What is Happening with GoFundMe Charity?
After GoFundMe Charity's shutdown, nonprofits must be wondering what they must use for effective fundraising and whether the transition would be smooth. Check out how Donorbox can help in this article!
Kristine Ensor
After GoFundMe Charity's shutdown, nonprofits must be wondering what they must use for effective fundraising and whether the transition would be smooth. Check out how Donorbox can help in this article!
GoFundMe has become a popular tool to raise funds for medical, education, and emergency costs. Since its start, over 50,000 nonprofits have used GoFundMe to raise funds through crowdfunding. In 2021, GoFundMe is closing its GoFundMe Charity wing leaving nonprofits scrambling for a new online processor to run their crowdfunding campaigns.
Nonprofits have several options to choose from, but few fit the bill as well as Donorbox. With affordable pricing, features like crowdfunding and recurring donations, and a simple and quick set-up process, switching to Donorbox could not be easier.
GoFundMe was once one of the only ways to crowdfund. Since its start, crowdfunding has become a popular fundraising strategy, and more online donation processors have started offering it as a way for nonprofits to raise funds. As more nonprofits started to use GoFundMe’s system, they created a separate program to support their efforts. There was a low 3% processing fee and the ability to add a crowdfunding link to nonprofit websites, but organizations’ options to raise funds were pretty limited.
This year, GoFundMe decided to end the GoFundMe Charity. As of September 30, 2021, Nonprofits can no longer start new campaigns or accept donations online. On December 31, 2021, GoFundMe Charity will officially shut down. Nonprofits who have depended on them for crowdfunding campaigns must find a new option.
Donorbox offers online donation processing, crowdfunding, 3rd party integrations, and several other fundraising tools to help nonprofits raise funds at exceptionally low costs. Over 50,000 organizations across 40 countries use Donorbox to raise funds online.
The popularity of crowdfunding has amazed professionals and helped raise thousands of dollars for nonprofits. With Donorbox, nonprofits can create crowdfunding campaigns in minutes.
Nonprofits can create a compelling story, regularly post updates, send emails to donors (also, potential donors who subscribe), and add a donor wall to encourage gifts. Donors can share these campaigns with their friends and family and automatically subscribe to receive updates on how the campaign is going. Potential donors who show interest in the campaign can choose to subscribe to updates. That’s a great way to encourage them to give via regular updates, impressive images, and videos from the on-ground work.
Organizations can create crowdfunding campaigns to fit their website branding and customize the donation form with as many custom fields/questions as you need. The user interface is neat and intuitive with tools like a goal thermometer, social media buttons, updates tab, donor wall tab, subscription button, and campaign description. Here’s a great example of a Donorbox crowdfunding campaign –
Donorbox has partnerships with several online businesses to help nonprofits raise funds online. Thanks to these partnerships, nonprofits can save time, increase donations, and tailor marketing to their donors.
When creating online donation forms with Donorbox, it is easy to embed them into your WordPress, Weebly, Squarespace, Wix, and Shopify websites. Nonprofits can also include features from Salesforce, Zapier, Mailchimp, and Double the Donation with their Donorbox account.
All nonprofits know the importance of affordable fundraising tools. Nonprofits can sign up for Donorbox free of charge and without signing a contract. With a 1.5% platform fee and average processing fees at 2.2% + $0.30/transaction, Donorbox is one of the most affordable options out there.
Nonprofits also get to add an option to the donation form to encourage donors to cover the processing fees. In 2020, 53.4% of total donations were covered by donors. So you see, most donors usually opt for this, ensuring maximum donations for nonprofits.
As nonprofits receive donations from crowdfunding campaigns, collecting as much information on their donors as possible is essential. Building relationships with donors helps turn one-time gifts into long-term support.
Donorbox allows nonprofits to record communication and keep track of important moments like donation anniversaries and recurring donation changes as you collect donor information. Nonprofits can also sort donors, easily export them to reports, and send personalized email receipts.
Nonprofits love recurring donations because they can count on that and include that income in their annual budget. Crowdfunding campaigns are an excellent way to encourage weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual recurring gifts.
With Donorbox, nonprofits can easily add the option to give a recurring gift to their online donation form. Donors have control over their recurring donations and can change the amount and date whenever they want. As donors make the first donation, their accounts get created on Donorbox, and from thereon, they’ve full control over their recurring plans. Donorbox keeps nonprofits aware of any changes made to these gifts.
Here’s an example of a Donorbox recurring donation form –
Donorbox’s donation forms are entirely customizable. Nonprofits can brand an embeddable form or pop-up form to match their website and organization’s branding.
Donorbox stands out in the crowd, allowing nonprofits to use up to 11 languages and accept currencies from 40 countries. In addition to secure credit card processing with Stripe and PayPal, donors can also use Apple Pay, Google Pay, and ACH and SEPA bank transfers to make their donations.
To encourage donors to give more to your campaigns, Donorbox has added a few more features. Organizations can add a goal meter so donors can track the success of the campaign and a donor wall where donors can add personal testimonials where other donors can see them.
With Donorbox, organizations can add multiple fields/questions to their donation form. The below screenshot shows how it is made easy with no coding knowledge required. All you need to do is add the question, type in the text, and make it mandatory (if required). Save it and that’s all!
With Donorbox, crowdfunding isn’t the only option to raise funds. Nonprofits can create their own fundraising page, add the company matching widget, and enable the text-to-give option to boost their donations. Here’s how these options work –
As soon as a nonprofit has signed up, they will be able to create a campaign on the Donorbox dashboard. With that, they will also get a free Donorbox-hosted donation page. If the nonprofit lacks a donation page on their own website (which usually, many do), they can add a ‘Donate’ button to redirect donors to this page. That makes the process quite hassle-free as it saves them time and effort to create a new donation page, at the same time, gives them a branded and simple one that’s actually effective for raising a lot of funds. Here’s an example –
Nonprofits can get more from their donors’ gifts with company matching gifts. Donorbox has partnered with Double the Donation to make it easy for donors to find out if their companies offer this option. For a discounted cost, nonprofits can add the Double the Donation form to their donation page and watch their revenue increase. It’s the simplest way to double/triple donations.
Donors will select their company’s name from the dropdown list (as shown in the image below) and Donorbox will send them the rest of the details on how to claim the matching gift. No hassle from the nonprofit’s end! Check this out –
Regardless of the size and mission of your organization, nonprofits will see a lot of benefits from adding a text-to-give campaign to their fundraising efforts. With Donorbox, nonprofits can create a campaign online and give their donors a campaign number to use when they text.
Donors will send the campaign number to the given text number. As part of our text-to-give feature, we have 2 great plans for nonprofits – the basic plan and short code plan (offers shorter text number that’s easier to remember and type in). In response to the text from donors, Donorbox will send a link to your campaign page. Donors can fill out the form using their smartphone on their own time, during an indoor or outdoor event, or even during a church service. With our repeat donation feature, donors can repeat the last donation amount anytime in the future without any hassle of filling out forms or inputting details.
The end of GoFundMe Charity has made things critical for nonprofits looking for ways to crowdfund. Thankfully, it is quick and straightforward to switch to Donorbox.
There is no contract to sign, and with just an email, password, and other important organizational details, nonprofits can start a new account in just 15 minutes. Once you have your account, organizations can create one donation form for all online donations or different forms for each campaign. Add Stripe or PayPal as your payment processor and go live right away!
We have written a detailed blog on how to get started with Donorbox. Read it here for step-by-step assistance. You can also watch this short YouTube video where we have explained the 4 simple steps to get started with the Donorbox fundraising tool.
Even as GoFundMe Charity closes, nonprofits do not have to stress about finding quality fundraising tools. Nonprofits can transfer their crowdfunding campaigns, online donation processing, and donor management to Donorbox in only moments.
Worries over losing precious time on current campaigns will fade away when you see how easy it is to make the switch! 50,000+ charities are already using Donorbox.
Don’t wait till the last moment.
Here are some charities that’re using Donorbox for their fundraising and crowdfunding needs –
If you have any concerns, our customer service professionals are here to help. Learn more about other fundraising features on our website. Visit our blog for more tips and resources on fundraising and nonprofit management.
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Kristine Ensor is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience working with local and international nonprofits. As a nonprofit professional she has specialized in fundraising, marketing, event planning, volunteer management, and board development.
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