MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE

MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE

CONTENTS CauseVox is a crowdfunding and peer-to-peer fundraising platform for nonprofits and social good projects. www.causevox.com 3 Making Your Fundraising Website a Priority 5 First Impressions: How Do I Look? Branding & Theme 12 Content & Storytelling Defining the Problem Story to Solution 17 Campaign & Site Administration Donation Tiers Impact Metrics Progress Bars & Timelines Updates & Outreach Metrics & Reporting 25 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising 28 Putting It All Together 30 Building Your Fundraising Website on CauseVox

MAKING YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE A PRIORITY

Although there are multiple opportunities to promote your nonprofit s fundraising campaigns these days through social media, email, advertising, press, and more, the most important channel is your actual fundraising website. During a campaign, this is the first true impression a potential donor has of your organization, the first chance to learn about who you are, the work you do, and how they can make an impact with you. We like to think of your fundraising site as a welcome mat, beckoning new and old friends alike inside, offering them a chance to get to know you better, and see what s going on behind the scenes. Some visitors will return again and again, spending more and more time with each visit, and others you may not see again. But while they re there, how can you make them feel at home? In this ebook, we ll explore how you can make the most of your fundraising website, to maximize the impact you and your community can make together to achieve your vision and goals. We ll discuss visual and design elements, content, site administration, metrics, and reporting, and fundraising options. And for those of you who already use CauseVox for your fundraising needs, or are considering it, we ll provide some specifics to our platform as well. Let s get started! 4 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Making Your Fundraising Website a Priority

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: HOW DO I LOOK? 5 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE First Impressions: How Do I Look?

If you have purchased anything ever, you probably understand the importance of branding. If you have a favorite type of cereal or running shoe, if you find yourself humming a commercial jingle or you can recognize a logo just by the colors, or if you know a product s tagline, you ve been influenced by branding. But it s not just retail brands and businesses that benefit from great branding nonprofits do, too. Some of the most enduring and respected charities are associated with their logo, colors, or taglines: think American Red Cross, World Wildlife Federation, or the Girl Scouts. These organizations have made brand recognition a priority through the years, so that even as they have evolved and adapted and tweaked things here and there, the visual essence remains. You see a red cross on a white background and you know immediately that Red Cross is present. You see a green box of cookies, and you think Girl Scouts. You see a panda logo and know WWF is involved. But even these major philanthropies know that it doesn t stop there. Your fundraising website should align with your brand in as many ways possible. Sticking a logo and name on a page doesn t create branding. There s much more to it than that. Now we ll take you step by step and lay out the various ways that you can make your website visually complementary to your organizational mission and goals. 6 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE First Impressions: How Do I Look?

Branding & Theme Logos & Taglines Your logo should be obvious and up front on your homepage and throughout all pages of your website. It s your calling card. Place it prominently on the top of your fundraising website. Use high-resolution PNG files for your logo for the best quality no matter what monitor someone is using, or what kind of device. Transparent PNG files work best versus JPGs with colored backgrounds to get the best match against your website s background or wallpaper. Do not use various versions of your logo throughout the fundraising website. Be consistent, and use the primary one that represents your brand. An organizational branding and style guide or online toolkit for press, partners, and fundraisers can provide alternative approved logo options for download and use. Consider how you want to use your organizational tagline if you have one. Is it part of the logo, or is it generally used separately? Again, use appropriate approved style for your tagline, and aim to be consistent with your primary website. Transparent backgrounds in logos allow you blend in your logo with your background seamlessly. 7 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE First Impressions: How Do I Look?

Colors Your fundraising website colors should match those of your branding and style guide and primary website. Use your branding guide or ask your graphic designer for the specific color codes. As much as possible, coordinate color use in the design in a similar fashion to your primary website for consistency. If you do not have a branding and style guide with set organizational colors, we recommend choosing web-friendly color themes and palettes from Adobe Color or ColourLover. Follow online best practices when it comes to using colors for header and body copy, links, and menu items. 8 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE First Impressions: How Do I Look?

Images & Graphics Choose a background color, wallpaper, or image that aligns with your primary website and style guide. Avoid images and graphics that detract from pertinent copy and calls to action. Follow online best practices for creating and using web-friendly images and graphics, with high resolution and sizing. Always remember to appropriately credit photographers or designers if borrowing images (you can do this through captions, alt tags, and meta data). Explore photo purchasing or borrowing services like Flickr s Creative Commons and this FreeUse group, Unsplash, Little Visuals, or images in the public domain. (Explore some other options here.) When possible, use photos of people from your organization that show real impact. Unsplash is a website that features 10 free high-quality photos you can use for anything. Consistently use bold, prominently placed call to action buttons throughout your site (i.e. Donate, Sign Up, Volunteer, Share). 9 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE First Impressions: How Do I Look?

Design & Layout Use straightforward and simple menus and navigation items to lead visitors throughout the site. Avoid drawn out paths to action. The less clicks the better. Make it easy for supporters and donors to find key pieces of information: who you are, what you do, and how they can help. Also make a direct contact email or phone number available. Don t overcrowd your fundraising site with unnecessary widgets, copy, and pages. Think about how you can use your other channels and platforms to showcase that stuff, so you can focus on fundraising here! Use a clean and simple structure to drive donations and sharing. 10 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE First Impressions: How Do I Look?

URL Create continuity and build trust with your primary website and your org name by using a similar URL and domain. yournonprofit.causevox.com Make tracking and inbound marketing easier by using your own domain. If using CauseVox, you can choose to use your own domain, or host through us (i.e. yournonprofit.causevox.com). Ultimately, there are many ways you can use branding, design, layout, and visual elements to create a clean and authentic fundraising site. We hope this breakdown provides a good foundation for you, or even a refresher if you re looking for a chance. Learn more about how design and branding play important roles in fundraising on our blog. 11 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE First Impressions: How Do I Look?

CONTENT & STORYTELLING 12 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Content & Storytelling

A well-designed and pretty fundraising website means nothing if you don t have compelling content to get people there in the first place. And with multiple mediums to distribute that content, such as social media, your primary website, YouTube or Vimeo channels, email, and more, you have many options to use storytelling and strong action language to drive traffic to your fundraising site. During a campaign, all of your content distribution channels should be aligned to point to your fundraising site with the goal to drive donations. Stories shared on channels direct traffic and donations to your fundraising site SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS CAMPAIGN YOUTUBE VIDEO While some visitors may head to your site and immediately make a donation (they re probably long time supporters, a friend of a current donor, or already did some research elsewhere), others may want to take a minute to look around and get the story before contributing their money especially if they didn t first engage BLOG POSTS FUNDRAISING SITE LINKS FROM YOUR ORG WEBSITE with content from one of your other channels. But they don t have all day. Visitors will want to spend maybe a couple of minutes to get acquainted with your mission and goals, but then they re ready to give or ready to give out. You E-MAIL LINKS don t have much time to draw them in. Consider these steps: 13 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Content & Storytelling

Defining the Problem One of the most important elements in a fundraising site is to quickly and efficiently explain the problem or the need. There are two elements to this: the overall problem that your organization is trying to solve which can tie into your mission; and then the more specific, current need which supports a fundraising campaign. So for instance, your nonprofit may want to eliminate hunger in New York City by 2020. That s the overarching goal, the big picture problem. But for your summer campaign, you may decide to focus on one borough of NYC, or a group of shelters in a single neighborhood, or one public school. This problem is specific, it s current, and it s got tangible impact measures for a short fundraising campaign. How does this all fit into your fundraising website, then? We ll start with the big picture problem: once someone lands on your site, they briefly take in your logo, tagline, and overall design, and then perhaps they ll want to get a few more basic details about who you are and what they need to do to get involved. We recommend these best practices: Start with a one-liner so first time visitors get the gist of what you re about. While you may have a pie-in-sky vision statement, break down your mission and goals into tangible, approachable language. Everyday donors do not like jargon and what we call sector speak. Craft language and terms you d use when speaking to a middle-schooler, your neighbor, or your mother. Avoid buzzwords and heavy stats. Make it clear how donors can contribute, and what the impact and outcomes are. But now it s time to get to the solution part of the story, and that s where your fundraising campaign comes in. 14 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Content & Storytelling

Story to Solution Once someone has gotten the gist of what the problem is and why your organization exists, they want to know why this matters, and why you need their help. They want to know how they can play a role in the solution to the problem. Just as more retail brands are using storytelling in their advertising and commercials to connect with consumers emotionally, you need to do the same to connect people to be a part of the solution. Think of it this way: a good story has a plot that moves forward, character development, and some sort of premise that everything rests on a line that summarizes the theme and story. The story also has a beginning, middle, and an end. When you are creating your fundraising campaign s story, think of the essentials in this way: Who are the characters? [your org, supporters, people/things being impacted] What is the plot? [problem, situation, needs] What is the premise of the story/campaign? [theme/theory of change] What is the beginning (problem), middle (action), and end (solution)? 15 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Content & Storytelling

Your fundraising website and other content channels should answer these questions in some way. The CauseVox platform makes it easy to post blogs, or start a new one, to embed videos, photos, and other media, and share campaign updates. Here are a few things we recommend to make the most of your fundraising site s storytelling potential: Use video to show social impact by your organization. How are you making a difference? Read our blog post to learn how two organizations tackled this approach. Provide real-time updates in a short fundraising campaign to show urgency and in-the-moment impact, but then tie it back to your larger solution. Find creative ways to use data to tell your story. Here are some tips on data visualization for your website. Does your work and mission have a common, recognizable theme in storytelling? Come up with a unique twist on it to stand out from the crowd. Don t try to tell ALL the stories in one place. Pick the most compelling elements that will drive visitors to make a donation as soon as they have consumed your content. Remember quality over quantity. 16 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Content & Storytelling

CAMPAIGN & SITE ADMINISTRATION 17 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Campaign & Site Administration

You have a beautiful, impactful design and a great storytelling strategy. But now comes the technical stuff how to manage your campaign fundraising site. If visitors come to your site but can t figure out how to make a donation, and you can t show progress in a campaign, none of the other stuff matters. Ultimately, the goal is to get donations and make an impact. You want to see it, and your donors want to know it s happening. A great fundraising site makes it easy for organizations to manage their campaigns and to be transparent with donors. Translating donations into measure of impact and giving context through timelines and progress are essential elements for this transparency. Here are some of the features that the CauseVox platform provides that we think make for a more robust crowdfunding site administration experience. 18 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Campaign & Site Administration

Donation Tiers A popular and effective feature of fundraising is using donation tiers to provide several options of giving for a campaign. It takes the guesswork out for the donors, but also gives you a chance to tie your goals more specifically to your mission, giving the donor a better handle on what they are supporting. To determine the donation tiers for your campaign, take a look at your total fundraising goal, what the funds will be used for, and what it will take to get there. Each campaign will be different, so your tiers may vary from one project to the next. Here s an example setup that could be used by an organization advocating for youth fitness: $10 Covers the cost of a jump rope for a child $25 Covers the 5k race entry fee for a child $35 Buys a new pair of running shoes for a child $50 Pays for two swimming lessons for a child It s not always easy to match donation levels with specific impact goals, but when you can, it really increases your chances of success for a campaign. You can create donation tiers quickly and easily through your CauseVox admin dashboard, and edit them at any time. 19 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Campaign & Site Administration

Impact Metrics The Impact Metric is an automated counter set to show the impact of your nonprofit fundraising campaign as it progresses, based on a unit of impact that you create in your site settings. So for instance, if you are able to say that a $25 donation provides paperback novels for three students in a classroom, you can set that as your impact metric, and as donations come in, the counter will automatically calculate how many books you ll be able to purchase. For every $10 donated, this impact metric counts the number of people with clean water. 20 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Campaign & Site Administration

Here are three examples from CauseVox customers: World Bicycle Relief is raising $500,000 to provide bikes for people around the world. Impact Metric = bikes, of course! Friends and family are raising money to cover the cost of physical therapy for Christian, a baby born with a rare brain disease. Impact Metric = therapy sessions, at $120 apiece No Child A Slave, an initiative of Beyond Borders, is establishing Child Protection Brigades in 25 Portau-Prince neighborhoods in Haiti to free children from slavery. Impact Metric = fully funded neighborhood Child Protection Brigade So why use the Impact Metric? For many nonprofits, it s a challenge to explain all of the programming and nuances about restricted and unrestricted funding. It s even harder to tell a great story when all you ve got to work with is a big dollar figure. But when you are able to equate those dollars with actual items to be funded, or ideas put into action, your message becomes stronger and your donors feel more connected with your cause. The Impact Metric can also help lend a sense of urgency to your campaign as you close in on the deadline. So if you have five hours left and you still need 10 more Thanksgiving dinners to ensure everyone at the homeless shelter receives a hot meal, use that metric to drive your final appeal. And of course, once your fundraising campaign is complete, you have no better measure of success than your Impact Metric. 21 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Campaign & Site Administration

Progress Bars & Timelines 70% No matter how long your fundraising campaign is, you ll want to show your status, and keep people abreast of the timeline. While a basic progress bar shows how close you are to reaching a fundraising goal, we like to give our users the option to show all stages of progress: percent of funds raised for the campaign, how that affects the impact metric, and how many days are left in the campaign. Putting all of those data points in context with each other give supporters a much better picture of what needs to be done to help your nonprofit to see success. $7,000 OF $10,000 22 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Campaign & Site Administration

Updates & Outreach A well-run campaign means updating your community regularly. So in addition to the progress bar, we recommend posting updates about the campaign through the blogging tool. You also can consider sending targeted emails to donors thanking them and to provide additional opportunities to take action and stay engaged with your nonprofit, during and beyond the campaign. Don t forget to report out after a campaign has ended, too whether or not you reached your goal, your community deserves to hear about the outcome, as soon as possible after the deadline. 23 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Campaign & Site Administration

Metrics & Reporting More than ever, nonprofits are realizing the importance of good data and donors are, too. That s why a key attribute to an effective fundraising website includes metrics and reporting features, for both the organization, and individual or team fundraisers. CauseVox likes these features: Custom donation receipts Donation reports, custom and built-in Real-time updates in graphs and charts on your dashboard Email notifications and updates Donor wall Peer-to-peer fundraiser management and tracking Donor data management Offline donation management Mobile donation optimization Learn more about donation processing and management features on our website. 24 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Campaign & Site Administration

PEER-TO-PEER FUNDRAISING 25 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Of course, one of the most fun and effective features of nonprofit crowdfunding is individual and team fundraising, also known as peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising. CauseVox is a big supporter of this strategy, because we believe that P2P fundraising is one of the most compelling approaches to achieve your goals both for awareness and financially. In 2013, people raised $5.1B through crowdfunding around the world. And within the nonprofit world, peer-to-peer fundraising grew by 60% from the year before. More than ever, people give because someone else asked them to a friend, family member, neighbor, classmate, etc. So while a strong brand and a compelling organizational story are hugely important, so is making all of that accessible and transferable to everyday people who want to make a difference in their own special way. 26 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

To that end, P2P fundraising features are a priority for the CauseVox team, and we spend a significant amount of time making sure that we are creating opportunities for your nonprofit to maximize your P2P strategy. Here are just some of the options available on our own platform: Individual and team pages, management, and reporting Personal and team fundraiser blogs Pre-populated fundraiser appeals, ready for your edits and customization Easy and guided fundraising page creation Social media integration Custom fields and features We strongly recommend crafting a coaching strategy for your P2P fundraisers to help them see success with you, for a short-term campaign, and in the long run. From sending individual or team emails, to posting tips to the dashboard, and providing toolkits and other resources, there are numerous ways you can guide your fundraisers to make an impact on a personal and local level that feeds into your regional, national, or global efforts. Learn more about personal fundraising in our ebook, The Ultimate Guide to Peer-to-Peer Fundraising. 27 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER 28 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Putting It All Together

There are so many things to consider when creating a fundraising website. You could go down a rabbit hole of reporting and colors and blog updates and more. But don t let the options intimidate you. It s important to stay true to your mission and message, and ultimately, ensure that your supporters can make donations because that s the goal, isn t it? As your organization evolves and you plan out each campaign, take the time to figure out how your fundraising site should reflect change and new goals. The combination of great aesthetics, compelling storytelling, and a userfriendly interface and administration will help you to make the most of your fundraising website, and your donors to make a difference in the world. 29 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Putting It All Together

BUILDING YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE ON CAUSEVOX 30 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Building Your Fundraising Website on CauseVox

We know you re itching to start your campaign, and we re ready to help you make it happen! If you haven t already, we hope you will sign up for CauseVox today to support your crowdfunding needs. As a CauseVox user, here s just a few of the features you ll have access to: Fully customizable fundraising site to integrate with your branding and design Comprehensive fundraising tools to help you manage your campaign (metrics, emails, social media, content, donation progress, and more) Easy and clean user interface and admin dashboard to manage donors, create content, adjust your campaign, and get real-time updates Personal and team fundraising pages for more resources, more reach, and more results Straightforward donation processing with offline gift integration, donor data, and compatibility with the major transaction processors Free guides, toolkits, case studies and resources, in addition to our frequently updated blog to help you be as successful as possible There s a lot more where that came from, and the CauseVox team is your number one resource. Don t hesitate to reach out for more information on any of the topics covered in this guide, and feel free to browse our website for related content if you want to dig a little deeper. Ready to get started? Sign up on CauseVox today. 31 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Building Your Fundraising Website on CauseVox

www.causevox.com 32 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FUNDRAISING WEBSITE Building Your Fundraising Website on CauseVox