General
Q. What is the Fundraising Platform?
The platform provides cutting edge fundraising technology to groups working with refugees and migrants in the UK.
We believe that organisations doing great work should be able to access great tech, regardless of their size or budget.
That’s why we’ve developed the fundraising platform.
Built on our experience of developing bespoke fundraising sites for organisations such as Oxfam and Help Refugees, the fundraising platform is a SaaS product available free of charge to eligible organisations.
Using the fundraising platform, organisations can build their own fundraising page, apply their own branding and embed the page on their own website using a URL that they choose. To anyone viewing the page, it will appear as a custom page built just for your organisation - just like the one we built for Help Refugees.
You’ll also be able to allow supporters and fundraisers to create affiliated fundraising pages e.g. ‘My sponsored run’, linked to your main fundraising page.
The platform technology means that rather than starting from scratch and building a new, completely bespoke, fundraising site for each individual organisation, the foundations of each site built using the platform remain the same.
This allows us to make great fundraising technology available to lots of organisations at the same time, for a fraction of the cost.
Q. What is this platform NOT?
This platform is not an enterprise solution, so it does not have all the functionality of big commercial competitors.
However, this platform does have a unique blend of features, usability, and zero fees which makes it an ideal solution for organisations in the early stages of their online fundraising work.
It is also important to note that the platform is exactly that, a platform! It is not a bespoke solution. If you feel your organisation has outgrown the platform’s functionality, get in touch and we can discuss next steps.
Q. Do you really mean free of charge?
Short answer: Yes!
Longer answer: There is no charge at all for participating organisations for using the platform. The only deduction from a supporters donation is the card processing fee charged by Stripe, which is a standard component of any online fundraising solution. There are no % fees or other costs for you.
This is all made possible due to the support of Unbound Philanthropy.
From 1st July 2019, this platform is guaranteed to remain fee free for at least 12 months and hopefully longer, depending on the success of the platform.
The more successful the platform is, the more likely we are to be able to continue to provide this service free of charge.
What we can guarantee is that we will never introduce a fee without giving you notice in advance.
The platform has been developed by and for the not for profit sector - our mission is to support you to raise as much funding as possible for your cause.
Q. Are there any costs to consider?
There is no charge at all for participating organisations for using the platform. The only deduction from a supporters donation is the card processing fee charged by Stripe, which is a standard component of any online fundraising solution. There are no % fees or other costs for you.
From 1st July 2019, this platform is guaranteed to remain fee free for at least 12 months and hopefully longer, depending on the success of the platform. We will never introduce a fee without giving you notice in advance and you will always be able to easily leave the platform, taking your data with you.
Q. What is Stripe?
Stripe is one of the world's leading payment processors. They process the card details of donors and transfer the funds to your account and for this, take a small percentage fee from the transaction. Stripe is used by organisations such as Amazon, Deliveroo and UNICEF to process millions of transactions a day.
Q. What about Gift Aid?
The platform is setup for you to collect optional Gift Aid information which you can then download and process. The platform does not process Gift Aid claims automatically but provides you with an easy way to do this yourself.
Q. Who’s behind this?
This project is supported by Unbound Philanthropy and The Developer Society.
Q. Who’s eligible for the platform?
All charities, NGOs and mission led orgs working to support refugees and migrants in the UK are eligible.
Q. Why should I use this platform?
This platform has been designed specifically to meet the needs of charities, NGOs and mission led orgs working to support refugees and migrants in the UK.
It has the key functionality for online fundraising, is easy to use, and after card processing payment it is fee free.
The platform allows you to:
- Quickly and easily create beautiful new fundraising pages.
- Safely and securely process all donations through Stripe (one of the world's leading payment processors which handles the card transactions) to your bank account.
- Create supporter pages so members of the public can create a fundraising page (e.g. for 'My sponsored run') with all proceeds going to your organisation.
- Track and own all the data from people donating to you.
Q. Sounds great! How do I sign up?
It's easy! Just go to this page and follow the steps.
Setup
Q. How long will it take to get setup?
This varies from organisation to organisation but once you have setup a Stripe account it should not take you more than a few hours total (across the various stages) to get setup and taking donations. For many organisations the time required is much quicker.
Q. I'm not sure what my brand details are?
The platform has been developed so that any organisation working with refugees and migrants can start fundraising, even if you’ve never set up a fundraising campaign before!
As you set up your fundraising page, you’ll be prompted to choose brand colours. The colours you choose are entirely up to you.
We’ve also provided some great stock images in case you don’t have specific images on hand.
Q. Can the platform integrate with other systems such as MailChimp or other email systems?
Yes, the platform is built to handle webhooks but these integrations do not come setup for you and you will need to connect the platform with other systems using the webhooks.
Q. I'm not sure what that means, will you help me do the integration?
Unfortunately at this stage, DEV are unable to help you do the integration work as part of this project. We are happy to speak to any organisation about custom work but this will not be covered by the platform and will be billable work.
Q. Can I change the web address/URL?
The platform is not currently available for self hosting. That means your organisations page will be under the allwelcome.org domain and allwelcome.org will be the root URL. It will however have your organisation's name in there too and you will control the content. At this time we are not currently able to offer further customisation of URLs.
Supporter Fundraising Pages
Q. How can a volunteer/fundraiser set up a page for their event?
That's great! Simply tell them visit your organisations homepage on the All Welcome platform and they'll be able to sign up there.
Q. What should I do if I want to raise funds for an organisation who isn’t using the platform?
You can nominate an organisation to join the platform by contacting us at fundraising@dev.ngo.
Q. How do we encourage fundraisers to use the platform?
Supporter fundraisers can be a hugely powerful fundraising source. Spread the word about this functionality through email and social media and ask your strongest supporters to become fundraisers rather than donors.
Q. Help! A fundraiser has set up an affiliated page for an activity we don’t support
You can simply delete their page in the admin. If you are having issues with this, contact fundraising@dev.ngo.
Support
Q. How do I use the platform?
You can find a collection of training videos detailing how to use the platform here: https://www.dev.ngo/fundraising/learn/
Q. I've watched the videos and I'm still unsure about how to use it?
Please send an email with your question to fundraising@dev.ngo.
Q. I need help!
We can help you! https://www.dev.ngo/fundraising/i-need-help/
Q. I need urgent help with a problem, who can I speak to?
If there is an issue with the platform (a bug in the code that means functionality is broken), then please fill out the bug report form here and we'll get back to you asap. If the platform is functioning properly but you need support in using it, please sign up for a 1-to-1 call or webinar here. Outside of this, we are unable to offer quick turnaround support at this stage of the project and we appreciate your patience.
Q. A supporter/donor has an issue, who can I speak to?
All management of supporters/donors is the responsibility of the organisation they are engaging with. Unfortunately DEV can not help you with payment returns, receipts or other requests from supporters.
Other questions
Have another question that isn't answered above? Just click the button below and we'll get back to you shortly with an answer