach a global audience seamlessly.

Supporter Impact

Campaign Pages include a powerful tool that displays a real-time feed of recent contributions. This feature inspires potential donors to join the cause, and with the option to display donation amounts in various currencies, you’re able to engage donors across the world.

Impact descriptions

These customizable messages share exactly what donor gifts are going toward. You’ll help donors understand the powerful ways they can support causes, projects, and initiatives for your nonprofit.

Goal meter

Share the success with your supporters! The goal meter updates automatically as you receive donations and can include offline amounts to represent support gained through other channels.

Use cases with online fundraising initiatives

The versatility of Campaign Pages means you can publish them for any fundraising activity. Our customers have had success with Campaign Pages for:

Special events
Seasonal campaigns
Year-end fundraising
Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising
Crisis/emergency fundraising
Religious holidays
Corporate sponsorships
And more!

With the ease of Campaign Pages, the sky’s the limit for digital fundraising drives!

Secure and compliant - Campaign Pages exceed industry requirements with SOC II type 2, PCI DSS Level 1, GDPR, and ISO 27001 to ensure donor data and transaction information is safe.

Get started with Campaign Pages

Take online fundraising efforts to the next level with Campaign Pages. It’s the quick and easy way to maximize your campaigns. Interested in learning more? Book a demo with our sales team today.

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How innovative nonprofits are driving digital donor revenue with fundraising metrics

Thu, 16 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

The strength of any nonprofit lies in its donor base — the key force that drives its operations and mission. Fundraising is all about having a clear vision and purpose and understanding the impact of donations. In a digital landscape where data is king, using the right fundraising metrics is essential for connecting with donors and increasing online donations.

But what exactly are fundraising metrics, and why are these measurements necessary? This article explains how nonprofits can use these metrics effectively to grow and achieve their goals.

What are fundraising metrics?

Before numbers can tell the story, it’s essential to understand their significance. Fundraising metrics, also known as nonprofit key performance indicators (KPIs), are the quantifiable values that demonstrate the effectiveness and results of fundraising efforts. These metrics range from retention and the donor acquisition rate to the average donation amount and the cost of securing those vital contributions.

By collecting and analyzing these metrics, nonprofits can obtain valuable insights into their fundraising strategies, empowering them to make informed decisions and enhance outcomes.

Why are fundraising metrics important?

Imagine navigating a complex environment without a map — this is the challenge nonprofits face without fundraising metrics. These KPIs act as crucial navigational tools, providing clarity and direction in nonprofit fundraising. Understanding where efforts are most successful and where they falter helps nonprofits avoid inefficiencies and maximize efficiency.

In addition to helping guide internal strategies, nonprofits can also use fundraising metrics as powerful communication tools. Sharing these insights validates nonprofits' work and deepens engagement with communities. Demonstrating tangible success and using donations prudently builds trust and encourages generosity. When passionate contributors see the impact of their donations, they are more likely to support them.

With fundraising metrics, nonprofits don't just chase goals — they set new standards of excellence and invite everyone to witness their meaningful journey.

How can innovative nonprofits use fundraising metrics?

Innovative nonprofits use fundraising metrics as a strategic tool to enhance fundraising effectiveness and secure the resources needed to fulfill their mission. By adopting a data-driven approach, these organizations use KPIs to identify trends, understand donor behavior, and tailor their communication strategies for more effective engagement.

For example, analyzing donor retention rates helps determine the most effective outreach programs, enabling nonprofits to refine their strategy and focus on high-yield activities. Additionally, advanced fundraising analytics predict future giving patterns, allowing organizations to proactively adjust their plans and meet funding goals.

How to measure and analyze fundraising metrics

Understanding fundraising metrics is crucial for nonprofits looking to refine their fundraising strategies. The following framework outlines how nonprofits can measure and analyze fundraising metrics to make strategic decisions.

Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Determine which metrics are most relevant to the organization's goals. Common KPIs include donor retention rate, average donation amount, and cost per acquisition.
Regularly collect data: Establish a routine for consistent data collection. Consistency is crucial for tracking trends over time and making meaningful comparisons.
Analyze trends: Examine the surface numbers to understand the trends and patterns they reveal. For example, investigating declining donor retention rates can uncover potential reasons behind the trend.
Report and share findings: Communicating analysis results with stakeholders, including staff, board members, and donors, builds trust and can motivate the team and supporters.

Following these steps can help nonprofits evaluate KPIs effectively, use the data to drive meaningful change, and achieve greater impact.

The top 20 fundraising metrics nonprofits should track

With the right fundraising KPIs, nonprofits can enhance their campaigns, build stronger donor relationships, and accomplish their missions more effectively. Here are the top 20 fundraising metrics every nonprofit organization should track.

Financial efficiency metrics: Understanding cost-effectiveness in fundraising

These metrics evaluate the cost-effectiveness of fundraising efforts, helping nonprofits optimize their activities and efficiently allocate resources.

Cost to Raise a Dollar (CRD)

This metric is crucial for measuring the efficiency of fundraising efforts by determining how much it costs the organization to raise one dollar in donations. Lower costs typically indicate a more efficient fundraising operation, whereas higher costs may signal the need for strategic adjustments.

Formula: Total Fundraising Expenses / Total Amount of Donations Received

Used for: Evaluating the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of fundraising strategies.

Fundraising Return on Investment (ROI)

Fundraising ROI measures the total revenue generated for every dollar spent on fundraising, providing a clear picture of campaign profitability and helping assess the effectiveness of fundraising strategies.

Formula: Total Revenue / Total Expenses

Use for: Determining profitability and guiding future investment in fundraising activities

Cost per acquisition

This metric calculates the cost of acquiring a new donor, which is crucial for evaluating the efficiency of marketing strategies to expand donor bases. It reflects the direct costs associated with engaging new supporters.

Formula: Total Campaign Cost / Number of New Donors

Used for: Assessing and optimizing strategies for acquiring new donors

Gross fundraising margin

Gross fundraising margin highlights the difference between total revenue and direct fundraising expenses, expressed as a percentage. This metric helps nonprofits understand how much of the money raised is available for their programs versus spent on fundraising.

Formula: (Total Revenue - Fundraising Expenses) / Total Revenue x 100%

Used for: Evaluating the effectiveness of fundraising efforts and adjusting strategies

Donor dependency rate

A nonprofit organization can use this metric to determine its dependence on major donors. A high major donor dependency rate indicates a high reliance on a small number of donors, which could threaten financial stability if any major donors withdraw their support.

Formula: Total Gifts From Top Donors / Total Gifts Received

Used for: Identifying and mitigating donor concentration risks and ensuring a healthy balance of funding

Donor metrics: Gauging donor loyalty and value for enhanced engagement

This category focuses on metrics that analyze donor relationships, providing insights into retention, loyalty, and lifetime value to help nonprofits refine their engagement strategies.

Donor retention rate

The donor retention rate measures the percentage of donors that continue to support a cause year after year. A high donor retention rate can indicate solid foundation of relationships and effective fundraising strategies.

Formula: (Number of Previous Year's Donors who Gave this Year / Number of Previous Year's Donors) x 100%

Used for: Tracking donor loyalty and identifying areas for improvement in donor engagement

Donor churn rate

The donor churn rate is a critical metric for understanding the rate at which donors stop contributing to your organization over a given period. It's the flip side of donor retention, highlighting the percentage of donors who do not repeat their donations.

Formula: (Number of Donors Last Year Who Did Not Donate This Year / Total Number of Last Year's Donors) x 100%

Used for: Assessing donor satisfaction and identifying potential issues

Donor lifetime value

This metric shows the amount of money a donor is expected to contribute over their relationship with an organization, considering the average donation frequency and amount of donations. It can guide fundraising strategies aimed at maximizing donor value.

Formula: Average Gift Amount x Number of Gifts per Year x Average Donor Lifespan

Used for: Determining potential ROI and identifying high-value donors

Donor growth rate

This metric tracks the rate at which a nonprofit gains new donors over time, providing insights into the effectiveness of donor acquisition strategies and overall market penetration.

Formula: (Number of New Donors This Period - Number of New Donors Previous Period) / Number of New Donors Previous Period x 100%

Used for: Monitoring and enhancing efforts to expand the donor base

Number of donors by type

Also called fundraising diversity or diversity of fundraising sources, this metric reveals the breakdown of donors by type (individual, corporate, foundation, etc.). It can help nonprofits identify areas where they may be overly reliant on a particular donor type and diversify their funding sources.

Formula: Tally the number of donors by type

Used for: Assessing donor segments and the diversity and stability of funding sources

Engagement metrics: Maximizing fundraising impact through effective strategies

Metrics in this section assess the effectiveness of engagement strategies, which are crucial for maintaining long-term support and nurturing donor relationships.

Donation "asks" made

This metric determines the number of donation requests made over a specific period. An increase in donation "asks" can indicate more active engagement strategies, but the key is tracking their success rate.

Formula: Total Number of Gift Requests Made

Used for: Evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of outreach efforts to secure donations

Conversion rate

This metric assesses the success rate of specific campaigns in compelling actions such as donations or sign-ups, offering critical insights into the effectiveness of campaign messaging and design.

Formula: (Number of Conversions / Number of Targets) x 100

Used for: Optimizing campaign tactics for higher donor conversion rates

Event conversion rate

Measuring how many event attendees turn into donors, this metric directly indicates the effectiveness of events as a fundraising strategy and the engagement level of participants.

Formula: (Number of Gifts Post-Event / Number of Attendees) x 100

Used for: Measuring and improving event fundraising performance

Online donation percentage

This metric offers insight into the proportion of total donations made online, reflecting the effectiveness of an organization's digital fundraising efforts. It's a critical measure in today's increasingly digital world, where ease of giving can significantly influence donor behavior.

Formula: (Total Online Gifts / Total Gifts Received) x 100

Used for: Evaluating the success and growth of online fundraising efforts

Online engagement metrics

These metrics track digital interactions, including website visits, social media followers, email opens and clicks, online event attendance, and more. By monitoring these figures, organizations can assess their online presence and adjust their strategies accordingly.

Formula: Varies depending on the specific metric

Used for: Analyzing and improving overall digital marketing and engagement efforts

Donation metrics: Tracking and analyzing contributions for better outcomes

Metrics here focus on the tracking and analysis of donation data, offering insights that help nonprofits evaluate the success of their campaigns and adapt strategies for improved results.

Gifts secured

This metric tracks the number of donations received, indicating how many individuals support the cause. It can also help identify trends in giving and determine if particular campaigns or appeals resonate with donors.

Formula: Total number of gifts received

Used for: Monitoring donation volume and effectiveness in securing gifts

Gift frequency

This metric measures how often individual donors give within a specific timeframe, highlighting the regularity of support from the donor base. It can signal donor loyalty and engagement, which is crucial for sustaining long-term fundraising efforts.

Formula: (Total Gifts Received / Number of Unique Donors)

Used for: Understanding donor behavior and fostering repeat donations

Average gift size

This metric calculates the nonprofit’s average gift size, or the average sum individuals donate over a specific period. This figure offers insights into donor generosity and fundraising appeal, and can help organizations tailor their asks based on historical data and donor behavior trends.

Formula: Total Amount of Donations / Number of Donations

Used for: Guiding donation request amounts and understanding donor giving capacity

Average giving capacity

This metric estimates the average gift amount a nonprofit might expect from a donor. The estimation is based on various factors, including past giving history, engagement level, and wealth indicators. Organizations can use this number to identify major prospects and tailor fundraising strategies accordingly.

Formula: The Sum of Each Prospect's Estimated Giving Capacity / The Number of Prospects

Used for: Identifying potential major donors and optimizing fundraising strategies

Donation growth rate

This metric, also called the gift growth rate, reflects the year-over-year growth in donation revenue. It's essential for evaluating the success of fundraising strategies and the organization's ability to expand its impact.

Formula: ((This Year’s Total Donations - Last Year’s Total Donations) / Last Year’s Total Donations) x 100

Used for: Strategic planning and gauging long-term fundraising success

Best practices for using metrics to enhance fundraising

Metrics alone don't achieve goals but offer valuable insights that enhance fundraising strategies. Here are effective ways to use metrics to improve organizational fundraising efforts.

Set SMART goals

Setting SMART goals — specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound — is essential for any effective fundraising plan. For instance, instead of a vague aim to "increase donations," a SMART goal would specify "increasing donations by 10% within the next fiscal year through targeted social media campaigns and donor engagement events." This detailed approach clarifies the desired outcome and outlines strategic actions, making it more actionable and measurable.

Regularly track and analyze metrics

Organizations must routinely track and analyze their metrics to maximize their information. Reviewing and updating KPIs regularly allows nonprofits to identify trends, pinpoint improvement areas, and proactively address challenges by accessing accurate, current data.

Use a variety of metrics

Beyond financial metrics like total donations and donor retention rates, incorporating diverse metrics such as social media engagement, website traffic, and event attendance can offer deeper insights into donor behavior. A broad array of metrics provides a holistic view of fundraising efforts and supports informed decision-making.

Continuously adapt and improve

Fundraising is dynamic, and continuous adaptation and improvement of strategies are vital for sustained success. By regularly analyzing fundraising outcomes, organizations can identify what works and make necessary adjustments. Experimenting with new techniques, refining messaging, or targeting different demographics can open new avenues for donor engagement and enhance fundraising outcomes.

Communicate with donors

Maintaining open communication with donors is crucial. Regular updates through emails, social media posts, and personalized donor appreciation demonstrate appreciation and keep donors connected to the organization's mission and achievements. Additionally, transparency with fundraising KPIs fosters trust and loyalty.

Utilize technology

Integrating technology is critical in modern fundraising. Using online fundraising platforms, social media advertising, and data analysis tools can significantly enhance outreach and engagement with potential donors while streamlining fundraising processes. Look for tools designed to empower nonprofits by offering advanced analytics capabilities, like Fundraise Up. Advanced features help organizations glean deeper insights from their fundraising data, enabling them to make data-driven decisions to optimize their strategies and increase their impact.

Leveraging Data to Enhance Donor Engagement

The adage 'knowledge is power' is no idle platitude, especially in the nonprofit sector. When nonprofits understand fundraising metrics, they hold the key to greater engagement, higher donations, and a more potent narrative that resonates with their donors.

Your nonprofit's growth begins with a single step — often, that step is a look at the numbers. Fundraise Up offers Insights Dashboards to track your organization’s fundraising outcomes. To learn more about how our platform enables nonprofits to leverage their fundraising metrics to drive donor revenue, click here.

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Nonprofit KPI Dashboards: 5 critical best practices to measuring fundraising outcomes

Thu, 16 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Timely information enables nonprofits to swiftly adapt to changes and make strategic decisions that maximize impact. A nonprofit KPI dashboard tracks donor trends, project progress, and other relevant metrics that give an overview of fundraising efforts. This tool provides nonprofits the clarity they need to improve fundraising strategies and enhance outcomes.

This article explores the significance of nonprofit KPI dashboards, highlighting their key features and practical uses. Learn how these dashboards can enhance fundraising activities by streamlining processes and maximizing impact. Using these tools, nonprofits can amplify their efforts and make a real difference.

The challenges of nonprofit KPIs

Nonprofits encounter challenges in crafting and implementing KPIs that reflect their unique missions and operational goals, starting with the often daunting task of choosing the right metrics to measure. Furthermore, setting up a data collection and analysis system can be resource-heavy without the proper tech in place to support KPI tracking.

Transforming data insights into actionable strategies can add another layer of difficulty, necessitating a organization-wide shift towards data-driven decision making. Despite these obstacles, the strategic use of KPIs is vital for nonprofits looking to boost their impact and efficiently meet their objectives.

What is a nonprofit KPI dashboard?

A nonprofit KPI dashboard is a data visualization tool that displays key metrics in an easy-to-understand format. It offers a solution to many of the challenges organizations face when implementing KPIs by enabling real-time data tracking with streamlined performance overviews. These dashboards use charts, graphs, and other visual representations to simplify complex data sets and highlight trends over time.

KPI dashboards allow nonprofits to easily to measure progress and identify areas for improvement. By having all this information in one place, nonprofits can save time and resources while gaining valuable insights into their fundraising efforts.

How can a nonprofit KPI dashboard benefit fundraising efforts?

A well-designed and regularly updated KPI dashboard can greatly benefit fundraising efforts in several ways:

Streamlines processes: It centralizes crucial metrics in one location, eliminating manual data collection and analysis, thus saving time and resources.
Monitors progress: A dashboard provides real-time data, allowing nonprofits to continuously track their progress toward fundraising goals and make proactive adjustments as needed.
Identifies trends and patterns: Visual data representations simplify the detection of trends and patterns, which can help refine fundraising strategies.
Sets goals and benchmarks: It allows organizations to establish measurable goals and benchmarks, enhancing accountability and facilitating precise progress evaluations.
Drives data-driven decisions: A KPI dashboard supports decisions based on data rather than intuition, leading to more effective outcomes.
Unveils growth opportunities: It offers a comprehensive view of performance metrics, helping identify successful areas and potential for expansion.
Communicates impact effectively: The dashboard provides a clear, data-backed performance display, making it easier to communicate the impact to stakeholders.
Promotes transparency: Publicly sharing the dashboard showcases a commitment to transparency and accountability, which can reinforce trust among donors and stakeholders.
Tailors fundraising strategies: Insights into donor behavior and preferences allow for more customized and successful fundraising campaigns.

Together, these benefits enable nonprofits to raise more funds with greater efficiency. Using a nonprofit KPI dashboard, organizations can confidently achieve and exceed their operational and strategic objectives.

Using a nonprofit KPI dashboard to drive performance

A nonprofit KPI dashboard isn't just for board meetings or year-end reports — it's integral to daily operations. Here are a few key ways nonprofits can use insights from their KPI dashboards to enhance performance and achieve strategic goals.

Optimizing strategies in real-time

Nonprofits must swiftly adapt to changing circumstances, and a real-time KPI dashboard makes this possible. When data reveals a sudden shift, such as a decline in donations from a previously reliable donor segment, the organization can quickly reassess and modify its approach, such as increasing donor recognition. This capability helps manage immediate challenges and maintain the continuity of funding.

Tracking trends for proactive decision-making

Nonprofits can anticipate and react to evolving trends by consistently monitoring metrics so they can take a proactive rather than reactive approach to challenges. For example, if a dashboard indicates a gradual decrease in volunteer hours, the organization can investigate the causes and strategically plan to boost volunteer engagement. Volunteer management and ongoing programs depend on this foresight.

Boosting operational efficiency

A KPI dashboard enables nonprofits to identify and address operational inefficiencies, leading to better resource allocation and cost management. For instance, by tracking the cost-effectiveness of outreach programs, a nonprofit can pinpoint areas where resources aren't translating into results and redirect funds more effectively. Operational insight can help allocate funds more strategically, maximizing their impact.

Communicating impact to stakeholders

By presenting results transparently through a KPI dashboard, a nonprofit can significantly enhance its credibility with donors, funders, and partners. When stakeholders understand how organizations use their funds, they feel more connected and confident about their investments. This transparency not only helps retain existing supporters but also attracts new donors.

Enhancing donor engagement

Dashboards can help nonprofits tailor their campaigns and communications by monitoring donor behavior. For example, understanding which types of campaigns generate the most donor engagement can guide nonprofits to focus on similar initiatives. This approach can strengthen donor relationships and enhance funding stability.

Improving staff engagement and satisfaction

Employee engagement is critical to nonprofits' success. A dashboard that tracks job satisfaction, staff turnover, and other engagement metrics enables management to address issues promptly. For example, if the data shows a high turnover rate, the organization might improve working conditions or offer more professional development opportunities. This strategy may help retain skilled staff.

Facilitating effective board governance

A KPI dashboard gives board members a concise overview of nonprofit performance against goals. This clarity ensures that board discussions and decisions are data-driven, enhancing management's strategic guidance. For instance, if fundraising targets aren't being met, the board can quickly identify the problem and devise corrective strategies with management to stay on target.

Nonprofit KPI dashboard success: The top 5 best practices for measuring fundraising outcomes

Using a nonprofit KPI dashboard effectively can significantly boost an organization's ability to track and improve fundraising efforts. Here are five crucial strategies to use a dashboard to measure fundraising success.

1. Prioritize key metrics

Nonprofits enhance their strategic focus by selecting and prioritizing a limited number of metrics. This practice prevents data overload and ensures that the KPIs chosen provide meaningful insights directly aligned with the organization’s strategic objectives. For instance, key metrics might include donor retention rates or cost per dollar raised, offering clear indicators of fundraising efficiency and donor engagement.

2. Maintain data quality and accessibility

Ensuring a KPI dashboard features high-quality, current data is essential for accurate decision-making. Nonprofits should implement regular data checks to prevent inaccuracies and outdated information, which can mislead strategic planning. In addition, making the dashboard accessible to all stakeholders, such as donors, staff, and board members, promotes transparency and encourages a data-driven culture within the organization.

3. Utilize visual storytelling

Effective dashboards use visual data presentations, such as graphs and charts, to simplify complex information and highlight critical trends at a glance. These visualizations help stakeholders quickly understand the nonprofit’s performance and impact, facilitating easier communication of successes and challenges. By telling a compelling data-driven story, organizations can more effectively engage their audience and support strategic discussions.

4. Establish benchmarks for context

Setting clear benchmarks and providing context for the data are critical for interpreting performance effectively. Nonprofits should compare their current data against historical performance or industry standards to gauge progress and identify areas for improvement. This contextual analysis helps stakeholders understand the significance of the data and supports realistic goal-setting based on informed benchmarks.

5. Regularly update and adapt the dashboard

An organization's KPI dashboard must adapt to changes in goals and external factors to remain relevant and useful. Regular evaluations of the dashboard encourage updates to its design and functionality, ensuring it continues to meet the organization's needs. Updates might involve adding new metrics, adjusting existing ones, or redesigning the dashboard layout to better reflect current priorities and challenges.

The future of performance monitoring in nonprofits

As the nonprofit sector evolves, KPI dashboards are becoming crucial tools for mapping the journey toward more significant impact. With advancements like AI and machine learning, future dashboards will track progress, predict trends, and suggest strategic actions. These innovations promise to refine how nonprofits plan and fulfill their missions, offering insights that drive smarter decisions.

The Fundraise Up platform provides comprehensive tools and analytics to help nonprofits improve their fundraising performance and optimize their campaigns. To learn more about the insightful metrics dashboards available within the Fundraise Up platform, click here.

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2 Easy, but mighty, ways to improve donation conversions

Wed, 15 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Modern donors want the giving process to be as simple as anything else online. And improving their experience doesn’t mean a complete overhaul to your website. With two easy changes, you’ll see an unmistakable bump in donations. We’re talking about social proof and optional mailing addresses.

Fast facts:

Our product research team A/B tested Fundraise Up social proof elements and mailing addresses. They compared donation conversion rates for nonprofits that enabled/disabled social proof as well as nonprofits that made mailing addresses optional vs. mandatory. Here’s what our team found:

3.5% bump in conversions with social proof
3.5% drop in conversions without social proof
Apple users are more influenced by social proof than PC users
3.4% bump in donations without mandatory mailing addresses
Mobile users are less likely to donate when mailing addresses are required

Make mailing address optional

Make the donation process frictionless. One simple tactic is to make mailing addresses optional. Our research team noted a 3.4% increase in donations just by removing this requirement.

If your target audience prefers mobile over desktop, consider this: we saw a 4.3% drop-off when mobile users had to provide a mailing address. Overall, mandatory mailing address reduced the average revenue per visitor (ARPV) by 4.8%

European Requirements: Some European countries require mailing addresses for donors. In these cases, Fundraise Up may automatically require the address to adhere to regulations.

With optional mailing addresses, you…

Offer a smoother donation process which can significantly lift your revenue
Save time for your donors and possibly see higher donations per visitor
Keep mobile users happy with a less tedious checkout

Innovation matters

We continuously test new features to improve the donor experience. The goal is to provide frictionless giving opportunities so nonprofits can:

Meet evolving donor expectations
Solve common and emerging fundraising challenges
Stay competitive for donor dollars
Scale their audience and impact

Have you updated your donation pages lately? It’s a surefire way to increase donation conversions IF you follow these guidelines.

Fundraise Up's Edge

Our innovation isn’t guesswork — it’s backed by meticulously verified internal data. Let’s talk about what our learnings can do for you. Contact our team today.

link to Features page

Strengthening nonprofit compliance with ISO certification

Tue, 14 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Nonprofits bear a massive burden when it comes to compliance. With thousands of donor PII (personal identifiable information) flowing through and being stored in your system, it’s critical that everything is lock-tight. But did you know vendor noncompliance is an often-overlooked security gap?

Not with Fundraise Up. We stand as the sole online donation platform to publicly affirm ISO 27001 certification. Its rigorous auditing process is difficult to complete and even harder to maintain. But achieving this certification is our commitment to customers that we put security first.

ISO 27001 certification: An ISO certificate represents an internationally recognized standard for information security management systems (ISMS). Achieving ISO 27001 certification involves implementing comprehensive security measures and undergoing rigorous audits to ensure compliance with strict standards.

Solving for nonprofit compliance concerns

IT teams know: the tech stack is your greatest strength. But software without ISO compliance poses significant risks to your nonprofit’s data security and regulatory compliance. We hear these concerns all the time:

Concern 1: Cybersecurity threats

IT teams are constantly under pressure to ensure the security of their nonprofit’s data and systems. ISO-compliant software is that added layer of protection against cyber threats.

Concern 2: Regulatory requirements

Ensuring compliance with data regulations can be complex and time-consuming, especially for IT teams with limited resources. With ISO-compliant software, nonprofits are one step ahead of current requirements, safeguarding their reputation and avoiding legal liabilities.

“When assessing risk, enterprise organizations want to see SOC and ISO - not just PCI compliance.” - Charles Lehosit, Director of Solution Engineering at Fundraise Up.

Concern 3: Transparent Governance

Maintaining the trust and confidence of donors, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders is essential for nonprofit organizations. By implementing ISO-compliant software, nonprofits demonstrate their dedication to data security, fostering trust among stakeholders and preserving their reputation.

Improve Donor Trust, Confidence, and Engagement

Reassure your stakeholders that their valuable information is securely protected by one of a select few tech companies with this certification. You’ll see that increased trust leads to higher engagement and a stronger base of donors who are enthusiastic about your mission.

Compliance done right: see all of our compliance certifications here.

Setting nonprofits apart with ISO

This certification is our way of demonstrating our commitment to your data security, ensuring you can operate with confidence. And that commitment is passed down to your donors. By partnering with an ISO-compliant company like Fundraise Up, everybody wins.

link to Compliance page

Recurring Donation Benchmarks: Promising trends for tech-driven nonprofit fundraising

Mon, 06 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

In the world of nonprofits, where every penny counts and every fundraising mission can feel like a race against time, we turn to data and benchmarks as a grounding source of truth amidst the chaos. Through a series of blog posts, we will be forecasting the future of digital fundraising by analyzing our 2023 user data against industry reports. Up first, we’re looking at trends in recurring monthly donations.

Recurring donations are like a steady heartbeat for nonprofit donor revenue, a rhythm of reliability that lets the visionaries envision and the builders build, all with the assurances of predictable future revenue. Monthly giving is fast becoming a major portion of all digital fundraising revenue, making up a whopping 31% of all online donations in 2023 (a 3 percentage point increase over 2022).

Armed with the crystal ball of our data, we're venturing a guess (or rather, an educated forecast) that the realm of recurring donations is on the brink of an exciting era. The year 2024 brings even greater outcomes for nonprofits who are embracing AI-driven digital fundraising technology.

Nonprofit benchmarks on monthly giving

Our product analyst team sifted through Fundraise Up’s 2023 user data from organizations spanning a comprehensive representation of sectors, including hunger relief, humanitarian aid, cancer research, youth advocacy, and animal rescue. From these findings, along with credible industry benchmarks, we're uncovering the secrets to sustained support.

The optimistic outlook of recurring giving benchmarks for Fundraise Up users

Let’s dig in! Recurring donations are the lifeblood of sustainable fundraising, and our findings paint a promising picture. Data pulled from Fundraise Up’s 2023 user base indicates that organizations that had recurring donors for all of 2022 saw an 8.5% increase in the total donor revenue from recurring donations in 2023.

Despite the increase in donation amounts, there was a marginal (1%) decrease in new recurring online donations relative to the previous year. This slight dip could signify a need for nonprofits to focus on attracting monthly donors and/or turning one-time donors into recurring donors.

M+R Benchmarks show lesser increase

In contrast, the M+R Benchmarks Study for 2023 reported only a 6% YoY increase in recurring donor revenue for the nonprofit industry at large. This means that the 2023 YoY increase in total recurring donor revenue for Fundraise Up users was 2.5 percentage points higher than was reported for the broader nonprofit industry.

Forecasting trends from recurring donation benchmarks

The 2.5 percentage point increase in recurring donation revenue may be a demonstration of how Fundraise Up users benefit from cutting-edge fundraising technology. Fundraise Up includes artificial intelligence that right-sizes the ask and knows when — and when not — to nudge donors toward monthly recurring donations.

Using machine learning technology to gather behavioral intelligence from millions of donors, Fundraise Up helps nonprofits increase conversion and revenue by personalizing donation forms for every website visitor. Our AI-driven solutions allow organizations to intelligently prompt one-time donors to upgrade to recurring support at checkout using built-in upsells that increase revenue and donor lifetime value.

Exciting possibilities are revealed by identifying the general YoY increases in recurring donation revenue and the 2.5 percentage point increase in monthly giving revenue for Fundraise Up users over industry data. These insights point to improved recurring donation outcomes for nonprofits implementing modern digital fundraising solutions, making the future of tech-driven fundraising strategies look extra bright.

Looking ahead

Fundraise Up continues to analyze valuable insights from user data, and we will continue to compare those results with industry benchmarking data to identify forecasted trends. As additional 2023 reports are published, we will dive into further analysis of how nonprofit data benchmarks line up with the data from Fundraise Up.

Stay tuned for the next blog post of this series, which will analyze trends in YoY giving volume overall and during major giving season.

Nonprofits that want to learn more about how Fundraise Up can help them achieve their objectives can contact sales for a personalized overview.

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Nonprofit digital transformation: "green flags" to look for when building your online donation tech stack

Mon, 06 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Like many public and private sector organizations, nonprofits are turning to technology to streamline business processes and do more with limited resources.

According to the 2023 Nonprofit Tech for Good Report, 79 percent of nonprofits surveyed use automation technology in online fundraising, 67 percent use a customer relationship management (CRM) solution to track donations and manage communications, and 15 percent use artificial intelligence (AI) technology for donor prospecting.

Beyond improving operational logistics, taking fundraising efforts digital can have a significant and far-reaching impact on the success of your nonprofit’s campaigns.

Let’s explore how digital transformation benefits fundraising and identify specific features and functions to look for when building your organization’s online donation tech stack.

How digital transformation amplifies fundraising efforts

Digital transformation provides nonprofits with the tools to reach more donors, engage them more effectively, and operate more efficiently.

Online donation tools amplify the impact of fundraising in four key areas:

1. Sustainability

Fundraising software can help nonprofits reach a wider audience and engage with potential donors on a global level. This helps diversify an organization’s donor base so it isn’t sustained by the same small group of supporters.

Digital donation tools also make it easier for nonprofits to increase the number of recurring donations, providing a predictable revenue stream for long-term sustainability.

2. Engagement

A well-rounded online donation tech stack makes it easier to personalize the donation process by customizing communications based on donor preferences, demographics, and behavior.

Tailored messaging and relevant, targeted content allows nonprofits to better engage with donors and cultivate stronger relationships.

3. Insight

Online fundraising tools provide nonprofits with valuable data and analytics about donor behavior, preferences, and trends that they can use to:

shape fundraising strategies
gain insight into what resonates with their audience
track and measure the impact of their fundraising efforts
adjust their strategy as needed

4. Efficiency

Fundraising software allows nonprofits to automate many routine and repetitive fundraising tasks, such as processing donations, sending receipts, and engaging with donors, freeing staff to focus on more strategic, mission-critical activities.

Leveraging digital resources also reduces overhead expenses by lowering or eliminating the cost of printing, postage, venue rentals, and staffing.

6 “Must haves” for online donation tools

Before investing in an online donation tech stack, it’s important to ensure each tool provides the features and functions your organization needs to realize real, measurable improvements in its fundraising process.

Here are six fundamental features to look for when comparing online donation tools. We’ve also included a list of “green flags” for each feature to identify important functionality.

1. User-friendly interface

Fundraising software with excessive friction and unnecessary complexity is almost guaranteed to frustrate donors and decrease giving. Implementing a solution that makes the donation experience as clear and hassle-free as possible helps ensure donors don’t become confused or frustrated and abandon the process.

Green flags:

mobile responsiveness
simple and intuitive navigation
fast page load speed
legible font

2. Accessibility

Giving should be an equitable and accessible experience. Choosing fundraising software that prioritizes accessibility helps ensure every person has an opportunity to make a difference for the causes they care about.

Green flags:

alt text for images
captions for videos
simple navigation
descriptive form labels
sufficient color contrast
keyboard navigation functionality
descriptive section headings and labels
compatibility with screen readers

3. Data security and compliance

Nonprofits are entrusted with sensitive data and financial information, so it’s important from an ethical, regulatory, and legal perspective to select a solution that ensures donor data is managed, stored, and transmitted securely.

Green flags

strong encryption protocols
secure payment processing
compliance with industry standards, such as PCI DSS
adherence to relevant data protection regulations, such as GDPR
multi-factor authentication
opt-in prompts for data collection

4. Integration

Poor integration between systems and applications creates data silos that make it difficult to access the data needed for analytics and reporting, performance monitoring, and decision-making. Ensuring the fundraising solution integrates with existing business systems, such as your organization’s CRM and email marketing platform, will keep data accurate and consistent across systems, reduce errors, and save time during data imports and migrations.

Green flags:

application programming interfaces (APIs)
seamless integration with popular business applications and systems (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, Stripe, PayPal, Google Analytics)

5. Customization

Fundraising is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Donors have distinct interests, motivations, and preferences. The most effective online donation solutions enable fundraisers to customize donation experiences using branding, personalization, and tailored messaging to enhance the donor experience, increase engagement, and build brand loyalty.

Green flags:

ability to segment donors based on their characteristics, preferences, and behaviors
ability to tailor communication to donors’ specific interests and motivations

6. Analytics

Analytics allow your organization to create data-driven strategies by monitoring campaign performance, tracking donor behavior, and testing different messages, channels, and offers. A fundraising solution that offers detailed analytics takes the guesswork out of your nonprofit’s campaign performances by providing multi-metric visibility into which strategies yield the best results.

Green flags:

descriptive analytics that track performance at the individual, campaign, and organizational levels
diagnostic analytics that analyze past performance to determine what worked and what didn’t
predictive analytics that compare performance metrics over time to identify trends and predict future outcomes

Engage more donors and increase giving with digital fundraising tools

The right online donation tech stack gives nonprofits the tools they need to connect with donors on a personal level, unsilo data to maximize the value of analytics, and provide a secure, streamlined user experience that increases engagement and conversions.

Learn how RedRover leveled up donor engagement by 300 percent by improving its digital fundraising tech stack.

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Donor acquisition in the age of personalization: tailoring your approach

Mon, 06 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Strategy matters when your organization is trying to match the right donors to the right giving opportunities. Not every campaign will resonate with every audience, so many nonprofits are personalizing their donor acquisition efforts to connect with new donors and prospects through tailored marketing or networking opportunities.

In this blog post, we explore how personalizing your organization’s outreach strategy can improve donor acquisition and retention by creating an individualized donation experience.

What is personalization?

Personalization is a marketing strategy that uses data to target potential donors with content and messaging that directly and relevantly speaks to each donor’s interests, demographics, and past behavior.

For example, people whose lives have been touched by cancer are likely to donate to cancer research. Individuals who have witnessed food insecurity within their communities may want to support their local food bank.

The goal of personalization is to connect with the donor on an individual level, create an exceptional experience, build loyalty and trust, and establish a relationship that ultimately results in conversions.

Examples of personalization your organization can incorporate into its marketing efforts include:

adding personalization tokens, such as the donor's name, donation history, or location, into messaging
highlighting specific projects or initiatives that align with the donor's interests
customizing landing pages to speak directly to the donor’s interests or motivations
using AI to personalize ask amounts and encourage recurring donation

5 tips for getting the best results from personalized marketing

The power of personalized marketing lies in its ability to engage with donors at both an intellectual and an emotional level. Here are five ways to forge connections that convert to donations.

1. Understand what motivates donors

Effective personalization requires insights into what makes individuals want to support your organization’s cause. For example, a donor may be passionate about a particular social program, a specific issue, or creating positive change in their community.

Collecting feedback through surveys—or even social media—can provide valuable data that your organization can use to personalize messaging based on donors' individual motivations and preferences.

2. Segment your organization’s audience

Fundraising outreach isn’t one-size-fits-all. Use data to segment current donors and potential donors into smaller groups, then craft personalized messages that are relevant to each group.

Possible segmentation criteria include:

demographics (age, gender, location)
geography
past interactions with the organization
interest area
motivation
donation frequency/amount

3. Target messaging

Reduce friction in the donation process by tailoring messaging and marketing strategies to meet donors where they are.

Lifecycle stage: Maximize donor engagement and retention by customizing communication to match where donors are in their relationship with your organization—new donor, repeat donor, recurring donor, major endowment.
Communication channel: Reach out to potential donors through their preferred communication channels—email, social media, direct mail, phone, SMS—and tailor messaging to fit each channel.

4. Create compelling content

Customize content to resonate with each audience segment and the things that motivate them.

Focus on creating content that:

highlights the impact of your organization's work and how that donor’s support can make a difference
uses language that aligns with the donor’s values and interests
illustrates the impact of your organization's work through storytelling
shares real-world success stories to create an emotional connection

For example, the celebration of Ramadan is traditionally a time of giving back for the Muslim community. Many nonprofits look for meaningful ways to connect with Muslim donors during this time to facilitate their shared spirit of giving.

5. Track engagement and impact

Data is key for measuring the success of your organization’s engagement campaigns and pinpointing what works and what doesn’t work for each donor. This information allows your organization to refine its personalized messaging and targeting strategies over time.

There are several ways to measure donor engagement:

donations (of course!)
email open rate
conversion rate
response rate
donor acquisition costs
event attendance
volunteering
social media shares

Make personalization part of your organization’s donor acquisition tool kit

Personalizing donor acquisition efforts is a powerful tool for nonprofits that want to increase donor engagement and retention and connect with prospective donors on a more individual level.

The key to succeeding with personalization is fostering a deep understanding of donors’ interests, preferences, and motivations. Using this knowledge, nonprofits can deliver more targeted messaging and customized donation experiences that are proven to increase giving.

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Drive traffic to your donation forms with Popups

Fri, 03 May 2024 12:00:00 GMT

If you’ve spent any time browsing an online store, you’ve likely encountered a popup. No, not the irritating kind that your ad blocker keeps at bay. I’m talking about the kind of popups that online retailers show you to promote their products and lure you in with discounts. 20% off? Count me in.

These popups can be incredibly effective at getting us to make purchases. The best-performing ones even net a 60% conversion rate.

But do popups have a place in nonprofit fundraising? They certainly do, and in the same way that popups can be used to increase e-commerce sales, they can be used to drive traffic to your donation forms.

That’s why we created Popup, an engaging overlay-style Element that you can add to your website without writing a line of code. The Popup element appears on page load AKA website visitors will see it as soon as the webpage loads.

Let’s take a look some best practices you can take to maximize its effectiveness.

Drive traffic to donation forms with Popups

Final thoughts on Popups for donation forms

Popup is simple but mighty Element. Everything you see (and don’t see) is an intentional orchestration of conversion optimizations that engage donors and increase giving. And thanks to Popup’s incredible versatility, it looks great on any device and has all of the settings you need to show it to the right donors at the right times.

About Fundraise Up

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Improve online fundraising with seamless access to donor portals

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Having access to your supporters’ donor portals is a powerful tool for online fundraising. At its core, this feature is about empowerment and efficiency. It enables nonprofit staff to step into their donors' shoes, experiencing the Donor Portal exactly as the donor does. This first-hand perspective is invaluable, allowing nonprofits to better understand the donor experience, identify potential areas of confusion, and streamline the donation process.

3 value-adds: understand the donor experience, identify confusing areas and streamline the donation process

The value of access in online fundraising

Enhanced donor support: with access to supporter donor portals, nonprofit staff can directly observe and navigate like their donors do, making it easier to guide a donor through any issues they might be encountering. This capability is crucial for providing timely and effective support, significantly improving the donor experience.
Improved user experience insights: Gaining access to the donor's view allows nonprofits to collect insights on how donors interact with their portal. These insights can inform future improvements, ensuring that the online fundraising platform remains intuitive and donor-friendly.
Increased efficiency: Time is of the essence in online fundraising. Having access to supporter donor portals streamlines the process of identifying and resolving donor issues, reducing the time donors spend waiting for help. This efficiency not only enhances the donor experience but also allows nonprofit staff to assist more donors in less time.
Building donor trust and loyalty: By demonstrating a commitment to resolving issues quickly and understanding the donor’s perspective, nonprofits can strengthen relationships with their supporters. This trust and loyalty are essential for sustained online fundraising success.

Building donor trust and loyalty: a breakdown of how to do donor recognition the right way.

How access to supporter donor portals works

Accessing supporter donor portals is straightforward. Nonprofits can easily navigate to the supporter's profile within their dashboard with one simple click. Most importantly, this feature is designed with security in mind — private donor information is always protected, ensuring all interactions are safe and respectful of donor confidentiality.

Donor privacy first: Sensitive donor information remains confidential, even when accessing the supporter view.

A helpful tool in online fundraising

It’s inevitable that donors will need extra help sometimes. With this feature, we’re putting the power in nonprofits’ hands. Empower your organization to provide unparalleled support, improve the donor experience, and ultimately drive success in online fundraising efforts. Let’s bridge that gap between your nonprofit and its donors. Schedule a call with our team today.

Check out the Features page!

Pledge vs. donation: Should nonprofits focus on future promise or immediate impact?

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Pledges and donations each play an important part in helping nonprofits advance their goals. This post examines the benefits of pledges and donations, how they differ, and how nonprofits can use technology to optimize pledge and donation management.

Pledge vs. donation: understanding the essentials

Pledges and donations may seem similar, but there are key differences that make each unique.

Pledges: the future promise

A pledge is a promise for future support, often in the form of financial aid or goods, and it represents a commitment rather than an immediate transaction. There are two types of pledges:

Unconditional pledges — straightforward promises for a predefined time
- Example: $2,000, billed in four quarterly installments
Conditional pledges — dependent on future events or specific objectives
- Example: $25,000, payable upon completion of a building’s construction

This commitment to pay later not only provides donors the time to accumulate the promised sum but also offers the option to pledge in a way that works best for the donor (monthly, quarterly, or annual installments, for example).

Unlike recurring donations, which are open-ended, pledge installments end once the total pledge is fulfilled.

Donations: the direct lifeline

Donations are immediate transfers of support, whether monetary or otherwise, to a nonprofit organization. They provide resources that allow nonprofits to respond swiftly to needs and fund projects.

Donors may make a single donation or agree to recurring donations. In some cases, a person who starts out as a donor can eventually become a pledge supporter, as they become more personally invested in a nonprofit’s work.

Bookkeeping implications for pledges vs. donations

Donations count as revenue as they’re received, but conditional pledges don’t count as revenue until the terms of the pledge are fulfilled. Unconditional pledges do count as revenue on the date of the pledge, and that means a nonprofit may be reporting revenue that it hasn’t received.

What motivates donors to choose between pledges and donations?

Both psychological and financial factors play a role in influencing donors’ decisions about whether to pledge vs. donate. Those factors include:

Emotional connections to a cause
Personal values
A desire for impact
Financial incentives
Ease of contribution

A recurring donor who’s passionate about a major long-term project may prefer to pledge, tying their gift to the completion of the project. That benefactor may also focus their philanthropy on a single cause by making a major gift.

Donations come in many sizes, but most individual donors make gifts that are smaller than pledges, and they may support several nonprofits. While they may still expect to know how their donations advance a nonprofit’s mission, donors may be slightly less engaged than pledges who are following the progression of a project.

When it comes to easy transactions, donations are the clear winner — whether donors are one-time or recurring supporters, they are not obligated to continue supporting a nonprofit. A pledge agreement is a contract that obligates donors to follow through on their promise.

Maximizing nonprofit fundraising with pledges

Pledges can offer financial stability and predictability for nonprofits, making them a valuable part of a fundraising strategy. By committing to a future donation, pledges can provide a consistent stream of support over a specified period, allowing nonprofits to:

Plan and budget more effectively
Fund long-term projects and initiatives
Secure funding for ongoing programs and services
Build relationships with donors and foster a sense of loyalty and commitment

Tracking pledges for long-term success

Establishing a system that tracks all donations and pledges is essential. Nonprofits need to track the receipt of pledges, the total number of payments remaining, and whether a donor has missed a scheduled pledge payment.

Note that when payments are attached to a debit or credit card, a missed payment might be due to an expired card. With the right fundraising software, nonprofits can automatically verify card details for expired cards and prevent declined payments.

Pledge campaigns: a roadmap

Pledges are particularly effective for long-term projects like capital campaigns and specific initiatives such as disaster relief. Clear goals, deadlines, and conditions can enhance engagement and interactions between nonprofits and donors.

Donations may offer more flexibility than pledges

One-time gifts make up a significant portion of donations, but they can be inconsistent. Recurring donations provide a consistent stream of support, and the easiest way to boost recurring donations is to upsell one-time donors. The opportunity to upsell is unique to donations — pledges are set in the initial agreement, but donation amounts can change at any time.

Integrating pledges and donations in fundraising

By integrating both pledges and donations into their fundraising strategies, nonprofits can ensure a consistent revenue stream. The key is to think about what motivates people to pledge or donate, personalizing communication, and removing friction from the donation process.

Impact stories

Supporters want to know how their contributions make a difference, and that’s what impact stories are for. With storytelling, nonprofits can engage and retain donors. For pledge campaigns seeking support for a long-term project, storytelling can include additional details about the need for the project, the timeline for completion, and how it will serve people once it’s complete.

Payment preferences

Some donor segments may appreciate direct mail campaigns with pledge forms or cards, whereas a younger demographic is more likely to respond to a digital campaign with a streamlined donation checkout.

Nonprofits may need to test several strategies for their campaigns to see what gets the best results.

Leveraging technology for effective pledge and donation management

Technology can streamline the management of pledges and donations. Modern donor management software can track donations and pledges, segment donor data, and provide detailed data that helps improve conversion rate optimization.

Fundraise Up goes a step further with an intelligent upsell feature powered by machine learning. Based on numerous data points, Fundraise Up can gauge which one-time donors would be most receptive to a recurring donation upsell, as well as generate suggested donation amounts that align with donor demographics.

Fundraise Up’s AI suggests donation amounts based on a donor’s device, wireless provider, city, and other factors.

Organizations like Community FoodBank of New Jersey, World Hope International, and The Salvation Army have partnered with Fundraise Up to enhance their fundraising campaigns. Combined, these organizations have seen:

Improved donor engagement
Unprecedented online fundraising success
A significant increase in donations due to personalized upsells

These success stories underscore the effectiveness of Fundraise Up in enhancing the management of pledges and donations.

A single interface for donor management

Both pledges and donations play essential roles in nonprofit fundraising. While pledges offer future financial stability, donations offer immediate support. Relying exclusively on either pledges or donations just wouldn’t make sense for nonprofits that are balancing immediate priorities and long-term objectives.

Fundraise Up includes all the features nonprofits need to manage donations and pledges, amplify engagement with donors, and continuously improve fundraising strategies. With an intuitive interface that turns nonprofit websites into revenue engines, Fundraise Up is helping nonprofits move forward without straining team resources. See how it works.

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Corporate giving: how technology taps into a growing source of ongoing support

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Upwards of 26 million people in the United States work for an employer that matches charitable donations, yet 78% of employee donors don’t know if their employer offers matching gifts.

In today’s digital landscape, the decision to donate may occur in the blink of an eye — meaning, employees aren’t going to reach out to HR to ask about a matching gift option and wait for a reply. They’ll just smash that “Donate” button and move on.

So how do nonprofits activate corporate giving and tap into this wildly underutilized source of support? It’s actually not difficult with the right technology. This post explains the key benefits of corporate giving programs, how they work, and how nonprofits can use technology to drive matching gifts.

Competitive benefits attract top talent

According to the 2023 Benefits Trends Survey from WTW, a global risk and human capital firm, 80% of surveyed employers cited competition for talent as the top influence on their benefits strategy.

Health, vision, and dental insurance might’ve been an attractive benefits package at one time, but today’s top talent is looking for a lot more. Millennials in particular are looking for benefits that align with their values and enhance their quality of life — paid parental leave, wellness programs, and technology stipends, for example. Many companies have added a corporate matching gifts program to their slate of benefits, with some planning to expand their programs in the near future.

Matching gifts boost engagement and retention

Employees looking for more than just a paycheck tend to be more engaged with employers that demonstrate their commitment to supporting worthy causes. Philanthropy-minded employees may also be more likely to stay with a company that matches their charitable donations.

Philanthropy strengthens brand reputation

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can help companies build their image and set them apart from competitors. Demonstrating a commitment to philanthropy can be especially powerful when companies are supporting nonprofits in their own communities.

Why nonprofits should prioritize corporate giving

There are several reasons nonprofits should bring corporate giving into fundraising stack, among them:

Diversified funding

Corporate giving programs reduce reliance on individual donors. When employers match donations, it effectively doubles the contribution without requiring additional fundraising efforts from the nonprofit.

Boosted employee contributions

Knowing their employer will match their donation may motivate employees to give more than they might have otherwise, which can significantly increase the total contribution a nonprofit receives.

Higher match percentages

Some companies go beyond a simple 1:1 match, offering higher ratios like 2:1. Large companies that offer this benefit may limit the maximum match amount, but the benefits for nonprofits can still be tremendous — Coca-Cola offers a 2:1 annual match for employees and retirees on donations up to $10,000.

Targeted marketing

Nonprofits can leverage corporate matching programs through targeted marketing efforts, such as social media ads aimed at employees of specific companies known for their generous matching policies. Targeting can yield higher donation rates among existing employee donors and boost awareness among potential donors at companies with matching gift programs.

The tech behind matching gifts

Some companies proactively tell employees about the availability of matching gifts. But in an age of flexible work schedules and fully remote employees, communication about this benefit may be lost amid a sea of other information.

Nonprofits can and do use social media to remind employees of this potential benefit, as shown here in this post from National Kidney Foundation:

Social posts may help boost matching donations, but the most effective way to do this is to engage donors during the donation process.

With the right technology, nonprofits can prompt employee donors to search for their employer match before submitting their donation. An off-the-shelf solution won’t work here — businesses need a few pieces of connected technology to create a seamless experience.

Here’s an example of how it all comes together when nonprofits use Fundraise Up and 360MatchPRO:

An employee donor clicks on the “Donate” button on a nonprofit’s website.
The donation form encourages the donor to look up their employer. (This search function ties into the 360MatchPRO database of more than 24,000 employers that offer matching contributions).

Fundraise Up and 360MatchPRO integration

If the donor chooses to continue without looking for their employer, they’ll receive a follow-up email that explains the value of matching donations and a clickable CTA button that takes them to an employer lookup page.
If an employee’s donation is below the minimum threshold for a company’s matching program, they’ll see a prompt that asks them if they want to change their donation amount.

Exclusive to Fundraise Up, this feature prompts donors to increase their donation amount at checkout to meet their employer’s matching requirements.

Once the employee donates, they’ll receive an acknowledgment, and their contact information will sync to the nonprofit’s CRM.

Frictionless fundraising is within reach

Nonprofits work hard to find, convert, and retain donors, but matching gifts require low effort and maximum reward. The key to capitalizing on this deep well of support is raising awareness among employees and offering a frictionless donation process.

Fundraise Up’s plug-and-play donation checkout functionality brings new fundraising power to nonprofit websites. With features like suggested donation amounts, AI-powered upsells, and integrations with the tech nonprofits use every day, Fundraise Up drives digital donations and recurring revenue without straining resources.

No contract or setup fees. No monthly fees. No reason to wait — get started with Fundraise Up.

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Beyond the thank-you note: innovative donor appreciation ideas for the modern nonprofit

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Everyone likes to feel appreciated for their contributions, and a classic thank-you note will often suffice. However, the way a nonprofit expresses thanks for donations will ultimately reflect its core values and reinforce its commitment to donor appreciation. These efforts should aim to make all supporters feel valued for their contributions and foster deeper connections.

The article below details options beyond the typical thank-you note and explores how modern nonprofits can integrate technology and experiential gestures into donor appreciation, creating greater potential to expand generosity.

Best practices for donor appreciation

Sometimes, acknowledging that a donation made a difference isn’t enough to encourage or engage donors. By tailoring appreciation efforts to individual causes or donor profiles, your nonprofit can truly delight the recipient and even facilitate repeat donations.

Personalized messages

Naturally, you should thank a donor after they complete their donation. However, your nonprofit can use this opportunity to take appreciation to the next level. Customize each thank-you message to reflect the donor’s name, donation amount, the date of their donation, and the specific campaign. A personalized thank-you message puts the cherry on top of the stewardship process.

Campaign- or mission-specific gifts

Find a considerate way to reinforce the reasons donors give. Even small gifts that tie back to your organization’s mission or specific campaigns will ensure appreciation feels less transactional by emphasizing how contributions support outcomes.

For example, animal welfare organizations often gift plushies of the species they’re benefiting as a tangible keepsake to commemorate donations. Similarly, including packets of native seeds with thank-you notes for an environmental conservation effort enables donors to actively participate in the mission.

Leveraging technology for donor appreciation

Technology can be a critical resource to connect with donors in new, innovative ways, especially in saturated industries. It can also make donor appreciation more relevant, efficient, and streamlined. Here are a few ways to leverage technology for showcasing gratitude:

Thank-you videos

Personalized thank-you videos for each donor aren’t always practical, but they are a way to express gratitude to major donors that transcends a standard phone call. To that same end, a video message from fellow members of your executive staff—or perhaps from a beneficiary of a specific campaign—can be very impactful.

Name recognition

Personal and public recognition is extremely rewarding for many donors. Donor walls are an effective way to commemorate fundraising with key donors, and a digital donor wall can make this experience more dynamic and accessible. For digital directors, a visual showcase of support expressed digitally can be more cost-effective and easy to update. It also offers more flexibility in what levels of support to share and how to present them to your audience.

Experiential gestures and other donor appreciation efforts

Experiential gestures provide a valuable opportunity to thank donors face to face. Plus, they provide donors with some common ground, allowing them to network with other supporters and discuss your nonprofit’s cause. Consider the following ways to engage and appreciate donors:

Exclusive invitations

Exclusive event invitations are a great reward for your organization’s highest donors. Whether it’s an upscale dinner with you and the board or a gala at a prestigious location, these events can create a sense of pride and exclusivity that big donors love to embrace. Regardless of your nonprofit’s approach, an invite-only gathering is an excellent avenue for truly immersive acknowledgment. Be sure to encourage members of your leadership team to attend as well, as it gives donors the opportunity to get to know company executives.

Appreciation events

That said, make sure your nonprofit celebrates donors at scale. The event doesn’t have to be fancy—it can be a budget-friendly happy hour or a simple picnic—as long as it is focused on thanking donors. These events also offer opportunities to network with local businesses for sponsorship and expand community awareness.

Annual gratitude report

If experiential gestures like those listed above don’t align with your mission, an annual gratitude report may be a more suitable approach to donor appreciation. Annual reports are primarily used to document budget, services, and impact. Incorporating donor recognition in such a visible, widely distributed format demonstrates a high level of appreciation for their contributions. Recognition in such a noteworthy record of your nonprofit’s annual highlights can go a long way to reinforce loyalty with donors and affirm their decision to give.

Donor profiles

If your nonprofit has a newsletter or other regular publication, you can use this platform to highlight donors and share their stories. Have your marketing team reach out to donors and ask them about their initial reasons for supporting the cause, their interests, and their role in the community. Not only does this succeed in publicly honoring your donors and inspiring other readers to donate, but it also establishes the featured donors as a permanent piece of your organization and the community at large.

Build better relationships with donors through Fundraise Up

Sometimes, a simple thank-you note is sufficient. To encourage donor retention and recognition, however, it helps to go the extra mile and truly show donors your nonprofit appreciates their contributions through personalized messaging.

In what creative ways can your organization show donors that they make a difference and demonstrate appreciation for that effort? Fundraise Up offers the solution to this challenge by making your nonprofit’s supporters feel valued and helping cultivate stronger connections.

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Say goodbye to deserted donations with this clever feature

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMT

We know that the donor’s journey from intention to action isn’t always linear. In fact, we found that many people who initiate a donation, but don’t complete it, are likely to never return. Enter the Abandoned Donations feature from Fundraise Up, a groundbreaking tool designed to bridge this gap and enhance your donor engagement plan.

Wow! 10% of users who filled in their email on the Remind Me Later checkout screen received a reminder email and ended up making a donation.

Capturing potential contributions

Our Abandoned Donations feature is tailored to ensure that no potential donation is forgotten. Should supporters leave the donation process, they are prompted to provide their email address — a step that's seamlessly integrated with our Checkout Modal, Campaign Page or the dedicated Abandoned Donations screen. This not only secures a way to remind them of their unfinished donation but also adds to your database of potential donors for future engagement — a critical component of any donor engagement plan.

By the way! Here’s a plan to unlock sustainable giving.

Automated email reminder

Once an email address is captured, the future donor is entered into an automated email sequence. These emails serve as gentle nudges, reminding them of their initial intent to donate. It's a non-intrusive way to boost completion rates, as the donor has the freedom to opt-out at any time. This balance of persistence and respect is a cornerstone of effective donor engagement software.

Privacy and ease with smooth data collection

We prioritize the donor's convenience and privacy. When potential donors choose to close the Checkout, our system offers to automatically pre-fill their email, while also providing an easy opt-out option. This smooth data collection process is integrated into the user-friendly interface of our donor engagement software, making it effortless for both the donor and your organization.

Privacy first: If the option Prompt supporters to accept your terms is enabled in your campaign settings, a supporter's email will only be saved if they agree to the terms & conditions.

Engaging effectively with donors

The Abandoned Donations feature is not just about reminders; it's about engaging effectively with potential donors. The contact information gathered can be used to launch personalized, automated email campaigns that encourage supporters to revisit and complete their donations.

For those who prefer a different approach, the option to export this list directly from the Dashboard is available, allowing for further nurture efforts.

Speaking of dashboards: The Insights Dashboard has more helpful metrics than ever before!

Simple and quick setup

Implementing the Abandoned Donations feature is a breeze. In just minutes, you can have everything set up: from capturing supporter data on the Dashboard to customizing the reminder emails. This quick setup allows you to focus on your fundraising goals without being bogged down by technical complexities.

Set it up: Enabling the Abandoned Donations feature in your settings.

A strategic addition to your donor engagement plan

Incorporating the Abandoned Donations feature into your donor engagement plan is a strategic move. It's a simple yet powerful tool that can significantly increase the chances of converting those almost-donors into committed supporters. By re-engaging with individuals who showed initial interest, you're not only maximizing your fundraising efforts but also building a stronger relationship with your donor base.

Have you heard? There’s a new roadmap to choosing nonprofit tech.

The Bottom Line

The Abandoned Donations feature offers a proactive solution to a common problem faced by nonprofits, ensuring that potential donations are not lost. With automated reminders, smooth data collection, and effective re-engagement strategies, this feature can elevate your fundraising and strengthen your connection with supporters. By leveraging donor engagement tools like this, you're equipped to capture every opportunity and turn intent into impactful donations.

Don't let potential donations slip away! Book a demo to see how we can elevate your fundraising efforts.

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Strategies for maximizing donations during the 2024 giving season

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Giving Season is almost here, but experienced fundraisers know to get ahead of GivingTuesday and end-of-year fundraising plans by mapping giving season strategies early in the year.

In this post, we’ve compiled a collection of resources to help your team prepare this pivotal time in the fundraising calendar.

What’s cover in this post:

Fundraise Up’s GivingTuesday pre-launch guide
Valuable Fundraise Up features
How to view and subscribe to product updates
Gaining major donors through your website crypto
AI optimizations that increase donation revenue
Support information — people and resources that are here to help

GivingTuesday pre-launch guide

Get ready for GivingTuesday with resources from Fundraise Up.

The GivingTuesday pre-launch guide walks you through Fundraise Up features you should leverage and settings you should configure ahead of Q4 2024.

Flip through the virtual pages to learn about Elements that are easy to enable and use for boosting conversion, alternate payment methods like stock and crypto (more on these options later on), and customizations you can configure from your Dashboard.

Download: Get the GivingTuesday pre-launch guide

Notable features for the 2024 Giving Season

The Fundraise Up product roadmap has focused on high-impact features that significantly increase donor engagement and revenue. Here are notable features to keep on your team’s radar as you begin mapping out your 2024 giving season fundraising strategy.

Campaign Pages

Create and launch donation landing pages quickly with the recently released Campaign Pages feature.

Use Campaign Pages to quickly create and launch high-conversion donation landing pages.

Campaign Pages excel at driving conversions off of paid ads, email blasts, SMS campaigns, corporate sponsorships, and other scenarios where hosting a dedication page makes the most sense.

Explore more: Continue learning about Campaign Pages

Upgrade Links

Using Upgrade Links, you can create personalized upgrade links for your recurring donors. These links can be included in emails, text messages, and other communications. When a donor visits the link, they’re invited to upgrade their existing recurring donation.

If you’re looking for an alternate GivingTuesday ask for your existing donors, I recommend asking them to upgrade their support instead of making a new one-time donation.

Explore more: Continue reading about Upgrade Links

ACH Direct Debit

Our recent enhancements to the ACH payment method activate an incredible new functionality: automatic verification. With automatic verification, you can validate a donor’s bank account and routing information without micro-deposit verification. If you’ve ever had to deal with micro-deposit verification, you know how big of an improvement this is.

Automatic verification is designed to increase ACH donation conversion. Since ACH is typically used by supporters to make substantial donations, this ACH improvement is a big win ahead of your year-end fundraising push.

Average ACH donation size: $117 USD (~1.7x greater than a cash donation).

Enable it: Configure automatic verification for your account

More new features and product updates

Explore new features and subscribe to product updates on the What’s new page.

Above are three key Fundraise Up features you should know about, but there’s more too explore! New features and improvements roll off the assembly line and into your Fundraise Up account every day. To stay up to date with the latest releases, bookmark the What’s new page on our website and sign up to receive monthly product updates.

Explore more: See the latest releases on the What’s new page

Crypto giving on your website

Unlock generosity by accepting crypto donations on your website.

Make sure your organization can be on the receiving end of a crypto donor’s generosity. Enabling crypto giving for your organization is easy. The average crypto donation size: $1,300 USD (~20x greater than a cash donation)

Explore more: Continue learning about crypto giving

AI optimizations that grow giving

AI can help with a lot, and this quarter, it’s here to help you personalize the donor experience at scale.

Here are a three of our AI features that we recommend enabling for any campaign, and especially your GivingTuesday and year-end campaigns.

Personalized suggested amounts

Personalized suggested amounts take the guesswork out of getting the ask right. Using AI, we’re able to display an array of six donation amount suggestions and a pre-filled donation value that is tailored to each donor. The outcome is an increase in conversion — a big win for your year-end campaigns.

Monthly donation upsells

Recurring giving offers a firm foundation for any fundraising program, and by enabling upsells, you can automatically add to that foundation.

There are two types of upsells: a pre-donation upsell and a post-donation upsell. Both are effective at converting one-time donors to recurring supporters. You can enable one or both upsells — just make sure that you’re leveraging this powerful AI feature.

Adaptive cost coverage

Most donors are able and willing to cover the costs of processing their donations. But figuring out which of them will (and avoiding a drop in conversion) is a science.

This is where Adaptive cost coverage comes int play. Using AI, we dynamically determine the donors who should be asked to cover fees. The result is an increase in conversion, an increase in donation revenue, and an increase in the number of donors who cover costs.

Enable Adaptive cost coverage for your EOY campaigns to automate greater giving.

Live learning with Product Insider

Learn about new and upcoming features at Product Insider.

Product Insider is our monthly product-focused webinar. We demo new features, provide product tutorials, and open the floor to Q&A with our Customer Success team. Product Insider is a great way to sharpen your platform skills while connecting with the user community. It’s also a great way to catch a sneak peek of what’s launching next from our product roadmap! You can find dates and times for our upcoming Product Insider webinars, as well as on-demand webinars on many valuable fundraising topics, by clicking here.

Help that’s all in

Fundraise Up provides leading, always-available support.

Getting good help is important, no matter what time of year. Whether you need to take a deep dive into product documentation or get live help from someone, we have people and resources to help you brainstorm and problem solve. And whether you’re raising millions of dollars or just starting out with the platform, getting help from Fundraise Up is always free.

Customer Success team

For customers with a Customer Success Manager (CSM), remember that this team member is available to help you configure your campaigns, provide best-practices insights, and double-check your settings before you launch your GivingTuesday and year-end fundraising efforts.

To get help from your Customer Success Manager, call or email them directly.

365-day support coverage

Fundraise Up leads the way with support coverage. Our Support team is available 6 AM–7 PM Eastern time during the week and 6 AM–3 PM Eastern time on the weekends. Emergency support is available 24/7. And because this coverage include major holidays, there’s always a team member ready to help whenever you need it.

100% uptime

Our legal team says we can’t technically market 100% uptime, but if you check our status page, you’ll see that it’s been the case since March 2021!

This is a big deal. 100% uptime means the platform doesn’t go down — even for maintenance. You don’t have to worry about service disruptions on GivingTuesday or any other important fundraising day. Even under the heaviest loads, the platform will continue to deliver success for your organization.

Bonus: Watch Uncharitable online

This is really exciting bonus item for me to share. Fundraise Up is now streaming the groundbreaking film, Uncharitable. If you haven’t already seen the it, you must. And even if you have seen it, it’s worth rewatching and certainly sharing with your network — help spread the word!

Watch: Get the link to watch Uncharitable

Final thoughts

The 2024 giving season will be a critical time of year for you and your team, and it’s never too early to start strategizing for Q4 fundraising initiatives. Here at Fundraise Up, our hope is that the success you see this year will far exceed what you could have predicted or imagined.

Our entire team is in your corner. We’re here to support you with tools, resources, insights, and help from people who are deeply invested in your success.

Get ready…you’re about to unlock incredible generosity. We can’t wait to celebrate it with you.

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a technology company unlocking the world’s generosity potential by optimizing how people give. The company’s donation platform helps nonprofits engage more supporters and grow revenue by providing easy ways to increase conversion, enable modern payment methods, and personalize the giving experience for every donor. Fundraise Up is the partner of choice for UNICEF USA, The Salvation Army UK, American Heart Association, and other impactful organizations across the globe. For more information, visit fundraiseup.com.

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Recurring donations: how to unlock sustainable giving

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT

With so many people accustomed to monthly subscription services like Netflix, BarkBox, and HelloFresh, now is a great time to consider asking for recurring donations.

Recurring donors give an average of 42% more per year than one-time donors. They also tend to be more engaged with the nonprofits they support. And engaged supporters are more likely to spread the word about the causes that matter to them and bring new donors into the fold.

In this post, we’ll talk about the advantages of monthly giving, how to encourage recurring donations, and how to manage recurring donations with technology that supports nonprofit teams.

What are the benefits of recurring donations?

In addition to creating a steady and predictable stream of support, recurring donations offer these outcomes:

Fewer lapsed donors

With recurring donations, there’s just one initial ask. Organizations will want to continue engaging with donors, of course, but they don’t have to repeatedly ask for donations.

Lower operating costs

Trying to recapture lapsed donors can use a lot of resources. People who donate monthly are less likely to lapse, which means organizations can devote fewer resources to reengagement campaigns.

Convenience for donors

The “old way” of donating — writing a check, putting it in an envelope, and mailing it — just isn’t convenient for most donors today. A recurring donation option lets supporters contribute without any administrative tasks on their end.

Stronger relationships

Whether organizations send monthly donation receipts or annual recaps, they have an opportunity to communicate to donors how they’re making a difference. That kind of outreach improves retention and can make donors more open to an upsell.

How to increase recurring donations: lessons from successful nonprofits

Organizations that excel at securing recurring donations use these tried-and-true practices.

Showing appreciation

What can organizations offer recurring donors to show appreciation? A “thank you” goes a long way, but other incentives may be stronger motivators, like:

Apparel or other branded swag, like a wall calendar, tote bag, or planner.
Access to an online community for recurring donors only.
Public recognition in the organization’s newsletter, or on their social channels.

Strengthening their story

A nonprofit’s story and impact statements should be clear, specific, and focus on how donors are helping people. For example, consider the difference between these two statements:

Your recurring donation can help feed local families.
Your recurring donation of $35/month can feed a family of four for a year.

Using the best tech

Mobile-friendly technology can make it easy for donors to choose a recurring donation. And with AI, organizations can zero in on which donors are most likely to respond to an upsell offer or to cover transaction fees. AI can also suggest appropriate donation amounts, based on individual user behavior.

An example of a mobile-friendly interface with suggested donation amounts.

Promoting their recurring donation program

Promoting a recurring donation program might include announcing it in a newsletter, writing social posts about it, or promoting it with a website banner. The key here is to create a frictionless path to conversion for anyone who’s interested — like a widget that takes a site visitor to the donation form.

Enabling different donation schedules

Donors may have unique preferences about a recurring donation cycle. For example, if donors tend to give based on their annual end-of-year bonus, a recurring yearly donation might be a more appealing option than a monthly option.

Adding more payment options

Limiting payment types can be a barrier for donors. Expanding payment options to include digital wallets, cryptocurrency, and payment systems outside of the United States can greatly expand recurring donations.

How forward-thinking organizations manage recurring donations

Here are some ways nonprofits manage monthly giving at scale.

They give donors control

Giving donors an easy way to manage their donations can reduce admin tasks for nonprofits, as well as allow donors to stay engaged, even if they need to pause or reduce donations temporarily. In 2023, 35% of recurring donors that were about to cancel chose instead to modify their giving plan, thanks to Fundraise Up’s self-service Donor Portal.

They streamline donation processing

Expired payment methods lead to failed charges, and that means nonprofits have to reach out to donors to request new payment details. This awkward hiccup can be avoided with technology that updates card-on-file details when needed and optimizes timing for retrying failed recurring transactions.

They automate acknowledgments and receipts

Lack of acknowledgment is one of the top reasons donors stop supporting nonprofits. Automation can ensure donors receive timely and personalized receipts, and third parties receive a notification when someone has donated on their behalf or in honor of a loved one.

They track conversions

Analyzing user behavior helps nonprofits understand what messaging is most effective for driving conversions. With that data, nonprofits can further refine how they ask for recurring donations.

Get more recurring donations with Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up helps nonprofits manage donors and donations with a mobile-friendly donor interface, self-service options, and AI for optimizing donation requests and upsells.

See how one nonprofit used Fundraise Up to boost monthly donations by 196%. With no setup fees and no contract required, it’s easy to get started with a plan today. To learn more, set up a call with the Fundraise Up experts.

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In a donor experience, everything is Love or Lost

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT

In 2023, I had just returned from the Netherlands where I had attended the IFC conference organized by The Resource Alliance. A fantastic event where changemakers come together to discuss how they can improve the world through better tactics.

My speaking session was titled “Leveling Up: Transforming Tech into Love” and it aligned perfectly with the 2023 Digital Outlook Report. Download it—even if only for the AI-generated artwork!

The premise of the session: everything in a donor journey will contribute to increasing the love a donor has for the organization, or contribute to losing them forever. The expectation for what that experience should be like is set by other companies and businesses where that donor, i.e. consumer, makes transactions and decides to give up some of their wallet share.

Keep in mind that I’m referring to individual giving through digital channels.

As part of the session, with over 100 fundraising professionals in attendance, we all played an interactive game show called… you guessed it: Love or Lost.

The game showcased eight donor experience elements, and the audience was asked to respond with their mobile device (within 10 seconds!) if they believed that it contributed to increasing donor love for the brand or would contribute to losing the donor.

Instead of going over all eight, I’m going to pull out the two most controversial to highlight the gap many nonprofits have in their digital experiences.

But, before we get too far, let’s define “love” and “lost.”

Love

This term turned out to be more controversial than I anticipated. Some feel that we are not in this to earn donor love. Much as a company may say it’s not a family, but a team. Really, we’re talking about semantics. Love can be a stand-in for satisfaction, loyalty, etc. just as a consumer brand may work to earn the same for their products. For nonprofits, our product is the experience and impact, which are less tangible than a pair of shoes or a cup of coffee. I use the term “love” only because it’s easier to compare and square up our objectives in the mind.

Lost

The threshold for losing a donor is lower than the consumer space because there’s no tangible product. Any negative factor in a donor's experience contributes to abandonment. This is the same for any transaction—but more sensitive with giving.

Let’s consider how, and when, a donor gets their serotonin hit.

The “hit” happens when the donor clicks Donate on your website, in the email or text message they received. When a donor decides to give, and they take action, they’ve scratched their itch. They are a good, generous person. But if your donation form fails, that’s on your organization.

Your donation experience may:

Have limited payment methods (digital wallets account for 49% of transactions online… why don’t you offer them!?)
include unclear error messages
Require the donor to enter their entire mailing address (when’s the last time you did this anywhere online?)
Not be mobile responsive
Be nonfunctional

Market share of payment methods in total e-commerce transaction value worldwide in 2022, by region: https://www.statista.com/statistics/348004/payment-method-usage-worldwide/

Even if the donation doesn’t complete, the donor still feels good: they’ve had their serotonin dose. They tried. They don’t need to finish the transaction because they’re not receiving a pizza, Uber ride, shoes, or anything tangible.

Now, let’s get to the two most divided issues that came up during this session, and explain with data—not opinions—the reasoning.

Provide donor with the ability to easily cancel their regular donation

This was really mind-blowing. I asked the audience to vote Love or Lost on providing donors with the ability to easily cancel and manage their recurring/regular donations. Seems basic: I’m giving you my money, and I need to be able to control it. If I cannot, and it’s intentionally difficult, you lose my trust.

The majority of the audience, 87%, voted that they feel that by providing this ability, we earn more donor love and loyalty. The data supports this.

However, almost as many that voted Love (87%) do not provide this ability to their donors! Meaning, 87% know that providing donors with gift management is good, yet they don’t do it.

The point is: if you hide the path to gift management from donors you burn trust. They feel like they’re being taken advantage of.

In fact, looking at internal data at Fundraise Up, (where we provide donors with a big, bold, visible Cancel button) we see that the 96% that click the button do absolutely nothing – they just want to know they have control. And that builds trust. Email me to find out what the other 4% do. My word count is high at this point.

Ask donors to cover transaction costs

Do we, or do we not ask donors to cover the processing fees for a donation? For this question, the majority of fundraisers felt this is a bad move at 68% of the room. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the data says otherwise.

Adding transaction costs, or service fees, to a transaction is now commonplace in our lives. When you buy tickets to a show, there are convenience fees. Uber adds a Safety Fee. Food delivery has additional charges. As consumers—where our expectations are set—we expect these charges. And, as a donor, we usually are happy to do this.

At Fundraise Up, we employ a large, bold, blue ask to cover fees. We use gamification by showing gold stars when I choose to, removing them if I do not. We go further by leveraging AI to know when to pre-select the box and when not to.

Data shows that donors that cover fees are also retained longer. The bond is stronger with the mission and brand. As a donor, you’re all in. The global average of donations where the donor chooses to cover transaction costs is around 90%.

We’re leaving so much on the table.

Not only the $20,000-$30,000 per million raised that donors are willing to cover for us, but we’re also forgoing the opportunity to create deeper bonds and connections with our donors by providing them with micro-opportunities to help more.

Want to know exactly what the fee coverage averages are by country and currency? Email me. I’ll share.

In summary

Every single field, pixel, word, checkbox, payment method, or lack thereof is going to be a negative or positive contributor to the donor experience. Please keep this in mind as you design your donor experiences. I know from my daily work that nonprofits adopting technology that employs these best practices are seeing 2-3x the revenue.

From donors to nonprofit teams, to beneficiaries of the mission you work so hard to impact, the impact is real and tangible.

Learn how Fundraise Up can elevate your organization’s donor experience.

Salvatore Salpietro is the Chief Partnership Officer at Fundraise Up, and a board member at Asia Wild. He has over two decades of experience with digital marketing, startups, and nonprofit digital practices. E-mail: salvatore@fundraiseup.com

Impact Descriptions: connecting donors to your cause

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 16:02:00 GMT

Donors know that their gifts make a difference, but sometimes that difference can feel a little abstract. We’re here to bridge that gap, bringing donors even closer to the causes they care about.

Introducing Impact Descriptions – a brand new feature to Fundraise Up’s Checkout Modal and Campaign Pages. Now nonprofit organizations can show donors just what their monetary contributions are going to support. Let’s talk about it!

An example of Impact Descriptions in use.

So, what are Impact Descriptions?

They’re customizable messages that share exactly what donor gifts are going toward. Take the example above us – a $25 donation provides 3 families with water filters while a $50 donation trains a local sanitation expert.

Descriptions like these help donors understand the powerful ways they can support causes, projects and initiatives within a nonprofit. And the best part, Impact Descriptions are totally personalized to your specific fundraising needs. For example:

An education-focused nonprofit may write an Impact Description similar to this:
$20 can provide study materials for two students for a month.

An animal welfare organization could write an Impact Description such as this:
$50 can sponsor a foster dog while they’re waiting for adoption.

A humanitarian nonprofit may write an Impact Description like this one:
$100 can help provide clean drinking water to a family for six months.

Another example of Impact Descriptions in use.

And there’s more! AI and Localization

Not only can you manually customize up to 50 donation amounts and impact descriptions, you can automate the process using AI. After you write at least 6 impact descriptions, AI can handle the rest, giving you exponential ways to connect with donors.

Enabling personalized suggested options allows AI to help you create Impact Descriptions.

The integration of AI in Impact Descriptions allows our platform to do more than just display engaging messages. AI-driven suggestions optimize conversion rates and encourage greater generosity based on the organization's data and donor behavior.

By leveraging AI, Impact Descriptions provide an advanced, personalized experience that cultivates a robust bond between donors and organizations.

And for organizations with a global cause, Localization allows you to write Impact Descriptions in any language.

Communicate with people all over the world with Localization in your Impact Descriptions.

Localization of Impact Descriptions is a powerful feature for global organizations since it allows them to tailor their message to resonate with donors from different backgrounds.

By writing Impact Descriptions in multiple languages, organizations can effectively communicate the significance of a donation's impact in a culturally relevant and easily understood way by the local audience.

Try it out: Explore Impact Descriptions in this interactive demo

Setting up Impact Descriptions

Remember when we mentioned that each impact description is customizable? For every suggested amount you offer in your Checkout portal, you can add a specific Impact Description.

Here’s the impactful part – getting to directly share the causes, projects and initiatives that are most pressing to your organization! By adding a description of the impact a donation may have, you'll inspire your contributors to give even more generously.

After selecting a Campaign or Checkout Modal in your account, go to Settings then Suggested Amounts. You’ll see a check box to ENABLE impact descriptions. From there, you can adjust Suggested Amounts and add Impact Descriptions to each amount. Voila! It’s that simple to elevate the donor experience.

You can customize Impact Descriptions to every suggested donation amount.

How-to: Get the details on set-up with this guide

Impact Descriptions – improving the chances of donations

Impact descriptions help your nonprofit tell its story better. They’re a powerful tool for enhancing donor engagement and increasing the likelihood of contributions. By integrating them into your donation form, you provide potential donors with a clear understanding of how their donations will be used. Now you can align your mission statement and calls-to-action all the way to that final, critical step – the donation form.

A look at the Impact Descriptions Demo site.

Explore a demo: Try the Impact Descriptions feature

Impact Descriptions empower nonprofits to show the tangible impact of donor generosity, creating a more meaningful and fulfilling donation experience. By leveraging AI and providing seamless integration with campaigns and donation forms, we’re working to revolutionize the way organizations connect with their donors — one impactful message at a time.

About Fundraise Up

GivingTuesday fundraising ideas for nonprofit organizations

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT

GivingTuesday is here, folks! We are collaborating with our partner community to share their insights with everyone on how to prepare and execute plans for your GivingTuesday efforts. Who’s excited to hear from our best and brightest Partners? I know I am!

LettrLabs

Addressing the issue of a 60% churn rate among new donors requires implementing robust donor stewardship strategies. The most effective method LettrLabs discovered from working with numerous nonprofits is a simple, personal thank-you to acknowledge their contribution. However, it isn't always practical for a non-profit to personally acknowledge every donation, and a one-size-fits-all approach often falls short due to its lack of a personal touch. To combat this, we've compiled 4 crucial thank-you scripts tailored for first-time, mid-level, and major donors. Moreover, we've included 10 general thank-you scripts suitable for any occasion.

14 Thank you scripts for your nonprofits →

Feathr

Explore Feathr’s comprehensive toolkit that provides nonprofits with a clear guide for successful digital marketing for year-end fundraising. This includes articles on GivingTuesday tactics, access to their library of ad templates and swipe files, and instructional webinars featuring proven strategies to increase donations. Let this flight plan guide your nonprofit towards year-end success!

Nonprofit digital marketing toolkit for year-end →

Virtuous

Prior to adopting Virtuous, the Morgan Autism Center juggled several systems to oversee its fundraising and marketing operations. The simultaneous use of three tools resulted in substantial redundancy and difficulty in efficiently accessing and utilizing donor data. However, with Virtuous providing a consolidated view of donor data, the Morgan Autism Center is now able to dispatch tailored communications for GivingTuesday.

Multiple systems complicate and confuse →

Tatango

Persuading individuals to contribute financially necessitates a robust link between the prospective benefactor and the cause. Your nonprofit isn't advertising a product or service, but rather soliciting assistance for a situation. The requisite subtlety and context seldom fit within the confines of conventional marketing methods. For fundraising purposes, the optimal approach is to connect with people personally, revealing the narrative behind your mission—you'll find SMS messaging can significantly amplify this effort.

Best texts to send to raise more money on Giving Tuesday →

Omatic

Each year, the worldwide event, GivingTuesday, grows increasingly popular, inspiring millions globally to donate to their favored causes. Discover the prevalent obstacles nonprofits face with processing and managing large volumes of donations and explore some tactics you could start implementing to simplify the process.

Turning Giving Tuesday momentum into lasting effort →

About Fundraise Up

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Create a meaningful donation experience with Tributes this Mothers’ Day

Fri, 12 May 2023 16:00:00 GMT

Many donors are moved to give in honor or memory of a loved one, especially on Mothers’ Day. Fundraise Up’s Tributes feature allows you to seamlessly create highly customizable dedication experiences for your donors, making them more likely to donate to your cause.

Offering a dedication option in Checkout

If you’ve enabled tribute giving for your campaign, it’s quick and effortless for your donor to dedicate their donation to someone special in their life.

When a visitor clicks the donate button on your site, a simple “Dedicate this donation” checkbox appears in the checkout screen (unchecked by default). As our goal is to always maximize your conversion rate, a majority of dedication-related steps are completed in Donor Portal after the donation is processed to prevent a lengthy workflow.

Fundraise Up makes dedicating donations as simple as checking a box.

Once your donor clicks the “Dedicate this donation” option, they simply enter a name in the field for their tribute and complete their donation as they normally would. After their tribute gift is processed, they have the option to send a personalized card or make another dedication.

When sending a card, donors can select a dedication type (in honor or in memory), pick a channel (email or postal mail), opt to show or hide the donation amount and choose a custom image.

Tribute giving through email campaigns

If you decide to launch a Mothers’ Day email campaign, you might want to include a CTA to dedicate a donation. To measure conversion and the performance of other marketing metrics, make sure to leverage our Donate Link in your CTA, which generates a unique tracking URL, allowing you to collect rich campaign data.

Tribute gifts are an opportunity to grow online revenue, increase your brand awareness, and garner new supporters.

When a recipient clicks on your CTA to make a gift, Fundraise Up’s Checkout form will launch and the “Dedicate this donation” option will be switched on by default.

For this Checkout, we only enable the Mothers’ Day image collection because we have a special set of images we want to use for this campaign. When you send a tribute email from Donor Portal, it looks like this:

Donors can choose from a variety of images to accompany their dedication; all pre-curated and categorized by your organization.

About Fundraise Up

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Get to know Campaign Overview

Thu, 04 May 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Dashboard power users rejoice! We shipped an update to the Campaigns tab in the Fundraise Up Dashboard that makes it easier than ever to quickly check the performance and settings of your fundraising campaigns.

The update introduces Campaign Overview, a new page that you’ll see first when opening a campaign. The page includes two key sections: a header that displays the campaign’s key fundraising statistics, and a section for reviewing the campaign’s settings.

Get a snapshot of each campaign’s fundraising performance

With Campaign Overview, you can quickly see key fundraising stats for your campaigns.

At the top of the new Campaign Overview page, you’ll see a header section with key fundraising statistics that include:

Total raised
Amount raised from Checkout
Amount raised from Virtual Terminal
Amount raised from P2P Fundraisers
Number of recurring plans
Date of last donation

Each of the statistics can be selected to see filtered views of records on the Insights, Donations, or Recurring tabs in the Dashboard. This makes it easy to drill down into your fundraising data and see the payment methods, devices, marketing campaigns, and Element s driving donor support.

See campaign settings at a glance

The Campaign Overview page makes it easy to see your campaign settings at a glance.

The new Campaign Overview page includes a summary of your campaign’s settings. You’ll now be able to see which campaign features you’ve enabled and how you’ve configured them.

In some cases, we’ll show you a prompt to enabled a feature if its known to increase conversion and raise revenue.

Fix-it style prompts encourage you to enable features that improve campaign performance.

Each of the settings shown in the summary can be selected to navigate you directly to the setting’s configuration view. This makes it easier to make changes on the fly.

One more thing…

You’ll soon be able to engage donors using Campaign Pages, conversion-optimized donation landing pages that you create in Fundraise Up.

The new Campaign Overview page isn’t just for making your life easier, it’s an update we’re making to support the launch of one of our biggest feature releases: Campaign Pages.

With Campaign Pages, you’ll soon be able to create and launch conversion-optimized donation landing pages directly from Fundraise Up!

Whether you need endpoints for your digital ads, segment-tailored landings for campaigns, or just a new way to engage donors on your website, Campaign Pages gives you the same innovative features that power Checkout, but with an exciting new level of flexibility and customization.

More about Campaign Pages, soon.

Watch the pre-launch webinar

If you want to see Campaign Overview in action, watch for the customer-only Get to know Campaign Overview webinar on demand.

Webinar on demand: Get to know Campaign Overview (customer-only)

About Fundraise Up

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It takes a village… for 2023 fundraising success

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 16:00:00 GMT

If you’ve ever been employed by a nonprofit organization, you’ve worn many hats. The skills required for a digital-first workforce are vast.

Similar to synchronized swimming the technological components for any campaign have to be in alignment to track, analyze, and report on individual fundraising tactics.

Otherwise, how will any modern organization learn, improve, and build on previous efforts?

It may sound trivial, but it takes a village for today’s nonprofit organization to be successful. Regardless of size, all organizations rely on their technology and agency partners to help them realize a return on their investment.

For Hope Walks, Fundraise Up’s online giving tools and Virtuous’ nonprofit CRM proved to be the partners they needed for fundraising success.

Hope Walks

Steve Robinson, Hope Walks’ Marketing & Content Manager, oversees the communication and marketing village that supports the organization’s growth plans.

Hope Walks is the largest Christian provider of clubfoot care in the world. Since the organization independently formed in 2019, Hope Walks has used a combination of tools and partners to pair quality clubfoot treatment with compassionate care from clubfoot clinic parent advisors.

We became an independent organization in 2019 and have seen tremendous growth due to our partnership with Virtuous and Fundraise Up. The combination of tools has empowered us to grow our base of supporters from just a few hundred to more than 3,500 today.

Campaign

As a team of one, and the wearer of many hats, Steve manages the coalition of partners for the creation and execution of any campaign. And, the 2022 year-end campaign, “Walking free from disability,” was the most ambitious yet.

The December 2022 fundraising goal was $250k. To break through the year-end noise, Hope Walks knew they needed a multichannel strategy for their campaign. The year-end campaign was the signature fundraising campaign that leveraged Giving Tuesday as the official kickoff.

The village that supported Hope Walks was grounded by Virtuous, a responsive fundraising CRM that has been with the organization since 2020. A partnership with Fundraise Up allowed for the seamless integration of online and offline donor data.

A Giving Tuesday campaign was not new to Hope Walks. In fact, previous years’ efforts had surpassed the last week of the calendar year. In partnership with Community Boost, a digital marketing agency, the plan was to “warm up” the audience with a November social media push.

We’re a young organization. With only nine US staff in programs and development, we appreciate the expertise of our partners to ensure every child has a chance to walk.

Mission-oriented videos and creative was developed and deployed in partnership with Community Boost. One week prior to Giving Tuesday, efforts were ramped up with more poignant asks, emails, and Facebook buys – a first for the organization.

Rally Corp, human-centered mobile messaging™ platform, was enlisted to expand reach, deepen engagement, and drive results. Though the organization had used SMS previously, incorporation of the communication channel at year-end was a fundraising first for Hope Walks.

Results

Across the nonprofit sector, fundraising was largely flat in 2022. A downward economy tempered the results for many organizations. Despite these odds, Hope Walks raised 35% more money in December 2022 over the previous year.

There was no significant change in strategy, but “really an evolution” asserts Robinson. He continues, “no texting in 2021, so we did it in 2022”. This iterative approach allowed the organization to grow and expand while testing a new tactic.

SMS is the wave of the future. And for us, the results were very encouraging. It’s another tool in our fundraising belt.

Looking to the future

As the organization prepares for 2023 they will be adding more mobile to their fundraising campaigns by utilizing Virtuous’ native SMS tools in the upcoming year. With the addition of the native SMS tools, Hope Walks will have the tools they need to truly implement responsive multi-channel communications out of their nonprofit CRM.

After such a successful year-end campaign in 2022, the future looks bright for Hope Walks. With the right tools in place, they are well positioned to generate more generosity than ever in 2023.

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Engage more donors with Arabic localization this Ramadan

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Ramadan is a significant period for charitable giving, with donations increasing substantially across various nonprofits during this holy month. Last year, donations spiked by 102% during Ramadan, highlighting the importance of this time for charitable organizations.

Arabic localization

To tap into the generosity of over 300 million people in 25 Arabic-speaking countries during Ramadan, we offer comprehensive Arabic localization support. This feature enables nonprofits to effectively engage with Arabic-speaking donors and maximize their fundraising potential.

Key features

Human-translated Arabic language

We provides high-quality Arabic translations done by native speakers, ensuring reliability and accuracy. This approach results in more natural and culturally appropriate language, which is crucial for connecting with Arabic-speaking donors.

Configuration options

Nonprofits can add custom translations to various Elements of our platform, including:

Checkout process
Element interface
Email templates
Other areas of the platform

This customization allows organizations to maintain their brand voice and tone while communicating in Arabic.

Right-to-left formatting

The platform offers true right-to-left formatting, which is essential for proper Arabic text display. This attention to detail ensures a seamless user experience for Arabic-speaking donors.

Global Currency Support

Fundraise Up accepts more than 135 currencies worldwide, including:

United Arab Emirates dirham
Saudi riyal
Moroccan dirham

This feature allows donors to contribute in their preferred currency, reducing friction in the donation process.

By implementing these Arabic localization features, nonprofits can effectively engage with Arabic-speaking donors during Ramadan, potentially increasing their donations and expanding their reach in Muslim-majority countries. Our donation platform helps Islamic nonprofits engage more supporters and grow revenue by providing easy ways to increase conversion, enable modern payment methods, and personalize the giving experience for every donor. Fundraise Up is the partner of choice nonprofits like Ethar Relief and other impactful organizations across the globe. Read Ethar Relief’s success story using Fundraise Up.

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5 Ways gamification can level up your P2P fundraising

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT

As a nonprofit always on the lookout for new ways to grow revenue, there’s no doubt that you’ve considered peer-to-peer fundraising or perhaps you already launched a peer-to-peer program.

A strategy that generates more than $900 million in annual revenue, allowing people to fundraise on your organization’s behalf not only improves your bottom line — it strengthens your connection and builds community among your supporters.

To make the most of your peer-to-peer program, we’re sharing five ways your nonprofit can use gamification to engage more fundraisers, promote a little friendly competition, and surpass your fundraising goals.

1. Give supporters a specific cause to fundraise for

While your mission statement serves well for raising general donations, it’s important to get really specific about the purpose of any campaign you launch. It differentiates your overall mission from your near-term goals, creating a bigger impact.

Drive urgency by explaining what your immediate need is, why it’s important to your cause, and how you plan to achieve it.

To gain inspiration for your next campaign, take a look at this example we created, which explains what problem the campaign is trying to solve and how to solve it:

2. Allow supporters to fundraise together

Multiply the amount you can raise for your campaign by letting your supporters fundraise together as a team. This builds camaraderie among your community of supporters, and it encourages a little healthy competition among teams to see who can make the most impact in a given amount of time. Plus, this gives your supporters an opportunity to recruit their friends and family members to join a movement they care deeply about.

The good news is that Fundraise Up makes creating P2P fundraisers super simple, and your supporters can sign up to become fundraisers almost immediately. Once someone clicks on the fundraising call-to-action button, they are prompted to start their own fundraiser or join an existing fundraiser.

For supporters who want to start their own fundraiser, all they need to do is fill out a few short fields about the fundraiser and complete a quick email verification step.

However, supporters who want to join a fundraiser can use the search bar to find the one they’re looking for or choose from a list of available fundraisers. The supporter then completes the process with a quick email verification step.

Once supporters have their fundraiser all set up, they’ll have access to the Donor Portal where they can see who has donated to their fundraiser and get personalized sharing links to share through social channels or via email.

3. Set a fundraising goal for your campaign

It’s important to highlight your fundraising goal on your website so your supporters can keep track of your campaign’s progress. It’ll even motivate your fundraisers to work harder to reach that fundraising goal by the end of the campaign.

An effective way to showcase your campaign performance on your website is by including a goal thermometer. It’ll track the progress of your campaign and show how much more is needed to help reach your goal.

4. Show off your top fundraisers

Your fundraisers are working hard to raise more for your cause. Show them some love by highlighting your campaign’s top performers through the Top Fundraisers element.

Adding this visual representation on your website might promote a little friendly competition among your fundraisers to make it to the top of the leaderboard — helping you reach your goal faster.

5. Highlight support from around the world

You have a diverse set of supporters who are from all over the world. What better way to show them off than through a donor map?

Adding a donor map on your website lets your fundraisers see the fruit of their labor, allowing them to see where donations are coming from in real time.

Want to learn more about attracting peer-to-peer fundraisers?
Join Fundraise Up and Feeding Westchester in an upcoming live session on deepening supporter engagement with online fundraisers.

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A roadmap to selecting your next nonprofit technology

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT

As organizations look for ways to innovate and keep up with their e-commerce counterparts, it’s becoming a necessity to evaluate their current nonprofit technology stack and invest in new digital tools that better fit their needs. After all, technology enables nonprofits to grow and scale their online fundraising programs.

The entire implementation of new technology can take anywhere from a matter of weeks up to six months, depending on how fast your organization is able to do its research and commit to the new technology. So, whether you’re building your fundraising technology stack for the first time or your team has decided it’s time for a complete digital makeover, there are four steps to follow.

1. Goal-Setting

So, before considering adding any new solution to your growing technology stack, your nonprofit should first evaluate its needs and goals on a strategic level.

Ask yourselves the following questions:

What are your nonprofit’s long-term goals? Perhaps you have a legacy all-in-one fundraising and CRM system that has non-customizable and outdated features (e.g., ineffective email automation or cumbersome donation form). Therefore, you’re looking to build a technology stack that streamlines and modernizes fundraising and donor outreach to increase donor conversion and retention.
What is your budget? Get your budget approved by the board before shopping for a new technology tool. This prevents any time and effort wasted for both your team and any potential technology partner’s team and ensures a smooth implementation process.
Who can take on the responsibility of a new technology solution? One thing you don’t want to run into when adopting a new technology is having no one on your team who has the skillset or bandwidth to be the key person managing and training your team on the technology.

2. Research

3. Evaluation

Multi-year contracts. Your organization’s technology needs will evolve over time, so it’s best to have a provider that gives you the option to go either month to month or one that has no contract at all.
Product transparency and limitations. You don’t want to find out after investing in a product that the technology you’ve been so excited about has limitations on what you want it to do (e.g., customization options in your automation workflow). At this stage, your prospective technology provider should have given you a full understanding of what the product can do and what it can’t.
No information on implementation. You should have a good idea of how the new technology will get implemented into your organization. If there have been no conversations around implementation in your meetings with your prospective technology provider, it’s probably not a good sign.
“It’s on the roadmap.” Don’t put all your eggs in one basket and make your decision based on the product roadmap because there’s a possibility that the exciting feature or product might not see the light of day due to a number of factors (e.g., technical issues, funding changes, etc.).

4. Implementation

Over time, you’ll see the fruit of your efforts through improved processes, more efficiency, and a high return on your investment.

Fundraise Up can connect with a growing number of CRMs like Salesforce, Blackbaud, HubSpot, and Dynamics 365. On top of that, we’re able to send more than 100+ fundraising and marketing datapoints in real time to the apps in your tech stack.

Find out more about how Fundraise Up can work with your current tech stack by scheduling some time with one of our team members.

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6 Steps to retaining donor generosity beyond year-end

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Donor retention remains top of mind for nonprofits as they think about expanding their fundraising programs and growing online revenue. After all, it costs 50% to 100% more to acquire a donor than their initial donation — that’s in addition to the fact that it could take up to seven touchpoints before someone considers donating.

Even with so many organizations putting efforts into increasing their donor retention rate year after year, the overall industry retention rate has actually dropped 4.2%, according to the most recent report from The Fundraising Effectiveness Project.

With the year coming to an end, how can you capture the generosity of the donors you worked so hard to convert throughout your year-end campaign, and what can you do differently to keep these donors from lapsing? The key to unlocking their generosity is personalizing the experience, having the right messaging, and sending a consistent flow of diversified communication.

1. Understand why donors give

To steward donor relationships after they make their first gift, you have to understand why the donor chose to give in the first place and what your organization can do to get that donor to give again.

Donors want to know they are making a difference. It makes them feel secure in their decision to make a gift. A recent report from RKD Group found that donors with stronger relationships with nonprofits ranked knowing their donation is being put to good use (90%), knowing their donation has a great impact (90%), and feeling proud to be associated with the organization (90%) as top descriptors of their relationships.

However, to steward better relationships with donors, nonprofits need to continue communicating with donors and connect donors to their mission. The report found that factors that had the largest gap between donors with strong and weak relationships were feeling connected to the organization and good communication that goes both ways.

For a deeper dive into the report, watch our on-demand session on strategies for sustained online giving.

2. Personalize the donor experience

With people looking to share their generosity and give back this year-end season, it’s an opportunity to attract new website visitors and turn them into donors. While people want to know their donation is making a difference, they also value a donation process that is simplified, personalized, and optimized.

Just like how companies make each consumer’s shopping experience tailored specifically to their preferences — like Amazon’s product recommendations or Starbucks remembering your favorite drink — your nonprofit can also personalize the giving experience for each donor. And this makes all of the difference because personalization can increase the odds of someone donating to your year-end campaign. McKinsey reports that companies that excel at personalization are generating 40% more revenue.

Let’s see this in action.

When someone clicks the donate button on Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s website, they are immediately shown a checkout screen that includes year-end campaign-specific messaging, which tells the donor exactly what the organization is raising funds for and even incentivizes the donor with a matching-gift offer to contribute before December 31.

Within the checkout, the donor is also shown suggested donation amounts that are right-sized for them. Fundraise Up uses behavioral learnings from millions of donors to predict how much someone is likely to give, such as geographic location, time of day, device, and browser, which has been proven successful in the nonprofits we work with. In fact, for World Health International, 73% of donors made gifts using personalized ask amounts.

3. Thank the donor for their generosity

It’s standard best practice to thank every donor who makes a gift to your organization. It should be the first step in your stewardship process, and it should happen promptly after a donation is received.

There are several ways to say thank you — email, hand-written letter, even a short video. The most important thing is that whatever communication method you choose to thank your donor, make sure it’s personalized and addressed to that specific person.

We understand that your team is crunched for time, especially right after the busy year-end season. That’s why Fundraise Up automatically sends a thank-you email right after a donation is received. You also have the ability customize donation emails that include detailed information like the donor’s first name, the campaign they donated to, their donation amount, and the date of their donation.

We even attach a PDF receipt of the donation for them to keep for their records.

4. Keep them in the know about your work

Good stewardship means that you don’t stop communicating with donors after you send them their initial thank-you letter. Especially if they’re a first-time donor, they’ll appreciate the effort you put in to keep in touch with them. But that doesn’t mean that every communication they receive from you should be an ask.

When the new year rolls around and you’re launching your next cadence of campaigns, keep your donors in the loop about what your organization is up to. Plus, don’t forget to share what your nonprofit was able to achieve with their year-end gift. Post results of your year-end efforts on your campaign landing page and send an email to your year-end donors providing that update as well.

Take a look at this example from Rainforest Trust:

And if you happen to have a monthly newsletter, be sure to add your year-end donors to that list. It’s a great way for them to get to know your organization better, learn more about its mission, and feel good about the impact that they’ve helped your organization create with their year-end donation.

5. Let donors know how else they can offer their support year-round

Deepen your relationships with your year-end donors by providing them with other ways they can support your organization — like volunteering their time, attending an upcoming event, or fundraising for your upcoming campaign. Allowing donors to take their support beyond donating gets them more involved in your mission and keeps them connected to your community of supporters.

Not only should you have a section on your website that highlights all the different ways to support your organization, but you should also consider sending out an email to all first-time year-end donors to let them know how they can further support your organization.

Feeding Westchester has a dropdown menu on its website that includes several ways someone can get involved. Each option has its own landing page so that supporters can learn more about the ways to offer their support — one of which is starting a fundraiser.

Because donors already made a gift to your organization during year-end, you already know that your mission is meaningful to them. Why not encourage them to increase their support for your next campaign by starting a fundraiser? Fundraisers are simple to set up and let your supporters advocate for your cause to their network of family and friends.

We recommend creating a dedicated landing page for fundraisers so you can explain why they should start a fundraiser, what difference it would make, and what it would entail.

Need some inspiration? Feeding Westchester makes it easy on its supporters by outlining three simple steps to starting a fundraiser on its website.

It even gamifies participation by including interactive website elements like a fundraising thermometer and a top fundraisers leaderboard.

6. Ask donors to join your recurring giving program

Did you know that recurring donors give more in total than one-time donors? Plus, research finds that recurring donors are retained for more than two years on average.

In your follow-up communications with your year-end donors, consider segmenting out those who opted to give a one-time gift and sending them an email about your recurring giving program. The donate call to action within the email can be linked to your donation checkout. For specific campaigns, our nonprofits at Fundraise Up can set the default giving option to be recurring, making it even easier for donors to sign up as recurring supporters.

If you have a more robust recurring giving program, you can include a “learn more” call to action in your email so that donors can get more information about the program before they sign up.

As an example, The Greater Vancouver Food Bank has created an informational landing page on its website for its Full Heart Club monthly giving program. There, supporters can learn more about the impact of their monthly contributions and how flexible the plans are to manage.

With all the support you’re receiving this year-end, don’t forget to put in the work next year to convert these one-time donors into long-term supporters. Your efforts will pay off as you deepen these relationships, retain more supporters, and decrease your attrition rate.

If you’re interested in learning more ways Fundraise Up can optimize your donor experience, schedule a chat with one of our team members.

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Your last-minute checklist to maximizing year-end success

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Temperatures rise during the last week of the calendar year. The days are long, but the final week of the calendar year for donors to make a tax-deductible gift is sizzling hot.

As fundraisers know, one-third of all digital revenue happens in December. But let’s be honest: A good percentage of that occurs during the final days of the year.

December 29, 30, and 31 are gangbusters. Development teams watch the money come in with great anticipation. It’s a time of year when you see what bets will pay off and how much year-over-year revenue your team will generate for the organization.

At this point, your year-end campaign is fully cooked — emails are approved, social posts are primed, and your donation forms are optimized to convert casual visitors to donors.

You could sit back and wait, but that’s not you. There are many moving parts to any online fundraising campaign, but to help you maximize your organization’s revenue during the final days of the year we’ve compiled a checklist to ensure you’re getting the most from your efforts.

Know thy donors. Practice the old adage “show me you know me” by personalizing ask amounts to intelligently predict how much someone is likely to donate based on their user activity. Technology that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to analyze data points will right-size your gift array, impress online visitors, and ultimately convert a greater number of donors this year-end.
Make giving a gift easy for donors. Allow donors to choose which payment option is best for them by providing a variety of methods optimized for their web browser, geographic location, and preferred payment type. One-click checkout options such as Apple/Google Pay makes giving easy peasy. And Venmo? Absolutely, but know thy audience (Quick tip: Enable PayPal as our data shows a 10% lift in donations 🙌).
Reduce donation form abandonment. Did you know that 80% to 85% of prospective donors don’t actually complete their donation? This is money left on the table at year-end! Practice incremental gains this holiday season by focusing on the campaign (i.e. benefits of making a tax-deductible gift). What’s key is having clear, simple messaging and keeping your eyes on the prize by eliminating non-campaign-specific fields such as phone number and address (hint: it’s not required in the US).
Don’t be shy, ask… and ask again. It’s important to make a good first impression. In the digital marketing world, three impressions are needed before a message is recognized:
- Make your campaign ask front and center, but not just once.
- Diversify your fundraising asks by using image cards, sticky buttons, and/or button groups on every page. (Remember, most web visitors don’t enter your site via homepage.)
- Always correlate the impact of a dollar through the use of imagery, creative, and/or impact sliders.
Are you in it to win it? Create some friendly competition this year-end with specific daily or weekly fundraising goals. At our core, we are competitive beings and love a good challenge. When it is for a good cause, it’s a win-win. So, let human nature reign through the combination of goal meters and stat counters showcasing your top donors and recent donations. Oh, don’t forget to highlight where your supporters are from using donor maps!

Lastly, and less of a checklist item than a reminder for all year-end campaigns, incentivize donors to be their most charitable selves by allowing the best way to give for them.

This is a guest blog post from our partner at Care2.

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How an optimized giving experience can help you recruit more year-end donors

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT

The busiest time of the year for giving has arrived, which kicked into high gear on GivingTuesday and will go all the way to the last of the year — December 31. With more than a third of annual giving occurring in December and 12% of total donations received on the last three days of the year, many nonprofits prep their campaigns months in advance in hopes of exceeding their revenue goals for the year.

During a time of the year when generosity is at its highest, we’ve seen December giving grow significantly year over year. Looking at this year’s GivingTuesday, US nonprofits collectively raised $3.1 billion, a 15% increase from 2021 and 25% from 2020.

Our data at Fundraise Up also shows a notable uptick in December giving from 2020 to 2021.

Giving trends from January 1, 2020 to October 1, 2022 with notable jumps in December 2020, December 2021, and March 2022.

How a forecasted recession might affect year-end giving

With high inflation rates and fears of a coming recession, many are concerned about how these economic factors will impact charitable giving. While we won’t make any predictions about what is to come, what we can do is look back at past economic downturns to understand what to expect for the remainder of this year.

The pandemic caused both a public health and economic crisis, but what we saw was that the generosity of Americans never wavered. In fact, Americans gave an all-time high of $488 billion in 2020. And despite surging inflation rates following the pandemic, US giving only slightly dipped in 2021 totaling $485 billion.

As the possibility of a recession enters the fold, what we’ve learned from the past is that people have more reasons to give to charitable causes because of the increased need. Research from Fidelity Charitable finds that 59% of donors may be willing to give more this year — with a majority concerned about nonprofits amid threats of a recession.

If your organization is concerned about a slight dip in giving this year-end, now is the time to focus on improving your donation experience. With so many people browsing the web looking for ways to give back this holiday season, it’s your chance to catch the attention of these website visitors and convert them into donors.

Double down on the giving experience

Our research at Fundraise Up tells us that seven in 100 donors actually click a donate button, and of those people, only one will complete their donation. This high abandonment rate is caused by points of friction in the donation process, such as page load time, too many data fields to fill out, generic giving levels, limited payment options, etc.

While there are supporters who will fill out lengthy donation forms and give to nonprofits, these organizations are not tapping into the potential of how much donors could give if the experience was better optimized, quick, and simple to complete.

Let’s explore this a bit further.

The truth is, your donors are already receiving personalized and simplified online experiences with their favorite brands. These are the brands that your donors are loyal to and will return to time and time again. To garner this type of loyalty, nonprofits need to consider the quality of these experiences and find ways to mirror them.

The good news is that you still have time before December 31, but time is moving quickly so now is the time to evaluate your nonprofit’s current donation experience.

Consider these questions:

How long does it take to complete a donation?
Are there too many required data fields?
Is there a recurring giving option so that one-time donors can upgrade their contributions?
Do you offer multiple payment options other than using a credit card — like digital wallets and crypto giving?
Is every donor receiving the same experience — generic messaging, donation asks, and payment options?

Bottom line: Your donors deserve a unique giving experience. When donors know their experience was tailored specifically for them, you build trust with them and they will want to play a bigger role in your organization.

At Fundraise Up, we understand how your organization can cater to every donor’s preference. That’s why we optimize the giving experience with your donor in mind to include personalized donation asks and payment methods based on device or geographic location.

To learn more, watch our recent live session on year-end digital recruitment strategies.

If you’re interested in how Fundraise Up can help you optimize your giving experience to boost conversion this year-end, schedule time with one of our team members.

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5 GivingTuesday campaigns to inspire year-end fundraising

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Happy GivingTuesday! The big day has finally arrived, and it’s time to see the fruit of all your labor come to life. But the hard work doesn’t stop here — today marks the beginning of a very busy year-end giving season.

Your team has to stay alert today to ensure everything goes according to plan and also consider how it can keep building momentum without causing donor fatigue until December 31 to hit its year-end revenue goals.

To help with your year-end planning, we’re sharing five GivingTuesday campaigns you can pull inspiration from.

1. Rainforest Trust: Matching-gift campaign

To further incentivize donors to make a donation on GivingTuesday, Rainforest Trust is running a matching-gift campaign. The organization features the campaign front and center on its website and in donation checkout, ensuring that donors don’t miss out on this opportunity to make 3x the impact.

2. Ally Global Foundation: GivingTuesday-specific landing page

Creating a campaign-specific landing page provides donors with additional information about what you’re doing for GivingTuesday and why it matters. On Ally Global Foundation’s GivingTuesday landing page, the organization highlights how it plans to help at-risk children in Nepal and shares moving stories to encourage donor support. It also includes multiple calls to action across the page and a goal meter so supporters can stay informed about campaign performance.

3. American Heart Association: Ways to support

Engage new supporters on GivingTuesday and during the year-end season by directly telling people how they can help. On its website, American Heart Association provides three ways for website visitors to offer their support. It even includes stories of the survivors to further encourage supporters to take action.

4. Greater Good Charities: Cause areas to support

If your organization works in multiple cause areas, why not let donors choose where they want their donation to go? It’s a great way to personalize the donor experience and give donors more control over how their gift is spent.

For GivingTuesday, Greater Good Charities lets donors choose from four different cause areas and provides a unique landing page for each one.

5. Plant With Purpose: Impact levels

Another way to personalize the donor experience on GivingTuesday? Showing donors how far their gift will go.

Plant With Purpose adds Fundraise Up’s interactive impact slider to its GivingTuesday landing page. This helps donors understand how many trees they can grow with a single donation.

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a technology company unlocking the world’s generosity potential by optimizing the way people give. The company’s donation platform helps nonprofits engage more supporters and grow revenue by providing easy ways to increase conversion, enable modern payment methods, and personalize the giving experience for every donor. Fundraise Up is the partner of choice for UNICEF USA, The Salvation Army UK, American Heart Association, and other impactful organizations across the globe. For more information, visit fundraiseup.com.

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Connecting donors with loved ones through tribute gifts this year-end

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

As the holiday season draws closer, people will be looking to give back to their communities by making donations to their favorite charitable organizations. In showing their appreciation and gratitude for the work your organization has done throughout the year, many will want to dedicate their donation to someone special in their life as a way to honor them during the holidays.

Tribute gifts as a way to honor loved ones

Tribute gifts are another way for your organization to raise funds during the year-end season but also throughout the entire year. Allowing someone to dedicate a donation is a remarkable way for donors to celebrate important milestones with their loved ones like holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and graduations. But it’s also a way to show support and honor someone who is struggling or grieving through personal hardships.

As an example of a nonprofit leveraging tribute gifts, United Nations Population Fund has created a landing page that educates donors about what tribute gifts are and how these gifts are able to support women and girls in need:

If you want to add more clarity around how donors can make a tribute gift, you can highlight steps to take on your landing page. Make sure the how-to section is in a prominent location on your landing page so that donors don’t miss it. That way, there’s complete transparency around dedicating their donation, and they won’t miss it during checkout.

For instance, if you’re using a donation platform like Fundraise Up, the steps could read:

To dedicate your donation to a loved one, click on the donate button.
Fill out the donation as normal but remember to check the “Dedicate this donation” box and type the name of the person you want to donate on behalf of.
Follow the rest of the donation steps and don’t forget to customize an email card at the end of the donation process.

Take it a step further by highlighting the steps in a popup message so that it’s the first thing donors see when they enter your tribute-specific landing page.

Engaging tribute donors and recipients

While tribute gifts are a way to grow online revenue, it also serves as an opportunity to increase your brand awareness and ability to garner new supporters. When someone makes a tribute gift, they are either a first-time donor who is offering their support to a cause that is important to someone special in their life or a returning donor who is offering their support to a cause that is important to them on behalf of someone special in their life. In either case, your organization is given an opportunity to cultivate a new donor through strategic relationship-building.

Here are a few ways to nurture that relationship:

Send a thank-you email. You should always send a thank-you email to the donor as soon as they make a gift to your organization. This lets the donor know that you appreciate their support and makes them feel good about their gesture of good will. By using a donation platform like Fundraise Up, you’re able to customize thank-you emails so that they automatically trigger once a donation is processed.
Share how their gift has made a difference. Whether it’s the donor or the recipient who is new to your organization, be sure to send them a follow-up email after your year-end campaign to tell them how their donation has impacted your work. For instance, if you’re raising funds to bring school supplies to children who need it most, let them know how many kids you were able to help and how they contributed to that impact.
Tell compelling stories. Share personal stories about the people, animals, or environment your mission supports. A thoughtful story about an individual person, animal, or place can help donors emotionally connect with those you serve. If the donor feels good about the difference they’re helping you make, it might even inspire the donor to give again.
Ask them to become a recurring supporter. Tell the donor about your recurring giving program. Explain how they can make a bigger difference on your mission by taking their next one-time donation and spreading it across recurring gifts throughout the year. This will boost revenue but also donor retention.
Encourage them to create a fundraiser in your year-end campaign. Rally your community of supporters and share how much it would mean to your organization if they started a fundraiser for your campaign. It only takes a few minutes to create or join a fundraiser on Fundraise Up, and they immediately get a personalized link to share in their social channels or via email.

Offering a dedication option in your donation experience

Fundraise Up makes dedicating donations to someone simple, quick, and effortless for your donor. If your donor wants to make a dedication, all they have to do is check the “Dedicate this donation” box on the checkout screen and complete their donation as they normally would.

Once your donor completes their donation, they have the option to send a personalized card or make another dedication. When a donor sends a card, they have the option to choose a dedication type — in honor of or in memory of a loved one. Then, they can customize the message they want to send and choose artwork from your image collections.

Fundraise Up has created seven image collections that you can offer to your donors: memorial, celebration, thank you, anniversary, birthday, wedding and animals.

You also have the option to customize your own image collection for any given campaign. You can select up to four images per collection, and individual collections can be included or excluded from a campaign. For example, if you’re creating a holiday-themed image collection just for your year-end campaign, you can choose to include that collection in that campaign, and the image collection would not be shown in any other campaign running on your website.

Resources for building an engaging image collection for tribute gifts

If you have a graphic designer on staff who can create custom images to use for tribute gifts, that’s fantastic. However, for organizations that don’t, there are a number of free to low-cost resources out there to choose from:

Canva is a free design tool you can use to create custom graphics with. It comes with a number of templates, photos, and fonts to choose from.
Pexels offers hundreds of thousands stock photos to use and attribution is not required. And it’s all free.
Shutterstock offers a library of more than 300 million stock photos to choose from. Pricing for plans range from $49 to $479+ a month, and all plans come with worry-free licensing and legal protection.
DALL·E 2 is an AI art generation tool that can create unique images and art from a general description. You can use DALL·E 2 for free for three months with an $18 credit — then you can pay as you go with its token model.

Just in time for year-end, we’ve compiled a library of free images that you can offer to your tribute donors to personalize their dedication cards. Download our year-end collection here.

To learn more about how your organization can offer tribute gifts this holiday season and throughout the year, schedule a call with one of our team members.

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Focusing on digital channels to engage more online donors this GivingTuesday

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the global day of generosity. A movement started in 2012 by a nonprofit called 92nd Street Y, GivingTuesday is an annual event that occurs the Tuesday following Thanksgiving. Similar to the way Black Friday and Cyber Monday are used to encourage consumers to shop at their favorite brands, GivingTuesday encourages donors to give back to charitable causes.

Generosity has poured in over the years on GivingTuesday, with an estimated 35 million Americans participating last year and raising a record $2.7 billion collectively. With the potential of total giving reaching over $3 billion this year on November 29, GivingTuesday presents nonprofits with a big opportunity to fine-tune their digital campaigns to further engage donors and increase year-end revenue.

Whether you’re in the middle of GivingTuesday planning or have yet to start, the first step is to always do the prep work before launching your campaign so that you have a succession plan in place.

Campaign planning can look different for every organization, but the most crucial steps are to define your campaign’s purpose and objectives, figure out how you will tell your story to compel people to donate, establish which digital channels you’ll communicate with your donors through, and set your promotion schedule leading up to and on GivingTuesday.

To help you along the way, we’ve created a digital campaign checklist that can act as your guide between now and GivingTuesday.

Website content

Your website will lay the foundation for all of your digital communications for your campaign. It’s where you’ll house information about your campaign, where people will go to learn more about you as an organization, and where you’ll direct your calls to action.

Your website plays a pivotal role in donor engagement. Providing a captivating website experience will dictate whether or not someone will feel moved enough to donate to your GivingTuesday campaign. Here are four critical website elements that you shouldn’t overlook:

Place your donate button in a prominent location on your homepage. Don’t bury your donate button in a hard-to-find place. It should be the first thing a website visitor sees so that when they’re ready to donate, you’ll convert them into a donor immediately.
Connect your GivingTuesday campaign directly to a call-to-action button. Highlight your campaign in the featured section of your website. Additionally, when someone clicks on your donate button, make sure they are directly taken to your donation checkout and not another landing page. This prevents any friction in the donation process and ensures that the intended donor can easily give.
Encourage monthly support in the donation checkout. While GivingTuesday is notorious for one-time donations, what’s stopping your nonprofit from also getting monthly support? Organizations like Animal Haven have tripled their recurring revenue by including an upsell in their donation checkout.
Offering more payment options. Convert more donors by giving them more payment options to choose from. Your donors have different giving preferences — why not meet them where they are? By limiting your options to credit cards and bank transfers, you could be missing out on additional revenue. Fundraise Up offers a wide range of payment options that includes credit cards, bank transfers, digital wallets, and crypto.

“I would highly recommend not cutting out sustaining gifts as an option on GivingTuesday. We convert donors every year who come to give a one-time donation and are upsold to becoming monthly donors. And as we all know in the industry, your sustaining donors have a longer lifetime value and automatic retention built in,” Shannon McLaughlin-Kirkman, Director of Development, Communications, Animal Haven, said in a recent live session on GivingTuesday.

We understand that the scale of any nonprofit’s GivingTuesday campaign will vary from organization to organization. Knowing what works for your organization will help you build an effective campaign that will drive revenue. And because there’s still time before the big day, it’s an opportune time to test out new fundraising tactics to see if you can garner even more engagement.

Here are a few other ideas to try out:

Create a descriptive landing page for your GivingTuesday campaign. A landing page serves as an information hub for everything about your GivingTuesday campaign. There, you can make your case for support — what your campaign is raising funds for and why people should make a donation — for those people who might be interested in giving but need a little more convincing. Consider adding interactive elements on your landing page to keep people up to date with campaign performance — like a goal meter, cause areas to support, and a leaderboard of top supporters. See a live example here.
Add a popup message that overlays on your homepage. A popup message ensures that the first thing a website visitor sees is a call to action leading them to your GivingTuesday campaign. This guarantees that your campaign won’t get overlooked and people know what your immediate need is.
Let supporters create fundraisers. Want to boost revenue even more this year? Give your supporters a way to create fundraisers on behalf of your organization. It’s a way to bring your community together, and supporters can choose to create a new fundraiser or join a team fundraiser.

Email communications

Email is by far the preferred way to communicate, with 4 billion daily email users. Most nonprofits leverage this digital channel to communicate with their constituents. Research finds that the average open rate for nonprofits is 26.6%, which is higher when compared to other industries.

So, how can you effectively use email marketing to promote your GivingTuesday campaign? Here are the steps you should consider:

Plan your email marketing. How many emails will you send between now and November 29? Know what works best with your audience, but also remember that donors will expect an increased number of emails leading up to GivingTuesday and year-end.
Segment your lists. Don’t send generic emails to your entire list. Personalize your emails and segment your lists in a way that makes sense for your audience — whether it’s by type of supporter, interest areas, or past campaign activity. Keep in mind that personalized emails generate up to six times more donations compared to generalized emails.
Pre-schedule your email sends. Make it easier on your team on GivingTuesday by creating and scheduling your emails in advance. This will help avoid additional stress and last-minute rushing on the important day.
Diversify your e-communications. While appeals are important and will be a big part of your GivingTuesday email campaign, consider diversifying your email content so that not every email donors receive is an ask. Consider including emails about the impact donors are helping your organization make and individual stories about the people, animals, or environment you serve. And remember to include a call to action in all of your emails — whether it’s directing donors to make a donation, to learn more about what you’re doing for GivingTuesday, or to read up on your mission.

“It’s important that you pay attention to what your audience is doing, when and where they like to hear from you, and when they don’t like to hear from you. Look at your open rates, click rates, and response rates from the past few years. You can A/B test if you haven’t before.” — Shannon McLaughlin-Kirkman, Director of Development, Communications, Animal Haven

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Ways to Use Recurring Giving Options to Drive Generosity

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT

As donors receive exemplary and personalized experiences with their favorite brands — like Amazon and Netflix — they’ve come to expect that same level of thoughtfulness when they donate to charitable causes. In fact, research finds that 91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide recommendations that are relevant to them, which is also applicable to donors and nonprofits.

To meet changing donor preferences and to customize giving for every campaign, Fundraise Up released seven additional recurring giving frequencies: daily, weekly, biweekly, bimonthly, quarterly, semiannual, and annual.

Follow along as we share how nonprofits can use additional giving levels to unlock more generosity from donors.

Special holidays

During special holidays, many donors commemorate by giving back to their favorite charitable causes. So why not give them more options to show their support? If you’re launching a holiday campaign, encourage donors to give on a more frequent basis. That way, you’re empowering them with a more meaningful way to celebrate the holidays while also increasing the revenue potential for your campaign.

Here are some use cases:

Chinese New Year: In anticipation of the new moon, people all over the world celebrate Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, with a 15-day spring festival. Encourage daily recurring donations as a way for your donors to celebrate the new year and give back to the AAPI community.
Ramadan: A religious holiday observed by Muslims all over the world, Ramadan is a time of reflection, fasting, and prayer. Bring your community closer by opening up daily giving and even weekly giving. We recommend adding a goal meter so that your supporters can keep track of your campaign performance throughout the month.
Passover, Rosh Hashanah & Hanukkah: For these important multiday Jewish holidays, offer daily as a recurring giving option to those who wish to increase their giving during these timeframes. Here’s a fun idea: Why not add a popup message as soon as someone enters your website to encourage more frequent giving for those who are celebrating?
Diwali: A five-day celebration, Diwali is a religious Hindu festival. To give back to their communities, those celebrating may want to increase their support — so it’s a good idea to make daily giving an option.
Christmas: As a way for donors to give back to their communities during the holiday season, offer up daily or weekly giving starting December 1 and ending December 25. Want to incentivize more people to donate? Add an impact slider so donors know how their donation is making a difference (e.g., $20 provides meals for a pet in need for an entire week).
Kwanzaa: For those celebrating the African-American culture during Kwanzaa at the end of December, empower donors to give daily. Include a donor map on your website so donors can see where fellow supporters are giving from.

Month-long awareness campaigns

With important monthly observances and celebrations throughout the year — such as Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and Pride Month — it’s a good opportunity to raise awareness about issues important to your organization and generate additional donation revenue.

Offer your donors one of three recurring frequency options during month-long campaigns:

Daily: For donors who want to show their support every day of your campaign
Weekly: For donors who might not be able to give daily but still want to give frequently throughout the month
Bi-weekly: For donors who want to make a bigger impact than just a one-time gift

Flexible plans for changing donor lifestyles

Sometimes things don’t go as planned and donors are faced with budget constraints. If you’re only offering a monthly giving option, chances are you’ll end up with a lapsed donor who cancels their recurring giving plan.

With more flexible options like bi-monthly, quarterly, semiannual, and annual gifts, your organization is now able to better retain donors and customize a giving plan that works with your donor’s lifestyle, no matter what happens. With Fundraise Up’s Donor Portal, your donor can change their giving frequency at any time and pick back up where they left off when they’re ready.

To learn more about how to include more giving frequencies into your nonprofit’s recurring giving program, schedule some time to chat with one of our team members.

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Meet Popup: The Attention-Grabbing, Conversion-Driving Overlay Element

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Say hello to Popup, the latest Element to join our library of fundraising UI components.

You can use Popup to display attention-grabbing calls to action on your nonprofit’s website that prompt visitors to donate. Popup launches in the center of a visitor’s screen, dims the content behind it, and puts the emphasis on the opportunity to give.

Popup also includes AI-driven features that optimize how and when it’s shown to your site visitors. This way, more people who see it go on to donate, and search engines don’t mark your popups as an intrusive interstitial.

Like other Elements, Popup is customizable. Add an image, set a title and description and write a label for the CTA button. Popup looks great on desktop browsers and it’s optimized for mobile, too.

Popup is the perfect addition to your digital marketing mix. You can create several variations to segment campaigns, and use Popup’s URL control feature to determine which pages each popup should trigger on.

Popup will also make your web developers and finance teams very happy. There’s no extra code to install on your website and no extra costs to use it — just greater engagement and more people giving.

We’re really excited to see how you fundraise with Popup. With GivingTuesday and year-end fundraising right around the corner, now is a great time to integrate Popup into your online fundraising plans.

About Fundraise Up

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The Science Behind Adaptive Cost Coverage

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Should you ask donors to cover the transaction fees for their donations? The question has stuck to the nonprofit industry like glue for decades. The answer is yes… but there’s also a catch.

Some donors are more likely to cover transaction costs than others. And in some cases, asking actually lowers your chance of securing certain donations. So what’s the right way to do it?

The answer is adaptive cost coverage, a feature we’ve introduced that uses artificial intelligence to determine which donors you should ask to cover transaction fees.

Read on to see why we integrated AI technology into adaptive cost coverage and the results the feature is delivering for nonprofits.

Researching fee coverage dynamics

When we first tackled the covering fees dilemma in the fall of 2021, we found that a majority — 92% of donors — would cover the fees associated with processing their donations.

We also found that if a donor covered the fees on their first donation, there was a 26% chance that they’d do it again in the future.

And for organizations that pre-checked the covering fees option for donors, there was a 12% increase in the number of donors who would cover fees on future donations.

43% of donors would even tick the box for covering fees if it wasn’t checked by default.

But beneath the top-level stats was a layer of nuance that revealed personas that didn’t respond as positively to fee covering prompts.

For example, donors who gave between $500 and $1,000 were 18% less likely to cover fees than donors giving downrange gifts of $60-$120. This behavior was present with both one-time and recurring donations.

The apparent solution would be to write some logic that hides the option to cover fees based on donation size, but the behavioral nuances extend beyond what simple conditional arguments can solve.

Understanding human behavior

Our decisions are influenced by our environment and by the world at large. Enough so that events like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine alter the way we give.

Understanding the relationship between environment and behavior is important because it reveals that one-size-fits-all methodologies never really work, especially at scale.

Actually, there’s one way that a one-size-fits-all approach could work.

Let’s say that you replaced every person on the planet with clones of yourself and held a family reunion in California. You and your 7.6 billion copies could cram into a 470 million cubic meter box and float around San Francisco Bay.

This would be ideal because you and your billions-strong cohort all think the same way and are all in the same place at the same time.

So if I can figure out just one of you, I have figured out all of you. And if one of you will cover the fees on a donation, all of you will.

But since none of this is possible, it’s impossible to know in any moment the factors that are influencing people’s decisions. But we can make incredibly well-educated guesses with some help from machines.

Optimizing around the individual

You can’t humanly calculate the optimal giving experience for all of your donors in your lifetime, let alone on the fly. But machines can.

This is where artificial intelligence enters the picture. You can task an AI with answering a question like, “how much should Donor X give?” and given enough data, that AI will provide a logical answer.

The principle applies at scale, too, which means you can gather a lot of actionable insights about your donors within a short timespan. The trick is completing this exercise over and over again very quickly.

Again, machines can help. If you leave an AI to answer your questions automatically, it will dutifully carry out the task around the clock. This is the only way to meaningfully optimize anything around an individual in real-time.

And remember, one size does not fit all, so even if one $5K donor covers the transaction fees for their donation, it doesn’t mean that subsequent $5K donors will also cover the fees.

Properties like time of day, location, proximity to a payday, cell phone carrier and even mouse cursor movements are all factors in whether the fees get covered on a donor’s gift.

Implementing AI for fee coverage

With adaptive cost coverage feature, you’re harnessing AI to observe over 100 properties that orbit every potential donor. This exercise in observation occurs nonstop to account for moment-to-moment behavioral changes.

The result is that you get a very good idea of who should be asked to cover transaction fees.

One of our hallmark statistics over the years has been that on average, 92% of donors cover fees. Admittedly, that number is likely to drop as nonprofits begin switching over to adaptive cost coverage. But this is okay.

The reason? You’re now optimizing for conversion instead of broader fee coverage. You might see fewer donors covering transaction fees, but you are likely to see more giving and larger donation sizes.

Already, early results indicate a 5% conversion increase when adaptive cost coverage is enabled and a roughly 4% elevation in revenue throughout. This is a big win for you and for us.

Our core objective in partnering with you will always be optimizing conversion. Because the easier it is for someone to extend their generosity toward your mission, the closer you get to fulfilling it.

About Fundraise Up

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Introducing Adaptive Cost Coverage, an AI-Driven Feature That Increases Conversion and Revenue

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Nonprofits using Fundraise Up can now enable adaptive cost coverage, a feature that uses artificial intelligence to determine which donors should be prompted to cover the fees for their donations.

Adaptive cost coverage is designed to increase conversion, and early results show a jump in conversion rate and a notable increase in donation revenue when the feature is enabled.

Previous research by Fundraise Up found that while a majority of donors are in favor of covering processing fees for a nonprofit — 92% of donors do when donating using Fundraise Up — there are some occurrences where the ask has a negative impact on conversion.

With adaptive cost coverage enabled, nonprofits can look forward to:

Increased online donation revenue (+1.5%)
Higher conversion on larger donation sizes ($1,000+)

Adaptive cost coverage can be toggled on for any standard currency Checkout. There is no additional cost to use the feature.

Learn more about AI-driven features like adaptive cost coverage on the Machine Learning page of our website.

About Fundraise Up

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The 2022 Digital GivingTuesday Campaign Checklist for Nonprofits

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Ready for the biggest giving day of the year? Use this checklist to get your GivingTuesday campaign prepped and primed for optimal results this year-end.

Lay the groundwork

Define the purpose of your GivingTuesday campaign. This will help develop messaging for what cause(s) you're fundraising for, where the funds are going, and why people should offer their support. Need some inspiration? Here's a resource from GivingTuesday →

CAMPAIGN IN ACTION
For GivingTuesday, Greater Good Charities is raising funds to provide meals for
the thousands of pets in shelters →

Tell your story. Get together with your team to brainstorm ways to compel people to donate to your campaign. Who will benefit from the campaign, and what impact stories can you share in your digital communications? For best practices on effective storytelling, check out this resource from Neon One →
Set your promotion schedule. Decide which digital channels to promote GivingTuesday on and when you will be launching those communications.

Include GivingTuesday on your website

Connect GivingTuesday to your main donate button. Connect your GivingTuesday campaign to your main donate button to ensure all funds raised that day go toward the campaign.

BIG WIN
By sending donors directly to its GivingTuesday campaign, Animal Haven has seen huge lifts in revenue year after year →

Build a landing page for your GivingTuesday campaign. Dedicate a landing page to your GivingTuesday campaign so that people understand what you're fundraising for and how they can offer their support. Learn more about how to create effective landing pages in this guide from HubSpot →
Prioritize your GivingTuesday campaign with a popup. As an additional way to garner attention to your GivingTuesday campaign, consider highlighting your GivingTuesday initiatives through a popup box when someone enters your website.

Build out your emails

Set your email marketing plan. Identify how many emails you want to send between now and November 29. We recommend that you diversify to include non-appeals — like a touching story or an impact update — so that not every email is an ask. Need help establishing your email timeline? Here's a helpful resource from NextAfter →
Segment your email lists. Once you decide what types of emails you will send leading up to and on GivingTuesday, it's time to build out your email lists. How you categorize your lists will depend on your organization, but a few ideas are to segment by type of supporter, cause area, and past campaign activity. Want tips on email segmentation? Check out this resource from WholeWhale →
Preschedule your email sends. To save you time and stress leading up to GivingTuesday, build out your emails and schedule them in advance so you can focus more mission-critical activities on November 29.

About Fundraise Up

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7 New Recurring Donation Frequencies Added to Checkout

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT

You can now toggle seven new recurring donation frequencies in Checkout.

In addition to one-time and monthly options, Checkout now supports daily, weekly, biweekly, bimonthly, quarterly, semiannual, and annual donation frequencies.

The new frequencies add flexibility to how you fundraise. For example, if you’re a Muslim organization fundraising during Ramadan, you can use the daily giving frequency to enable donors to make an automatic donation during each day of the month.

Or, if you have a fundraising strategy that taps donors for larger but less frequent gifts, options like semiannual and annual frequencies make it easy for these supporters to opt-in to greater giving directly on your website.

And if you’re hyper-focused on testing or segmentation, you can even create multiple Checkout instances, each with unique donation frequencies configured to evaluate which frequencies perform best with your various donor groups.

Like what you see but not yet using Fundraise Up? Take the next step by connecting with our sales team to build a solution for your nonprofit.

About Fundraise Up

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Mastercard Sets Rules Exemption for Nonprofits

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT

After initially including nonprofits in the scope of its new subscription billing rules, Mastercard has now confirmed with Fundraise Up that the company will largely exempt nonprofits from the rules.

In an October 11, 2022 bulletin, Mastercard included the carve-out:

“…all requirements will now only apply to non-profit and charity merchants that are identified for at least four months in the ACMP.”

ACMP is a Mastercard program designed to identify and mitigate high chargeback rates amongst merchants. Nonprofits that experience high chargeback rates and are enrolled in ACMP or a similar Mastercard program are still required to follow the new rules.

For all other nonprofits, the rules are now described as “best practice recommendations” by Mastercard.

The new rules, which apply to merchants around the world, are active as of September 22, 2022. The March 21, 2022 extension for nonprofits is no longer in effect.

Fundraise Up, which is a Mastercard preferred partner, has worked with the financial services company since August to address concerns within the nonprofit industry about how the new rules impact nonprofits.

Mastercard says that collaborations with Fundraise Up and organizations like The Nonprofit Alliance (which also voiced concerns about the rules to Mastercard) helped pave the way for the new exemption.

For Fundraise Up customers, this latest update from Mastercard does not require any action to be taken. The advanced notice email that was added to the platform to satisfy rule requirements will remain but be toggled-off by default.

If you have questions about this update or others regarding Mastercard’s subscription billing rules, email me at nic@fundraiseup.com. To view other revisions made to Mastercard’s new rules, see this document.

About Fundraise Up

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Getting ready for the year-end giving season

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT

It’s that time of the year when many nonprofit organizations are preparing to launch their year-end giving fundraising campaigns. The year-end season — between GivingTuesday and December 31 — accounts for more than one-third of annual giving. Given how important this time of the year is, leadership and operational teams are working together to strategize, build, and optimize their fundraising campaigns to engage more donors and grow revenue during the year-end season.

This preparation spans across marketing, fundraising, donor development, IT, leadership and other teams working in collaboration to make it all happen.

Fundraise Up is a critical piece of this puzzle helping convert intentions to donations. The platform enables nonprofits to maximize their impact by equipping teams with a donation experience and interactive website elements made to convert donors and increase donation volume.

As we kick off year-end, Fundraise Up is rolling out a number of resources that include best fundraising practices, user data across channels, as well as some of our new features with advanced capabilities

Below are a few checklist items that you should be thinking about to make the most of your year-end fundraising campaign:

Campaign-specific landing pages: Create landing pages specific to your GivingTuesday and year-end campaigns so donors understand what you’re fundraising for and how they can offer their support.
Unified experience: The Fundraise Up checkout is designed to move someone with an intent to give to someone who gives. We recommend leveraging Fundraise Up on every channel you engage donors in — website, email, ads, social, direct mail, etc.
Payment methods: Fundraise Up has always strived to meet any donor wherever they are. To that extent, payment methods play a key role in donor conversion. Fundraise Up offers credit card, bank transfer, digital wallet, and crypto. If you don’t have some of these turned on, now might be a good time to enable them to meet any donor preference.
Elements: Choose from 20+ of Fundraise Up’s interactive elements to create engaging landing pages on your website. Our elements are plug and play and can be easily embedded without a developer on staff.
Cryptocurrency: Crypto donations are on the rise. With crypto owners holding more than $1 trillion in assets, many nonprofits have demonstrated interest in enabling this type of donation. It’s an optimal time to turn the crypto payment option on in Fundraise Up and attract more major donors.

To see these features in action, Fundraise Up’s demo website, ROPSI, provides clear live examples.

Many of the above pointers are simple and quick to implement and can have an immense impact on your fundraising efforts.

We will be delivering additional resources in the form of email series, live sessions, and outreach from our Customer Success team. Our Support team is always on standby during this busy period for any help you may need during this critical time.

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Everything nonprofits need to know about Google Analytics 4

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Google is sunsetting Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023, which means it’s the time to learn about what will take its place: Google Analytics 4.

GA4 uses an event-based data model, offers more privacy protection, doesn't rely exclusively on cookies, and can operate across multiple platforms.

What’s new with GA4?

GA4 has many changes, but let’s dive deeper into the three most important updates that all organizations should know about:

Event-based conversions
Enhanced reporting
AI and machine learning

These features need time to work effectively and efficiently. To take full advantage of GA4's measurement continuity, automated insights about the customer journey, and easy activation to improve marketing ROI, organizations should start their GA4 transition as soon as possible and simultaneously run both Analytics versions to obtain the best results.

Events-based tracking

GA4 has remodeled the tracking systems to no longer focus on sessions. With its event-based model, GA4 now treats each user interaction as a separate event to give you information about what's occurring on your website or app, such as first visits, page views, button clicks, user actions, or system events.

Events can gather and communicate data that further explains the user's action and provides additional context. This data may include specifics like the donation amount, the URL of the page the user visited, or their precise location. An event allows you to measure distinct user interaction on a website or app and learn more about your supporters than ever before.

Enhanced reporting

By design, explorations and reports display your data differently. Explorations query raw event and user-level data while reports rely on daily aggregated tables.

The "Explore" area offers advanced techniques that go beyond standard reports to help you uncover deeper insights into your supporters' behavior.
Overview reports are a dashboard containing a set of cards that summarizes the detailed reports on a chosen topic. A topic can have only one overview report, such as "What are your user demographics?"
The Realtime report allows you to keep an eye on the activity as it happens (5 seconds to 30 minutes prior). Based on the most accurate user identifiers available, Analytics can track a single user's trip across many devices.
The enhanced measurement feature automatically collects additional events without requiring you to modify the code of your website. You can measure a variety of typical web events, including page views, scrolls, file downloads, and video views.

Users will also be able to edit the Analytics interface to better fit their needs. Allowing users to customize what their reports look like — not just for custom reports but for the default reports.

Data and reports can be tricky, especially when learning the ins and outs of a new Analytics platform. hjc’s team of Google Analytics professionals is ready to make reporting easy for you.

Analytics intelligence: How does this work?

Both reports and explorations in GA4 leverage machine learning to make your data more meaningful, accessible, and actionable.

We already know that Google Analytics will track users who come to your website and agree to be tracked. Now, GA4 will leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning so that when cookies are blocked, GA4 will backfill the missing data based on prior learnings — this is called behavioral consent.

To achieve the best results, artificial intelligence and machine learning need time to begin learning and should be set up as soon as possible.

GA4 in a cookieless world

GA4 no longer uses third-party cookies, which are set up by domain(s) other than the one being visited. GA4 now leverages first-party cookies, which are directly set up by the website domain, to improve the user experience — like remembering your password, keeping your cart contents active, or sharing a reminder to complete your donation.

Google Analytics is also designed for a future with or without cookies or other identifiers. In the future, GA4 will utilize machine learning to fill in data gaps. For instance, there could be cookies missing when measuring conversions across devices.

In this instance, you won't be able to link some of your conversions to the appropriate users who engaged with an ad. This will leave gaps in the customer journey if modeling techniques are not used. With a modeling foundation, observable data can feed algorithms that also use previous trends to validate and inform measurement.

How is data collected and stored?

Event-based model

Using an event-based model means each user interaction is processed as a standalone event, allowing you to measure specific user interactions on your website or app.

For Example:

First click: What brought them to the website?
Last click: What was the final interaction on the website?
Data-driven: Did they come in through the web app, did they donate, etc.?

Anonymizing IP

By default, all users' IP addresses are anonymous.

Server location

GA4 doesn’t give you the option to control where data is stored.

Data storage

GA4 simplifies data retention to either timeframe: two months or 14 months.

Does GA4 adhere to new data privacy laws and regulations?

GA4 relies on first-party cookies, which keeps it compliant with new privacy laws like General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act.

Additionally, Analytics offers settings to:

Block the acquisition of data from Google Signals on a per-regional basis.
Block the per-regional collection of precise location and device data.

User data deletion

GA4 allows you to segment your users and delete individual user data if needed. This is an important feature as granting users the right to request their data be deleted adheres to most privacy regulations.

Personally Identifiable Information

GA4 doesn’t allow the capture of PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and if identified, the data will be flagged for deletion

The switch: When is it happening & what do nonprofits need to do?

The clock is ticking and now is the time to start discussing your switch to GA4.

To get the best out of GA4, you must allow your organization a transition period where Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 can be executed simultaneously.

At hjc, we urge that you look into how your organization can get started today to ensure a brighter future! hjc is prepared to thoroughly audit your Google Analytics account and recommend/help you with your next steps on how to make your transition to GA4.

Our promise: Expert staff who get the job done right the first time.

This is a guest blog post from our partner at hjc.

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Mastercard extends rules deadline for nonprofits and clarifies monthly notification requirement

Fri, 02 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Mastercard has updated its guidance for nonprofits regarding the new subscription billing rules. Read about the two key updates below, and if you haven't already, register for our September 7 live session with Mastercard, where we're partnering to explain the rules in detail.

Deadline extension

Mastercard has extended the implementation deadline for the rules. For nonprofits, specifically, the new effective date for the rules is March 21, 2023. As a reminder, Mastercard's new rules apply to subscription-style billing. For our industry, this includes recurring giving. Therefore, the rules are applicable to nonprofits.

Note: The rules are effective as of September 22, 2022 for nonprofits that experience a high number of chargebacks and are enrolled in one of Mastercard’s chargeback prevention programs. For more information, read this article.

Monthly notification requirement

Mastercard's new rules state that a receipt, sent by email, must be delivered to card holders after every billing. Mastercard has clarified that if an email address for a recurring donor is not collected, a nonprofit does not need to provide notification by other means such as postal mail.

Our take

The deadline extension provides nonprofits with more time to to develop paths toward compliance with the new rules. However, we recommend pursuing compliance now. This approach enables your organization to implement and test any new processes well in advance of the new March deadline.

Similarly, the clarification about monthly notification requirements benefits organizations that do not yet have systems in place to facilitate electronic receipting by email. Our recommendation for these nonprofits is to work toward meeting the rule's requirements anyway. Our research has shown that aligning with consumer expectations improves donor experience and increases giving.

To learn more about Mastercard's new rules and to get further guidance on how to follow them, make sure you're registered for the September 7 live session and invite others in the industry to join.

About Fundraise Up

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Donor acquisition: The what, the why, and the how

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT

When charitable organizations come to work with us at Frontier, they generally want two things: to raise more money and to acquire more donors. Both are great goals for a charity. And when I founded Frontier in 2010, it was to help charities accomplish these two things both efficiently and effectively.

But when I dig deeper to see which goal they want to tackle first, they enthusiastically say, “Both!”

“Uh oh,” I say in my head.

And here we encounter a common misconception about revenue and donor growth. Because while it would be great to grow your donor base and see immediate revenue gains, they aren’t compatible in the short term.

Taking a step back — if your goal is increased fundraising revenue, you’ve got an important and stressful road ahead. But let me assure you: Revenue growth is achievable. My hope in writing this article for Fundraise Up is to give you the knowledge and tools to reach your goals.

To start, there’s more than one marketing strategy to increase fundraising revenue. To list just a few:

Increase current donor giving
Improve donor retention
Acquire new donors

While a good annual giving fundraising plan pursues all three, the strategy that receives the least attention is donor acquisition. Why?

Two reasons:

First, donor acquisition requires trying something new. For most, this is difficult. This is particularly true in the charitable sector where organizations aren’t rewarded properly for risk. Going from zero to one is much harder than going from one to two. It’s going from nothing to something, and this is the greatest leap possible (see Peter Tiel’s book).
Second, acquisition is a financial investment without the guarantee of a strong ROI — a daunting and anxiety-inducing prospect.

For Frontier Marketing, the agency I founded and where I lead strategy, acquisition almost always requires spending more money than you’ll initially earn, which brings me to an important metric: acquisition ROI.

Acquisition ROI — the amount of revenue immediately received from new donors compared to the cost of the campaign — has averaged 80% for us at Frontier Marketing. If a client spent $1,000 on acquisition, it’s been our experience that new donors from the campaign would contribute around $800, leaving the organization out of pocket around $200.

Despite the investment, acquisition is vital to organizational growth and success. Having raised nearly $100 million to date, our internal research suggests nonprofits with a healthy annual giving program only renew 60% to 75% of their donors each year.

This means a healthy organization loses 25% to 40% of its donor base every year. Larger organizations build lapsed giving programs to welcome back their long-lost donors, and healthy ones see 10% to 15% of their donor base return each year, but not the little ones.

If you’re ready to give donor acquisition a try, here’s what you need to know:

Remember why people give
Define your value proposition
Know and expand your mediums

1. Remember why people give

Good marketers know about Maslow's hierarchy of needs. While most gifts support the first two levels of Maslow’s hierarchy, for others, the experience of giving allows the donor to move toward love and belonging, esteem, and, finally, self-actualization.

Eric Frans, VP of Philanthropy at IFCC describes the healing journey possible for donors through philanthropy on our Frontier FM podcast. When donors give to your organization, they are becoming the person they aspire to be. Good fundraising affirms the donor’s identity as the best version of themselves.

At the Better Fundraising Co, Stephen Screen expands on this concept further by saying that when we give, it helps us:

Become who we want to be
Continue to be who we want to be
Remake the world in the way we think it should be

Remember this as you sit down to plan your acquisition fundraising. You want growth that helps your charity tackle important issues. Your donor does, too. But ultimately, it’s because their act of support reflects the kind of person they aspire to be.

2. Define your value proposition

You made Simon Sinek happy and started with why. Now you’re going to ask for the gift. At the end of the day, you need to tell a readable and dynamic story. If you’re writing an appeal, copyoptimizer.net can help you get there.

Today’s fundraising doesn’t need any of the tropes of the past that involve demeaning the people who you ultimately hope to help. Exciting positive language often wins out over tragic or unpleasant portrayals of the challenges your organization is trying to address.

For example, we worked with the Vancouver Public Library Foundation (VPLF) to achieve stellar acquisition results with the story of a mother, Lisa, learning to sing nursery rhymes, thanks to access to library programming.

But we didn’t just ask for support for people like Lisa. We ensured there was a specific price and an easily solvable program.

“The ask” is your brand promise to them. Your partnership through that delivers tangible impact.

It must be simple, clear, and definitive. And remember, it’s about your cause, not your charity. They’ve never given to you before, so we know they’re not “fans” of your charity. But they may feel compelled to be part of an easily solvable solution.

Here’s another way to look at the ask:

“$X provides this verb for this noun.”

In our experience, initial gifts to a charity are around $80, so consider offering a range of asks around this amount. For example, with VPLF, we gave different options ranging from $35 to $150.

For more about how to create and improve your value proposition, I recommend checking out NextAfter.

3. Know and expand your mediums

You know why folks give, and you’ve laid out your offer to donors. Finally, we’re talking about how. In our experience, most new donor acquisition occurs through the mail, but that’s not where it should end. Let’s explore a few other ways to grow your donor pool.

Hosting events, peer-to-peer fundraising, raffles, and other “near giving” experiences are all lead generation tactics. Clear communication with your leads is key when you ask them to become donors to your cause through a direct gift.

Digital advertising should focus on lead generation. In other words, ask for an email address, not a gift. But if you must, build a compelling ad, usually on Facebook; design a landing page that reinforces the message; and lead to a donation experience that’s extraordinarily easy to navigate, like Fundraise Up.

In digital, we advertise what’s known as “lead magnets” where something of value — a resource or a webinar — can only be accessed by giving contact information. Another successful method in this regard is through a pledge or petition.

Your landing page should reinforce the donor's decision to give, demonstrate the anticipated impact of their support, and show how their donation puts their values into action. Supporting copy is great if it’s reminding, not selling.

In print, you must contend with postage costs and print setup costs. If your budget is tight, you’ll likely struggle.

Returnable inserts in newspapers are a common method for cheap production but yield response rates are low, ranging from 0.05% to 0.3%. Some of our clients have seen success by asking readers to answer a few survey questions that lead them to a gift.

Sending unaddressed mail and targeting postal walks — or neighborhoods — is a good investment for a charity serving the area. In my Canadian context, Canada post offers deep discounts on postage for unaddressed mail. Our response rates range from 0.15% to 1%.

Finally, rental lists do something magical to the problem of communicating with non-donors — while they don’t know you, you know them.

When you rent a mailing list, you pay the regular postage rate plus a fee to borrow the contact information of the would-be donor. A higher initial investment but with the huge advantage of addressing the recipient personally. The results speak for themselves, with our clients seeing rates between 1.5% to 3%.

Going from nothing to something is a brave and important endeavor. And diving into donor acquisition requires nothing less than a courageous commitment to try something new. Charities will always need to grow revenue and donor acquisition is essential to maximizing success.

Educating charity leaders on donor acquisition and its long-term revenue-generating potential is essential to helping organizations lean into new opportunities for growth. My hope for this article is it may lead organizations to advocate for acquisition and prioritize adding this strategy to their marketing mix.

This is a guest blog post from our partner at Frontier Marketing.

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Reach a new class of donors with crypto donations on Fundraise Up

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Cryptocurrency has grown at an accelerated pace over the past few years. The market for crypto has hit over $1 trillion this year, and it’s expected to significantly grow in the years to come. This rise has influenced more people to invest in the digital asset, who typically skew younger and often give larger gifts.

With crypto giving on Fundraise Up, nonprofits can:

Securely accept donations directly on their organization’s website
Collect crypto, card, digital wallet, and bank transfer donations using one platform
Connect Fundraise Up to Gemini Commerce

Interested in learning more about Fundraise Up and how you can start accepting crypto donations? Or, already have a crypto account and want to see if you can accept donations through it? Contact your Customer Success Manager or schedule a call with one of our team members.

About Fundraise Up

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Guidance for Mastercard’s new subscription billing rules

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Fundraise Up is working directly with Mastercard to provide nonprofits with clear guidance on how to navigate Mastercard’s new rules for subscription billing.

Key takeaways:

Fundraise Up is aware of concerns about how Mastercard’s new subscription billing rules impact the nonprofit industry
Fundraise Up is working directly with Mastercard to address how nonprofits should interpret and follow the rules
Fundraise Up’s platform already meets all of the rules applicable to nonprofits
Fundraise Up is offering expedited onboarding to nonprofits needing to increase their compliance with the new rules

About Mastercard’s new rules

The rules, known officially as “Transaction Processing Rules,” are designed to provide consumers with additional clarity and transparency about subscription billing terms and to reduce billing errors.

The rules apply to merchants "performing subscription billing in which the Cardholder has agreed for the Merchant to provide ongoing and/or periodic delivery of physical products or Digital Goods."

While not explicitly stated in the processing rules document, Mastercard has confirmed that recurring donations are classified as subscriptions and fall within the scope of the new rules.

Explanation of the rules

There are four mandates that nonprofits must specifically follow under Mastercard’s new rules. They are listed below with responses from Fundraise Up.

The full terms of any subscription, such as the total cost and frequency of charges, must be disclosed to the consumer at the time their payment information is being collected.
Rule met
In Checkout, Donor Portal, and emails, a recurring plan’s total billable amount and billing schedule are clearly displayed. When Virtual Terminal is used, a customer may reference on-screen instructions for verbally disclosing subscription terms.
Merchants must provide an online cancellation method or clear instructions for cancellation that are easily accessible on the merchant's website.
Rule met
Through Donor Portal, donors can easily cancel their recurring donation plans.

To most easily comply with this rule, Fundraise Up recommends enabling the option to cancel recurring donations in Donor Portal.
Merchants must send a receipt after each billing that includes clear instructions on how to cancel, unless the customer opts out.
Rule met
For every recurring donation made using Fundraise Up, an email receipt is issued that includes a link for managing — and in this case, canceling — the recurring plan in Donor Portal.

The Installment receipt email must be enabled to comply with this rule.
For recurring billings six months or more apart, merchants must notify the customer of the upcoming charge and provide cancellation information between seven and 30 days before the billing.
Rule met
Fundraise Up is launching a new email notification by September 22, 2022 to meet this requirement.

When the rules take effect

~~Mastercard’s new rules take effect September 22, 2022. At this time, merchants are expected to take good faith measures to ensure that the rules are followed.~~

What you need to do

Fundraise Up customers and partners

If you are a Fundraise Up customer, you do not need to take any action at this time. The Fundraise Up platform already meets all of the rules applicable to nonprofits, and Fundraise Up is continuing to work with Mastercard on your behalf to develop additional guidance on how to follow the new subscription billing rules.

Nonprofits not using Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up recommends consulting directly with your platform vendor to determine the current scope of your compliance with the new rules. If your organization is out of compliance with multiple rules, we recommend contacting our sales team, which can expedite onboarding to Fundraise Up before the September 22 deadline.

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a Mastercard preferred partner.

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Italian, Swedish, Portuguese launch as language localizations

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Since localization debuted earlier this year, Fundraise Up has been working hard to expand the number of languages offered for global fundraising, giving nonprofits more resources to reach donors wherever they are.

We are now excited to announce language localizations for Italian, Swedish, and both European and Brazilian Portuguese. These languages join Spanish, French, Norwegian, and seven others supported by Fundraise Up, and we will continue to release more throughout the year.

Translated by humans

Fundraise Up’s language localizations aren’t machine translated. We partner with native speakers to produce accurate translations for specific countries and regional dialects. With our human-centric approach to language localization, your donor experience is tailored to your supporters no matter where they are.

Customizable translations

With Fundraise Up, you get localized content throughout the entire donation experience — from Checkout and Donor Portal to email templates and donation receipts. On top of that, nonprofits can add their own translations for buttons, donation asks in Checkout, and acknowledgement emails.

Local date, time, and currency formats

Many countries have specific date, time, and currency formats. Fundraise Up’s localization features take this into account and automatically display the correct formats to donors. Plus, when you export data from Fundraise Up or sync it to your CRM, you can format the data to meet your needs.

Support for any website structure

No matter how you serve languages to online visitors, our localization tools let you match language settings to your donor’s browser preferences or your website’s URL configuration.

Country-specific features

In addition to our growing selection of languages and dialects, we support features like Gift Aid, Direct Debit, specific address formats, and local compliances to provide a streamlined experience for you and your donors.

If you are interested in Fundraise Up’s localization capabilities and adding more languages to your donor experience, talk to our sales team.

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a rapidly growing financial technology company headquartered in Brooklyn, NY, that provides online fundraising software to enterprise nonprofits. Fundraise Up's AI-powered platform is leveraged by trusted organizations like UNICEF USA to double annual digital donation revenue and triple recurring donor acquisition.

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How the Russia-Ukraine war changed the way people give

Tue, 10 May 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Since the Russia-Ukraine War began on February 24, there has been an outpour of support from people all around the world for individuals affected by the war. Nonprofits of all types quickly pivoted to get their Ukraine appeals up and running — providing essential items and life-saving services to those in urgent need of support.

At Fundraise Up, we sought to understand how donor behavior was affected across the nonprofit industry by the Russia-Ukraine War. To uncover this, we analyzed two datasets: one group that included nonprofits with Ukraine-related appeals and one group that included non-related Ukraine appeals.

Follow along as we dive into data on:

How giving priorities shifted to support Ukraine
How much one-time gifts increased year over year
How recurring giving declined for Ukraine campaigns

1. Giving priorities shifted to support Ukraine

To no surprise, generosity from donors all over the world rushed in for nonprofits working quickly to provide relief for those impacted by the Russia-Ukraine War. When comparing the change in donation volume, nonprofits with Ukraine appeals saw a 684% increase in donations — significantly outpacing nonprofits without Ukraine appeals (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Donation volume change between 2021 & 2022 for Ukraine-related and non-Ukraine-related fundraising appeals

Similarly, as of June 2022, Candid reported a total of 866 grants worth $1,090,619,698 provided in response to the Russia-Ukraine War. The data tells us that more donors are giving to Ukraine-specific fundraising campaigns.

Our own research shows that donation volume actually decreased for nonprofits without Ukraine appeals as donation volume soared for organizations fundraising for Ukraine. This indicates that donors prioritized donating to nonprofits supporting Ukraine.

The greatest uptick in donation volume for nonprofits supporting the Ukraine relief happened immediately after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Even as this volume begins to recede from its March high, nonprofits with Ukraine appeals continue to see a greater volume of giving than nonprofits without Ukraine appeals.

Previous research on generosity trends following disasters has shown that there is a correlation between urgency in giving and the level of coverage given by the media for any particular event. When a disaster strikes, news outlets typically provide constant, around-the-clock coverage for weeks to months. As these types of events fade from the news cycle, giving tends subside as well.

Another factor that affects spikes in giving is immediacy. Donors often feel the urgency to give when disaster strikes. Others need extra time and education to understand how their donation will be used to help those impacted by the conflict.

2. People gave larger, one-time gifts

In our research, we found a 932% lift in donation volume for nonprofits with Ukraine appeals, a staggering increase compared to nonprofits without Ukraine appeals. This steep jump in donation volume was primarily driven by one-time gifts.

The mass social media exposure and news coverage of the Russia-Ukraine War — raw footage of people fleeing their homes and cell phone photos of bombed-out villages — elicited an immediate and empathetic response from donors. This urgent desire to give drove a high volume of giving and greater-than-normal gift sizes.

This trend was reflected in our data as nonprofits with Ukraine appeals saw significant jumps in average gift size after the Russian attack. This counters the downtrend in average gift size across the nonprofit sector in 2022 (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Change in average gift size between 2021 & 2022 for Ukraine-related and non-Ukraine-related fundraising appeals

3. Recurring giving took a backseat

While one-time gifts soared in the weeks following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, recurring gifts to nonprofits with Ukraine campaigns actually declined, a contrast to the growth that we're seeing in the industry as a whole (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Change in recurring gift volume between 2021 & 2022 for Ukraine-related and non-Ukraine-related fundraising appeals

Over the past year, we've tracked a gradual climb in recurring giving volume across the sector. For nonprofits without Ukraine appeals, recurring giving has grown consistently with an overall increase of 65%. However, for nonprofits with Ukraine appeals, the volume of recurring gifts dropped substantially at the onset of the war.

We attribute this dip in recurring giving to donors' desire to offer immediate and impactful gifts to organizations fundraising for Ukraine. This led new and existing donors — who may have typically given smaller monthly donations — to give larger one-time gifts.

The Russia-Ukraine War has had a profound impact on the nonprofit sector and the way people give. With emergency crises on a global scale such as this war, our findings reveal that donors tend to be more generous and act quickly in their giving, which reflects the behavior we've seen in recent months.

Our research also indicates is that donors prioritized giving to nonprofits fundraising for Ukraine over nonprofits that didn't.

About Fundraise Up

With Fundraise Up, nonprofits receive the right set of online fundraising tools for quick campaign setup, best-in-class donor experience, and a donor conversion rate 117% higher than the industry average. If you’re ready to get started with Fundraise Up, schedule a demo with one of our team members.

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SEPA Direct Debit now available to nonprofits using Fundraise Up

Tue, 03 May 2022 00:00:00 GMT

At Fundraise Up, we understand the critical role donation payment options play in cultivating someone from a website visitor into an active donor. We pride ourselves in continually evolving our library of payment options to help you meet donors wherever they are and however they like to donate, instilling more trust and confidence in your organization.

Our donation platform accepts all major credit cards, digital wallets, and bank transfers — and it just got even more inclusive. For our nonprofits that fundraise in the European Union, Fundraise Up is thrilled to announce that we now accept Single Euro Payments Area Direct Debit, better known as SEPA — a cashless way for donors to connect directly to their EU bank accounts online and approve immediate bank-to-bank direct debit transfers.

Just like other payment methods on our platform, setting up SEPA as a payment option can be done in a few quick and easy steps:

Enable SEPA in your Stripe account
Enable SEPA in your Fundraise Up account
Customize confirmation and verification emails
Disable SEPA emails on Stripe so your donors don’t receive duplicate SEPA-related emails: one from Stripe and one from Fundraise Up
Start accepting donations via SEPA

When SEPA is enabled, the donor will see the “Direct Debit” payment option button during their donation checkout — as long as the donation is more than €2.00. Once they click the “Direct Debit” button, they will be prompted to provide their International Bank Account Number (IBAN) and confirm their understanding of how the direct debit payment will be processed.

Paired with our recently released localization feature that offers a number of EU languages, this addition to our growing list of payment options further customizes the donation experience for every single donor to build stronger relationships.

If you’re interested in accepting donations through SEPA, read our help center documentation or schedule a demo with one of our team members today.

About Fundraise Up

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Fundraise Up adds French to growing family of languages for localization

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Earlier this year, Fundraise Up announced the rollout of localization, making it possible for nonprofits to customize the giving experience for every donor regardless of where they live or what language they speak. We included Canadian French (CA) in our original batch of languages to support our neighbors to the north. Now, to best serve global French-speaking audiences, we’re excited to debut our support of French (FR), also known as French of France.

Other available languages include English (US, UK, CA), Spanish (LATAM), German, Norwegian, Dutch, and Finnish.

The ability to localize content in French (FR) is pivotal for nonprofits that reach donors in Europe — it’s the third most spoken language in Europe among an estimated 80 million people. Paired with Fundraise Up’s localization capabilities (like customizing email receipts and content in the donation checkout), we’re empowering nonprofits to reach a more enhanced level of personalized giving and nurture better relationships with donors over the long term.

We’re committed to expanding our localization options, so stay tuned for more languages to be released throughout the year.

Interested in implementing French (FR) into your donor experience? Read our help center documentation on localization or schedule a demo with one of our team members.

About Fundraise Up

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How nonprofits can accept Venmo & improve donor acquisition

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

As the internet evolves and innovates, it continues to heavily influence the way we interact with businesses and charitable organizations. Gone are the days when high-speed internet was a luxury — it’s now a necessity in almost every American’s life. As this innovation progresses, so does the way nonprofits fundraise and accept donations.

Online giving has continued to trend upward over the years, likely attributed to the accessibility and ease of use of mobile devices, which are now owned by more than 97 million Americans. The advent of digital wallets — like Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Venmo — have made it possible to make purchases on mobile devices in mere seconds. A game-changing payment option that can now be used online or in-person, digital wallets have eliminated the need to keep credit cards or checkbooks on hand.

Because of the growing use of digital wallets, it should be no surprise that nonprofits have looked to expand their payment options in order to attract new donors. One of which is Venmo — a digital wallet that is rising in popularity among both consumers and donors.

Read along this blog to uncover everything you need to know about Venmo donations:

Understanding the rise of Venmo over the years and how it is applicable to nonprofits
Diversifying your donation payment options with Venmo
Learning how your nonprofit can begin accepting Venmo donations

The rise of Venmo

Originally launched in 2009, Venmo rapidly gained traction to become the popular U.S.-based peer-to-peer payment app that we all know. Even though Venmo was acquired by PayPal in 2013, it continues to remain relatively unchanged — many still use the app to electronically transfer funds to friends and family. However, it has since been adopted by many retail businesses to allow customers to pay for goods and services through a one-click button or a quick scan of a QR code.

After joining the PayPal family, Venmo reported a total of $2.3 billion in payment volume in 2014. That number has grown immensely to $230 billion in 2021. With more than 80 million users, it’s become a preferred payment option for many customers, presenting nonprofits with a big opportunity to accept donations through this fast-growing digital wallet.

Offer flexible donation payment options with Venmo

Offering Venmo as a donation payment option will give nonprofits more flexibility to meet donors wherever they are — not only improving donor acquisition but retention, too. The reality is that no two donors are the same, and it’s important to constantly remind yourself that each donor has a different preference for giving.

Limiting payment methods to just credit cards and/or bank transfers can be frustrating for those who don’t always have their credits and checkbooks with them all the time. Especially for digital natives like Millennials and Gen Z who have a proclivity for digital wallets, you won’t lose out on valuable donations if you expand your library of payment options to include a highly preferred digital wallet like Venmo.

To share a nonprofit that offers flexible payment options, take a look at The Bail Project’s simple donation process:

While not every donor will choose to check out with Venmo, there will be a number of donors who will be excited that you’re offering their preferred payment method, increasing your odds of converting that person from an interested donor to an actual donor.

How to accept Venmo donations

Venmo currently doesn’t support nonprofits the way PayPal does with its nonprofit account setup. To accept donations through Venmo, nonprofits are required to set up a personal account on Venmo.

This forces nonprofits to take an additional step in order to accept Venmo donations, but then causes other frustrations along the way:

A disrupted donation experience. Because your payment options aren't all in the same place, the Venmo payment option via a QR code can be difficult for your donors to find if it’s not on the same page as the donation ask.
Management of numerous accounts. Even though Venmo is owned by PayPal, you won’t be able to manage your Venmo account under your PayPal account. You will have to create a Venmo-specific account. This creates a complicated and siloed process for managing individual payment accounts, collecting data, and reporting on fundraising revenue.

Is there a simpler way to reap the benefits of this fast-growing payment method?

Simplifying Venmo donations

At Fundraise Up, we understand the important role payment options play in helping you move more donors across the finish line. To help nonprofits, like yourself, convert more donors during checkout, we have worked effortlessly to expand our payment options to include credit cards, bank transfers, and a number of digital wallets that includes Venmo. We even offer 135 different currencies to help you connect with international donors.

Fundraise Up ensures that you don’t have to go through an arduous and disrupted process to accept Venmo donations. We’ve made it incredibly easy to enable Venmo as a payment option without having to create a Venmo-specific account.

How it works

To activate Venmo on Fundraise Up, you can create a new PayPal account or connect your existing PayPal account to your Fundraise Up account. Then, all you have to do is enable Venmo on the payment options page with the click of a button. Since we process Venmo donations through PayPal, the donations go directly through Fundraise Up to your nonprofit, eliminating any need to create an account on Venmo.

For donors who click the Venmo button from a desktop browser, the donor will be provided a screen with a QR code that they can scan from their phone's camera to approve their Venmo donation.

If donors are using their mobile device, they will be taken directly to their Venmo app to approve the donation.

When the donation is complete, the donor will receive an email receipt and a push notification from the Venmo mobile app letting them know that their donation has been processed.

Venmo donations are another way for your nonprofit to reach the next generation of philanthropic leaders. Plus, many Venmo donors might even be excited to showcase their giving on their activity feed, where friends and family might get inspired to give to your organization, too.

Are you ready to add this popular peer-to-peer payment method to your donation experience? Schedule a demo with one of our team members today.

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4 Reasons why off-site donation form redirects are disrupting your nonprofit

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Your donors are your nonprofit’s biggest asset, helping carry out your critical mission through their support and generosity. But remember, they’re more than just donors. When they’re not supporting your mission, they are consumers who are receiving hyper-personalized experiences from their favorite brands. From effortlessly signing up for monthly subscriptions to their most-used items to paying for weekly groceries with a quick click of a button from their preferred digital wallet, this level of instant gratification is the new standard for exemplary service.

Due to this growing innovation, nonprofits are now under insurmountable pressure to provide the same level of online experiences as their for-profit counterparts but with a more restricted budget. With tech-forward businesses like Amazon and Starbucks providing the highest level of personalized and instantaneous checkout experiences, how can nonprofits compete?

Donation form redirects are often overlooked, but they are a major disturbance to the donor experience. To put it more clearly: If a website visitor clicks your donate button, and they are directed away from your website to another webpage where they have to fill out a cumbersome form, this is a disruption and can lead to donation abandonment.

Addressing this roadblock can significantly streamline your donation process, creating a more seamless experience that your donors will want to come back to. It’ll put you on the map as a tech-forward organization that prioritizes the donor’s time, making them feel seen and understood. More likely than not, they’ll tell their friends and family — bringing even more supporters to your doorstep.

In this blog, we will address the following reasons why donation form redirects are detrimental to your nonprofit:

Off-site redirects interrupt the donor experience
Off-site redirects lower your donor conversion rate
Off-site redirects cause a lapse in your nonprofit’s branding
Off-site redirects disrupt your analytics & tracking

1. Interruption in the donor experience

It should be no surprise that redirecting visitors away from your website to an off-site donation page or form causes an interruption in the donor experience. In today’s digital-powered world, your donors are looking for the instant gratification that comes from any online experience. If your messaging on your website has touched them enough, they will be moved to take action immediately.

Imagine an interested donor is excited to give to your organization because your mission is deeply meaningful to them. However, after clicking the donate button, they are presented with an arduous donation process that redirects them to an off-site donation form taking longer than expected to load. There’s a good chance that they’ll abandon the donation midway through to find another organization with a better donation process. Or, they might begrudgingly complete the donation, but chances are they might not come back to give again.

Our research tells us that only seven in 100 people click a donate button, yet only one out of those seven will actually complete their donation. With such a small threshold to convert a website visitor into a donor, points of friction — like an off-site donation form redirect — are significant enough to sway the visitor from becoming a valued donor to one who abandoned their donation during checkout.

At Fundraise Up, we understand how vital the donor experience is to your nonprofit’s success. With a donation process that is fully optimized and backed by data and testing, our donation platform ensures that when your donor clicks on the donate button, they’re receiving an experience that is quick, simple, and personalized — no redirects involved.

Let’s take a close look at an optimized donation experience in action:

When an interested donor clicks on the yellow and blue donate button at the top-right-hand corner of Lifting Hands International’s website, they are prompted with an on-site donation checkout. Additionally, if the donor exits out of the donation checkout because they want to learn more about your mission, there’s a donation reminder at the bottom-right-hand corner for whenever they are ready to make that donation.

With the entire donation process embedded on the website, Lifting Hands International knows that its donation process is simple to navigate and to the point.

2. A lower donor conversion rate

Every time someone abandons their donation during checkout, your donor conversion rate is negatively impacted. Currently, the industry average for donor conversion falls somewhere between 15% and 17%. Intrusive donation form redirects and other factors — like limited payment methods, slow page load times, too many data fields, and language barriers — contribute to a lower donor conversion rate. In fact, our research has found that donor conversion drops at least 8% with off-site donation forms.

As a nonprofit, you want to do everything you can to lower donation abandonment and increase donor conversion. For The Salvation Army UK, Fundraise Up’s on-site donation ask — paired with a simplified AI-powered donation checkout — helped bring its donor conversion rate up to 49%.

3. Inconsistent branding

Is your donate button redirecting to a third-party’s website? If so, this might be hurting how you convert new donors, as well as your relationships with existing donors. Research from Lucidpress shows that brand consistency increases revenue by 10% to 20%, and it’s a critical aspect of building relationships with customers.

Keeping your branding consistent across all channels is one of the most important things you can do to earn your donors’ trust. Any lapse in branding could cause donors to question the legitimacy of your organization, especially when asking for donations. Your donors aren’t going to care nor do they want to see that your donation form is powered by a third-party service. As a nonprofit, you want to take the credit for providing an exceptional donation experience, showing donors that you’re keeping them top of mind and that you are taking into account their time, interests, and giving preferences.

Plus, there’s a better chance that people will complete their donation if they know that their donation is going directly to the nonprofit of their choosing. This is why it’s so important to have your branding front and center at every point of the donor journey.

To see an example of consistent branding, take a look at Boys & Girls Clubs of America:

The potential donor is reminded at every step of the donation process that they are giving to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. The organization does a great job at keeping its branding consistent — with its renowned logo, messaging, and photos reflected at each step. Plus, with Fundraise Up, the donor is kept on the same screen throughout the donation process, ensuring that each donor is receiving an experience that isn’t interrupted by a redirect.

4. Disrupted analytics & donor tracking

Your nonprofit undoubtedly relies heavily on its marketing automation tool to gain full visibility into every donor’s lifecycle. However, a donation form redirect could impact how your organization is able to track the entirety of the donor’s lifecycle — especially if the redirect is leading the donor to a third-party website where you’re unable to gain insight on whether the donor is completing their donation or abandoning the checkout midway through.

This also affects how you A/B test your donation form. Without insight into where donors are abandoning their donation, your organization is unable to pinpoint which part of the donation process needs improvement. To ensure that you have full control over your donor’s entire lifecycle, keep the experience on your website and not someone else’s.

Are you ready to learn more about how to streamline your donor experience without intrusive donation form redirects? Fundraise Up’s fully loaded donation platform gives your donors a best-in-class giving experience that is a cohesive part of your website and has all the bells and whistles of their favorite brands — like AI-suggested giving amounts custom-fit to each donor. Schedule a call with one of our team members today.

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Fundraise Up expands languages for localization to include German, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

International fundraising is an opportunity for nonprofits to broaden their donor base outside of their home country to generate even more funds for their critical missions. However, due to limitations in technology and the inability to communicate with donors in their preferred languages, nonprofits have often been faced with a slew of challenges that have hindered them from reaching these donors effectively.

Fundraise Up is revolutionizing the way you reach supporters all over the world.

We’re excited to announce the addition of German, Dutch, Norwegian, and Finnish to our growing suite of languages available for localization. Languages also available for localization include English (US, UK, CA), French (CA), and Spanish (LATAM), and we plan to launch even more throughout the year.

Previously announced in March, Fundraise Up is empowering nonprofits to localize website content by dynamically displaying the donor’s preferred language on buttons and labels in the donation Checkout and the Donor Portal. Plus, organizations can even translate customized text for the donation Checkout, emails, Elements, and Donor Portal.

While localization is a vital piece to fundraising internationally, global success lies in understanding and embracing internationalization, which includes:

Localizing website content
Offering country-specific payment methods
Using web design features that are unique to specific countries (e.g., structuring copy right to left for Arabic or Hebrew)

Fundraise Up understands the critical role internationalization plays in fundraising around the world. With our internationalization tools, you can be sure to reach every single donor — wherever they are. To learn more, read our help center documentation on localization or schedule a demo with one of our team members.

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Show where supporters give around the world with Fundraise Up’s new Donor Map Element

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Donor maps are now available as part of Fundraise Up’s customizable Elements, a library of buttons, forms, meters, and more that help nonprofits better engage website visitors. This new Element enables you to embed an interactive map on your website to show where your donors give around the world.

With the ability to customize what information is shown — donor name, donation amount, donation date, and any comments shared on the donation — you have the power to show as much or as little donor information as you want. You can even customize the starting location on the map and at what zoom level the map will be displayed.

Here are a few ideas of how to use the donor map:

Measure impact — Not only does the donor map provide you with a way to connect your community's generosity, but it also allows you to measure location-specific impact. For example, if you're in the middle of a city-wide initiative to raise money to provide food and shelter for those who are unhoused, you can display the donor map to showcase which neighborhoods are making the most impact. This can also encourage a little friendly competition among your supporters who might even donate more for their residing area.
Highlight international giving — If you’re a nonprofit that fundraises around the world, display the donor map on your website to showcase where all of your supporters are from. Especially if you're raising funds for global events like the Ukraine crisis, the donor map is a way to motivate more people to give. It also makes supporters feel really good about what they're doing when they can see the impact they're making as a community.
Enhance year-end giving — Go big during GivingTuesday and the year-end giving season by showing off your global community. Let your supporters see real-time donations as they come through so they can follow along during the duration of a campaign. This will spark excitement within your community for the progress that they're making — and might even sway certain donors to make another donation to help you hit your ultimate fundraising goal.

Donor maps are yet another way for you to add engaging, visually appealing website content to enhance your donor experience. Understanding where your donors come from could move the needle in converting more donations, especially if potential donors see people from around their area giving to your cause.

Interested in learning more about Fundraise Up or want to learn how to add the donor map Element to your website? Contact your Customer Success Manager or schedule a call with one of our team members.

About Fundraise Up

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The death of tracking cookies: what nonprofits need to know

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

There has never been a time when the need for technology has been greater. We’ve entered an era when technology is no longer a nice-to-have — it’s a necessity. We use technology to conduct everyday activities, like maintaining relationships with our friends and family, ordering our weekly groceries, checking in with our dog at daycare, and even giving to our favorite charitable causes.

Because we are constantly using our technology devices, more and more people are voicing their concerns about their data privacy. In fact, 79% of Americans say that they are concerned about how companies use their data and 81% feel as if they have little to no control over what data is being collected. As a result, lawmakers around the world have passed legislation to protect users’ digital privacy, which include:

General Protection Data Regulation. GDPR protects residents in the European Union from unethical data collection practices. It was designed to give EU users more control over what personal data is being collected. Any violation of GDPR results in paying hefty fines.
California Consumer Privacy Act. Under CCPA, companies and organizations are required to disclose what data is being collected from website visitors and how it is being used. In addition, the website user can opt out of any communications at any given time and request that their information is deleted from the organization’s database.

Even Apple no longer allows data aggregators and social media platforms to collect data from Apple mobile devices — which account for 60% of mobile device usage. For companies and organizations that want to collect data, users have to agree through pop-ups or user settings, but only 21% of users consented as of September 2021.

You might have even noticed stagnant growth on your social ads this year. Because Apple imposed stricter rules on how user data can be collected by app-makers and advertisers, this has significantly impacted Meta’s ad revenue — a cost of $10 billion in revenue this year.

Due to this rising concern, many website browsers have depreciated the use of third-party cookies — small files that track a web user’s browsing history. Google Chrome, the primary web browser of more than 2.65 billion people, is also planning on getting rid of third-party cookies, effective by the end of 2022.

Because of these changes, Google also plans on sunsetting Universal Analytics by July 2023 and will transition to GA4, which does not rely exclusively on cookies.

Follow along in this blog as we uncover:

The difference between first-party and third-party cookies
Why tracking cookies are going away
What the removal of cookies means for nonprofits

What are cookies, anyway?

For years, businesses and organizations have used cookies to collect information about website visitors. This data enables organizations to improve the user experience and craft compelling targeted ads specifically for each website visitor. There are two main types of cookies:

First-party cookies are directly set up by the website domain, and data is collected by the domain for any visitor entering the website.
Third-party cookies are set up by domain(s) other than the one being visited. Third-party domains, like Google or Facebook, are the ones collecting the data about website visitors.

The difference between first-party and third-party cookies is how they are used. While first-party cookies are used to improve the user experience, third-party cookies are used for online advertising purposes. Here’s a helpful table to distinguish the difference between first-party and third-party cookies:

Why are third-party cookies going away?

With big-name web browsers — Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox — already doing away with third-party cookies, Google finally followed suit back in January 2020. Originally planned as a two-year process, Google announced that Chrome’s phase-out of third-party cookies would be replaced by Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). However, Google jilted those plans back in January of this year and instead presented an alternative: Topics.

Topics are what Google calls “a new Privacy Sandbox proposal for interest-based advertising.” How it’ll work is that Google determines a website user’s top interests for a given week based on their browsing history — the data collected is based solely on their device and doesn’t involve external servers, including Google servers. The data is only kept for three weeks and is then deleted.

So, when someone visits your website, Topics picks one topic per week for three weeks to share with your website and any advertising partners. The purpose of Topics is to protect users’ online privacy while still giving businesses and organizations the tools they need to succeed. To see how Topics differs from third-party cookies, see the illustration below from Google:

Source: Google

What does this mean for nonprofits?

The depreciation of third-party cookies will undoubtedly affect the way nonprofits collect data on their website visitors, losing visibility into valuable information about donor behavior.

While this may seem disheartening, there’s a silver lining: This is the time for nonprofits to move toward zero-party data.

Unlike cookies, zero-party data is information that someone intentionally shares with organizations, alleviating any stress over violating data collection practices. Examples of collecting zero-party data include when a supporter signs up to receive your monthly e-newsletter or when someone fills out a donation ask.

The power of zero-party data is that it informs you of how your supporters want to interact with your organization, what causes they’re passionate about, and how they prefer to give to your organization. As with any data collection, it’s a rule of thumb to only collect data that will be useful and help you improve your supporter’s experience with your organization — like understanding what causes they’re interested in so that you can include that information in their donor experience.

With our intelligent AI- and machine-learning-powered technology, Fundraise Up only collects first-party data about website users that will ultimately improve their donation experience — like device type, time of day, location, etc. To learn more about how we help nonprofits raise more through data collection that’s fully compliant and by keeping donor data privacy top of mind, schedule a demo with one of our team members.

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Making the most of your corporate program with a matching-gift upsell

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Partner Guest Post: Double the Donation

Corporate matching-gift programs are offered by companies big and small. These initiatives enable employees to request company matches in response to an individual’s own personal gift⁠ — effectively doubling the impact of a single donation.

For nonprofits, matching-gift programs provide increased corporate funding, overall boosted revenue, and unique engagement opportunities with donors. Yet, few organizations make the most of these strategies, leading to millions of corporate giving dollars being left on the table each year.

One common roadblock in fully optimizing your nonprofit’s matching-gift program is donors unknowingly giving below their employer’s minimum match amount, leaving out much-needed fundraising revenue that could otherwise be used toward your mission.

A simple way to let donors know their employer’s minimum match amount

Each company has the ability to set specific criteria that match-eligible gifts must meet in order to qualify for a company donation⁠ — one of the most significant aspects being minimum and maximum donation amounts.

For donors who work for companies with matching-gift programs — if their contributions fall beneath their employers’ minimum threshold, your nonprofit won’t receive a match for that gift.

Research shows that 93% of companies have a minimum match requirement of $50 or less, with $34 being the average minimum size.

If given the opportunity prior to making a gift, most donors would likely meet the minimum if they knew their donation wasn’t getting matched by their employer.

To alleviate this problem, Fundraise Up and Double the Donation have partnered to create an effective solution to ensure that your nonprofit is getting every intended matching-gift donation with an embeddable upsell. This partnership encourages matching-gift donations by informing donors of their employers’ donation minimums before the individual hits the donate button. As a result, the donor is able to meet the donation minimum, and their gift is then matched by their employer.

As an example, take a look at Alzheimer’s Association’s matching-gift upsell in the donation ask:

Let’s see this idea in action:

Imagine a new supporter, Donor A, works for The Home Depot. This company offers a matching-gift minimum amount of $25. As Donor A goes through the donation process for your organization, they select the option to make a $15 donation. When they enter their employer’s name in a search bar below, however, they’re met with an automated message warning them that their donation falls below the company’s matching threshold.

Intrigued by the opportunity to get their gift matched, Donor A goes back to increase their initial donation size to $30. After submitting their gift, Donor A also secures a corporate match for your nonprofit.

Thanks to your Fundraise Up donation’s upsell functionality, your team receives a $30 gift in addition to a $30 donation match, bringing the total value to $60 ⁠— significantly greater than Donor A’s originally planned gift of $15.

These donation upsells can add up very quickly, generating more and more charitable dollars toward your cause.

Donors give because they want to bring positive change to a mission they care about⁠. When they see an opportunity to make a larger impact, they're even more likely to give. As a result, matching-gift programs bring positive results to the donors and nonprofits that participate.

While donors may not be aware of their corporate matching-gift minimum, adding the corporate-matching upsell by Fundraise Up and Double the Donation helps you collect more funding, better engage with donors, and develop strengthened business partnerships.

To learn more about how your nonprofit can benefit from the company-matching upsell, schedule a demo with one of our team members today.

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Is your donor experience leaving out Spanish-speaking donors in the US?

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT

With more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the U.S., people looking to donate have no shortage of charitable causes to choose from. While the value and impact of your mission are usually top of mind when someone comes to your website to donate, a poor user experience can often lead to them donating less or worse — abandoning the donation altogether.

Even if you’ve invested in the technology to streamline the donation process and eliminate friction points like slow load times, donation form redirects, and generic giving levels, there is another critical point of friction that you might not have considered: the visitor’s language.

In this blog, we’ll explain:

The generosity of Spanish-speaking donors
How localization can help your nonprofit reach more Spanish-speaking donors
An example of a nonprofit using localization to customize the donor experience for Spanish-speaking donors

The generosity of Spanish-speaking donors

With more than 41 million people in the U.S. and more than 450 million people in the world who speak Spanish, Spanish is the second most spoken language nationally and globally.

As a nonprofit, it’s time to reevaluate your donor experience to ensure that you’re not leaving out your Spanish-speaking supporters. Latinos are known for their loyal generosity and are a valuable segment of donors for nonprofits to connect with. For example, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital raised $4.6 million during the 2019 Promesa y Esperanza radio event.

The better you understand any donor segment, the better for your organization and the donor. Taking the time to learn about your Spanish-speaking segment of donors — their interests, their preferences, their modes of giving — is the key to unlocking their generosity. NextAfter has some interesting insights on the Hispanic market that can be useful.

If you struggle with tapping into the giving potential of Spanish-speaking donors, it might be the case that you’re not engaging this segment well enough. Research shows that Latinos are not asked to donate as frequently as other groups.

How localization helps nonprofits reach Spanish-speaking donors

While 72% of Latinos in the U.S. speak English proficiently, creating an experience built around their language preference can help you move the needle in building a stronger connection with them, thus converting them from a mere website visitor into a loyal supporter.

Many of your Spanish-speaking donors may prefer to navigate through your website in Spanish. Accommodating that preference could make all the difference in moving them to make a donation because it builds trust between your organization and the donor.

Localization with Fundraise Up is simple. Once you localize your messaging in the backend, Fundraise Up automatically localizes the checkout experience based on your donor’s browser language preference or based on your own website URL.

Google translates. Fundraise Up localizes. Localization is more than simply translating words — it’s accounting for cultural and linguistic considerations by native speakers (e.g., dialect variations, significance of certain colors, etc.). With Fundraise Up, you have the ability to customize more minute but important details that make a big difference for your donor making them feel understood and seen.

To paint a better picture, imagine an interested donor is visiting your English language website. This visitor received a direct mail appeal, and your mission truly inspired them. While they understand English, they are more fluent in and prefer to communicate in Spanish. But because your website isn’t in their preferred language, they have to find the button to auto-translate the website into Spanish. Now, their giving experience can also be in Spanish.

Another thing to consider is even if you’ve localized your website content, it’s equally important to take the appropriate steps to localize your donation checkout as well. Not having the donation checkout in the same language as your website content will lead to a higher chance of donation abandonment.

Localization in action

A great example of how to do it right is The Global FoodBanking Network’s website. Using Fundraise Up, the organization is able to add various localized Elements — like a donation form, call-to-action-buttons, and donation reminders — to tailor its content to both its English-speaking and Spanish-speaking visitors.

In order to continually grow your supporter base, remember that a one-size-fits-all approach is never sustainable for the long term. With the growing number of nonprofits and the increasing competition for donor dollars, localization can help you diversify and scale, making it possible to reach every donor whenever they are.

Ready to jump-start localization to reach more Spanish-speaking donors? Schedule a demo with one of our team members.

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Crypto donations are coming to Fundraise Up

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT

With the value of cryptocurrency on the rise, Fundraise Up is excited to announce that crypto donations for nonprofits are coming very soon. Crypto as a donation payment option is currently planned for May 2022, giving nonprofits yet another way to receive donations to help them accommodate every donor’s giving preference.

With Fundraise Up, nonprofits can accept crypto donations just like any other payment method on our platform, avoiding any disruption in the donation process caused by a redirect to a third party’s landing page.

Crypto has grown at an enormous rate within the past few years — with the value of Bitcoin growing from $0.09 in July 2010 to nearly $69K in November 2021. With more than 10,000 different types of cryptocurrencies, the market for crypto hit a high of $1.63 billion in 2021, and it’s projected to grow to $2.73 billion by 2025.

With more and more people looking to invest in this rapidly growing market, crypto owners will be highly motivated to donate to their favorite charitable causes: Gifting crypto is a non-cash, in-kind donation so the donor does not have to pay capital gains taxes, and the donor’s tax deduction will be equal to the fair market value of the donated crypto asset.

Nonprofits would be remiss if they missed this opportunity to cultivate these high-net-worth individuals. Many nonprofits, like UNICEF and charity: water, understand the value in these donors and have already begun accepting crypto donations. To put the value of a crypto donor into context, 45% of crypto owners donated $1,000 or more to charities in 2020. By October 2021, donors already donated $158 million to their Fidelity Charitable donor-advised funds.

If you are already a part of the growing Fundraise Up community and are interested in adding crypto to your evolving library of donation payment options, jumpstart your account setup by getting in touch with your customer success manager today.

Interested in learning more about Fundraise Up and how you can start accepting crypto donations? Contact your Customer Success Manager or schedule a call with one of our awesome team members.

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a rapidly growing financial technology company headquartered in Brooklyn, NY, that provides online fundraising software to enterprise nonprofits. Fundraise Up's AI-powered fundraising platform is leveraged by trusted organizations like UNICEF USA to double annual digital donation revenue and triple recurring donor acquisition.

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The nonprofit’s guide to international fundraising

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT

The generosity of Americans is vast, with a record-breaking $471 billion donated in 2020. While impressive, the U.S. actually ranks 24th in a long list of the world’s most generous countries in donating money — with Indonesia, Myanmar, and Australia leading the way — according to the “CAF World Giving Index 2021.”

This is not to shame the U.S. in its giving but to show that the donor pool for nonprofits is much deeper than you might think. Do a quick Google search, and you’ll find that there is no shortage of general fundraising how-to resources for U.S. nonprofits. However, international fundraising is a topic that is quite underserved in our market.

International fundraising is an opportunity for your nonprofit to break into untapped donations not yet explored, and we want to share insights on how you can reach these people who also have the capacity to give, transforming the way your nonprofit raises funds to create the most impact for its mission.

To help you break into the international market, this is what you can expect to learn in this guide:

What your nonprofit can do to effectively reach international donors
How you can create a superior giving experience no matter where the donor resides
What to know about international tax regulations

Reimagine International Fundraising

Before you even consider taking your fundraising abroad, your nonprofit’s mission needs to resonate with those who live overseas — like UNICEF’s mission of working to save children’s lives in over 190 countries or SPCA International’s mission of advancing safety and well-being of animals all around the world.

With that being said, a worthy mission isn’t the only thing that matters. What’s equally as important is ensuring your visitor’s website experience isn’t disrupted by a language barrier. Currently, nonprofits that are fundraising internationally provide donation experiences that are limited to single languages, or these organizations are forced to manually update and hardcode webpages that take up much-needed time, money, and expertise. And sometimes, nonprofits invest in a solution that is able to convert giving amounts to the donor’s local currency but donors are then forced to navigate through a page that is either poorly translated or not in their preferred language.

While this can be a slippery slope to navigate, the missing piece of the puzzle that can make a big difference in reaching more international donors is localization.

The Key to Unlocking Global Generosity: Localization

The biggest misconception about localization is that it’s just basic translation, but localization’s capabilities go so much deeper than that. According to Eriksen Translations, localization is the process of fully adapting content to the cultural and linguistic preferences of a specific place, which includes the translation and cultural adaptation of websites and multimedia. More importantly, localization creates an experience that looks and feels as if the product or service was created for and created by a target market, regardless of the native language, cultural preferences, or geographic location.

Localization also takes into account important web design features that are unique to specific countries — like structuring copy right to left for Arabic or Hebrew or avoiding the color green in China or Indonesia because of its negative connotation.

We at Fundraise Up like to refer to this immersive donor journey as internationalization, which takes the idea of localization but evolves it into a more comprehensive experience so when someone visits a nonprofit’s website, there are absolutely no interruptions in their experience. With internationalization, the website is already set in the visitor’s native language and in their home currency, with country-specific payment methods displayed at the donation checkout (e.g., using Bacs for Direct Debit in the UK. vs. using Plaid for Instant ACH for U.S. residents).

To see internationalization in action, take a look at this example of how website content can be tailored for English-speaking donors (top) and its Spanish-speaking donors (bottom):

Create a Superior Donor Experience for Everyone

A memorable donor experience has become an increasingly important focus for nonprofits. It’s how nonprofits distinguish themselves in a highly competitive market. With online giving continuing to show steady growth year after year and the growing number of nonprofits saturating the sector, nonprofits now have to think beyond having a good mission — they have to work even harder to create a seamless and optimized giving experience to ensure their donor conversions continue to grow over time.

Implementing quality internationalization practices will give nonprofits the competitive edge they need, allowing them to broaden their reach and cultivate new donors from all over the world. If your website is not translated or designed for the visitor based on their browser preference or geographic location, you’re forcing them to figure out how to translate the text to their preferred language on their own. Perhaps unintentional on your organization’s part, this can disrupt the donation experience and cause donation abandonment. Instead, employ internationalization to create a new and improved experience where all of your website elements match your donor's cultural preference.

With Fundraise Up, you can give everyone the donation experience they deserve by:

Choosing from a variety of languages to customize messaging throughout your website, donation checkouts, and emails
Accepting up to 135 local currencies that are automatically adjusted based on the visitor's geographic location
Offering region-specific payment methods
Automating localization of text in the donation Checkout and the self-serve Donor Portal
Customizing text on ask pages, call-to-action-buttons, and emails, giving you full control of your nonprofit’s messaging and voice
Sending country-compliant receipts

Establish Uniformity for Affiliated Nonprofits & Member Organizations

For larger organizations that manage multiple entities — like a nonprofit with international chapters or a community foundation that raises and donates money to both domestic and international nonprofits — it can be cumbersome to find a streamlined process that gives a holistic view into each entity’s fundraising operations.

At Fundraise Up, we understand that managing multiple organizations can be a big undertaking and can often cause much frustration for the overarching organization. To ease the operational burden for these nonprofits, we offer an intuitive subaccount structure that allows organizations to manage all of their entities under one account in one platform, giving the main account full visibility in all subaccount fundraising and donation activities. As an added bonus: This also gives organizations an opportunity to have full control over each organization’s look and feel, allowing them to create uniform branding across all of the nonprofit websites.

Comply With International Tax Regulations

Another rising concern for accepting international donations is understanding and complying with country-specific tax regulations. And because rules and regulations for tax-deductible donations vary from country to country, it could be difficult for nonprofits to stay compliant with each one, especially if they don’t have a legal specialist on staff.

As a rule of thumb, if someone is interested in making a gift but wants confirmation that their gift is tax-deductible for their resident country, nonprofits should never make any promises unless they are familiar with the tax rules of that country. Instead, nonprofits should suggest that the donor seek legal guidance on tax deductibility. However, while you can’t promise that their gift is tax-deductible, you can take measures to ensure that they receive country-compliant tax receipts.

To alleviate any of the headaches of manually sending your donors — including the international ones — individualized tax receipts but still ensuring that you’re providing all of your donors with a top-notch giving experience, Fundraise Up automatically sends country-compliant tax receipts to all of your donors. As an added layer of personalization: Your donors can access all of these receipts and manage their donation and fundraising activity in Fundraise Up’s Donor Portal.

Your donors no longer have to manually drag charitable tax receipts into a dedicated folder in their email inbox or print individual receipts to store them in a folder in their home office. Plus, you can localize the Donor Portal so the messaging is updated to the donor’s native language.

Are you ready to go global and unlock generosity from all over the world? Schedule a demo with one of our team members today.

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New localization feature enhances international fundraising for nonprofits

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Nonprofits struggle with routinely providing positive donation experiences for their international supporters. Most donation platforms show languages and currencies without taking into account the donor’s browser language setting or location. Even for nonprofits investing in platforms that convert a donation to the donor’s local currency, they are forced to navigate through a page that is either poorly translated or not in their preferred language.

Fundraise Up is changing that.

We’re excited to announce the release of localization for nonprofits starting March 2022. With this unique feature, the donor’s language is dynamically displayed on the buttons and labels in the donation Checkout and Donor Portal. In addition, nonprofits will also be able to translate any text they’ve customized for the donor Checkout, emails, Elements, and Donor Portal.

It’s important to note that localization is not just about simple translations. Languages are translated by native speakers who account for cultural and linguistic specificities (e.g., what colors mean in different cultures, dialect variations).

With Fundraise Up, you choose what languages you want to support on an account level and on a campaign basis to fit the needs and capabilities of your individual nonprofit. There are currently five available languages to choose from — English (US, UK, CA), French (CA), and Spanish (LATAM). We will continue to expand the languages we offer over the course of the year, starting with a range of European languages to accompany our efforts to launch SEPA Direct Debit and better serve donors and organizations based in the European Union.

Fundraise Up is able to detect the website visitor’s preferred language in three ways:

Browser preference
Website URL
Custom URL and javascript parameters

While this localization feature allows nonprofits to reach English- and Spanish-speaking populations in the U.S., it is just one piece of the international fundraising puzzle.

Internationalization is an all-encompassing strategy that includes localizing content, automating currency conversion, offering country-specific payment methods, and using web design features that are unique to specific countries (e.g., structuring copy right to left for Arabic or Hebrew).

Internalization will help nonprofits create the best possible donor journey for everyone, regardless of where they come from.

Bottom line: Internationalization provides a next-generation donor experience that will build trust between you and your donors and establish you as a respected authority in the sector, increasing the odds of converting website visitors into long-term recurring supporters.

To learn more about how to enable and customize the new localization feature from Fundraise Up, read our help center documentation on localization.

About Fundraise Up

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Nonprofits can now accept Venmo donations with Fundraise Up

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMT

To give donors more giving options and to help nonprofits meet more donors where they are, Fundraise Up is excited to announce that nonprofits are now able to accept Venmo donations, further expanding our portfolio of digital wallets — which also includes Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal.

With over $60.6 billion transacted on Venmo in Q4 of 2021 alone, it further proves the validity of this popular app-based payment service. Many of your donors are already using Venmo every day to pay their bills, buy merchandise from their favorite vendors, and easily split the bill with their friends and family members for shared experiences.

Activating Venmo as a donation payment option is simple and takes seconds to set up. We process Venmo donations through PayPal, so you have to connect your PayPal account to your Fundraise Up account. Then, you just have to enable Venmo on the payment options settings page with one click.

For donors who choose this donation route, there are two Venmo donation checkout options:

Desktop browser: For donors who click the Venmo button from a desktop browser, the donor will be provided a screen with a QR code that they can scan from their phone's camera to approve their Venmo donation.
Mobile browser: For donors who click the Venmo button from a mobile browser, the donor will be taken to the Venmo app to approve the donation.

Once someone makes a donation through Venmo, they will receive an email receipt in addition to a push notification from the Venmo mobile app letting them know that their donation has been processed.

To learn more about Venmo and how to enable this popular payment option, read our help center documentation.

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a rapidly growing financial technology company headquartered in Brooklyn, NY that provides online fundraising software to enterprise nonprofits. Fundraise Up's AI-powered fundraising platform is leveraged by trusted organizations like UNICEF USA to double annual digital donation revenue and triple recurring donor acquisition.

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Online giving on the rise: time to give your outdated donation form a refresh

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMT

In a year that posed much uncertainty, 2021 proved to be a year when generosity was at its height. According to a report from the Blackbaud Institute based on an analysis of $46.5 billion, charitable giving in the U.S. increased 9%. Additionally, an analysis of $2.9 billion concluded that there was also a 9% increase in online giving. Looking at the last three years alone, online giving has skyrocketed with an explosive 42% growth.

Here are a few other key findings on online giving:

Large nonprofits (>$10 million) saw a 9.8% increase in online giving, medium-sized nonprofits ($1 million to $10 million) saw an 8.7% increase in online giving, and small nonprofits (<$1 million) saw a 3.9% increase in online giving in 2021 compared to 2020.
Twelve percent of total fundraising came from online giving. While this is a 1% decrease from 2020, this is still higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Donations made through a mobile device made up 28% of online giving, which is on par with 2020 and a significant increase from the 9% reported in 2014.
Online donor retention was 23% for first-time donors and 64% for multi-year donors, signifying a higher percentage of donors being retained over time.
The average gift across all sectors was $204, a 15% increase from 2020.

The pandemic sped up the need for online giving options, and these findings show that generosity through online giving channels continues to grow significantly compared to pre-pandemic levels. To meet the ongoing demand for engaging online giving experiences and to stand out in a crowded marketplace, your nonprofit needs to modernize its online giving experience, ensuring that it is attractive enough to catch the attention of new donors and seamless enough so that giving can be done in a matter of seconds.

Online giving should be an integrated experience

Did you know that 79% of website visitors who have the intention of giving end up abandoning the donation page? This staggering statistic is attributed to a complicated and time-consuming donation process. Your donors don’t want to spend time filling out a lengthy donation form with a slow load time. With today’s quick-moving online experience — like being able to preorder your favorite coffee from Starbucks and checkout on the mobile app within seconds — any page that takes more than a few seconds to load will lose your donor’s attention.

As data experts, we know that the industry standard for fully loading a webpage is more than 10 seconds. With Fundraise Up, that time drops significantly to 1.5 seconds. That’s why we believe that standalone donation forms and donation pages are a thing of the past. Why should you disrupt your donor’s experience by redirecting them to another webpage? Instead, streamline the donation experience by including an embeddable modal that appears front and center on your website.

To integrate your donation experience for your visitors, it’s important to add multiple call-to-action elements to your website. That way, your visitors can focus on taking action instead of fumbling around looking for a hidden donate button. For example, when a visitor goes to the Community FoodBank of New Jersey’s website, they are immediately prompted to give with a donation modal. But if they exit the modal to learn more about the organization and explore ongoing fundraising campaigns, there are multiple call-to-action prompts strategically placed throughout the website.

Create an inclusive movement around online giving

You want your donor experience to feel bigger than just a donation. Your mission exists for a higher purpose than just “doing social good” — perhaps you’re a community-led organization that works tirelessly to save the lives of endangered species from poachers, for example — so you want to encourage your donors to be evangelists for your cause.

A great way to create these evangelists is by highlighting your monthly giving program in a prominent location on your website. Make that section stand out from the rest of your website, like Greater Good Charities’ Protector program.

There’s no guarantee that your website visitor will sign up for your monthly giving program just because you’ve caught their attention. Once you have their attention with a visually appealing monthly giving call to action, you now have to move them to sign up as a recurring donor with a captivating message. In a few sentences, explain why you need their support and how much their support would make a world of a difference for your mission.

Keep the messaging brief and to the point to ensure the visitor's focus is primarily on the “Give Monthly” call to action. But be sure to include a link to your monthly giving page, where visitors can find the full scope of the program if they are looking for it like Greater Good Charities has done.

Plus, with Fundraise Up, once people sign up as monthly givers, they get immediate access to the Donor Portal, giving them a simple way to manage their giving plans, peer-to-peer fundraisers, and year-end tax receipts.

Learn more about how Fundraise Up can help your nonprofit use smart technology to reach your fundraising goals. Book a demo here.

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Artificial intelligence & machine learning: helping nonprofits fundraise smarter

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMT

You see it everywhere you go, whether it’s in news publications, blogs, or social media posts; at industry conferences; or even through word of mouth from friends or colleagues: Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the way the world operates. You might even be rolling your eyes at the mere mention of AI, machine learning, or even Big Data because you instinctively think of Hollywood blockbusters like “Terminator” or “I, Robot.” But don’t go running off yet; we promise that robots aren’t taking over the world.

AI and ML are more than just fancy buzzwords, and they’re certainly nothing to be afraid of. In fact, they’re real solutions to your biggest fundraising challenges. Stay with us through this blog as we explain:

The breakdown: artificial intelligence vs. machine learning

To understand how to leverage smart technology, like AI and ML, you need a full understanding of what that means. Uninformed decisions can be the pitfall of any nonprofit, and you don’t want to be caught in the trap of buying into a trendy idea or product without educating yourself. While AI and ML are often used interchangeably, each has unique characteristics and capabilities that distinguish one from the other.

What is artificial intelligence?

Google “What is artificial intelligence?” and you’ll find hundreds of thousands of helpful resources. But defining AI can often cause a lot of confusion if you’re not familiar with technical computer science lingo. In its simplest form, AI is the process of using computer systems to automate human tasks, according to a resource from NTEN.

And while AI can alleviate some arduous tasks from humans, it is limited to making decisions based on what the data exactly shows — it cannot identify trends or make predictions based on available data.

How is machine learning different?

As we mentioned, while AI and ML have been used interchangeably, these two processes are not the same. In fact, ML is an application of AI and is more sophisticated in what it can do. AI makes decisions on what the data tells it, but ML can identify patterns, make predictions, and learn and improve itself over time based on experience.

The beauty is that ML can process data much faster than one person can, creating a more streamlined process for analyzing data. However, that doesn’t mean that robots are here to replace humans, rendering them obsolete. Quite the contrary: ML gives nonprofits the opportunity to scale and optimize by freeing up staff time to contribute more to critical tasks related to the mission.

Artificial intelligence & machine learning — opportunities for nonprofits

Thanks to the digital transformation, nonprofits finally have access to innovative resources that have long been available in the e-commerce space, helping for-profit companies operate faster, smarter, and better — like chatbots able to answer frequently asked questions or product recommendations (think of the “Recommended for You” section on your Netflix library).

There are still skeptics in the sector about smart technology, but the truth is that a whopping 89% of nonprofit professionals believe that AI can improve their organization’s efficiency. And there are a number of ways that nonprofits are already utilizing AI and ML every day to preserve more time, resources, and energy. Use cases include streamlining administrative tasks, prospect research, wealth management, segmentation, and perhaps most important, online giving.

Let’s talk about how AI and ML can help you create a donor experience that helps you acquire new donors, improve your donor retention rate, and effortlessly increase fundraising revenue.

Fundraise smarter with artificial intelligence & machine learning

Our digital-first world has caused an unwavering dependence on digital tools, changing the way our donors give and informing them of which organizations they want to give to. Because of our saturated marketplace — with organizations with similar missions competing for the same dollars — nonprofits are now faced with a complex challenge: how to craft compelling messaging that urges people to give but also creating an enjoyable and memorable online giving experience that they will want to come back to.

A tailored donation experience

To truly understand how to improve your donor’s giving experience, you have to acknowledge that your donors aren’t just donors — they’re also consumers, they have different preferences, and they have unique interests. So, like it or not, whenever someone stumbles upon your website looking to donate, their giving experience with your nonprofit is being compared to their consumer experiences at their favorite websites. With companies like Amazon streamlining the shopping experience by allowing consumers to check out instantly with a one-click button and receive a personalized individual experience with product recommendations based on shopping activity, how can nonprofits mirror that same experience? Enter: smart technology.

Fundraise Up creates a streamlined and tailored donation experience that will not only impress website visitors but one that will convert more visitors into donors. We understand how much thought you put into making sure you’re asking for the right donation amount, but with such a diverse pool of donors with different giving capacities, how can you pinpoint which donation levels resonate with everyone? For this very reason, we take the guesswork out to make sure you’re asking for the right amount every single time. Our technology uses AI and ML algorithms to analyze more than 100 data points to intelligently predict how much someone is likely to donate based on their user activity, which has been proven successful from the nonprofits we work with. In fact, for Partners in Health, 49% of donors choose one of the AI-suggested donation amounts.

Plus, with our library of elements — buttons, forms, automated reminders, and more — you can now make every single page on your website a donation page, encouraging more donations and lessening the chance of donation abandonment.

Automated recurring giving options

Increasing the number of recurring donors you have will automatically improve your donation retention rate. But oftentimes, nonprofits feel overwhelmed at the thought of creating an elaborate recurring giving program that they need to dedicate time, resources, and staff to. However, the good news is that you don’t have to schedule a full-blown campaign to convert one-time donors into recurring donors. Using smart technology, you can automatically embed a monthly giving ask into the donation experience.

Our Monthly Upsell automatically asks one-time donors to become monthly donors during the checkout process. Plus, with our smart technology capabilities, we calculate the right monthly donation amount to present to your website visitors, which has a high likelihood of boosting the lifetime value of your donors. By leveraging Fundraise Up, International Anti-Poaching Foundation was able to grow its recurring donor retention rate by 88.2%.

For those looking to contribute a large one-time gift, our technology will automatically suggest that they become an annual recurring donor, helping you retain those high-net-worth donors.

Ready to learn more? Book a demo with our team to elevate your donation experience and double your fundraising revenue today.

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New image collections add personalization to tributes

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Dedicating a donation, whether in honor or in memory, is an important way for donors to add significance to their donation and better connect with your nonprofit's cause. Now, with Fundraise Up, donors can choose from a variety of images to accompany their dedication; all pre-curated and categorized by your organization.

So what's changing?

Previously, when donors chose to share their dedication with someone by email, they could only accompany it with a single image that was pre-selected. While this allowed for tighter control over the dedication experience, the rigidity could hamper the connection between a supporter and your organization.

Image collections

Now, you can create a collection of images and organize them by theme or sentiment. When a donor goes to share their dedication by email, they can now choose the image they feel best corresponds with their message.

You can select up to four images per collection, and each collection can be customized to fit the needs of your organization. Collections can be displayed "In honor only", "In memory only", or entirely hidden from view.

Additionally, collections can be individually selected or excluded from a campaign. For example, let's say you're running a dedicated campaign for Valentine's Day:

In this example, a donor will see the pre-selected Valentine's Day collection in their donor portal, where they can choose from one of four suggested images. For more evergreen campaigns you may be running, like those on your homepage, you can enable multiple collections for donors to cycle through and select the image of their choice. This provides your donors with a more bespoke dedication experience while keeping you in control of which images they can select.

To learn even more about tributes and how they can be further customized, see our help center documentation.

About Fundraise Up

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PayPal update: Enabling recurring donations

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT

We are excited to announce that all Fundraise Up customers are now eligible to process recurring donations with PayPal.

Previously, accepting recurring donations through PayPal required manual authorization from PayPal itself, a process that could be difficult to navigate and potentially take months to complete. To be eligible, a nonprofit was required to have reference transactions enabled within their PayPal account in order to schedule future charges to a recurring donor.

Now, through Fundraise Up's partnership with PayPal, we're able to extend this authorization to all Fundraise Up customers and bypass PayPal's lengthy approval period.

To begin processing recurring donations through PayPal, you simply need to provide Fundraise Up with the email address and merchant ID for your PayPal account — we'll then take care of the logistics with PayPal: Request Access to PayPal Recurring

Once you have requested access, we'll notify you of approval from PayPal within 3 business days. You'll then be ready to process recurring donations through PayPal with no additional steps required.

Displaying PayPal as a payment option has been shown to increase conversion rate by as much 10%. If you're using PayPal, now is a perfect time to request access so you can expand your recurring donor base and empower your donors to give well.

You can get started by referencing the support document: Enabling PayPal Recurring Donations

For additional questions, feel free to contact our Support team .

About Fundraise Up

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New automated email template: Recurring plan failed

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Fundraise Up is excited to announce its new update to automated emails.

Our suite of automated email templates now includes "Recurring Plan Failed" This template is now available and auto-enabled in existing Fundraise Up accounts.

This email targets donors whose recurring payments have failed a number of times and whose plans are now retired. Organizations can set and control how many times a payment will be retried before the plan will go into failed status and payment retries will cease. Once the donor reaches this number, they will then be sent an email that their recurring plan will no longer be processed unless they provide updated payment details.

Like all of our donor-facing email templates, the subject line, heading, and content of this email can be fully customized to match your message and branding.

We look forward to optimizing your donation experience and helping you retain more donors.

Supporting documentation: Customizing Emails

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a rapidly growing financial technology company headquartered in Brooklyn, NY that provides online fundraising software to enterprise nonprofits. Fundraise Up's AI-powered fundraising platform is leveraged by trusted organizations like UNICEF USA to double annual digital donation revenue and triple recurring donor acquisitions.

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5 Ways to expand your unrestricted fundraising

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Unrestricted (or undesignated) fundraising is the backbone of any nonprofit organization. These funds not only help you with your overall mission, but pays for your staff, office, electricity, and even the cost of fundraising itself. Unfortunately, donors are less interested in the granular details of what it takes to run a nonprofit than they are in the emotional engagement of your mission.

One only needs to look at the statistics for campaign designations to understand the power of specificity when it comes to donor engagement. In fact, our research shows that 54% of all funds have a designation, and an average donation amount of $122 — 12.9% larger than those without a designation. While this statistic does not necessarily denote cause, what is clear is that donors engage more when they know what their gift is going towards.

So how can we take these findings and apply them to unrestricted donations?

1. Create a succinct mission statement and display it prominently

From our research on website sessions and page views, the ideal amount of time it should take to convert a donor is 30 seconds. The best way to ensure donors are engaged within this amount of time is to prominently display your mission statement (or value proposition) and your call to action right from the first page.

From looking at UNICEF USA, their value proposition “We won’t stop until every child is vaccinated” takes up most of the design real estate from the beginning. Their donation button is also displayed prominently in the header and in a different color to direct the eye towards it.

Regarding unrestricted fundraising, UNICEF very smartly incorporates a pop-up that displays a few seconds after entering the site. They expand on their mission statement and explain that less than 3% of their funds go towards internal upkeep. This keeps donors engaged with the mission while staying transparent about where their funds are going.

2. Increase emotional engagement with graphic assets

Too much copy on a page can be overwhelming for a donor. Once you’ve created a succinct mission statement and call to action, be sure to incorporate your branding and messaging on every page of your site, including your donation page. This allows donors to continue engaging with their emotional attachment to your cause.

3. Emulate e-commerce in your donation checkout

Donors shop online like the rest of us, and e-commerce has made web users accustomed to a fast, frictionless checkout experience.

Many donation platforms redirect traffic away from your organization’s website and onto your fundraising platform’s website or subdomain. From our research, donation checkouts with a website redirect result in a 10% loss in donor conversion. You can retain this 10% by natively embedding your donation form on your site.

In addition, keep the checkout fast with simple, sequential forms and only a few required fields.

While simplifying your donation checkout can help you see a 17% increase in conversion, it is also essential to provide a variety of major digital wallets like PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. In fact, 20% of online donors give using PayPal, and payments made with Apple and Google Pay only continue to rise in popularity.

Finally, donors have not only become comfortable covering transaction fees because of e-commerce but also want to cover fees so 100% of their donation goes to the organization in question. Fundraise Up has devoted a lot of time to understand the impact of asking donors to cover transaction fees, and our findings show the majority of donors are more likely to do so when the option is checked automatically.

4. Utilize intelligent upsells

From suggested donation amounts to generating more recurring donors, upsells are an important force in your donation process.

But upsells are not a one-size-fits-all solution. Donor demographics are essential to creating a bespoke upsell that more visitors will opt into. Utilizing AI and machine learning will allow your form to generate a suggested donation amount for both one-time and recurring donations based on the individual visitor.

5. Entice visitors with an engaging call to action

You can save more abandoned checkouts and increase community-targeted engagement by employing the use of simple elements like a reminder popup when a donor opens the donation form and closes without completing the checkout.

Fundraise Up offers a robust suite of elements designed to increase conversion. We also designed our platform to include the widest range of international and domestic digital wallets, along with an intuitive checkout that takes less than a minute to complete. Finally, our AI-powered donation checkout automatically calculates the ideal donation amount for each donor based on their unique demographics.

If you are looking to double your donation revenue for any campaign — restricted or unrestricted— request a demo below to get started.

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Get prepared for GivingTuesday

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Giving Tuesday is just a few weeks away, but there is still time to prepare and maximize your impact during this important day for nonprofits. Your organization will likely see an influx of new and returning donors, each with their own engagement needs.

So how can you get prepared? Read our tips for maximizing your Giving Tuesday revenue.

Create a succinct call to action and value proposition

We know many nonprofits run a number of campaigns with specific designations. But at the end of the day, these different campaigns all serve your organization’s mission statement. Your overall mission is the value that draws donors in: so put that message front and center.

From looking at the e-commerce example above, we can observe two things that make an effective visual proposition:

A simple, clear line of copy that illustrates the value proposition of the product or service. In this case, Citi Bike is proposing that the key to experiencing New York City and all it has to offer is with this bike-share service. It appeals not only to locals who can “unlock” more of the city by avoiding mass transit but also to visitors who want to immerse themselves in the culture of NYC. The value in this case is immersive, independent travel.
A concise call to action. A call to action (or “CTA”) is the prompt that gets consumers to engage with the brand in question. It can be something as direct as “swipe up to shop,” or in the case of the example above, implied, as you will want to rent a bike.

For most nonprofits, the call to action is pretty clear: donate. But it is the value proposition that will draw viewers to the CTA.

Looking at the example above from our demo site, Helping Hand displays the value prop. prominently on the homepage. Underneath, the subheading contains a few more details while still concisely stating the overall mission of the organization. Finally, the call to action button(s) is prominently displayed.

From our research, the ideal amount of time it should take to convert a donor is 30 seconds. Therefore, it is imperative to engage donors with your mission immediately.

Design your layout and workflows around user psychology

It can be tempting to display as much information as possible upfront, but too much information is an often overlooked point of friction when it comes to online giving.

From looking at the example above, you may have noticed that it takes some real brain power to understand what you are looking at. You are presented with two options for giving as well as six different sets of static suggested donation amounts, not to mention a text-heavy option for assigning designations and a flat presentation overall.

An easy way to improve this would be to add images that illustrate the different designations therefore drawing donors back to your value proposition.

Another way to keep donors engaged with your value prop. is to keep your donation form natively integrated on your site. Many donation forms require a redirect from your organization’s website. From our research, donation checkouts with a website redirect result in a 10% loss in donor conversion.

Native embedding not only allows you to retain that 10%, but keep donors engaged with your brand as per the example below:

Similarly to avoiding redirects, organizations need to ensure a frictionless, speedy workflow to maximize conversion rates.

When designing your donation checkout, be sure to avoid the following:

So, what are some ways you can improve your workflow?

1. Create a Giving Tuesday button takeover.

2. Create a Giving Tuesday specific campaign.

3. Customize your email templates for Giving Tuesday.

4. Use Elements like Social Proof and Goal Meter to increase engagement.

Fundraise Up uses these best practices to maximize donations year-round.

Our AI-powered platform is proven to double donation revenue and triple your recurring donors with an optimized donation flow.

Not working with us yet? Request a demo to get started growing your organization’s reach.

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Announcing access to Bacs Direct Debit for UK donors

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 00:00:00 GMT

We are excited to announce the latest addition to our ever-expanding suite of digital wallets with Bacs direct debit!

Bacs allows donors to connect to their UK bank account online and approve immediate direct debit transfers. All Bacs payments will appear in Stripe and are fully compliant with UK direct debit requirements. Bacs will only be available as a payment option for donations over £14 GBP and on campaigns that have Mailing Address enabled. Bacs is not required for all donors.

We are thrilled to continue providing more bank-to-bank transfers with guaranteed payment clearance for international donors.

You can get started by contacting your success engineer at success@fundraiseup.com or by referencing the support document below:

Enabling Bacs (UK Direct Debit) in Fundraise Up

About Fundraise Up

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Customer kudos: Rainforest Trust commits $500 million to conservation

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 00:00:00 GMT

During a panel discussion at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Rainforest Trust publicly committed $500,000,000 to conserve 30% of the planet and reverse rapid biodiversity loss by 2030. Eight additional private funders joined this pledge — collectively promising $5 billion — along with heads of state who will enact policy changes.

This $5 billion pledge is now the largest private funding ever committed to conservation. Named the Protecting Our Planet Challenge, over the next ten years those pledged to the effort will address intersectional issues of conservation including supporting the creation, expansion, management, and monitoring of protected and conserved areas of land, inland water, and sea, as well as working with Indigenous Peoples, local communities, civil society, and governments.

Along with Rainforest Trust, the private donors include Arcadia, Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Nia Tero, Re:wild, Wyss Foundation, and the Rob and Melani Walton Foundation.

Since its founding, Rainforest Trust has conserved more than 37 million acres of vital habitat. Their passionate commitment to conservation is one of the many reasons Fundraise Up is proud to work with Rainforest Trust. You can make a contribution to their mission here.

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Sunsetting version 1 Elements

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 00:00:00 GMT

On October 11, 2021, we will officially end support for version 1 (V1) of our Elements product. We have communicated this change throughout much of the summer, but on October 11th we will officially end support. On this date, any V1 Elements will stop rendering on the web pages where they've been placed. We recommend that any organization still using V1 Elements on their web pages swap them for current-version Elements before the 11th.

The decision to end support for V1 Elements came earlier in 2021 as we launched plans to expand the capabilities of current-version Elements, which included over 20 buttons, sliders, overlays, and other fundraising-centric website UI components.

How to recognize V1 Elements

The best way to confirm whether an Element on your webpage is V1 or a current version is to view the page's source code and check the href tag of the Element's HTML snippet.

All V1 Elements have an href tag that's prepended with #FUN. All current-version Elements have an href tag that begins with #X.

The source code of this webpage reveals that a V1 Element is in use. Note the #FUN href prepend and the Element properties that have been set directly in the Element's code.

Unlike current-version Elements, V1 Elements cannot be created, viewed, or updated from the Fundraise Up account dashboard. Instead, V1 Elements are coded into an organization's webpage using the Element's HTML snippet. The HTML snippet includes all of the attributes for the Element, including size, color, and behavior.

How to swap V1 Elements for current versions

We recommend that any organization still using V1 Elements swap them for current-version Elements before October 11.

For further assistance, organizations may contact Fundraise Up Support.

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Announcing updates to Gift Aid

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Fundraise Up is thrilled to announce our newest update for UK clients. Gift Aid, the government tax incentive that gives 25p for every £1 donated, has been updated for our frictionless donation experience.

What is changing?

Previously, Gift Aid was enabled by individual organizations through the custom questions function, which proved to be clunky and burdensome. Now, you simply enable the option in the campaign settings and are ready to accept Gift Aid declarations during checkout or through the Virtual Terminal.

See it in action

You can get started by contacting your success engineer at success@fundraiseup.com or by reading the UK Compatibility and Fundraise Up support documents.

About Fundraise Up

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Pre-Authorized Debits (PAD) now available for Canadian nonprofits

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT

At Fundraise Up, we are committed to expanding access to more digital wallets no matter where you live. So, we are very excited to announce that Pre-Authorized Debit (PAD) payment is now available for all Canadian customers!

PAD allows donors to directly connect their bank accounts and approve immediate bank-to-bank transfers. All PAD payments will appear in Stripe and are fully compliant with Canadian requirements.

PAD, due to its bank-to-bank nature, is the most popular with recurring donations. While donors can certainly use it for one-time payments, the option is not available unless a donor plans to pay $15 or more. And though it takes longer for the transaction to start, the biggest benefit of PAD is its guaranteed verification and payment clearance.

Even better, we’ve made sure that using PAD is frictionless and easy thanks to our partnership with Stripe.

You can get started by contacting your Support team or by reading the support documentation below:

Supporting documents: Enabling PAD in Fundraise Up and Accept Secure Pre-Authorized Debits in Canada (Stripe)

About Fundraise Up

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8 types of donation friction and how to spot them

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

At Fundraise Up, it's our mission to eliminate friction in the donation process and convert more visitors into donors. But what exactly is friction and where do you encounter it?

Whether physical or technological, friction refers to the resistance of motion. During the donation process, a point of friction is where the flow has been disrupted which encourages donors to navigate away from the donation page, decreasing your overall conversion rate.

In order to avoid these disruptions, you must first be able to recognize them. Here are the eight types of friction donors experience:

1. Too many fields

Field number friction is related to the number of information fields on a donation form.

We understand that gathering donor information is necessary for a number of reasons, but our studies show the more fields present on a donation form the greater the chances the donor will abandon the giving process. In fact, requiring something as simple as a cellphone number can decrease conversions by 2%!

So, what is the solution? Get rid of any information that is not required to process a payment upfront. If you want to gather any additional information, request it after the transaction has been completed. By simply moving the order of events, you can increase your conversion rate while still gathering the data you need.

2. Poorly designed field layout

No matter the actual number of fields on your form, if it looks long and complicated to the eye the donor will think the form is long and complicated.

The simplest way to reduce field layout friction is to optimize horizontal spacing. By combining form fields onto the same horizontal line, you will reduce the amount of perceived work required.

Just implementing this simple design adjustment you can increase conversions by nearly 40%.

3. Error messages from missed mandatory fields

At some point, we have all encountered form-error friction. Perhaps you miss a required field and the page notifies you right away. Or, you get to the end of the page, click next, and are required to start all over again.

As with all friction, any disruption to the donation process leaves open the opportunity for the donor to abandon the giving process. So to avoid this, clarity is key.

Along with reducing the number of required fields and simplifying the layout, make it abundantly clear in the form which information is required. For example, consider adding an asterisk next to the mandatory fields within a form.

4. User confusion

Confusion friction refers to the presence of any web page items that distract or navigate away from the giving experience. This means eliminating confusing web items like navigation bars, competing calls to action, distracting links, or messages not related to the donor flow while a donor is in the giving process.

In fact, participants in a NextAfter study saw a nearly 200% increase in donations by simply eliminating the navigation bar.

5. Too many decisions

Sometimes too much choice means too much work. Front-loading decisions like covering the transaction fees, making a tribute donation, or leaving a comment can significantly stall the donation flow. By eliminating the majority of these fields, an organization can see a 107% increase in donations.

Here are some quick solutions:

Make the donate call-to-action button clear in your navigation bar.
Add two to three sentences in the donation and ask about why they should donate to your cause.
Reduce the number of available gift options to four.
Use default suggestions and social nudges to guide the donor’s giving decisions.
Enable mobile payment options to provide the user with as many payment options as possible (in this case reducing the number of decisions since the donor’s preferred payment method will likely be present).

6. Too many steps

This particular type of friction refers to the number of steps it takes to complete a transaction. When a donation form is several pages long, load time — as well as field number friction — decision friction, and form error friction all come into play. It's a compounding effect that only serves to decrease your conversion rates.

Instead of multiple pages donors must load through, consider downsizing to one page. In addition, nix your confirmation page before the transaction is completed. Instead, when a donor completes their payment, go straight from the donation ask to the thank-you page. Organizations that cut their confirmations saw a 176% increase in donations!

7. Not optimized For mobile

Device friction is another design-oriented friction specifically in regard to mobile devices. When a page is not mobile-optimized, donors have to pinch and zoom to navigate your page and may encounter compounded issues that prevent or slow down the giving process.

Since 25% of online giving now happens on mobile devices (and growing by about 20% every year), it’s more important than ever to optimize your page for these devices. It's one extra step that can only mean more donors.

8. Long wait times

As referenced in many of the other friction points, waiting is the enemy of donations. The optimal load time for any donation page is less than five seconds, so spinning wheels and multiple pages simply discourage donors from completing their transactions. In fact, we found an 8% drop-off rate occurred each time a new tab or page opened, as compared to keeping donors on the same page.

The key to beating waiting friction is to take all other seven friction points into account. The faster the process, the better your conversion rate will be!

Making improvements to your donation page may feel like a daunting task, and we totally understand that! That’s why we want to arm you with the most up-to-date information so you can start raising more money.

Findings are based on 643 organizations coupled with data from our own experiments and research Fundraise Up and NextAfter Institute.

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Fundraise Up announces native integration with EveryAction

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Brooklyn, New York (August 26th, 2021) — Fundraise Up is thrilled to announce our newest API-based integration with EveryAction. EveryAction is a nonprofit-specific CRM and is available for integration to all Fundraise Up customers at no additional cost.

This new integration allows updates in Fundraise Up such as Contributions, Donor Information, and Refunds to sync with EveryAction in near real-time, keeping your records up-to-date. In addition, we have worked with EveryAction’s matching system to ensure you avoid logging duplicate donors. Now you can make the most of both Fundraise Up and EveryAction's features with one simple integration.

The EveryAction integration is part of a growing suite of native integrations from Fundraise Up that include Salesforce, Neon CRM, Kindful, Bloomerang, DonorPerfect, and Double the Donation 360MatchPro. Additional integrations are available using Fundraise Up’s Zapier connector, and other API-based CRM integrations are slated for release before the close of Q4 2021.

To learn more about the EveryAction integration or for more information about Fundraise Up, contact Fundraise Up support.

Support Documentation: Connecting EveryAction to Fundraise Up

About Fundraise Up

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Newest update makes tribute giving even easier

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

At Fundraise Up, we are committed to innovation so you can raise more revenue.

Recently, we observed that gift dedication had been a frequent point of friction in the donation experience. That’s why we’ve updated our tribute process so the checkout is now separate from the tribute designation.

So what's changing?

Previously, donors would be expected to fill out all of their tribute information before their payment was processed. Putting this step before the donation could result in donors becoming distracted or inundated with too many fields to complete.

So, we changed the order of the steps. Now, after electing to make a tribute, donors will only need to provide the name of their tribute, and then complete our standard 30-second checkout as normal. Once the payment is processed will they be prompted to fill out the rest of their tribute details in their donor portal, resulting in 20% less time spent completing their dedicated gift.

See it in action

Will the new tribute process improve my conversion rates?

Yes! Our tests show a 5.3% relative increase in conversion rate. That's a 5.3% increase in donations from this change alone.

Will the new tribute process encourage more donors to make a dedication?

Yes. We observed a staggering 200.4% increase in the number of tribute donations as compared to the previous process!

When will I see the new tribute process in my Fundraise Up dashboard?

The new Tribute process will be rolling out for all Fundraise Up users on September 1st, 2021.

New features have been added as well, including a new email template and enhanced customization. To learn even more about what this update means for you, view our help center documentation here.

Finally, stay tuned for even more additions to our tribute card features — because we think —sometimes— an old-fashioned letter just means more than an email.

About Fundraise Up

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Customer spotlight: OLASTEO

Mon, 09 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT

At Fundraise Up, we believe that our customers’ success is our success. That’s why we are shining a spotlight on Aaron Friedman and his nonprofit, OLASTEO. Recently, we sat down with him to discuss how Fundraise Up helped take OLASTEO from a self-funded nonprofit to generating enough donations to start growing their good cause. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Tell us about OLASTEO and what it means to you personally.

OLASTEO stands for “our lives as seen through each other.” Our mission is to create experiences that empower students to be catalysts for social impact. We do this by curating a roster of influential speakers, interactive workshops, and immersive trips that expose our scholars to a broad range of perspectives and possibilities. OLASTEO was founded on the idea that travel can help open and expand student perspectives. In traveling to new cities and countries, we encourage our students to experience and learn about life beyond their respective communities. We strive, above all else, to educate our students about the lived experiences and challenges that others have faced, both those before them and those from other cultures and communities.

When choosing a fundraising platform, what features were important to you?

We focused on four key features when considering which platform to use:

Branding customization
Recurring giving
Checkout experience
Campaign management

Tell us about your onboarding process with Fundraise Up.

There were two sides to the onboarding process:

Technology:

I had registered and created a Fundraise Up instance, but because we were preparing to use an alternative vendor, I never logged into the platform to begin the onboarding process. Once we began using the alternative vendor, we quickly realized that their platform was not the answer. So, I decided to see what Fundraise Up had to offer.

After being disappointed by other self-guided onboardings in the past, Fundraise Up’s onboarding materials and overall admin user experience were next-level.

"Before I knew it, I was 7 hours deep into Fundraise Up and had a fully implemented fundraising platform with two campaigns, a customized landing page, a focus on recurring giving, and an automated, but personalized acknowledgment workflow involving our donor management and email marketing systems."

Customer Service:

"The customer service experience I had with Fundraise Up is a game-changer. The technology is superb, but no other software company in the nonprofit game (or otherwise) can come anywhere close to matching the level of support we've received from the Fundraise Up team."

Its culture shines externally with its focus on optimizing its product based on the realities of its customers. It's a beautiful thing!

Your website looks great! Tell us about the process of using our platform and placing elements on your website.

Thank you; Exactly one year to the day of our initial OLASTEO website launch, we unveiled a new and improved website! Our website was designed by the amazing Alisa Olinova, in close partnership with my wife and co-founder, Ceci (pronounced Sessy).

The driving forces behind the redesign were two-fold: provide insight into our complete programming slate with the pandemic landscape changing AND take our online fundraising presence to a world-class level. Fundraise Up Elements really drove a lot of the creativity in the updated site design from both a visual and copy perspective. Our homepage makes use of a multitude of FRU Elements, with six Image Cards being the focal point. Our recurring giving program page, The Catalyst Collective, features campaign-specific FRU Elements on nearly every section.

Do you feel you’ve been better able to connect with your donors and provide them with a more engaging experience?

Our FRU-engineered online donation setup has resulted in many calls, texts, and emails from our donor community praising the ease and elegance of their experience. The branding capabilities at every step of the process and seamless integration with our website allow OLASTEO donors to better engage with donation-specific media and info. So, yes!

About Aaron

A native New Yorker, Aaron has always been intensely service-oriented and is inspired by the words of the great James Baldwin - “The questions which one asks oneself begin, at last, to illuminate the world, and become one’s key to the experience of others.” He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to study abroad in China and immerse himself in a community unlike that where he grew up or went to school. After working for over a decade in the healthcare IT space, Aaron currently works as a People Solutions Leader, cultivating winning organizational cultures. He co-founded OLASTEO with his wife, Ceci, in order to create experiences for underserved students that open their eyes to the larger world beyond their immediate community.

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Fundraise Up announces new API-based integration for Virtuous

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Brooklyn, New York (August 11th, 2021) — Fundraise Up is excited to announce its latest API-based native integration for Virtuous, a fundraising platform and CRM specifically for nonprofits and designed for better donor relationships. The Virtuous CRM integration is now available for all Fundraise Up customers at no additional cost.

The new integration leverages Virtuous' API to automatically synchronize donation data from Fundraise Up to Virtuous in near real-time. Virtuous CRM users can now fully control how data is transmitted between the platform and Fundraise Up.

In addition to standard one-to-one mapping rules, Fundraise Up allows for special mapping rules that further extend the integration's functionality. Create campaign and designation-specific mappings for advanced data management and reporting needs.

The Virtuous integration is part of a growing suite of native integrations from Fundraise Up that includes Salesforce, Neon CRM, Kindful, Bloomerang, DonorPerfect, and Double the Donation 360MatchPro. Additional integrations are available using Fundraise Up’s Zapier connector, and other API-based CRM integrations are slated for release before the close of Q4 2021.

To learn more about the Virtuous CRM integration or for more information about Fundraise Up, contact Fundraise Up support.

Support Documentation: Connecting Virtuous to Fundraise Up

About Fundraise Up

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4 tech tips for the next fiscal year for your nonprofit

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Partner guest post: Cathexis Partners

As we head into the month of July, many nonprofits are starting a brand-new fiscal year. That means that now is as good a time as any to review your fundraising campaigns and think about how you can improve them for the next fiscal year.

Maybe you only need to make a few tweaks to your strategy, or perhaps it is time to try a whole new approach. In the end, the goal is the same - to make sure you are getting the largest return from your fundraising activities.

Here are four ideas to get you started:

Think “mobile-first” With the widespread use of mobile devices and an increased proportion of people working from home or on the go, it is more important than ever to be sure your website and online transaction channels (a site visitor's path from entering your site, to taking a specified action) remains easy to navigate via mobile devices. If you have not updated your nonprofit’s website within the last three years or so, that can be a good indication it is time for a review and to consider a refresh. A simple way to start is to compare your organization’s site against the site of a top-notch nonprofit. Here are a few great examples to provide you with some inspiration:
- Tel Aviv University
- Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida
Embrace virtual campaigns and hybrid events for peer-to-peer fundraising Nonprofits have for years relied on walks, runs, rides, and other in-person community-driven fundraising events to boost their online fundraising. Those in-person events still have their place, but if we’ve learned anything from the disruption brought about by COVID-19, it’s that nonprofits can no longer solely rely on in-person events to anchor their peer-to-peer fundraising. There are multiple opportunities to embrace virtual and hybrid (in-person/virtual) events and campaigns. Here are a few examples of how nonprofits have been navigating the new normal of peer-to-peer fundraising:
- Roswell Park Alliance Foundation moved the Ride for Roswell ride to a virtual event in 2020 and is planning a hybrid event for 2021
- Mount Sinai went into high gear around fundraising, including a new giving information page, a COVID-19 specific peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, and a transition of their annual events to virtual events
- Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida has run successful virtual food drives since 2013
Put user-generated content (UGC) to work The power behind your peer-to-peer fundraising events comes from people sharing information and driving support from their networks for a cause they believe in. Using user-generated content gives you another way for your participants to share their own ideas. For example, use a content aggregator like Juicer or Tintup to bring content to your campaign homepage via your hashtags. You can even take UGC to the next level using tools like Gather Voices or Seenit to gather user-generated videos.
Make sure you don't leave money on the table You may consider your fundraising campaigns a success, but you may also be leaving valuable funds on the table without even realizing it. Here are some simple but often overlooked considerations you can make to be sure you get every dollar out of your fundraising efforts:
- Ask donors to cover the transaction fees — When someone donates to your organization through your online donation form, the donor is typically charged a transaction fee by the payment processor. This effectively reduces the proportion of each donation that goes directly to you by a certain percentage (often around 3%). By providing an option in your online donation form for donors to cover the cost of the transaction fees, you can capture those lost dollars.
- Encourage recurring giving through a monthly giving pop-up — When donors make an online donation to your organization, present them with the option to make it a recurring gift. This approach conveniently breaks up the donation into reliable monthly payments charged automatically to their credit card, which can result in donors giving more over time.
- Embed a matching gift tool in your donation form — Many companies offer a matching gift program to their employees. However, every matching gift program is unique and has different requirements and guidelines that a potential donor must navigate. Adding a corporate matching tool to your donation form makes it easier to take advantage of corporate matching programs and boost your fundraising campaign results.

These are just a few tips to refresh your fundraising for the next fiscal year. If you are interested in learning more about any of these ideas or technologies or would like help implementing any of them, contact us at Cathexis Partners.

Mark Becker is the Founding Partner of Cathexis Partners. Since 2008, Cathexis has helped more than 1,000 nonprofit clients use technology to help their organizations raise more funds and engage more supporters.

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Fundraise Up releases API-based integration for DonorPerfect

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Brooklyn, New York (June 9, 2021) — Fundraise Up has released an API-based integration for DonorPerfect, a fundraising platform and CRM for nonprofits. The DonorPerfect integration is available now for all Fundraise Up customers at no cost.

The new integration leverages DonorPerfect’s XML API to automatically synchronize donation data from Fundraise Up to DonorPerfect in near real-time.

Mapping rules, a hallmark of Fundraise Up's integration tools, enable a nonprofit to specify how data is transmitted to DonorPerfect and even write data to organization-specific custom fields in DonorPerfect. Special mapping rules further extend the integration's functionality by making it possible to create campaign and designation-specific mappings for advanced data management and reporting.

The DonorPerfect integration is number seven in a growing suite of native integrations from Fundraise Up that includes Salesforce, Neon CRM, Kindful, Bloomerang, and Double the Donation 360MatchPro. Additional integrations are available using Fundraise Up’s Zapier connector, and other API-based CRM integrations are slated for release before the close of Q4 2021.

Support Documentation: Connecting DonorPerfect to Fundraise Up

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a rapidly growing financial technology company headquartered in Brooklyn, NY that provides online fundraising software to enterprise nonprofits. Fundraise Up's AI-powered fundraising platform is leveraged by trusted organizations like UNICEF USA to double annual digital donation revenue and triple recurring donor acquisition.

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Introducing gift matching upsell for Double the Donation integration

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT

We're excited to introduce an incredible update to our integration with Double the Donation's 360MatchPro platform: upsells to eligible match amounts. For our customers, this means larger donation sizes and an increase in match-eligible contributions.

The updated feature educates donors while encouraging them to meet or exceed the minimum donation amount matched by their employer. This simple callout is especially valuable because mentioning matching gifts in fundraising appeals results in a 71% increase in response rate and a 51% increase in average donation amount.

“We want to ensure every eligible donor has the opportunity to drive matching gift revenue for the causes they care about - and 360MatchPro provides the perfect avenue to accomplish that,” said Salvatore Salpietro, Chief Community Officer at Fundraise Up. “This solution is going to give donors the opportunity to maximize the impact of their donation.”

The new matching upsell feature encourages donors to meet or exceed the minimum donation amount matched by their employer.

While matching gifts are widespread, many donors are unaware that they qualify for a gift matching program. The new upsell feature will not only close the donor awareness gap but also encourage larger donations and a greater number of match requests.

“Fundraise Up already uses innovative technology to drive donor conversion rates and satisfaction, so we are very excited to add an enhanced matching gift touchpoint to their donation flow,” said Adam Weinger, President of Double the Donation. “This enhancement will ensure no matching gift opportunities fall through the cracks.”

Leading nonprofits around the world are already leveraging 360MatchPro with Fundraise Up to drive support for their missions. For those nonprofits, the update has been automatically applied and they will see growth in their corporate matching program starting today.

For nonprofits not yet leveraging Fundraise Up with 360MatchPro, now is the perfect time to get started. Request a demo to learn how you can double your online donation revenue and triple your recurring donor acquisition rate.

About Double the Donation

Automate your matching gift fundraising with the industry-leading solution from Double the Donation. The 360MatchPro platform provides nonprofits with tools to identify match-eligible donors, drive matches to completion, and gain actionable insights. 360MatchPro integrates directly into donation forms, CRMs, social fundraising software, and other nonprofit technology solutions to capture employment information and follow up appropriately with donors about matching gifts.

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a rapidly growing financial technology company headquartered in Brooklyn, NY that provides online fundraising software to enterprise nonprofits. Fundraise Up's AI-powered fundraising platform is leveraged by trusted organizations like UNICEF USA to double annual digital donation revenue and triple recurring donor acquisition.

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Exports tool update: Customization, scheduling, and file destinations

Mon, 17 May 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Available now, the updated Exports tool introduces enterprise features that make it easier than ever for nonprofits to export data from Fundraise Up and import it into CRMs, data analysis tools, and custom applications. Here's a look at everything that's new:

Templates

Every template can be customized to fit your needs.

With templates, you can now configure organization-wide export templates for any number of needs. For example, you can set up a template for succeeded donations that's perfect for your finance team, and a separate template that includes only new recurring plans — a great option for team members managing monthly or annual giving programs.

The drag and drop editor makes it easy to customize template columns.

The updated Exports tool also introduces a drag and drop editor for configuring templates. Pick and choose from available data points, rearrange columns as needed, and customize properties like date and currency formatting. You can even apply presets for importing data into platforms like Mailchimp.

Destinations

The updated Exports tool lets you send your data to email addresses and SFTP locations.

There are now three ways to export your Fundraise Up data. First, and just like with the previous version of Exports, you can click the download button to quickly get a CSV file of your data. Second, you can now configure one or more email addresses to receive data exported from Fundraise Up. This option is perfect for keeping development, finance, and stewardship teams in the loop about donations your nonprofit is receiving. Third, it's now possible to add file server destinations using SFTP. For large nonprofits with complex custom workflows in place, this option provides valuable flexibility.

Schedules

A powerful addition to the Exports tool, the new scheduling feature lets you automatically export data from Fundraise Up on a recurring basis. With options ranging from hourly to monthly, you can dial in your export scheduling to meet your team's needs, and use destination toggles to send data only to the people or places that need it.

Final thoughts

The updated Exports tool introduces a suite of new functionalities that are designed to streamline processing operations for enterprise nonprofits. While Fundraise Up will continue to develop and support API-based CRM integrations, we recognize that the best way to support your data needs is with a platform-agnostic tool like Exports. This way, even if a software vendor changes or deprecates its API, we'll still be able to provide data to you in a way that's easy to import into your other fundraising tools.

To take a deep dive into the technical documentation for Exports, read this article.

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a rapidly growing financial technology company headquartered in Brooklyn, NY that provides online fundraising software to enterprise nonprofits. Fundraise Up's AI-powered fundraising platform is leveraged by trusted organizations like UNICEF USA to double annual digital donation revenue and triple recurring donor acquisition.

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Prefill Checkout with donor details using the updated URL API

Sun, 28 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Digital marketers have long used marketing automation platforms to segment their audiences and personalize email outreach, and with good reason. Experian reports that personalized subject lines lead to a 26% increase in open rates, and data from the DMA reveals a 760% increase in email revenue when segmentation is applied to campaigns.

Now, with a recent update to Fundraise Up's URL API, you can pass data like the personalization tags used in Mailchimp, to a Fundraise Up Checkout to streamline the donation experience.

In the illustration above, the marketing email includes a donation link that appends the email recipient's personalization merge tags to the donation link that launches Checkout.

With the URL API, it was previously possible to pass a donation amount through a URL, but with the new update, you can now include a donor's first name, last name, and email address, too.

Because first name, last name, and email address are the only values required to complete a donation when these values are passed to Checkout in a URL, you remove the need for a donor to manually input their information and allow for a seamless donation experience.

Notice how after the payment details are confirmed, the donor's information is already populated in the Personal Information fields.

To take full advantage of Fundraise Up's URL API, we recommend utilizing your CRM or marketing automation platform to segment your donor base by analyzing giving history, demographics, and psychographics.

Use your data to calculate ask amounts that you can merge into a marketing email and pass through in URLs to a Fundraise Up Checkout. In the event that a donor does not donate using your prefilled amount, there is a 50% chance that they will complete their donation using an amount suggested by our AI.

See a live example

Get Started with Fundraise Up's URL API

There are many ways to leverage Fundraise Up's URL API for your digital fundraising strategy. We recommend reviewing our URL API documentation to get started.

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a rapidly growing financial technology company headquartered in Brooklyn, NY that provides online fundraising software to enterprise nonprofits. Fundraise Up's AI-powered platform is leveraged by trusted organizations like UNICEF USA, Partners In Health, and Greater Good Charities, to triple their donor acquisition rates and double their digital donation revenue.

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Display a prominent call to action with the new Message Bar Element

Sat, 27 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Message bar-style notifications are popular for showing important, timely information to website visitors. Online retailers, for example, use message bars to inform shoppers of sales, discounts, and membership perks.

For nonprofits, message bars can be used as attention-grabbing calls to action that prompt website visitors to donate.

Here are a few ways you can use Message Bar:

To promote support for a giving day campaign
To alert donors of a pressing need
To encourage giving to a year-end campaign
To collect donations for a holiday or special event
To engage donors with your recurring giving program

Like every Fundraise Up Element, Message Bar can be styled to match the design of your nonprofit's website. Settings for Element behavior, alignment, and visibility provide additional options for customizing Message Bar to your nonprofit's needs.

Message Bar is available to all Fundraise Up customers and can be added from the Elements tab of the account dashboard.

To learn more about Message Bar or to get help with displaying it on your nonprofit's website, speak with your Nonprofit Success Engineer. If you are not yet using Fundraise Up to double digital donation revenue, get started by requesting a demo.

About Elements

Elements are interactive UI components that can be placed anywhere on a nonprofit's website to engage website visitors as donors. Our library of Elements includes an array of customizable buttons, progress bars, sliders, notifications, and other components. Elements can be managed, updated, and tracked directly from a nonprofit's account dashboard without a developer or webmaster, making them a powerful asset for agile digital fundraising teams.

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a rapidly growing financial technology company headquartered in Brooklyn, NY that provides online fundraising software to enterprise nonprofits. Fundraise Up's AI-powered platform is leveraged by trusted organizations like UNICEF USA, Partners In Health, and Greater Good Charities, to triple their donor acquisition rates and double their digital donation revenue.

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Fundraise Up expands its suite of integrations to include Neon CRM

Wed, 10 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Brooklyn, New York (March 10, 2021) — Fundraise Up has partnered with Neon One to release an API-based integration for Neon CRM, Neon One's fundraising, membership, events, and website platform for nonprofits. The Neon CRM integration is available now for all Fundraise Up customers at no cost.

The new integration leverages Neon CRM's REST API to automatically synchronize donation data from Fundraise Up to Neon CRM in near real-time.

Mapping rules, a hallmark of Fundraise Up's integration tools, enable a nonprofit to specify how data is transmitted to Neon CRM and even write data to organization-specific custom fields in Neon CRM. Special mapping rules further extend the integration's functionality by making it possible to create campaign and designation-specific mappings for advanced data management and reporting.

The Neon CRM integration is number six in a growing suite of native integrations from Fundraise Up that includes Salesforce, Kindful, Bloomerang, and Double the Donation 360MatchPro. Up to seven additional API-based CRM integrations are slated for release before the close of Q4 2021.

About Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up is a rapidly growing financial technology company headquartered in Brooklyn, NY that provides online fundraising software to enterprise nonprofits. Fundraise Up's AI-powered platform is leveraged by trusted organizations like UNICEF USA, Partners In Health, and Greater Good Charities, to double their recurring donor acquisition rates and increase overall digital donation revenue by 2x.

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Show donations to your nonprofit with the new Recent Donations Element

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Whether you’re hosting a day of giving, streaming a live event, or running a P2P fundraising campaign, Recent Donations is the perfect Element for showing how donors are rallying around your cause.

With the new Recent Donations Element, you can show a list of up to 10 recent donations from your supporters. You can include a donor’s full name or abbreviate it to just show the first name and last initial, toggle the visibility of dates and donation comments, and of course, stylize Recent Donations to match the design of your nonprofit’s website.

Recent Donations joins the ever-growing library of Elements, our conversion-boosting UI components that you can place anywhere on your website. Use Recent Donations on its own or embed it with other Elements like Donation Form, Goal Meter, or Image Card to create a truly engaging call to action.

Ready to get started with Recent Donations? It’s available now from the Elements tab of the Fundraise Up dashboard. And if you’re not yet using Fundraise Up, learn more about the platform and request a demo, here.

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Use the psychology-inspired Social Proof Element to gain more donors

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Introducing Social Proof, the new Element inspired by psychology.

Your donors are no different from consumers — they are consumers after all. The same social influence (purchases by others, recommendations, etc.) that motivate consumer behavior can be leveraged to encourage donations to your nonprofit.

When someone visits your nonprofit’s website, Social Proof will pop up in the lower-left corner of the website and display recent donations from your supporters.

Social Proof displays a supporter’s first name, donation, and donation designation. Based on the donor’s location, Social Proof will also display the state or province and country where the donation was made.

Like all Fundraise Up Elements, Social Proof can be styled to match your nonprofit’s website. You can even make updates to Social Proof in real-time from the Fundraise Up dashboard and see the changes immediately reflected on your website.

Ready to add Social Proof to your website? Head to the Elements section of your Fundraise Up dashboard to get started. And if you’re not yet using Fundraise Up, you can learn more about Elements and the platform's other conversion-boosting features at fundraiseup.com.

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New Element: QR Code

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Say hello to QR Code, the latest addition to our growing library of powerful Elements.

With QR Code, you can generate a scannable code that sends donors directly to a Fundraise Up Checkout on your nonprofit’s website.

QR Code can be embedded on a website or downloaded as an image that you can add to digital assets like slide decks and social media posts, or incorporated into print products like direct mail appeals.

And like all Fundraise Up Elements, QR Code is incredibly customizable. You can modify its size, color, and other attributes, and even include a custom image at the center of the code.

By the way, QR Code can be updated in real-time from your Fundraise Up dashboard! So even when a fundraising campaign ends, your QR Code can be updated to send donors to any other Fundraise Up Checkout in your account.

Now more than ever, QR codes are a great way to collect donations. And with millions of mobile devices capable of automatically scanning QR codes, you can easily engage all segments of your donor base.

Ready to get started with QR Code? Create your first code from the Elements tab of your Fundraise Up dashboard. Not yet using Fundraising Up? Get started today with a demo from our Nonprofit Success team.

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6 reasons why you should migrate your recurring donors to Fundraise Up

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT

Moving fundraising platforms can seem like a daunting task, especially when you have to move hundreds if not thousands of recurring donors — but we have your back.

You can easily migrate any number of recurring donors from your legacy fundraising solution to Fundraise Up's AI-powered platform. Here are six reasons why it's a smart move:

1. Access all donor information from one centralized location

Moving your donors to Fundraise Up removes the headache of wrangling one-time and recurring donors in separate platforms. Manage everyone in one place with ease when you migrate your recurring donors to Fundraise Up.

2. Donor Portal

We give all donors full control over their donations with the Donor Portal, a secure, self-service dashboard for managing recurring plans, receipts, and one-time gifts. The Donor Portal was built with retention in mind. Its smart features help prevent recurring plans from being canceled and donation repair tools ensure support doesn't end when donors update or replace their payment methods.

3. No downtime

Moving your recurring donors shouldn't mean losing valuable donation revenue during the switch. Thanks to Fundraise Up's 99.9% uptime SLA, your donors' recurring plans are migrated live with little to no impact on the day-to-day donor experience.

4. Fast turnaround

You might be used to legacy solution providers that drag their feet when it comes to your data requests, but at Fundraise Up, we're dedicated to helping you migrate all of your recurring donors to the platform in days, not weeks or months.

5. 1-to-1 assistance

Migrating recurring donors is no small technical feat, and the last thing you want is to go it alone. When you move your recurring donors to Fundraise Up, you can rest easy knowing that your migration is in good hands with one of our dedicated migration specialists.

6. $0 Cost

You read that right. There's no cost to move your recurring donors to Fundraise Up. Whether you're moving 10 or 10,000 recurring donors, you never have to worry about footing a bill for the migration.

Ready to make the move? Head to Docs to learn more about how to move recurring plans from your current platform to Fundraise Up.

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Showing PayPal as a donation method leads to a 10% conversion hike

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

A new finding from our analytics team reveals the positive impact PayPal has on conversion.

To determine both the popularity and conversion impact of PayPal as a donation method, our team analyzed more than 170,000 transactions.

Of the studied transactions, it was found that PayPal is selected during a donation checkout 20% of the time, making it the second most popular donation method behind card-based options.

More importantly, Fundraise Up data reveals that PayPal has an overall positive impact on conversion regardless of whether it’s selected by a supporter as a donation method. When the option to give using PayPal is present, the conversion rate rises by 10%

Final thoughts

PayPal is a popular choice for digital donors — one in five donors selects it during the donation checkout process. And because PayPal’s very presence at checkout can increase conversion by several percentage points, we recommend implementing PayPal as a donation option where possible.

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Research: Social media sharing icons shown post-donation further engage donors by 15%

Wed, 06 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT

After a donor makes a donation using Fundraise Up, we show them the Thank You Screen, and with Thank You Screen, you have the opportunity to display a set of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and email sharing buttons.

Social sharing is great for building awareness about your cause, and it's perfect for letting your donors share with their networks that they showed support.

In fact, a 2014 study by Ogilvy and SurveyMonkey found that the number one reason people hit "share" is to promote a cause or issue, so it makes sense to include social sharing buttons as a post-donation call to action.

Who opts to share? Where do they share? To answer these questions, we ran a three-month test that looked at 62,000 donors who were shown Thank You Screen with social sharing buttons.

Of the 62,000 donors, 9,400 of them (15%) went on to share via social media or email that they made a donation.

Facebook was the most popular network amongst donors, occupying 54% of social shares. Surprisingly, neither Twitter nor LinkedIn was in line right after Facebook. Instead, 30% of donors chose to share via email that they donated, with Twitter and LinkedIn capturing 10% and 5% respectively of social shares.

Our three-month test confirmed our understanding of the social sharing behavior of donors: that one out of every four donors opts to share on social media that they gave to a nonprofit — pretty neat!

Are you using social sharing buttons as a post-donation call to action? If not, now's a great time to roll them out on your donation form. And if haven't yet tried Fundraise Up, book a demo to see how social sharing, AI, machine learning, and more provide your donors with a better donation experience.

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Save time and cut down on attrition with Donor Portal

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Donor Portal saves you time and cuts down on donor attrition — here's how.

You're probably familiar with this call: the one where a donor phones your organization's office to request a stack of donation receipts, make a change to their recurring plan or even cancel it.

The call takes precious time for your day and means digging through your CRM's records to locate the donor's account, generate a receipt letter, or find the details of the donor's recurring plan. It shouldn't have to be this way, and with Donor Portal, it's not.

Donor Portal gives your donors easy access to their recurring plans, receipts, and even P2P Fundraisers they're running.

Donor Portal is a free self-service dashboard that every donor has access to when your organization uses Fundraise Up. It's easy to use and access — donors don't even have to worry about managing yet another username and password — Donor Portal is accessible using a secure, magic link.

And as this post's title suggests, Donor Portal saves you time and cuts down on donor attrition — here's how.

⏰ Donor Portal saves you time

Donors don't have to call you in order to update their recurring plans — they can make changes directly from the Donor Portal.

Let's have the next call to your office be from a donor ready to write a big check, not someone needing a stack of receipts. With Donor Portal, every donor can view their donation history and download PDF receipts for each donation they've made to your organization.

Another reason a donor might call your office is to update the donation amount for their recurring gift or to change the day of the month on which the gift is given. With Donor Portal, your donors can easily update a recurring plan's donation amount and installment schedule.

Since your donor is empowered to update their own plan through Donor Portal, there's no need for them to call into your office and you save time that can be dedicated to strategy and stewardship.

📉 Donor Portal cuts down on attrition

Rather than canceling their recurring plan, a donor can put it on pause for a few months.

One of the easiest ways to lose recurring donors and see an unfortunate spike in donor attrition is to make canceling a recurring gift the only option for donors who need to adjust their level of support.

With Donor Portal, there are two key attrition-busting features.

First, a donor can easily, and at any time, adjust their level of support in Donor Portal to fit their needs or financial situation. And of course, when the donor is ready, they can increase their giving amount back to its previous level or even opt to give more.

Second, even if a donor moves to cancel their recurring plan, Donor Portal will automatically prompt them to consider modifying the plan rather than canceling it. By modifying their recurring plan, a donor can reduce the size of their monthly gift or even pause the plan for a few months.

🎨 Match Donor Portal to your look and feel

Like the rest of the Fundraise Up platform, Donor Portal is customizable to match the look and feel of your organization. You can upload your logo, include an impactful image, and customize the text to engage your donors. You can even configure Donor Portal to use your own subdomain for a more deeply branded experience.

🙌 Ready to get started with Fundraise Up?

Donor Portal and so many other Fundraise Up features help you convert more website visitors to donors, get better donations from a greater number of donors, and boost monthly support. And because there are zero monthly or annual fees, no contracts, and free onboarding and support, your organization can get started with Fundraise Up today.

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Research: Off-site donation forms clip conversion by at least 8%

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMT

When a donor wants to give to your nonprofit it shouldn’t mean leaving your website.

And yet, most nonprofits push donors to off-site web pages to donate. This approach is bad for conversion and leads to fewer donations. Let’s look at how an instantly loading on-page donation form limits conversion loss and drives donation revenue.

Think of your online donors as weary travelers traversing the ad-packed, content-filled landscape of the World Wide Web.

When website visitors click the donation button on most nonprofit websites, they're redirected to off-page or off-site donation forms.

By the time your donors arrive at the threshold of your nonprofit's digital door, they’re tired. But they want to show their support, and for a moment, you have their attention. They'll read your impact story and watch your moving video, and be ready to give.

But showing support can’t cost your digitally-weary donors energy they don’t have, and when there are extra steps involved in making a donation, your donors are sure to think twice about committing to the journey. This is the impact redirects and off-site donation forms have on conversion.

What exactly is conversion? In the world of e-commerce, conversion is the process of enticing a digital passersby with products and persuading them to make purchases and become customers. In the context of nonprofit fundraising, conversion is no different except that the product you’re selling is your mission and the customers are your donors.

So when you hear that redirects and off-site web pages hurt conversion, it means that fewer website visitors are actually committing to making donations.

Our research on donation form conversion has revealed four main giving form click-to-view behaviors found on nonprofit websites. All but one of them have a pronounced and negative impact on conversion.

To test the click-to-view conversion impact of our own platform's donation form behavior, we conducted A/B tests with several nationally established nonprofits.

For the tests, each nonprofit's navigation bar donation button was set to direct 50% of website visitors to the organization's existing donation form (the control), and 50% to the Fundraise Up donation experience (the test).

Over the course of a year, we measured conversion statistics for more than 5.6 million website visitors.

The results of our A/B tests revealed two key insights:

Even though the donation button connected to the test (Fundraise Up) form was clicked fewer times, the test form itself received a higher number of views from website visitors.
The control form saw an 8% drop in views while the test form (Fundraise Up) saw just a 0.7% drop.

A 90/10 split test performed with a nationally-established nonprofit shows not only the control form's click-to-view drop, but the overall impact that opening a new tab has on conversion.

The reasons for a higher click-to-view drop with off-site donation forms are numerous and difficult to track and report on, but they can include issues like pages that take too long to load (or don't load), ad-blockers that prevent new browser tabs from opening, and more.

A higher click-to-view drop rate is more than just a negative stat — it reveals a major pain point: fewer donations from a smaller number of donors leading to less donation revenue.

Because our platform is integrated into the very code of a nonprofit's website, a Fundraise Up donation form can launch on any page.

Fundraise Up is built to boost conversion and turn more website visitors into donors. That's why rather than pushing donors offsite, our donation experience instantly launches on the page where a visitor clicks "donate". In fact, because our platform is integrated into the very code of a nonprofit's website, a Fundraise Up donation form can launch on any page.

With a minimal impact on conversion, Fundraise Up's instantly loading on-page donation experience has proven to be the best solution for converting the most website visitors to donors and seeing the greatest online giving performance.

Ready to get started with Fundraise Up?

Fundraise Up helps you convert more website visitors to donors, get better donations from a greater number of donors, and boost monthly support. And because there are zero monthly or annual fees, no contracts, and free onboarding and support, your organization can get started with Fundraise Up today! 🙌

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Donation repair keeps the donations flowing and boosts retention

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT

When something goes wrong with a recurring donor's payment, do you lose the donor? Not with Fundraise Up.

Recurring donors are the key to skyrocketing your donor retention numbers. Not only do recurring donors boast an impressive 90% retention rate (45 percentage points above their one-time donor counterparts), by the end of the year, recurring donors will have also given 42% more than one-time donors. But what happens when a recurring donor's credit card expires or gets replaced? Do you lose the donor? Not with Fundraise Up.

Auto-update saved cards

Our donation repair technology leverages Stripe's automatic collection feature to reduce processing issues with the saved card your donor uses for their recurring donation. This means that most American Express, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover cards issued in the U.S. can be automatically updated even when your donor replaces the physical payment card. Stripe's automatic collection feature runs in the background 24/7 to keep your donor's details up to date — no need to manually check the status of your recurring donations.

Smart retries

Even when your recurring donor's saved card hasn't expired or been replaced, there are times when charging the card fails. This is where our Smart Retries technology comes in handy. Using Fundraise Up's own machine learning algorithm, we're able to determine the ideal time to retry failed payments. For example, we might find that 1:15 P.M. on a Tuesday is the best time to successfully charge a card, and use that for future retries. Like Stripe's automatic collection feature, our Smart Retry technology is constantly running behind the scenes and requires no extra work on your part.

Donor alerts

Letting your donor know when something goes wrong with their payment helps reduce the chance of their recurring donation expiring. But you shouldn't have to spend time writing emails to your donor about the issue. That's why Fundraise Up automatically sends alerts to your donors when they need to take action. Your organization also receives notifications about payment issues so you can check in with your donor as needed.

Donor Portal

Each of your donors has access to Donor Portal, a self-service webpage where they can manage their recurring donations and download PDF receipts for past donations. Most importantly, they can manage three key settings:

Update payment method — Your donor can quickly change the payment method they use for their recurring donations. For example, when your donor wants to switch from making their donations from a credit card to a bank account without disruption, they can do so using Update Payment Method in Donor Portal.
Change amount — Your donor can quickly update the size of their recurring donation. This is a useful option because it gives your donor the flexibility to lower their donation amount rather than outright canceling the recurring plan.
Change date — Your donor can quickly change the date on which their payment method is charged. This option is meant for when your donor wants to better align their giving with their personal finances.

Closing thoughts

Stripe's tech, our machine learning, alerts, and Donor Portal, combine to power Donation Repair, a feature that works intelligently behind the scenes to keep the donations flowing and which also plays an active role in supporting your retention numbers. Are you already using Fundraise Up? Donation Repair is already active and working to your advantage.

And if you're new around here, book a demo of Fundraise Up to see how Donation Repair and so many other features help you convert more website visitors to donors, boost donation revenue, and increase monthly giving.

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With Fundraise Up, automatically get more monthly donors

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Monthly Upsell operates automatically to get you more donors and donations.

Do you have a monthly giving program? A lot of organizations we chat with share that they shied away from monthly giving before using Fundraise Up, not because they don’t think it’s important, but because it seems like a lot of work — and it can be — but it doesn’t have to be. Enter Monthly Upsell.

Monthly Upsell is a powerful feature that automatically and intelligently encourages one-time donors to convert to monthly support during checkout.

Leveraging our machine learning capabilities, we’re able to calculate the right monthly donation amounts to present to your website visitors. In fact, we only show suggested amounts that will boost the lifetime value (LTV) of your donors.

To complement the machine learning magic happening behind the scenes, we incorporate psychology-driven design into the checkout experience. Using subtle visual cues, we’re able to motivate donors to show greater monthly support to your organization.

Monthly Upsell in action.

The result? Over 40% of your one-time donors switch to showing monthly support. For the International Community Foundation (ICF), for example, this meant moving from 17 to over 200 monthly donors and seeing an online giving revenue increase of 46%.

By the way, you don’t need to spend precious budget soliciting donors to join your monthly giving program, and not a single email or direct mail appeal has to be sent to garner recurring support. Monthly Upsell operates automatically to get you more donors and donations.

Ready to learn more? Read our ICF case study on monthly giving, dive in with our recurring giving feature, and head over to our demo website to see Monthly Upsell in action.

And if you’re not yet using Fundraise Up, book a demo with our team to see how we can help grow your monthly giving program.

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Updated Bloomerang integration now available

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT

We're excited to share that we've released an updated version of our Bloomerang integration. The updated version is now available to all of our Bloomerang customers as a free upgrade.

With the updated version, we've introduced several key enhancements:

Fundraise Up tribute data now automatically populates Bloomerang's tribute fields
Transactions are now marked in Bloomerang as having been created by Fundraise Up.
The Fundraise Up Bloomerang integration now leverages Bloomerang's REST API v2 to make way for future enhancements.

For customers using the legacy version of the Bloomerang integration, switching to the updated version takes just a moment and can be performed by following these instructions from our Help Center.

In addition to Bloomerang, Fundraise Up offers native CRM integrations for Salesforce, Virtuous, Neon CRM, EveryAction, DonorPerfect, and Kindful. Additional CRM integrations are possible by using Zapier.

To learn more about our integrations, visit the Integrations page on our website.

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An exciting update is coming to Fundraise Up's recurring giving feature

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Say hello to saved costs, more options, and better control over recurring plans.

Today, we're excited to announce an upcoming update to Fundraise Up's Recurring Giving feature that enhances the way recurring plans are started and how they are managed. Take a look at what's coming soon.

Save money 💰

Stripe recently introduced a 0.5% fee for subscription-style transactions like recurring donations. We're engineering some behind-the-scenes magic to mitigate this fee and boost the value of recurring donations for all of our customers.

More options 🗓

Your donors have always had the ability to give monthly using Fundraise Up, but later this year, your donors will have the ability to select new donation frequencies like weekly, quarterly, and annually. Donors will now also be able to specify a start date for their recurring plans.

In addition to new frequencies for recurring plans, we're also expanding the payment methods available for recurring plans to include PayPal, which was previously only available for one-time donations.

Better control 🎛

With the new enhancements to recurring plans, you'll now have control over how Fundraise Up handles failed charges on installments for recurring donations. A new Recurring Plans option allows you to set a static retry schedule for failed charges or opt to leverage Fundraise Up's machine learning algorithm to set an optimized retry schedule.

Coming soon 🤩

The enhancements to recurring plans are coming soon, but setting the retry schedule for Recurring Plans can be done today and will take effect in mid-January, 2021. Stay tuned — we'll keep you posted as more enhancements to recurring plans become available.

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Save time with centralized email template management

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Now you can manage the look, feel, and content of every email across all of your Campaigns in one place.

With Fundraise Up, you've always been able to send customized Automated Emails. With our latest update to Automated Emails, you can now centrally manage and update the email templates for donation receipts, Fundraise Up Fundraisers, and more, and apply your customizations to emails for every Campaign.

A new Email Templates page in Settings lets you view the email templates available for customization and provides options for setting the sender name and email address, matching the appearance of emails to the look and feel of your organization, and customizing the text content of the email templates.

There are certainly still times when you'll want to customize the email templates for specific Campaigns, and you still can! Each Campaign will continue to have options for customizing the content and appearance of its email templates.

The update to Automated Emails is free and available now for all customers.

Questions about Automated Emails? Check out our Help Center article on customizing emails.

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4 tips to perfect your website for community-driven fundraising

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Are you ready to engage your donors as fundraisers on your website?

Our peer-driven feature, Fundraise Up Fundraisers, is the best way to engage your donors! Not only is the this feature quick to configure, but it also makes launching a fundraiser directly from your website fast and easy for every donor. And if you follow our four tips to build a website that’s dedicated to community-fundraising tactics, you’ll a winning campaign in no time.

1. Create a clear call to action

Remember the term, "below the fold"? The term comes from broadsheet newspaper production, but the concept of presenting your most important information at the top of the page remains — your "Start a Fundraiser" call to action is no exception.

We recommend placing the Fundraisers Button front and center, and near the top of your webpage. Limit visual distractions by placing text, pictures, videos, and other components below your call to action. This layout approach ensures that your website visitors have a clear action to take — start a fundraiser.

2. Use Goal Meter to show progress

Goal Meter is a great Element for visualizing progress toward your campaign's goal. Not only does Goal Meter engage website visitors, but it also gives donors a clear view of the finish line.

Our recommendation with Goal Meter is to place it in a prominent location, preferably near the top of the webpage so it's immediately visible when someone visits your site.

4. Provide answers to common questions

Your website visitors might have questions about launching and running their own fundraisers. By including a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section on your page, you can quickly provide assistance that might otherwise require an email exchange or phone conversation.

Because the FAQ section is not as important as the call to action, we recommend placing the FAQ below the CTA, Goal Meter, and Top Fundraisers.

Here's a sample of questions you might include in your FAQ:

How do I start my fundraiser?
What's the best way to share with people that I'm running a fundraiser?
How do I track who's given to my fundraiser?

You're set!

With your freshly Fundraisers-enhanced website, you'll be ready to run your winning campaign — and we'd love to hear about it! And if you need help with social fundraising or want more information, connect with our team below.

For existing customers, connect with your Success Engineer.

New around here? Book a demo of Fundraise Up

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Fundraise Up named category leader for donation management software

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Today, we're excited to announce that Fundraise Up has been named a Category Leader for Donation Management software by GetApp.

Category Leaders is published on GetApp, the recommendation engine SMBs need to make the right software choice. Category Leaders rankings highlight top-ranked North American software products based on ratings from end-users in five key areas: ease of use, value for money, functionality, customer support, and likelihood to recommend.

This latest ranking from GetApp arrives alongside continued praise from customers on both Capterra and Software Advice, where Fundraise Up has received accolades for best value, best ease of use, and best customer support.

GetApp Category Leaders constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-user reviews, ratings, and data applied against a documented methodology; they neither represent the views of, nor constitute an endorsement by, GetApp or its affiliates.

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Use machine learning to individualize the donation experience

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT

No, the machines are not taking over the world, but they are improving the online donation experience.

At the heart of the Fundraise Up platform are two core technologies that set us apart from other online donation platforms — artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

What's machine learning? Put simply, it's a subset of artificial intelligence that enables a system (a machine) to learn from the information that's fed into it. Importantly, this learned information is used to improve the system without manual programming.

Individualization is important. Ask for too little and you'll miss out on revenue; ask for too much and you'll lose donors.

Here's why machine learning matters in fundraising. Traditionally, fundraisers have been able to use their donor databases to craft individualized ask amounts for donors that they can then include in direct mail and email solicitations. This practice is smart because it recognizes that not all donors give in the same way. For some donors, $100 might feel like giving a major gift, while for others, $1,000 is a drop in the bucket. By individualizing the ask amounts in solicitations, you meet donors where they are.

The blank space in the art of individualizing donation asks is the nonprofit website. Think about your own website's donation form — what amounts are included in the suggested donation array? It's not uncommon to see amounts like $10, $25, $50, $100 and so forth. At first, it might feel like this approach makes sense. Bills come in $10, $50, and $100 denominations, after all.

A typical suggestion donation array. The amounts here are static — they aren't individualized for each website visitor.

But remember that the magic in individualizing those direct mail and email solicitations is meeting donors where they are and removing friction from the opportunities for them to give. So what does that mean for your online form?

Without individualizing the donation experience, are you creating friction and potentially losing support? Unfortunately, the answer is yes, and until recently, there wasn't a solution.

When we built the Fundraise Up platform, we did it with the objective of removing friction from the donation experience. The best way to accomplish this, we found, was by taking advantage of technology that could be taught by donor behavior — machine learning.

When someone visits your website for the first time, we start learning about them. In fact, we look at over 100 data points to help us better understand who they are and what suggested donation amounts make the most sense for them. Location, device type, donation history, and even holidays influence our algorithm's donation suggestions.

Over 200 data points influence Fundraise Up's machine learning model to create individualized donation asks.

Over time, as more people visit your website and become donors, our algorithm develops an understanding of who gives what, when they give, how they give, and what devices they use to give.

Here are a few examples of the questions our machine learning algorithm is able to answer:

In Brooklyn, what suggested donation amounts make the most sense for an iPhone user?
On Christmas day at 3 P.M., what suggested donation amounts work best for desktop users?
What are the best-suggested donation amounts for someone whose cell carrier is AT&T?

As our machine learning algorithm learns, it's able to suggest donation amounts based on groupings of data.

The result of our machine learning individualization? Over 50% of your website visitors convert to donors and give using a suggested donation amount. This means that you get more donations from a greater number of donors and see an overall lift in donation revenue.

Machine learning is key to helping our customers grow and it's part of what makes our platform unique, powerful, and capable of bringing individualization to the online donation space.

Curious to hear about what else is possible? Connect with our Nonprofit Success team to get a free demo and stay tuned for the next #FeatureFriday post right here on The Standing Desk.

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Fundraise Up Blog RSS Feed

5 best peer-to-peer fundraising platforms for nonprofits in 2026

What are the top peer-to-peer fundraising platforms?

What else do you need to know about peer-to-peer platforms?

The state of peer-to-peer fundraising

1. Fundraise Up — best overall peer-to-peer fundraising platform

2. Classy (now GoFundMe Pro)

3. Givebutter

4. Donorbox

5. Bonterra DonorDrive

How to choose the right peer-to-peer fundraising platform

FAQ: Peer-to-peer fundraising platforms

Optimizing donation landing pages to improve conversion rates

How can nonprofits improve donation conversion rates in 2026?

Identify what’s working and what’s not

Set goals for optimization

Audit landing page performance

Define success

5 best practices to optimize donation landing pages

1. Simplify the donation process

2. Build trust with transparency

4. Optimize for mobile

5. A/B test for continuous improvement

Common questions about improving conversion rates for donation landing pages:

Optimize with Fundraise Up

The nonprofit guide to donor-advised funds and year-end giving

What are donor-advised funds (and why do people use them)?

Who uses donor-advised funds?

Why do people use donor-advised funds?

How do nonprofits accept donor-advised fund (DAF) donations?

5 practical tips to capture DAF donations at year-end

1. Created dedicated DAF landing pages

2. Launch your campaigns early

3. Highlight your mission and impact over tax benefits

4. Refine your digital experience for DAF donors

5. Track, measure, and steward

Maximize DAF giving (without the year-end gimmicks)

Commonly asked questions about accepting DAF donations

Tipping doesn’t belong in the donation experience

Digital fundraising strategy: how to elevate donations in 2026 and beyond

Digital fundraising for nonprofits: key benefits

Greater reach

Lower costs

Better engagement

The 4 steps in a digital fundraising campaign

1. Attract

2. Nurture

3. Convert

4. Retain

How do nonprofits master digital fundraising?

Use audience segmentation

Personalize donation requests

Display social proof

Harness the power of peer-to-peer fundraising

Enable global donations

What are the best digital fundraising platforms for nonprofits in 2026?

Choosing the right digital fundraising technology

Cost-effective pricing models

Advanced payment flexibility

Enterprise-grade security and reliability

Seamless integration capabilities

Mobile-first design

Speed of deployment

The fastest path to digital fundraising

AI optimization for recurring giving: why we built it and how it works

Which fundraising platforms are best for recurring giving and monthly donors?

The challenge: how to show the right frequency for better results?

Identifying donor segments

The solution: AI personalization

The results

A look under the hood: the technology we used

Our stack

One click to smarter giving

Fundraising software and tech: a 2026 guide to choosing the right platform

What does fundraising software do?

Who exactly would benefit from fundraising software?

Fundraising software for nonprofits

Fundraising software for large and enterprise nonprofits

Fundraising software for universities

Fundraising software for organizations beyond traditional nonprofits