Whether or not it’s the attract of a large grant that comes with too many strings connected or a volunteer administration device that guarantees the world however delivers little or no, nonprofits aren’t any strangers to offers that appear too good to be true. The identical may be stated about so-called free fundraising platforms for nonprofits. Although the preliminary considered a free fundraising platform is sort of interesting, it’s essential to know simply what you’re getting (and never getting) after you join. Learn on to find the hidden prices of free fundraising platforms and how one can keep away from falling sufferer to them.
Lack of Assist and Assets
Free fundraising platforms could not present the identical stage of assist and assets as paid options. As an illustration, sure free fundraising platforms lack devoted stay cellphone assist, leaving you with solely stay chat or e-mail help.
With out enough assist, you possibly can end up navigating challenges and dodging obstacles by yourself, which might result in less-effective fundraising outcomes on your mission. This may very well be particularly troublesome if you run into a problem smack dab in the course of your silent public sale fundraiser. Will you be left stranded, or will you be capable of entry the aid you want shortly?
So, it’s essential to search out out in regards to the platform’s assist choices. Listed below are some questions you’ll wish to ask by way of assist and assets:
- What assist choices can be found (i.e., cellphone, chat, e-mail, assist middle)?
- Is there an added price for assist?
- What are the hours of availability, and is there assist outdoors of enterprise hours, corresponding to nights or weekends?
- Is coaching accessible totally free?
- How responsive and educated is the assist crew in observe?
- What’s the common decision turnaround time?
- Within the occasion of advanced technical points or challenges, what escalation course of is in place to make sure well timed decision and minimal disruption to fundraising actions?
- Are there complete assets or a neighborhood discussion board for troubleshooting and finest practices?
Lack of Partnership
Some free fundraising platforms for nonprofits lack a devoted buyer success supervisor, not like paid platforms that supply personalised help. With out this partnership, nonprofits miss essential steerage, technique improvement, and concern decision. A devoted buyer success supervisor understands the nonprofit’s wants, presents tailor-made options, and ensures optimum platform use. Finally, the dearth of personalised assist could impede fundraising targets and end in missed alternatives for donor engagement and income era.
- With no devoted supervisor, how does the platform help with technique improvement and optimization of fundraising efforts?
- How does the platform be sure that nonprofit employees are adequately skilled on utilizing the platform’s options and maximizing fundraising potential and not using a devoted supervisor?
- Is there a system in place for nonprofits to supply suggestions on their expertise with buyer assist and counsel enhancements to the platform’s providers?
- How does the platform plan to assist nonprofits’ evolving wants over time with out the presence of a devoted buyer success supervisor?
Restricted Options and Customization
A free fundraising platform sounds nice on the floor, however what if it doesn’t embrace all the options your nonprofit wants to really get the job achieved?
Restricted Customization
As an illustration, free platforms may need restricted customization choices for branding your fundraising marketing campaign or offering numerous giving selections for donors. This might restrict your potential to create a singular and compelling fundraising web page that resonates along with your viewers. For instance, you will not be ready customise the colour scheme or personalize the donation web page in a means that will attraction to your donors and align along with your model and mission.
Moreover, some free fundraising platforms don’t present the power to customise donation kinds. Customizing your donation kinds is essential when you’re making an attempt to boost donor engagement and enhance contributions. Customized kinds, which mirror your group’s distinctive identification and mission, can considerably increase donor belief and connection.
Lack of Options
Some fundraising platforms can also lack complete options like recurring giving, peer-to-peer fundraising, auctions, raffles, donations, text-to-donate, and on-line shops. This limitation can pose challenges for nonprofits using numerous fundraising ways, requiring separate options for every technique. With no unified platform accommodating numerous fundraising strategies, nonprofits danger inefficiencies, disjointed operations, and difficulties in managing donor knowledge and engagement throughout completely different channels. Adopting a number of platforms to handle distinct fundraising wants might enhance prices, complexity, and administrative burden for the group.
Providing numerous giving choices for donors, corresponding to PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and matching presents, is essential for nonprofits to cater to the preferences and comfort of their supporters. By offering a wide range of fee strategies and alternatives for matching presents, nonprofits can improve donor engagement and accessibility, in the end maximizing fundraising potential. Nonetheless, if a free fundraising platform fails to supply these choices, nonprofits could encounter limitations in donor participation and income era. Donors could also be deterred from contributing if their most popular fee methodology isn’t accessible, resulting in missed alternatives for assist and decreased donor satisfaction.
Restricted Info
One other facet to remember is that some free fundraising platforms supply solely restricted purchaser particulars that may prohibit a nonprofit’s potential to achieve insights into donor habits and preferences. With solely fundamental purchaser particulars accessible, corresponding to transaction quantities and dates, nonprofits could lack the depth of data wanted to know their donor base absolutely. Restricted reviews could hinder a nonprofit’s capability to section its donors, personalize communications, and domesticate lasting relationships. Consequently, nonprofits could miss alternatives to have interaction donors meaningfully, optimize fundraising efforts, and foster long-term assist, in the end impacting their potential to attain their mission and maintain their packages successfully.
Keep away from these platform pitfalls by doing all your analysis first. Ask these questions to know precisely what you’re getting with the free fundraising platform:
- Is there a restrict on the variety of free fundraising campaigns and occasions you possibly can launch?
- What’s the price when you go over the restrict?
- Can you model and customise your donation web page? Are there limits to what you possibly can design?
- Do the donation pages from that fundraising vendor look comparable? If that’s the case, how will your model stand out?
- How scalable is the platform? Can it develop along with your group’s wants over time?
- How user-friendly is the platform for each your crew and your donors? Is the interface intuitive?
- Are you able to customise the donation kind?
- Is recurring giving accessible on the shape? Are weekly frequencies an choice?
- What fee choices can be found (i.e., Paypal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay)?
- Does the platform have an choice for matching presents?
- Does the platform present complete reporting (donor demographics, giving historical past, engagement, and many others.)?
- How regularly are bug fixes and product enhancements being carried out on the platform?
Platform Charges
Platform charges are incurred on high of processing and transaction charges, they usually can add up shortly. Although a free fundraising platform could say it doesn’t cost platform charges, this may increasingly solely be true in case your donors cowl these prices themselves by means of what known as tipping. In case you plan to show that “tip” choice off, relying on the platform you possibly can anticipate a platform charge of between 1-5% per transaction based mostly on the kind of marketing campaign.
Guarantee the very best use of your donor’s cash by asking these questions forward of time:
- What’s the platform charge? Does it fluctuate by kind of marketing campaign (i.e., occasion, donation web page, kind)?
- Do donors should tip to pay for platform charges?
- In case you flip off the tip choice for donors, what charges are charged?
Processing and Transaction Charges
When calculating hidden prices, don’t neglect about processing and transaction charges, too. These charges are incurred every time a donation is made by means of the platform and may fluctuate based mostly on a number of elements, together with the kind of fee methodology utilized by donors.
To keep away from getting caught with extra charges, ask these essential questions:
- What’s the processing charge?
- What’s the transaction charge?
- Do you cost each processing AND transaction charges?
- Does the charge fluctuate by fee kind?
- Outdoors of normal fee processing charges, corresponding to a bank card charge, are there another charges, corresponding to a per ticket or per transaction charge?
- Is there a month-to-month or commonplace fee processor charge?
Lagged Payouts
As soon as your fundraiser ends, what’s subsequent? How precisely do you get that cash from the free fundraising platform to your nonprofit’s checking account? With some free platforms, withdrawals aren’t automated, and may take 5 enterprise days or extra to seem in your linked account. As well as, some platforms could cost a payout charge.
Discover out what to anticipate along with your payout by asking these questions first:
- How shortly can I get my payout?
- What’s the course of for initiating payout?
- Do I’ve to take handbook steps to provoke payout?
- Do you cost extra charges for payouts?
- Is there any option to expedite payouts in case of pressing want?
- Have there been cases of payout delays, and the way had been they resolved?
Safety and Compliance
Utilizing a safe fundraising platform is crucial to a profitable fundraiser. Nonprofits merely can’t afford to danger a safety knowledge breach. As soon as your donors know that their private and fee info is protected, they’ll be extra prone to return with future donations.
Listed below are some inquiries to ask to know simply how protected the free fundraising platform is:
- Have you ever had a knowledge breach up to now? How did you deal with it?
- Are you SOC 2 compliant?
- Are you PCI-compliant?
- What measures are in place to guard in opposition to unauthorized entry to donor knowledge?
When searching for a software program answer on your nonprofit’s subsequent fundraiser, you’ll want to do your homework. Although the promise of a free fundraising platform could attraction to your price range, you simply could find yourself paying extra in the long term due to extra charges, upcharges, and missed income from missing options. Try our Nonprofit Final Purchaser’s Information for much more tips about what to search for in a fundraising platform and questions it’s good to ask as you consider your fundraising and donor administration platform choices.
