10 platforms that help you be a better fundraiser

Fundraising can be a challenging task especially when you are juggling hundreds of things all at once. There are platforms out there built to help charities and organisations like yours, make fundraising simpler and less daunting. As Zaffo is a digitally focussed fundraising platform, we are constantly on the look out for new developments in tech and really hope that some of these come in handy when planning your next fundraising campaign – or even in day-to-day life!

 

 

 

Canva is a free online design tool that connects you to thousands of designs, free images and ideas. Yes, it is completely free to use! I spend so much of my time using Canva, because unfortunately I am not blessed with incredible design skills. Those of you who are just like me, Canva is the simple way to create designs for absolutely anything. Think of that Facebook post you have scheduled in 2 weeks, wouldn’t it look so much nicer with a well thought out design or even photograph with the correct dimensions?

 

There are several options within Canva for you to create designs that can fit into any of your marketing or day-to-day duties. Email marketing, posters, logos, social media profiles, you name it.

 

If you are not already using social media for your organisation, then now is the right time to jump on the bandwagon. Social Media is consistently rising and becoming a vital role in our daily lives. It helps us connect with loved ones, learn and read new content and most importantly for fundraisers, it helps you connect with your supporters on a personal level. It’s also a great method to reach new or re-engage with lapsed supporters.

 

Facebook itself has an extremely powerful advertising tool that lets you target a specific audience that might have never heard of your organisation. Instagram lets you post engaging photographs that help maintain confidence with your supporters; images of what your organisation is currently doing with the money you raised last year or even just behind the scenes photos of your team hard at work (or enjoying some celebrations after a long month!).

 

Check out this blog we wrote for our 10 best and free social media platforms.

 

 

I personally use Pexels on a daily basis to source many of my photos for content, marketing or even just to make my team smile after a long and boring email. There are however, a multitude of copyright free image sites but Pexels is hands down my favourite. You simply search for the type of image you are looking for and Pexels will do the work for you.

 

Take a look at some other great free image sites in this article by Whitehat.

 

Grammarly is a free plugin that you can download straight to your browser. We praise its capabilities in the office and continue to use it in all aspects of our work. Whether it’s simply writing an email or sending out a big email campaign, you can feel confident knowing that your grammar and spelling are constantly in check. Have a look at it in action below:

 

 

 

Time is valuable and we are always searching for things that take off an extra 15 minutes out of our day. Zapier is just the platform to help you do this. The ability to automate certain things is helpful, especially when you know that what took you 15 minutes yesterday now takes you no time at all. Zapier connects hundreds of Apps by creating a ‘Zap’, it’s straightforward and takes less than 5 minutes.

 

For example, you could ask Zapier to automatically post the new blog to your social media accounts. You could add email subscribers automatically to Mailchimp straight from Google Sheets. You could create Trello cards when a certain search term is found in a Gmail email. The possibilities are endless!

 

There is an abundance of communication platforms out there on the market. Here at Zaffo, we use Slack which works perfectly for us. It lets us connect with each other wherever and whenever with the added benefits of connecting other apps and other valuable Slack features.

 

We use Slack to keep in touch on a daily basis and we have channels for every department that keeps everyone in the loop. We also have a ‘Random’ channel where we share Gifs of cats and photographs of our current Shed building progress. We’re a very creative bunch…

It is important to discuss what your team needs in a communications platform and find one that suits you all. Try out a few to begin with and dip your toes in everything there is to offer before going ahead with one that you will eventually call home.  

 

 

There are hundreds of online fundraising platforms out there and you are sure to find one that perfectly fits your campaign. Utilising the power of the Internet is important when raising funds for your organisation. Running a raffle is a great way to raise funds as well as reward supporters for their generous contributions. Combining this with the powers of the Internet would be an impressive way to reach an entirely new audience and engage with lapsed supporters through social media, email marketing or absolutely anything else digital.

 

We built Zaffo so that organisations could set up and manage their online raffle or lottery quickly and easily; saving your organisation time and money. We’re also big on getting your raffle out to as many people as possible so give us a shout if you need any help promoting your raffle or lottery. Want to know more? Check us out…

 

If your team is stretched out on a particular campaign, then why not get someone else to do something for you? People Per Hour lets you connect with thousands of freelancers who are currently looking for work and many of them have the skills that you may be looking for. From photographers to programmers, you are never short of skills.

 

It’s free to set up an account on People Per Hour and you can start your search for your next writer immediately. Every person on People Per Hour has a different hourly rate so be sure to filter your search to suit your budget and needs.

 

Use the power of Survey Monkey to get feedback, ask questions or conduct market research. You can create any form with Survey Monkey within minutes and send it out to your email database or post it on social media, depending on your target audience.

 

It’s simple to use and it’s free! We use Survey Monkey for a range of things here at Zaffo such as gathering feedback to better our platform as well as internal surveys for our team. It really is an effective method of communication and gathering statistics that you may need for future campaigns. Did I mention, you can also make your surveys completely anonymous? It’s pretty advanced for a free service!

 

 

 

The future of fundraising is here! Contactless payments are making a huge splash in the fundraising sector with charities jumping on the new tech developments. It makes fundraising quick and secure plus it also takes away the hassle of collecting cash. It’s a brilliant development that has everyone here at Zaffo jumping for joy.

 

The iZettle lets you take card payments wherever and whenever and it also sends out an automatic invoice to your customers. It’s completely safe and secure which means you can rest assured that payments are protected.

 

Our team at Zaffo got stuck in with the iZettle and are now rolling out our contactless raffles. We’ve seen a huge increase of ticket sales – especially at special, live events – where supporters have been able to help raise funds quickly and easily with the iZettle card reader. Want to know more about our contactless raffles? Get in touch with Laura today. She’s our in-house expert on anything and everything raffle and lottery, she’s always happy to chat about the Zaffo platform.

 

That’s it! For now at least… We’ve still got loads up our sleeves plus some secrets we have to make us better. Comment below if you have a platform that helps you be a better fundraiser that we may have missed out. We’re always on the look out for the new and upcoming!

 

We’ve also got a ton of resources (completely free of course) that you are more than welcome to download for yourself. Things like our Content Calendar to help plan your next campaign or our Social Media Checklist that you can use daily to ensure that your content is getting seen by your audiences.