Hi Johanna!
There are a ton of these out there now. To me, they are basically all the same in the sense that you set up a dedicated, informative page about the fundraiser, and people go there to make the donation. On these platforms, they often allow you to display your goal (ex: $500) and show the public where you are in reaching it (you're at $200 and therefore need $300 more). It's allowing you to make more of a focused production about it with the hopeful result being others will get excited about you reaching your goal, too, b/c they can see it happening.
They can allow you to do other activities, like auctions, raffles, event tickets, etc. (Givebutter, for example). They can include the ability to send out texts to your followers...sort of a back up plan if they don't see it on social media or if they don't get to their emails.
The idea, though, is to have the focused page on that specific event so that people can go to one single page to donate, see updates, make comments, or even do peer to peer challenges (Annie is team A, Tom is team B, Jane is team C...makes it a friendly competition of who can raiser more funds). You can post photos, stories, etc on the updates and comments, too, like "We're so close to reaching our goal so Lucky can have surgery" or "We'll be able to purchase this palate of food," and so on and so forth.
I'm sure others can add more info, and we probably all have our favorite. :) I've tried several to see if any one was better than the other, but they all turn out about the same. I will say, however, that Givebutter is my favorite - nice interface, easy to use (although I don't think any of them are difficult).
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Allison Rathert
Founder/President
k9.5 Rescue
SC
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-20-2023 03:27 PM
From: Johanna Spielman
Subject: Fundraising platform confusion!
I'm getting really confused about all the different fundraising platforms: GivingGrid, CauseVox, Classy, GiveButter (others?).
I don't understand the differences and are any of them really necessary? Helpful? We have our regular website and use WPForms for donations.
What do they mean when they talk about "conversion"?
Are they different from using WPForms? And if so, how?
Do they integrate with our website or are they completely stand-alone?
ANY help is greatly appreciated
#FundraisingandDevelopment
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Sincerely,
Johanna Spielman
Founder of Jamie Brianna's Legacy Fund
https://jamiebriannaslegacyfund.org/
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