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 How to get started fundraising
online in 6 easy steps
Congratulations! You’ve taken your rst step towards online fundraising for your non-
pro t and I couldn’t be more excited for you.

We’re living in incredibly challenging times, and having a stream of revenue for your non-
pro t that doesn’t rely on in-person events or donor meetings is going to put your church,
charity, school or election campaign in a much stronger position.

This guide will walk you through the 6 simple steps you can take TODAY to get
started raising funds online for your cause.
I’m going to tell you exactly which tools you can use to start building and nurturing an
online donor le that will deliver steady, consistent and reliable income.

Right now though you might be wondering if the process I’m about to outline will work for
you and your non-pro t. Well let me tell you precisely who this guide is for. The online
fundraising strategy I’m about to share with you is perfect for:

• churches of all sizes

• sporting teams even your kid’s local soccer team
• schools either government or privately funded

• charities from soup kitchens to large overseas aid organisations

• political campaigns whether you’re running for o ce or organising in your

local community

But before I begin, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page.

This guide is intended to get you started with online fundraising.

I know each of these steps will work for you because I have implemented them time and
time again with countless non-pro ts - many of them were brand new startups and now
they’re raising six to seven gures annually.

But I also don’t want you to think that I’m promising rivers of gold. Certainly not on day
one.

This guide will get you started and help you diversify your revenue streams and you
will be well on your way to raising your rst $1,000 online.
So let’s begin!


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 Step 1: Outline your case for support
Ask yourself, why do I need to raise money online? What are you going to do with the
funds that are given through your website? Your donors are certainly going to want to
know!

Your case for support should outline a few important things. You can use the points
below to help build the strongest possible case for support.

What’s the problem you’re trying to solve?

• All great fundraising is problem solving.

• Make your donor the hero of this story.

• Identify the ‘problem’ that can only be solved by your donor taking action and
making a donation.

How much you need to raise?

• Give your donors a dollar amount, a target that needs to be met.
• The number can’t be so big that your donor feels overwhelmed.

• Be speci c. Round gures are much less believable. Do you really need to
raise $50,000? Or do you actually need to raise $48,700?

• Try to avoid round gures as much as possible, they have a tendency to look
‘made up’.

How will the money be spent?

• Again, be speci c. Your case for support must be believable.

• BUT don’t overwhelm your donor with information they don’t care about.

• Focus on outcomes not outputs and certainly not on process.

• What’s the outcome your donor wants to see?

What are the consequences of not meeting your target?

• Raise the stakes. Let your donors understand the implications of failing to meet
the target.

• Will you need to cut existing programs?

• What future activities will you have to say “no” to?

• Make sure your donor knows that these consequences are real and not simply
made up.

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Why should your donor care?
• Appeal to your donor’s emotions.

• Think about how you can use a story or narrative in your appeal that will showcase
to your donor how things will change as a result of their generosity.

• Your best fundraising will happen when the donor’s heart is in alignment with the
heart of your non-pro t’s mission.

Step 2: Create your donation form and landing page

Setup a payment processor

• You need a payment processor so you can securely process credit card
transactions.

• The two most widely available payment processors are PayPal and Stripe.

• Payment processors usually charge a small percentage of the transaction amount,

as well as a small per-transaction cost.

• Choose one and create a free account.

• Enter your organisation’s bank account details for your settlement account. This is
where your payment processor will deposit funds once the credit card transactions
have been processed.

Open a Donorbox account

• You’ll also need a donation form that will sit on your website and feed credit
card information to your payment processor.

• Go to Donorbox and create a free account.

• Connect your Donorbox account to your payment processor

• Just like your payment processor Donorbox will charge you a small fee to
process each transaction.

• Enter your email address (for sending donation receipts), add your logo and colour
scheme so your donation form matches your brand.

• Create your rst “Campaign” in Donorbox by following the simple campaign

creation wizard.

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 • This is really important: Don’t set the pre- lled dollar amounts too low. If you
only ask people to chip in $5, that’s all they’ll ever do.

• Set the lowest option between $30-50 and make the default donation
somewhere between $100-$150.

• If people want to give less then that, they can either select a di erent option or
write in another amount.

• You can also o er higher options like $500, $1,000 and even $2,500 if that’s
appropriate for your organisation and your audience.

• If you don’t have your own website, Donorbox will host your donation page
on their site.

• Otherwise you can copy the donation form widget code and past that on the
donation page on your website.

Step 3: Setup your email sending platform

• Go to MailChimp and create an account. MailChimp is free for your rst 2,000
subscribers.

• Import your email list from your existing supporter database (your church directory,
existing donor le, list of volunteers etc.)

• Create a very basic template using the drag-and-drop editor for your fundraising
emails.

• Your template should only include:

• Your logo (if you have one)

• The text of your email

• A “Donate now” button that direct people to your donation page

• A footer with an ‘unsubscribe’ link and any other information you might be
legally required to put in the footer depending on your local laws.

• Don’t overcomplicate your email template with anything more than that.

Step 4: Map out your fundraising campaign

• Now it’s time to start planning when you are going to email your supporters and
ask for donations.

• Start with the deadline you listed when you mapped out your case for support and
work backwards from there.

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 • Plan to run your campaign for 6-8 weeks.

• As much as possible, plan to send your e-appeals mid-week (Tuesday,

Wednesday or Thursday) and send them rst thing in the morning (6am -
7:30am)
• Now, working backwards from your deadline, plan to send your e-appeals on the
following dates:

• Your deadline (don’t worry if this isn’t mid-week)

• The week of your deadline

• 1 week to go

• 2 weeks to go

• 4 weeks to go

• 6 weeks to go

• 8 weeks to go

• Write those dates down or mark them on a calendar. Once you’ve written your e-
appeals, upload the content into MailChimp and schedule your emails to send on
those dates.

Step 5: Write your the copy for your fundraising appeal

This is where the hard work begins.

You’ve now set up all the systems you need in order to raise funds online for your non-
pro t.

Now’s the time to start crafting your appeal.

The rst thing to do is make a list of all the elements of the campaign you will need to
write.

Assuming you’ve used the calendar above, here’s a list of all the elements that you’ll need
to draft.

Element Quantity required

Donation page 1

Thank you page 1

Thank you email / receipt 1

Email 7

Social media posts 21

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 If your non-pro t has a Facebook or Twitter account where your supporters follow you, I’d
recommend publishing 3 social posts for every e-appeal you send.

In the example above, we’ve got 7 emails in the appeal series which would mean
publishing 21 social media posts.

You should schedule these posts to publish the same weeks that your e-appeals go out.

That might feel like a lot of social media posts but keep in mind that most of your
followers won’t see most of your posts because of how Facebook’s algorithm works.

Tips for writing your appeal

• The goal of the emails is to get donors to click through to the website. Don’t
feel like you have to explain everything in the email. Just enough to get them to
your donation page.

• Your emails should clearly and succinctly outline your case for support and clearly
and unambiguously ask the donor to make a nancial contribution to help
solve the ‘problem’.

• Use donor-centric language. Give the donor a problem to solve and make them
the hero of the story.

• Use casual and informal language, write the way you would speak to a friend.

• Put the ask up front. Let the donor know in the rst couple of sentences that you
are asking them to take action.

• Only include links to your donation page in your email. Don’t send donors o
to some other web page.

• Write as if you are writing to one person, not to hundreds or thousands. Don’t
address your reader as if they are part of a larger group. Otherwise they’ll think
they don’t need to donate because the other recipients will do the heavy lifting for
them.

• As you get closer to the deadline, your emails should get shorter in length
and more urgent.
• Remind your donor what is at stake if you do not meet the target by the deadline.

• Include a “Donate now” button at the bottom of the email.

• Think about using a PS at the bottom of the email, especially for the rst two
emails in the series.

• Don’t just copy and paste all those social media posts. Make sure they’re all
di erent, but also make sure they all include a link to your donation page.

• Your thank you page and thank you email need to thank the donor for their
generous gift (obviously) but should also rea rm their decision to give. Let your
donor know how important their donation is and remind them how it will be
used and what it will achieve.
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Step 6: Thank your donors and give them feedback
Make ‘thank you’ calls
• Within 3 days of receiving each donation, call your donor personally and thank
them for their gift.

• This will be easiest phone call you ever make, and it will probably be the
highlight of your day. Your donors gave because they care about the work you
do.

• Take note: you’ll probably have a lot of donors tell you that you didn’t need to call
and say ‘thank you’. Don’t believe them. The more you can invest in this
relationship, the more your donors will invest in the relationship.

• Don’t ask for more money, just let the donor know how much you appreciate
their generosity and reassure them how important their gift is and what it will
accomplish (just like the thank you page and email above).

• If this is their rst time donating to your organisation, ask them a little bit about
how they heard about you and what motivated them to give.

• If the call goes through to their voicemail, just leave a brief message letting them
know you were calling to say ‘thanks’.

• Studies have shown that donors who receive a personal thank you call are
much more likely to give a second gift in the future.

• If you miss this step you are leaving money on the table.

Provide a progress report

• Write to your donors, at least every 3 months and give them an update on the
progress that has been made as a result of the appeal.

• This is your chance to remind the donor that they really are the hero of this story.

• Share impact stories about lives that have been changed as a result of the donor’s
generosity.

• Just like in the appeal, you should focus on outcomes, not process.

• Make sure you complete this step before launching another appeal. It will make
your next ask more credible if donors can see you put their money to work just as
you said you would.

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 Conclusion
That’s everything you need to get started raising funds online for your church,
charity, school or campaign.

If you do all of the things mentioned in this guide, you will be well on the way to raising
your rst $1,000 online, diversifying your revenue streams and building a scalable and
sustainable fundraising strategy.

I hope the information in this guide will help you increase the capacity of your
organisation and impact more lives for good.

Be sure to let me know how you go!

Drop me an email at david@charityschool.io and share your fundraising story. I’d love to
know how you went.

For more fundraising strategies, tips and strategies, be sure to visit www.charityschool.io

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