Building fundraising sites has never been this simple

Building a fundraising website doesn’t have to be difficult anymore. Find out how Fundraising platforms like Raisely make it easy and affordable.

Building a fundraising website can be a huge undertaking. If you’ve already been through the process, you know how expensive and time-consuming it can be.

As digital media technology and design aesthetics evolve, updating your website’s look and feel is essential. These days, websites should be redesigned at least every three years.

Fortunately, the process doesn’t have to take up as much of your time and budget as it used to. Fundraising platforms like Raisely have joined forces with website hosting services and design software to make no-code website building accessible to small and medium nonprofits.

Keep reading to learn more about the perks of building a free fundraising site with a one-stop shop like Raisely.

Specialised Fundraising Site Hosting for Nonprofits

Building a nonprofit website used to mean finding separate service providers for domain hosting, web design software, your content management system (CMS), and plug-ins for accepting online donations — at the very least. And most organisations need additional digital marketing and social media tools to bring new supporters to the site from the far corners of the internet.

As tech stacks have grown larger and more complex, fundraising platforms have tried to keep up, building in more native tools and integrations. However, loyalty to traditional web hosting companies has kept nonprofits stuck in the middle, trying to keep up with new techniques while feeling committed to dinosaur web hosts.

If you’re trying to maintain your fundraising site on legacy platforms, you might have run into these potential issues:

• Fundraising pages that do a lot but don’t look like they belong on your website.
• Needing back-end development skills and a lot of plug-ins to keep tools functioning on your website.
• Quickly evolving, sophisticated tech stacks that don’t play nicely with web development software, with lots of time and money lost trying to find workarounds.
• Not having access to data you could be using because it’s too complicated to connect your platforms.

Stop the madness! If raising funds is one of your website’s primary functions, there’s no reason to stay tethered to dinosaur hosting services. Legacy web hosting and CMS platforms no longer have a corner on the market.

Why Should I Host My Nonprofit’s Fundraising Site on Raisely?

In the early days of the internet, only a few platforms were available for domain registration and hosting. Today, you have an array of options that are a lot simpler and less expensive. It’s just as secure and SEO-savvy for nonprofits to host fundraising sites with newer technology.

Here are a few more reasons.

One Consistent Branded Look and Feel

It will make your life so much easier once you’re using one interface to create campaign pages and donation forms that look like the rest of your website — because they are a (very important) part of your website. Consistent design from one page to the next makes all the difference.

If you haven’t experienced the joy of building fundraising sites from scratch, skip the coding mumbo jumbo. You don’t need it! Get up to speed with our Ultimate Guide to charity websites.

Save On Expensive Hosting, Development, and Design Fees

Did you know you can skip expensive hosting and website maintenance costs by using a platform that can function as your entire website … for free? All you need to do is buy the rights to your custom domain with a domain registrar, which only runs about $10-30 AUD a year.

Once you’ve added your custom domain to Raisely and verified it, you’re free to create a completely white-label fundraising site — no one will know it was built with Raisely unless you tell them! And it’s easy to redirect visitors that find your raisely.com subdomain over to your custom URL, and you can add an unlimited number of pages.

Streamline the Donation Process

Shorten the giving process as much as possible so supporters can checkout with just a few clicks. Make it as simple as possible to find the donation form, choose a donation amount and payment method, opt-in for recurring giving, and subscribe to email or SMS communications. We recommend using our signature 3-step donation form.

You’ll want to present different ways to give without making the process too cumbersome. For example, different supporters might choose to give right away or create a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, or they might want to give during matched giving campaigns.

Ultimately, creating separate landing pages for each fundraiser, fundraising event, or type of support is easiest. With Raisely, you can track how different donors are moving through the process to get a better understanding of their giving behaviour.

Simplify Your Tech Stack

Out of all your online fundraising tools, your donation page and payment processor are two of the most critical items. You want to be able to accept donations anywhere, anytime, and offer your audience’s favourite payment options. As you accumulate more apps and plug-ins to create a smooth user experience on a typical web development platform, the platform fees and payment processing fees can stack up fast.

The solution is to manage all your processes in one dashboard – Raisely helps you sort donation data and contact information with our built-in CRM. You can also set up marketing automation and post new content to your website, all in one system. And if you ever need assistance, our support team is just a quick message away.

Run Seamless Campaigns on Social Media and Marketing Platforms

Your online fundraising strategies will go much further if your website and social media accounts are in sync. Raisely’s Facebook Fundraising syncs information in real-time so your followers can give without leaving Facebook. We also integrate with Facebook Pixel for retargeting and Google Analytics for conversion tracking.

Leveraging your social media following with DIY and peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns is a no-brainer, and Raisely also allows you to control what social sharing previews look like.

Raisely Takes Fundraising Sites to the Next Level

One of the most incredible things about Raisely is how much you can customise your fundraising site without writing a single line of code (unless that’s your thing). We’ve created a library of flexible templates you can use to get started, but we also have an open API. You can tweak your Raisely site as much as you like with custom CSS. No more rigid platforms!

Check out these beautiful fundraising sites built on Raisely:

SurfAid

Hosting their website on Raisely has helped SurfAid scale their fundraising efforts quickly. The Australian nonprofit switched to our platform to kick off a peer-to-peer fundraiser based on the popular SurfAid Cup, and they smashed their fundraising goal by 7x in just 30 days.

As surfers worldwide grew familiar with SurfAid through their incredibly successful campaign, the organisation built their website into an educational resource showcasing their mission and impact. Now it’s a robust fundraising site that connects the surfing community with several different ways to get involved.

Himalayan Trust

This New Zealand nonprofit organisation is dedicated to improving the health, education, and general well-being of people living in the Solukhumbu District in Nepal. Himalayan Trust’s website uses our Community Hub Template to host several different peer-to-peer challenges, crowdfunding campaigns, annual appeals, memberships, and more.

But that’s not all! Visitors to the Himalayan Trust website can sign up for the Mail by Runner newsletter, see specific projects in action, learn about founders Sir Ed and Louise Hillary, RSVP for upcoming events, and buy all kinds of Himalayan Trust merch with Raisely’s new ticketing feature.

Science for Wildlife

Science for Wildlife built their fundraising site with our peer-to-peer template and went for some extra pizzazz using custom Javascript. They’ve created a fully digital multimedia environment for their community to interact with and explore. High-quality images, videos, digital booklets, and educational articles keep site visitors engaged and interested.

Give it a browse, and you’ll find plenty of ways to support Science for Wildlife’s mission and make it a part of your own life. You can sign up for the Help Wildlife Near Me app, and even apply to work for Science for Wildlife. Come to learn about Science for Wildlife’s initiatives and the adorable animals they support, and stay to become a part of their growing community!

Should You Move Your Fundraising Site to a New Platform?

Yes, it’s a big decision, especially if you’ve already put in a lot of work to get your current site looking good. But remember, if it’s over three years old, it’s about time for a makeover.

Some questions to consider:

• How long has it been since the last time you did a total redesign of your website? More than three years?
• How much are you currently paying for web hosting, plug-ins, and maintenance?
• What’s your budget for design and development? Do you have people on your team who can help, or would you end up paying a contractor?
• What do you need your website to do, and what other platforms do you need to plug in? Does your current website function the way you need it to, or is there an opportunity to simplify your tech stack and streamline your processes?
• How much SEO value have you built up on your current site, and what might you use when you transfer platforms? How long will it take you to recover your original domain authority and keep growing?

Build Your Fundraising Site on Raisely

We’ve made it as easy as possible to get a professional quality fundraising site up and running, so you can start fundraising right away. We’ve also put a lot of thought into the tools and analytics you need to support online fundraising goals. The last thing we want to see is ambitious nonprofits abandoning their fundraising ideas because of tech issues.Ready to kiss your dinosaur platform goodbye? Set up your free Raisely account today.