We would like to thank Aaron Young and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America ‘Pacific Leadership Conference’ for having the CreateaFund team co-host their Online Fundraising Workshop last week in Seattle, WA. The video and slides are available below. Questions? Contact us here.

The PowerPoint slides are available for download here: Demystifying Online Fundraising

We’re making it easier for folks to invite their Facebook friends to donate online to their fund. You’ll find the new Facebook ‘Lightbox’ in a couple of different places on CreateaFund. For starters, you can now invite your Facebook friends directly from the Fund Manager screen without having to leave the page. Second, visitors to your fund will have easy access to the Facebook invite lightbox just by clicking the ‘Invite’ link.

Here’s how it looks:

Crowdfunding on Facebook

Good luck!

Sharing is caring. And now it’s easier than ever for everyone to share their favorite fundraising pages on Facebook.

Just click on the ‘Share’ link and immediately post a Fund to your Facebook profile and into your friends’ news feeds. It’s a great way to broadcast your support without the fuss of having to email people directly.

Check it out:

Sharing your fundraising page on Facebook is also a great way to post frequent updates on your Fund’s progress.  Get more donors involved by including your Facebook friends in your quest to reach your fundraising goal. The more people that know about your Fund, the more likely you’ll collect enough money to make your fund a success.

Good luck!

It’s been an exciting few months here at CreateaFund headquarters. We’ve been working hard to improve the site while incorporating some of your most-requested features.

Since we’ve been knee-deep in ‘technology’, we thought it would be nice to take a step back and share some recent funds with you. It warms our hearts to see friends raising money for one another by using CreateaFund to accept online donations. Some recent examples are below:

House for Jennifer: A team of caring employees are raising money for a co-worker’s down payment on a home.

Mason’s Mission: With a little help from his friends and family, Mason will head to South Africa to help children suffering from AIDS.

Abulay for Marc: After the lose of a loved one, friends came out in strength to offer support to Marc’s family.

CreateaFund continues to be used by people to collect money online for all sorts reasons. We would like to thank our users for all their support and feedback along the way. It’s our hope that more and more people will use CreateaFund to do more great things for one another.

If while reading this post and viewing our recent funds a certain idea or person came to mind, please click the ‘Facebook, Twitter, Email’ link below to share CreateaFund with a friend.

Thank you!

Thanks to everyone for the great feedback! We just launched an update to our email marketing manager that makes it easier for you to contact donors who have participated in one of your online fundraising initiatives. Now, each time a you receive a donation to a fund, a new email contact list will be created for you automatically. This feature is sure to save everyone a lot of time – especially when sending ‘thank-you’ notes and following-up with loyal supporters.

Thanks again for helping to bring this feature to life!

As promised, here are the latest themed buttons for your email marketing templates. Each of the button sets match the existing email themes (which really just reflect the donation page themes), but now you have some choices around the type of language you would like to use. Download using the button links below the preview.

Preview (navy blue):

Click a color to download the button set:
Red
Purple
Pink
Orange
Navy
Green
Gold
Brown
Black

Imagine having a team of online fundraising experts on-call to help you raise more money online. While many organizations would love the extra resources, costs can prevent non-profits from bringing the right kind of expertise on board.

So what if you could get the help you need at a fraction of the cost?

We’re excited to introduce ‘First Class’ support – the ultimate service package for CreateaFund customers. For less than an employee costs for a day, customers will have unlimited monthly access to CreateaFund’s team of dedicated account managers. Account managers are here to help you get set-up and assist in launching your online fundraising and crowdfunding initiatives. More importantly though, our account managers will help you get results and build-up your organization’s level of in-house expertise.

First Class support is available on a monthly and yearly basis and can be requesting during sign-up or by contacting us.

Organizations use CreateaFund to raise money for all sorts of projects and programs, but you don’t need to be an official non-profit in order to make a difference. It’s been great seeing everyday folks use CreateaFund’s Free version to raise money and help others. One of our favorite examples is the Andrew Chun Fund. Motivated by his nephew’s battle with aplastica anemia, Andrew’s uncle raised over $2k to help the family with related expenses.

We’ve even seen people use CreateaFund Free to collect money for group travel, student projects and other personal endeavors. It’s exciting to see all these fun things happening on the site!

What kind of fund will you create?

CreateaFund demystifies the world of online fundraising by giving you the right mix of features and technology that get the job done. Our customers pay less and get more. We work closely with all of our clients to ensure that their online fundraising initiatives are a success. Our solution can help organizations of all types and sizes raise more money online than ever before. Here’s why.

The landscape has changed:

Breathing new life into your organization’s fundraising efforts means evolving your strategy to attract today’s donors. Today’s donors don’t write checks – they pay online. A 2008 study revealed that more than 75% of US online households pay their bills online. In fact, ask around and you’ll find that many folks are without stamps and envelopes in their homes. Failing to accept online payments is failing to meet the needs of your donors.

Today’s donors are well connected and extremely active online. Within a matter of seconds, donors are able to share links and ideas with hundreds of their personal contacts using services like Facebook and Twitter. A 2009 Neilson report shows that social-networking has surpassed email as the 4th most popular online activity. Empowering donors to share your fundraising initiatives with others results in more support for your organization.

Making sense of it all:

CreateaFund has taken the ‘work’ out of meeting the needs of today’s donors. Organizations who use CreateaFund experience an all-in-one online fundraising solution. From fundraiser management and marketing to online payments and social media integration, CreateaFund makes life easier for organizations and donors alike.

Why it works: The viral loop

CreateaFund gives you the tools to quickly and easily launch your online fundraiser and get results. By empowering your supporters to market initiatives on your behalf, you’re exponentially increasing overall exposure.

1. Customize and publish your online donation page (even embed it on your existing site).
2. Market your donation page to contacts with our built-in email campaign manager.
3. Receive one-time or recurring donations and enable donors to share your page with friends.
4. Friends of donors return to the site and continue the support of your initiative.
5. Review donations and overall marketing performance with CreateaFund’s charts & reporting.
6. Repeat.

Put CreateaFund to work for your organization and you’ll see results. Sign-up today and raise more money online with CreateaFund. Have more questions? Contact us and we’ll get back to you right away.

We’re looking forward to helping you bring more money into your organziation.

Brad & Andy
Co-Founders of CreateaFund.com