FundRaiser Blog

The FundRaiser Software Blog is an excellent resource for nonprofit organizations looking to learn more about fundraising, donor management, membership management, and much more.

Effectively Track Online Donations

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FundRaiser Software customers are already used to our Donation, Deposit, and Donor Reports for tracking donations. But for those who also use our Donor Portal it’s important to see what donations came in strictly through online means. The Online Donation report provides the same functionality as these other reports; however, it defaults to showing only gifts that came directly through the Donor Portal.

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Are you ready for Giving Tuesday? Let us help with free hosting

GivingTuesday

Giving Tuesday is just 2 months away, on November 27 and it is not too soon to start preparing for it. This year, we  want to give you some extra help by creating an online donations page that is integrated with FundRaiser. Our Donor Portal can play a key role in the success of your Giving Tuesday campaign.

Your custom Donor Portal page for online donations will 

• look & feel like your website• accept online donations using Authorize.net• seamlessly stream donor and donation records directly to FundRaiser

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Word FM's Brick Campaign Builds a Pathway to Hope

WordFM

Complementing a traditional capital campaign, “Positive, Uplifting Word FM” is trying a new kind of fundraiser – inscribed bricks listeners personalize to include in a pathway the nonprofit plans to install at its new facility.  This Christian radio station has been growing steadily by offering positive conversations and uplifting music and recently moved to a larger, more functional ministry building.  Bricks that listeners reserve now will be used next spring to transform the new location’s nondescript, concrete sidewalk into something much more meaningful:  a “Pathway to Hope.”  

“We’re not selling bricks,” qualifies Jean Otto Ford, one of Word FM’s main FundRaiser users.  “We’re asking listeners to support this ministry at specific giving levels (at minimum) that then offers them a unique opportunity to create a lasting expression of what Word FM means to them – or of hope, love, inspiration, tribute, etc.  Listeners often tell us that our station plays a huge role in their day-to-day lives, and this campaign provides a way for all of us to celebrate that connection.”  

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Short take: Importing Your #GivingTuesday Gifts

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If you are receiving gifts for #GivingTuesday (or any other occasion) in another system, you’ll most likely be entering them into FundRaiser. (If you haven’t inquired about our Donor Portal, which can put gifts directly into your FundRaiser database, now is a great time to do so.) Instead of entering your gifts one-by-one, you can import them.

To import your gifts, save your file of exported gifts into a CSV (comma separated values) format. Most programs export into CSV files automatically. Then, go to File > Import and follow the prompts to match up the fields and import the gifts.

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Case Study: Society of St. Andrew wins big by keeping things simple on #GivingTuesday

Case Study: Society of St. Andrew wins big by keeping things simple on #GivingTuesday

Society of St. Andrew (SoSA) started their #GivingTuesday efforts 2 years ago, and those efforts have paid off big. The first year they brought in $65,000. Last year, their second year, they brought in $87,000. “This year we are hoping for $100,000,” says Steven Waldman, Executive Director of the Society of St. Andrew. Many of the donations they receive from #GivingTuesday come in from their website. The online giving will be handled by the FundRaiser Donor Portal this year.

Steven believes that SoSA’s success with their #GivingTuesday campaign is due primarily to “keeping things simple. We make a clear connection to the GivingTuesday message and we make it easy for donors to give to us.” 

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Save Time and Minimize Errors using Recurring Gifts in FundRaiser Software


The Sacred Heart Radio case study includes a reference to a feature in FundRaiser, called Recurring Gifts, and I want to point out to everyone that you don't need the Donor Portal version of the program to take advantage of it.  It is particularly helpful for those with Donor Portal, since it not only allows a donor to set up their own regularly-scheduled donations, including bringing them into FundRaiser, but also allows for special "thank you" letters dependent on whether a payment is accepted, rejected, a card is expired, or about to expire.  But even if you don't have the Donor Portal, recurring gifts can save you a lot of time, if you have one of the following situations:

Donors on a payroll deductionDonors who supply credit card or bank info for regular withdrawals

If, for instance, you have 50 people who give on a monthly basis, regular as clockwork, the same amount each time, you can save a lot of time by entering the donation only once per person (as a Recurring Gift setup) and then have FUndRaiser produce the actual gift entry each time it comes due.  You can offer each of the donors a preference on what day of the month they'd like their gifts processed.  Once a Recurring Gift is established, it's just a matter of running the utility to process Recurring Gifts to have FUndRaiser build the gift records.

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Case study: Ease of use for staff and donors of online donations helps Sacred Heart's fundraising thrive

logo for Sacred Heart Radio

Sacred Heart Radio is fortunate in their problem—they need to process lots of online donations. For this reason, Beverly Hill, office and database manager for Sacred Heart Radio, was eager to implement the automatic entry of online donations that is offered through the FundRaiser Donor Portal. Sacred Heart Radio is a national Catholic radio station. They are users of FundRaiser Professional with the Donor Portal for online donations.

Successfully promoting online donations

“We promote online donations strongly and it is working for us. As a radio station, we have access to the airwaves. We use public service announcements that say ‘visit us online and click donate’,” explains Beverly.

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Wait a minute, while we are rendering the calendar
giving history new version alumni donor prospects animal rescue data entry GoFundMe project Company culture grassroots campaign word processor National Change of Address grants pictures social media holiday giving event management data conversion ROI letter fundraising letters #GivingTuesday Reporting to IRS security Personalizing Resiliency Facebook campaign new leadership advanced tab donation history NCOA processing donor advised funds building donor relationships new nonprofit disaster relief donor preferences how to handle auction gifts donor targeting monthly giving online donations mailing new features Groupings understanding giving trends brick campaign flash sales GivingTuesday community supported gardens gift notes field motivation code capital campaign anonymous donors change of address updating FundRaiser Basic letter templates donor profile LYBUNTS operating systems major gift prospects donor loyalty endowment campaign custom page Facebook donor SYBUNTS donor retention general solicitors tax summary letters giving levels memorial giving salutation In-Kind gifts correspondence mode code entering auction gifts add ons password protection merge notes New Year gift entry Tickles direct mail backing up data legacy giving follow up appeal letters updates FundRaiser Spark prospects ticket sales email development director planning in honor of donations major donors case study donor attrition Alternative Addresses community broadcasting customer service government grants spare fields moves management importing csv banquet premiums training tip thank you letters announcements Thank You tech tip Thanksgiving donor recognition transparency planned giving auction spreadsheets vacation FundRaiser Hosted Congratulations product news pledges Donor Portal donor relations mission driven donor engagement membersip benefits Task List budget Codes data analysis user spotlights on site training corporate sponsors large donations new donors welcome packet Constant Contact charity golf tournaments Excel Cloud user interface Volunteer module holiday operational costs gift acceptance policy ticketsales recurring gifts overview Crowdfunding Campaign End of Year Letters donor attrition rate holiday letters fundraising targeted mailings membership programs role of nonprofits motivation reports volunteers merge fields Reminders PayPal happiness training arts upgrading donors correspondance raffle lapsed donor how-to videos campaign customer portal donor slip repeat donors communications features segmenting donors small donations membership benefits office look and feel accounting software board members volunteering publicity materials campaign management appeal upgrade increasing giving amounts community arts nonprofits donor contact information Network for Good donor retention rate relationship tracking foundations texting donors online donations annual campaign passwords the Ask nonprofit fundraising Importing Data personalizing letters adding personal notes to letters annual maintenance plan donor source Snow Birds tribute gifts technical support phoning donors support

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