With Crowded, you can raise funds for your organization in 2 ways:
- Fixed Amount: You set an amount to charge donors. This can be great for fixed-price fundraisers like raffle tickets, t-shirts, bake sales, etc.
- Open Amount: Donors decide how much to contribute to your organization. We provide suggested amounts, and donors can always choose “Other” to donate the amount they decide.
The good news is that you don’t need to pick just one. Create unlimited collection links of either type for your organization, and watch the payments roll in!
This guide will focus on the second option, for a step-by-step run-through of the first option, see Guide to Collecting Payments.
Need help creating an open-ended collection? See here a complete run down of the process.
Step 1: Select Collection Type
To leave the donation amount open, so donors decide how much to contribute, select the “Open Amount” option.
Step 2: Allow for Recurring Payments
This option allows your donors to opt into making repeated donations on an annual or monthly basis. Make sure the switch is turned on to get maximal funding!
Step 3: Name the Collection
This name will allow you to identify the purpose or event that you are fundraising for. Be sure to choose a clear & descriptive name that will be easily recognizable to your donors.
Step 4: Add a Fundraising Goal
Let your donors know how much your organization is raising, to help motivate them to donate higher amounts to hit your goal. Skip this step if you’re not interested in adding a goal.
Step 5: Add a Description
Give donors context to your fundraiser, an overview of your organization, or add a personal note. Skip this step if you’re not interested in adding a description.
Step 6: Add an Image
Attach an image to give a visual to your donation page – pictures are worth a thousand words! We recommend that the image has a ratio is 16:9, is a JPG or PNG, and is under 10 MB. This is also optional, skip if not desired and add later.
Step 7: Share the Collection!
The collection is now created and ready to accept donations!
There are a few ways to share this collection:
1. Email:
If you’ve uploaded donor lists or member lists as contacts to Crowded, you can use our built-in email feature to send the link to your payers. See here for a guide to uploading contacts.
Tip: If you only want to send to a certain subsection of your organization, use tags to categorize, and only send to tagged contacts.
2. Copy n’ Paste:
Copy the generated collection link and paste it into your preferred communication channel with your donor community, such as email, messaging apps, or social media.
3. QR code
Share your collection link with a QR code. Download or screenshot the QR code and share with your payers.
Tip: Place the QR code on a printed poster or card to allow sharing of your link offline
Now all there is to do is sit back, relax, and enjoy the incoming donations. Track all incoming donations, send reminders, edit collections, and share with additional contacts from the Collections dashboard.
