How to Start a Donorbox Crowdfunding Page

Crowdfunding is just what it sounds like: a crowd of people coming together to fund a new project, mission, or initiative. Nonprofits, churches, and individuals everywhere are leveraging crowdfunding to raise significant funds to do more good. Donorbox crowdfunding tools make creating and managing your crowdfunding campaign a breeze. Read on to learn how!

4 minutes read
How to Start a Donorbox Crowdfunding Page

Crowdfunding is a fantastic way to engage donors, drive campaign momentum, and bring in more donations for your important cause. Donorbox makes it easy to turn any campaign into a powerful tool to harness the power of the crowd!

In this article, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about Donorbox crowdfunding, including an overview of its features as well as a step-by-step guide to setting up your crowdfunding campaign.

Let’s get started!


An Overview of Donorbox Crowdfunding Features

  • Create a dedicated crowdfunding page that acts as the perfect landing page for your campaign.
  • Post and manage updates to keep the campaign momentum going!
  • Anyone can sign up to get emails about your campaign – meaning they can stay in the loop, even if they don’t give.
  • Send updates through email, either as a batch of many updates or one single update. Customize your email before sending it out!
  • Allow easy social sharing by adding social media links right on your crowdfunding page. All they have to do is click and share!
  • Customize your crowdfunding page to match your branding – add your logo, craft the perfect donation form, and more!
  • Use a donor wall for social proof and automatic donor appreciation.
  • Show your donors how close you are to your goal with a goal meter!

Check out how Tapestry leveraged all of these features to raise over $14,000 for their Giving Tuesday campaign. We love how they used exciting updates to generate more campaign momentum!

An organization's Donorbox crowdfunding page.

Here’s a demo, we walk you through how to build an effective and customizable Crowdfunding page:


Steps to Launch Your Donorbox Crowdfunding Campaign


1. Create a new campaign

Skip this step if you already have a campaign built. If not, you’ll need to create a new campaign first!

After logging in to your Donorbox account, select “Create New Campaign.” You’ll be prompted to choose from a donation form, donation page, or membership form. Select either donation page or donation form to enable crowdfunding. You’ll then be prompted to add your campaign details, which includes setting a goal for the campaign.

Screenshot showing the second step of setting up a new campaign.

Once you’re happy with your details, click “Create.” Here, you can create your donation form, customize your campaign options to match your needs, and more. Learn more about setting up your campaign in our step-by-step guide.


2. Enable crowdfunding

You can enable crowdfunding directly in the campaign builder by clicking the crowdfunding toggle, shown here –

Screenshot showing Donorbox crowdfunding toggle button.

Then you can add your social media accounts and choose whether you want to allow guests to subscribe to updates via email.

From the campaign editor, you can also choose how you want your goal meter to count donations and adjust your goal value. If you don’t want to use a goal meter, don’t include a goal here.

Screenshot showing goal meter settings.

You can also choose to enable a donor wall and disable social sharing buttons. Once you have everything set up how you like it, click “Save.”


3. Post updates

You’ve crafted the perfect crowdfunding page and started fundraising! Now it’s time to generate even more momentum with an update.

Here, you can share updates about campaign milestones, upcoming events, new videos and pictures showcasing your mission, and more!

We love how simple and effective The Pool‘s updates are –

Donorbox crowdfunding page example with updates.

To post a new update, go to your Campaign’s preview page and select “Manage Updates” located in the pages “Manage Updates” tab on the navigation bar.

Next, fill out the required fields (Title and Description).

Once you have finished, post the update and it will automatically be added to the updates section of your Crowdfunding page.

When you post a new update, it will automatically be placed in the “Unsent to Subscribers” section within “Manage Updates.” You can choose to send updates individually or send them in bulk.

Screenshot showing how to send crowdfunding updates on Donorbox.


3. Send updates to subscribers

You can either send a single update, select all updates, or select a variable number of updates to your donors.

Upon selecting the updates you want to send, you will be prompted to fill out an email subject line and an optional email text body. You can create a personalized email to send out to your subscribers.

Screen Shot 2020 10 29 at 12.43.58 PM

Once an update has been sent to subscribers, it will then be moved to the “Sent to Subscribers” section below. If you decide that you need to edit your update, you will have an option to mark it as unsent which will allow you to resend it to your subscribers.


5 Tips to Create the Best Crowdfunding Page

Here are a few ways to make the most out of your Donorbox crowdfunding page – and raise even more!


1. Engage your audience

Typically, the most compelling crowdfunding campaigns tell an engaging story that demonstrates why your mission is so important. You can tell a story through text, video, or photos, but the best campaigns typically leverage all three.

Learn more about telling the perfect story for your fundraising campaign in this blog.


2. Make it look good!

Use Donorbox’s campaign builder to make your crowdfunding page shine! Choose donation form colors that match your branding. Add your organization’s logo and a visually appealing banner image. Use bold, italic, and highlight to make important parts of your text stand out to skimmers.

For more crowdfunding page design tips, check out this blog.

Check out how Living Free Animal Sanctuary made their donate button color match their logo. The image they included is very powerful, too!

Example of an organization with a nicely designed crowdfunding page.


3. Make social sharing easy

Enable social media links to let your donors share your campaign on social channels and increase your reach. Encourage those who can’t give to help by boosting your campaign!

Don’t forget to share your campaign on your social channels, too.


4. Update, update, update

Send an update to your audience to keep them up to date on the status of your crowdfunding campaign. We recommend sending an update once a week to once a month. Make sure to create visually engaging and personal posts.

When sending updates, it’s good to be considerate of your subscribers and not send too many email updates. As noted above, we generally suggest sending updates anywhere between once a week to around once a month.


5. Enable peer-to-peer

Ready to take your crowdfunding campaign to the next level? Enable peer-to-peer fundraising to let your top supporters fundraise on your behalf! Learn more here.


Conclusion

Crowdfunding is a must-have these days. Whether you’re fundraising for something urgent, like a natural disaster, or looking to boost your year-end fundraising, crowdfunding is an excellent way to get many donors to come together.

Donorbox’s crowdfunding tools help you harness the power of the crowd and raise more money. Boost momentum with updates, easy social sharing, a donor wall, a goal meter, and more! We hope this guide helps you create the perfect crowdfunding page to raise more for your next campaign.

For more fundraising tips and insight, check out the rest of our Nonprofit Blog. Subscribe to our newsletter for a curated list of blog content delivered to your inbox every month.

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