CrowdRise FAQs

On November 7th, we're launching GoFundMe Charity,a new fundraising suite for nonprofits, and the Donate Button by GoFundMe, an easy way to accept donations anywhere online. GoFundMe Charity will give charities of all sizes access to enterprise-level fundraising software and new features, powered by the social fundraising expertise of GoFundMe. Beginning in November, the new products will be available to millions of nonprofits.

Read the announcement here!

To understand how this will affect your CrowdRise account and activity, please see the FAQs below:

What happens to my CrowdRise account?

For now, its business as usual. Youll continue to sign in to your account using the same username and password, and receive the support and access to the tools and features you rely on. Starting in November, you will have access to all of the new offerings from GoFundMe Charity and we will seamlessly move you over to the new product without any effort on your end.All your historical campaign and account information will be waiting for you. Consider this a little gift.

What happens to my current CrowdRise URL?

Youdon'thave to worry about people finding your campaign. We will redirect all links on www.crowdrise.com to our new GoFundMe Charity domain. For example, if your campaigns URL is currently www.crowdrise.com/yellow, you can still type that into the search bar and you will be automatically redirected to charity.gofundme.com/yellow.

No action is required on your part within the product and all campaigns will continue running as usual. Existing links will redirect. Please make sure to proactively update your whitelist if your organization has a whitelist of domains that you keep updated.

Will there be any changes for my donors and fundraisers?

Aside from re-branding and URL redirects, both the donor and fundraiser experience will be identical to what it was before. All fundraisers, team members, and donors will be able to log into their accounts the same way they always have. In November, you will have access to all the new GoFundMe Charity tools and features.

How does this affect my pricing?

Starting in November, charities will have access to all of the new offerings from GoFundMe Charity including no subscriptions, no paywalls, no add-on fees and a choice between our No Platform Fee Model and Flexible Pricing Plans. Nonprofits can save more than just their subscription fees. As an industry first, GoFundMe Charity also offers its customers two transaction-based pricing plans: either a guaranteed 0% platform fee with an option for donors to leave a voluntary tip for GoFundMes services and support, or a flexible option with donor-covered fees.

Will there be any downtime on the site when the change happens?

We want to make this as seamless as possible with zero downtime. Well flip the switch in November, so any visits towww.crowdrise.comafter that time will be redirected tocharity.gofundme.com. All functionality will be the same, but youll notice a new look and feel right away. And youll have accessto all of the new offerings from GoFundMe Charity including no subscriptions, no paywalls, and a choice between our No Platform Fee Model and Flexible Pricing Plans.

What changes should we expect in the future?

Were always looking at ways to make the experience better. Our goal is to make fundraising easier, faster and more effective for you. New tools to help you raise more money. A new and sleek website layout, including a new brand name, logo and color theme. The ability to customize and tailor your pages and email to match your charitys brand. The ability to make the changes you need within your own account. Other than that, all functionality remains the same.

The campaign editor is where elements of each campaign are added and edited. Select the campaign you want to customize from your Campaign Hub and click Edit to get started. Then, access the campaign editor.

Click Here

Editable content

Title

Pictures

Video

Story

Goal

Beneficiary

Location

URL

Theme

Settings

Title

Your original campaign title will become your URL (a.k.a. web address or link). Heres an example: crowdrise.com/campaign-title

Updating your title will not change your URL, but you will have the chance to. More info Here.

Pictures

Under the Photos section, click the photo icon

Drag and drop files from your computer or click the link below to browse

You will be prompted to crop each image into a rectangle

Click Save

You can upload up to 10 pictures. Drag and drop the photos to rearrange the order. The image in the first position will be the default social share image.

To delete a picture, hover over it and click the trash can icon in the corner.

If you experience anything strange while uploading your pics, check out this Troubleshooting Article for tips.

Video

Videos are incredibly powerful when they are relatively short and explain the impact of your campaign.

Upload your video onto YouTube or Vimeo, marked as public and embeddable in the video settings

Grab the shareable link from your video

a YouTube share URL will look like this, followed by some letters or numbers: https://youtu.be/

a Vimeo share URL will look like this, followed by a phrase or numbers: https://vimeo.com/

Copy and paste the video share URL into Video box in the campaign editor

Click Save

To feature your video in the first position of your image gallery, click the star in the corner of the video thumbnail.

To delete, click the trash can icon in the upper corner.Story

In the Story section you'll be able to update using the rich text editor

When everything is perfect, click the Save button

The best campaign stories are concise, compelling, and explain why youre passionate about the cause. If you can explain where the donations will go and how they will help, that can motivate people to give.Goal

A goal gives you a chance to reach out and let your supporters know whenyou'vehit milestones, and we have found that communicating with your supporters regularly leads to more momentum and more repeat donations.

Setting a goal is a great idea, but its not required. You may edit it at any time.

From your Campaign Hub, hover over your campaign and click on the Edit Icon*

Click on the campaign card

*if your campaign is part of a multi-team campaign, click on the 'Team Page' card

Scroll down to the Goal section and enter the amount you intend to raise

Click 'Save'

There are no goal requirements and no deadlines when you use CrowdRise. If you do set a goal and don't hit it, all the money you raised still goes straight to the cause.

Beneficiary

The Donate button cannot turn on until a nonprofit is selected to receive the funds from your campaign. Either add one when you create the campaign, or add on later in the campaign editor.

Scroll down to the Beneficiary section and youll see your current nonprofit listed

If no funds have been raised yet, you can delete the current selection and search for your desired nonprofit by name or tax ID (EIN/BRN) number

Once you find the correct nonprofit, select them from the dropdown list

Click Save to confirm

Once a campaign has raised money, beneficiary cannot be changed.

Location

If your campaign coincides with a live event or location, feel free to add the address so your supporters can find it.

You can type any address, business or landmark into this field that you would find on a map, then select from the dropdown list below. Click Save when youre finished.Edit URL

Your original URL will be set based on the title of your campaign. Your URL may be edited one time.

Scroll down to the Customize Your URL field

Enter your new desired URL (no spaces or special characters)

Click Save to commit

If the URL is already in use, you will not be able to save

Note: If you have already shared your original campaign URL, changing it will break any previously shared links.

Our Customer Support Team is able to create a redirect so any visitors clicking your old URL will be redirected to your new URL.Contact us with the new and old URLs and we can help.

Theme

Change the campaign colors and add a logo in the design tab.

Use the Theme color and Header color buttons to customize your colors

You can click Reset to default on both buttons to restore your campaign to CrowdRise presets

Click the camera icon to browse your computer and upload a logo

Click the trash can icon to return to the default CrowdRise logo

What other campaign controls do I have?

In the Settings tab you can control the following:

Team Fundraising: add or remove a Join the Team button

Disable Donate Button: remove your donate button from your campaign now, or on a scheduled date

Hide Donation Dollar Amounts: remove the amounts from your Recent donations list

Allow Offline Donations: toggle the ability for your teammates to log their own offline donations

for more information on how to use the various elements of the Settings tab.

Thanking your donors is so, so important. It was actually named 3rd most important thing to do when managing a fundraiser by someone's mom who works here.

Use the 'Thank You' button in each donation notification you receive to compose anemail to show your appreciation, or write your own old-school paper note and drop it in the mail. Even a one-minute phone call can increase donor retention by 30%.

Thank them super fast. Research shows that first time donors who receive a thank you within 48 hours are 400x more likely to give again in the future.

Make sure to let them know what their donation means to you and your cause. If you can make it tangible, that's even better. For example, "Your donation of $25 will provide meals to 4 needy children."

Give them an update using the campaign update tool and let them know that they are a part of it all. For example, "We're halfway to our goal of raising $2000 because of your generosity and support."

Don't include a sad story or an ask for additional donations in this message. This can make the donor feel as though they haven't done enough, resulting in "buyers remorse." Let them take this moment to feel great about their contribution.

Joining a team is super easy. On every campaign, you can join the fun by clicking the "Join the Team" button. Within minutes you'll have a campaign set up, linked to the original one, and can help raise more money than you ever thought possible for your cause.

Unless youre a nationally funded organization or rely strictly on grants, individual donors are a big part of your fundraising efforts. Whether they donate, fundraise or network on your behalf, individual supporters comprise the backbone of your organization who help extend the reaches of your mission.

Attracting new donors and drawing attention to your cause can prove to be challenging in todays competitive world. Nonetheless, its incredibly important to expanding the reach of your nonprofits cause. Below, weve laid out six creative and intuitive ways to attract new donors to your cause.

Get Online

This may sound like a no-brainer, but some organizationsdon'thave ordon'tfully capitalize on the age of the internet. Having a website is the first step. You can share info about your mission, have a page about staff members, a donate button and much more. By embracing social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, you can extend your nonprofits outreach even further

Of the nonprofits in the United States alone,

85% have twitter

63% have linkedin

61% have Instagram

Updating these platforms on a weekly to bi-weekly basis gives your mission a voice and accessible way for people to learn more. Youll keep supporters engaged and have a year-round presence, no matter if you are currently running a campaign or event. A social media presence also makes it easier for your existing supporters to share your social media posts to their own networks. Check out this great Blog and handy Cheat Sheet, which both dive deeper into Social Fundraising.

Monthly Updates

While many organizations give important periodic announcements, providing consistent updates to your supporters is critical to lasting engagement. Your mission and the fantastic undertakings your organization accomplishes need a place to live and a place to be shared.

By supplying your supporters a steady stream of updates, youll also help to stay in the forefront of their minds. When it does come time for an ask, or when supporters are ready to give, that video from your last email or Facebook post might be the catalyst of an important donation.

A Get to Know Us Day

While your volunteers might help at one-off events or in other times of need, they might not feel truly connected to your organizations mission. However, there are a few ways you can re-engage with your volunteers to strengthen their resonance with your cause. Check these ideas out:

Volunteer Appreciation Day - Invite your volunteers to tour your operation or interact with the folks you help. This really brings the mission to life and showcases the amazing work your organization does on a day-to-day basis. Provide volunteers with lunch and an organization-branded t-shirt. They will leave feeling empowered, inspired and as ambassadors of your mission.

Volunteer Q&A - Host a round table or Q&A forum with your volunteers. This is an excellent way to reconnect with your supporters all while also educating them on upcoming initiatives. Film the session and post it on your website as a resource for others looking to learn more about your non-profit.

Volunteers + One - Your volunteers are some of your biggest assets. Invite them to tour your operation, but this time have your volunteers bring a plus-one. This could be a family member, friends or colleague who your volunteer thinks would be interested in getting involved.

During these types of events, be sure to focus on the people who are attending. Wed recommend holding off on a monetary ask, as this might turn some away. Instead, take this time to gather information from everyone who attends and follow-up with them in the coming days. Fostering those relationships will undoubtedly lead to positive outcomes.

Put Together a Junior Board

As the Baby Boomer generation ages, the torch passes to Millenials and younger. With todays current affairs, more and more young people are inspired, speaking up and becoming involved in what is important to them. Capitalize on this momentum by forming a Junior Board filled with people of ages approximately 18-37. Empower them to give feedback and listen to their points of view. Let them bring new ideas to the table, such as a new approach to an old process or a modern spin on a stale event. Its also a good idea to task them with planning initiatives on their own. With the help of younger generations, your organization can draw from a completely new group of potential supporters and donors. For more on the impact of Millennials check out This Report.

Leverage Your Current Donors

We always say that you know your donor base the best. You know who donates, when they donate and maybe even what triggers them to donate. Use this information and leverage it to your advantage.

Make sure youre pulling reports from the CrowdRise Report Center and using that data to grow relationships. People are more likely to give to personal connections like friends and family. That's why it's important to foster your own relationships with these donors to strengthen their connection to the cause.

A successful campaign on CrowdRise always contains the following: a compelling story, impactful photos, relentless messaging and heartfelt thank-you's.

Most importantly, do your best to show your supporters the impact that their donation or fundraising can have and be clear with your ask for support.

We have a whole slew of resources that include functionality how-to's, best practices, and campaign examples in our Study Hall.

If youre interested in getting started on a campaign butaren'treally sure where to begin, check out our Campaign Kit. From sample story text to how to gain local press coverage, the Campaign Kit provides the basics (and juicy extras) of running a successful campaign from start to finish.

Campaign Kit

Ready to begin? Download our comprehensive to launch, manage and take your CrowdRise campaign to the next level.

The absolute best way to locate any campaign or event is with the direct link, so we highly suggest asking your friend to send you the URL. They may even want to post it on social media for everyone to see.

You can search for a friend or event on CrowdRise by typing their name or an individual's email address into the Search.We suggest using the direct URL whenever possible, as keyword searching can often bring up inconsistent or too many results.If you need any help, please Contact Us and we'll be ready to dig in.

CrowdRise by GoFundMe is the most innovative, modern crowdfunding platform for charitable causes. From basic cost-free options all the way up to a full suite of enterprise tools, were here to cover all of your nonprofits fundraising needs.

There are so many reasons but here are some of our favorites:

1. We believe cost-free fundraising is a reality. We provide all donors with the option to cover transaction fees as well as credit card fees on every donation made through CrowdRise*. On average, 93% of donors choose to cover the fees. That means the majority of our nonprofit partners are ending up close to - or achieving - cost-free fundraising.

2. Event Ticketing & Registration.CrowdRise is the leading event fundraising platform in the world. CrowdRise offers its own ticketing & registration solution, and allows nonprofits to easily combine its platform with tools and services from the worlds finest third-party event registration, management, and marketing solutions.

3. Salesforce & CRM Integration.No matter what CRM you use, we make it so easy to take your donor and fundraiser data on CrowdRise and integrate it with the CRM of your choice. If you use Salesforce, our Salesforce App makes integration easier than ever before.

Donate & Community Crowdfunding.CrowdRise and its team of data scientists and UX experts created the most effective, cost-efficient Donate Button for your nonprofits website. Pair it with our modern Fundraise Button to attract new supporters, increase loyalty, and add incremental revenue directly from your own website.

The Best Customer Support.At CrowdRise, we're proud to be part of your team. We provide our nonprofits and fundraisers with world-class support, best practices, and advanced resources to help them crush their fundraising goals and grow their nonprofit programs.

We take security and our user's privacy very seriously here at CrowdRise. We are fully PCI compliant and regularly test our systems for compliance. We follow industry standard best practices for security and fully encrypt all user data in transit.

Now for the legal side of things... We have a nice blurb about security included in our Terms of Use. Here is the most relevant section for your review:

Security of the Services. CrowdRise maintains physical, technical, and administrative safeguards that are designed to help protect the Services, our systems and our volunteers', Fundraisers', Donors' and Charities' information. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be absolutely secure. While CrowdRise strives to protect your information, it cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.

All campaigns can remain active and continue receiving donations for as long as you like.How to end your campaign when you're finished will depend on the status of the campaign and what you want your supporters to see.

Index

Delete a campaign with no donations and no teams

Close a campaign with funds raised &/or team members

Hide a campaign from a personal profile

Hide a campaign from a nonprofit profile

To delete a campaign with nodonations and no team members:

Hover over the campaign youd like to delete and click the trash can icon in the upper right corner of the campaign card

Click Delete to confirm

To end acampaign with funds raised or team members:

Remove your Donate button to stop receiving donations. You may disable the donate button immediately, or schedule it to happen automatically at a later date.

Hover over the campaign and click the edit icon

In the campaign editor, click the settings tab, then toggle Disable Donate Button on

Choose if youd like the donate button to shut off now, or set a date in the future

Click 'Save to confirm

If you set a future date for the button to disable, it will turn off at 12:00am PT after the date has passed.Note: Removing your 'Donate' button as a team organizer will also remove the donate button for any fundraisers who have joined your campaign.

To hide the campaign from your personal profile:

Click the main menu and select Profile

Locate the thumbnail of the campaign you'd like to hide

Click the Hide Fundraiser link in the upper right corner and you'll be good to go

The thumbnail will become gray to indicate that it is hidden to the public. You will still be able to access the campaign by clicking Go To Fundraiser.

Anyone who still has the URL can access this campaign, so make sure the Donate button is off if you don't want to receive any more donations. You may also want to edit your URL if youdon'twant anyone to peek.

If you have any questions before closing your campaign contact us so we can dig right in.

*Please note that if your campaign is part of a larger event hosted on CrowdRise, such as a marathon or Challenge, the organizer of that campaign may remove the donate button on your campaign at a time of their choosing.

To hide a campaign from your nonprofit profile

This is not a user-facing feature at this time. Please reach out to Customer Support and provide the name of the campaign(s) that need to be hidden.

To match a donation on CrowdRise, the company or donor matching the donation canplace a second donation to the same fundraiser for the same amount.They also have the ability to leave a comment during the donation process saying something like "This donation is a match for NAME's donation of $$$ in order to clarify your match.

However, every person and/or companys matching program is unique and may have additional requirements that have to be met. Wed recommend reaching out tothe company providing the match to find out what their specific requirements are for a matching gift.

Here are a few decent tips...

Tip #1: Make sure your campaign is so compelling that your supporters feel like they can't leave without donating. Get personal with your story, explain why you're fundraising, what will their money do for your cause, etc. Add lots of pics and a video. The more well-rounded your page, the better your campaign will perform.

Tip #2: Make the first donation. After your campaign is all set up, make the first donation. Make sure it's an amount that you think your supporters will respond to. It sets the tone for your campaign and people like seeing that you're supporting your cause as well.

Tip #3: Set a fundraising goal. Supporters like to help you work towards something and, it gives you something to message about during the course of your campaign. Sending out an email when you're at 50% of your goal is super motivating and allows everyone to see how their donations are impacting your cause.

Tip #4:When you get a donation, you'll get a donation alert. Make sure to use our Thank You tool to immediately thank your supporters. If they feel like their donation is appreciated, they will be more likely to give again. And again.

Tip #5: Reach out more than once. Email, send campaign updates, and use social networks to ask supporters to give again and again. Keep them posted on your goals, where their money is going, how it's helping and what it means to you personally. Be relentless. It's for a good cause.

All nonprofits listed on CrowdRise are registered with the IRS or CRA.

Funds raised for nonprofit organizations are dispersed in an efficient and safe way. When nonprofits have their donations securely processed through PayPal Giving Fund, a check is sent to the address on file with the IRS, or nonprofits may enroll to receive direct payments. PayPal Giving Fund is a 501c3 donor advised fund, and is registered in all 50 states.If the nonprofit chooses to use WePay to process its donations, they go through a fraud detection system at CrowdRise, a fraud detection system at WePay, and the WePay Trust & Safety team. All of this is to help protect the donor.

CrowdRise, PayPal Giving Fund, and WePay are all safe and easy to use.In times of natural disaster or crisis, CrowdRise may take additional steps to help ensure the safety of donors. We may post additional messaging, remove campaigns until they explain where funds will go, or any other measures we deem necessary to help protect the donor and the beneficiaries. We may work with government agencies, including Offices of the State Attorney General, to make sure the donor and the beneficiary are as protected as possible, and to help make sure the funds go where the campaign says they are going to go. Again, our mean lawyers won't let us guarantee anything so be sure to use your judgment and we recommend you donate to organizations and people you know and trust.We want to know about any Campaign Organizer that is engaged in misrepresentations or what you believe to be fraudulent conduct. If you need to report a campaign you believe is misrepresenting itself or fraudulent, let us know.

What do we do if our donors are having trouble donating to our Challenge campaign?

We know how important it is to get donations through during the time period of any Challenge. If any of your donors are having trouble, they should check out this helpful article.

Ifthey'restill having trouble, please have them email us with as much info as possible and well dig in as quickly as we can.

What should I do ifI'mno longer able to participate in a Challenge I joined?

Were sad to see you go but definitely want to make sure youre properly removed from the Challenge. Please email us so we can help make it happen.

Please note that if you remove your Challenge page on your own through your Campaign Dashboard you will be removed from the Challenge, but you will still be on the list to receive emails regarding the Challenge.

CrowdRise is simply the chosen fundraising platform for the event in which you're participating.Your event organizer is in charge of all race-related resources, including bibs, tees, packets, and other race materials.The organizer should provide a point of contact to which you can direct all questions,but if you're having trouble finding this information, email us and we'll dig right in to help.

A Campaign is the easiest way to raise money online and you can easily create your own fundraising campaign for over 1.5 million charities. Give your supporters the option to join your campaign to expand your reach.

A multi-team campaign has a collection of fundraising teams, which can all be joined. As the organizer, you can decide if you would like your teams to benefit one cause, choose from a preselected list, or select their own causes to support. Teams and Top Individuals are ranked on a leaderboard for a little friendly competition.

To create a multi-team campaign: Start by creating a campaign, click 'Edit' to access the campaign cards, then select the 'Add Multiple Teams' card.

Examples of multi-team campaigns are the TCS New York City Marathon and the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Climb.

Setting up a campaign on CrowdRise by GoFundMe couldnt be easier.

If youre a nonprofit:

If you don't already have a CrowdRise account, click here to sign up and claim your nonprofit account. Iyou already have an account, you can go ahead and skip this step.

To create a campaign start here, then follow the quick steps to personalize with pictures and text, and share to start raising money for your cause.

If youre an individual raising money for a cause:

If you don't already have a CrowdRise account, go here and click Sign Up to get started. If you already have an account, you can skip this step.

To create a campaign, just click here, follow the quick steps and start raising money for your favorite nonprofit.

Make sure to personalize your campaign with a compelling video, story, and pics. For some decent tips, please check out this article.

The 'Settings' tab is located inside the campaign editor.In here you can control the following items:

Team Fundraising

Disable Donate Button

Hide Donation Dollar Amounts

Allow Offline Donations

Click here

Team Fundraising

Toggle this on to add a Join the Team button. This will allow supporters to get involved in your campaign by becoming fundraisers. Turn the toggle off to remove the button.

You can keep track of everyone who joins through The Team tab near your story section once it starts filling up.

Make sure to Save to apply these settings to your campaign.

Disable Donate Button

Flip this toggle to remove your donate button from your campaign immediately, or schedule a date in the future. The button will turn off at 12:00am PST after the scheduled date has passed.

Hide Donation Dollar Amounts

Toggle this switch on to only show donor names in the recent donation scroll.

Allow Offline Donations

Turning this toggle on will give your Team the ability to enter offline donations.to read more about offline donations.

You may turn this off to prevent offline donations from being added. This will not affect any that were added previously.

You're ready to register for an event and agree to a fundraising minimum commitment, but how?

Locate the event on CrowdRise that you are preparing to register for

Click the REGISTER button

Now you may need to log into your CrowdRise account or register for one if you are a new user

Continue following the prompts to register and pay for entry to your selected event

Once this is complete, your personal Team page will be created

A lightbox will appear on the screen asking you to agree to a Fundraising Commitment; click AGREE* and you should be ready to finish personalizing yourcampaign

If you don't raise the amount agreed upon by the date set in the fundraising agreement, your credit card will be charged for the difference, so make that fundraiser super compelling and share it as much as possible.

Some quick notes...

On a credit card:You'll need to make sure you have a credit limit at least as high as the fundraising minimum for the charge to authorize.On a debit card:You must have enough funds in your account to cover the full commitment amount on the deadline date. A $1 hold will be placed on the card on the date you authorize the card.

The charge will process at 6am EST the day following your deadline, meaning you have the entire deadline day to reach your commitment.

Each event is unique and these steps may vary slightly. If you have questions or need help getting set up please contact us.

The Campaign Manager is where you can monitor the progress of your campaign and stay in touch with your supporters. You can access it for any campaign by clicking the Manage icon.

In the Campaign Manager, you will find:

Campaign update tool

Activity feed

Fundraiser feed & team feeds

Offline Donations tool

Social share preview

Campaign Update tool

Posting a campaign update is a great way to communicate with your donors. We suggest that you update it often. Click here to read everything there is to know about campaign updates.

Activity feed

This is a timeline of all the various activity on your campaign. It will show donations, campaign updates, and goal milestones. You can click any item to see more information.

Fundraiser feed & Team feed

From these tabs, you can invite your supporters to join the team and become fundraisers. You can also add offline donations to your team members and fundraisers campaigns or hide them from 'The Team' tab by clicking their name.

Offline donations tool

Offline donations are a way to account for money raised by cash or check outside of CrowdRise.

Check out this article about how to manage offline donations.

Social share preview

On the right side, you'll get a preview of how your campaign will look when shared on social media. We also provided your share URL and some handy links to post your campaign straight to Facebook, twitter, and email.

Your CrowdRise profile

Your CrowdRise profile exists as a way to display all your campaigns and mission to your community. Its a public-facing page and is the home for your charitable life, the same way that LinkedIn is the home for your professional life and Instagram is the home for your pics.

It hosts your completed and active campaigns, and the total amount raised from all of your fundraising efforts on CrowdRise. So great.

Your Campaign Hub

While at first glance the Campaign Hub might look similar to your profile, its much more powerful and only visible to you, the account owner, when youre logged in.

Your Campaign Hub is the control center for all of your campaigns. From here you can view, edit a campaign, manage, customize emails, and access reports. Just hover over a particular campaign and you can jump right into any of its tools with just one click.

Promoting your campaign on social is easier than you think. And while wecan'tunderscore the importance of emails for spreading the word about your awesome campaign, social media is equally effective. Sometimes it works even betterbecause youre instantly engaging with your friends and followers about your cause.

Here's a super quick 1-page infographic about messaging.

How to do it...

If you havent shared already, theres no time like the present: Go to your campaign and click on any of the social icons to share with yoursupporters on Facebook and Twitter. Its that easy.You can also cut and paste your campaign URL into your favorite social media platform anywhere you would post an update. Ask your friends and family to share it too. Here's a tip about Which URL to share.

Some tips...

Get personal - The more personal you make the ask, the more likely your friends will donate and share. When you write your post, write like youre having a conversation with a good friend or trusted colleague.

Be social - If you want to post on Twitter and the URL is eating up your character count, you can use this super easy Link Shortener. It takes two seconds and all you have to do is copy and paste the link into the shortener and you're done. Now you can say more on Twitter. Make sure you use an image, too. Posts and Tweets with images get liked and shared way more than those without.

Direct message - Going along with the first two points, using direct message on Facebook or Twitter is a little more personal than shouting out to all your fans.

Give thanks - Make sure you thank your generous donors once they give. And fast. Everyone appreciates a little speed when they give to your cause. Make them feel extra appreciated. Take it a step further and ask them to share on social media (and email too). Well notify you as soon as you get a donation. So no excuses.

Remember, the more thought and effort you put into your social sharing, the better your campaign will perform on social media. Make your story memorable and the world will take notice.

The search functionality on CrowdRise is based on relevance, so you may find that using a keyword to search produces results that do not bring your specific campaign or nonprofit to the top of the list.

Themost effective way to locate your own campaigns that you've created is to Log In and click "Campaigns" in the top navigation bar.

For now, the best way to get the word out about any campaign is to share the unique URL with everyone you know. They'll want to help, promise.

CrowdRise is redefining what it means to give back. Anyone raising money for a charitable cause can use CrowdRise.

You can raise money for over 1.5 million US based 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations or Canadian charitable organizations. Click Here to get started.

A fundraising minimum is a fundraising goal that a participant agrees to raise by a predetermined date, which is set by the event in which you are participating.

When you sign up for an event that requires a fundraising minimum, you are agreeing to reach your fundraising goal by getting lots of donations. If you don't end up raising the amount of money predetermined by your event, you are agreeing to allow us to charge the credit card provided during the signup process for the remainder of the fundraising minimum that wasn't met via donations.

For example, if your fundraising minimum is $500 and you raise $430, at the fundraising deadline, we'll automatically charge your card for the remaining $70 and that money will go to your benefiting charity.

This will sound really official because we know how important it is. CrowdRise processes donations through PayPal Giving Fund and WePay.PayPal Giving Fund is a 501(c)3 donor advised fund and a Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance accredited charity who meets all of the BBB standards for charity accountability. They have processed more than $400 million in donations for 50,000 charities through their giving system.WePay is based in Palo Alto, CA and processes transactions for over 250,000 merchants. They are PCI Level 1 Compliant and use industry-leading Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology.When donors check out through CrowdRise, they agree to the CrowdRise Terms of Use, CrowdRise Privacy Policy, and either the PayPal Giving Fund Privacy Policy and PayPal User Agreement, or the WePay Privacy Policy and WePay Terms of Service.

Email is still the most effective way to get your friends to support your cause.Email themtwo or three times if you have to. Be relentless. It's for a good cause. Here's what we recommend:

Use your own email program. Sending email from whatever email program you use every day is the best way to make sure your email gets delivered and opened.

Send in small batches. Send an initial email to everyone you can possibly think of, from close friends and family to ex-girlfriends and your dentist. Make sure to email them either individually or in a small group of people so they don't feel anonymous. Write a personal message asking them to donate to your cause and be sure to include a link directly to your fundraising page that's high up in your email so they don't need to scroll down to find the link.

Thank your donor fast. When you get a donation, you'll receive a donation notification. You can click on the THANK YOUR DONOR button on this notification and instantly thank your donor. We recommend thanking your donor as quickly as humanly possible.Make it personal (even if you copy and paste the same personal message over and over) and definitely make sure to do one thing -- ask them to go one step further and share a link to your fundraising page with a few of their friends.

Do it again. You'll have plenty of people on your email list that don't read your first email or read it but forget about it. You should take it personally. Not really though. Everyone gets so many emails that the key is to be relentless. It's ok to email people up to three times to get them to donate.With each email, create a greater sense or urgency and tell them you really need their help to hit your fundraising goal. If you need help crafting your messages or just want us to spell check them, we're here for you.

Creating a messaging plan should be a top priority if you want to run a successful campaign. This is why CrowdRise is designed to work for you in an ever-evolving social ecosystem. We work to connect you to the tools to blast your mission out to the world.

Here are some of the best mediums and best practices for social fundraising :

Email

Best use: The shelf life of an email outlasts most all other methods of engagement, so use it to convey the details of your campaign and tell your supporters how they can help you reach your goals.

Format: Use a catchy subject line to get people to the body of your message. The body is the place where you can include the reason you need their help and a clear call to action to donate or fundraise. Its important to try to still keep your emails as short and sweet as possible.

Pro Tip: Dont be afraid to send multiple emails to keep people updated, and consider segmenting your list to personalize your message for different groups at your organization.

Social Media - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin

Best use: Use CrowdRise Facebook and Twitter share buttons to help you boost your online presence at every turn and engage your supporters in your campaign.

Format: Keep your post short and include clear call to action. Dont be afraid to have fun and be creative in the way you speak to your audience.

Pro Tip: Eye-catching pictures and videos go a long way. Choose images that will humanize your cause and resonate with potential donors and fundraisers.

Direct Mail

Best use: Depending on the type of campaign youre running and the demographics of your intended audience, a formal invitation or flyer can be a great way to personalize the experience for your community.

Format: Good old paper invitations can be formatted as a formal RSVP or an informal flyer with information about your campaign.

Pro Tip: Keep your campaign URL short, and be sure to always include this link in your printed materials.

Phone Calls

Best use: Since you can only speak to one person at a time, phone calls are best for asking for bigger commitments: larger contributions of time or money.

Format: On each call, be sure to express your appreciation for your donor and be clear in your ask.

Pro Tip: Use phone calls to thank your supporters after your campaign is over.

The CrowdRise platform was designed to be a place for you to tell your organizations story and grow your philanthropic community. Your nonprofit profile and campaign pages allow you to share who you are, why you are fundraising, and the impact the funds will have on your organization. Here's where you should start.

Customize your nonprofit profile page

Post a compelling story that is reflective of your mission. Add a logo, lots of great photos, and a video if at all possible. Here are a couplegreat examples of nonprofitswho are crushing it:

UNICEF

Children's Tumor Foundation

Customize your campaign page

Story text: Keep your story short, sweet, and to-the-point. Use spacing, bolding and italics when appropriate to make it easier to read.

Add photos: Images are an excellent way to tell your campaigns story visually. We recommend adding photos that are emotionally powerful and demonstrate the tangible impact of your campaign.

Add a video: Visitors are way more likely to watch a video than to read a lot of story text, so make sure your video is compelling and includes a call to action. We recommend keeping it brief - anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes.