We’ve recently updated our custom fields functionality, and we couldn’t be more excited.
Seeking to expand on our existing fields, we wanted to create a more versatile experience that allows our users to receive more information from their donors and fundraisers, in the layout they want to receive it in.
When you can receive more donor and fundraiser information, you’re able to make it easier for your supporters to give you the information you need, and with this information you have the power to transform their experience.
When you integrate vital aspects of your campaign with custom fields, you’re able to act on the information provided to make your campaign more effective than ever before.
Let’s explore 4 ways you can use our updated custom fields feature to power-up your fundraising campaign.
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1) T-shirt & Event Information
If you’re running a fundraising event, there’s probably a couple of pieces of information you need from your donors.
Sometimes, you want to know their preference for seating.
Other times, you need to be made aware of any food allergies.
But for a lot of events that we see run on CauseVox, the administrators for the campaign want to provide t-shirts to event attendees.
With our updated custom fields, we make it easier to collect your event information. How?
One way is our new ‘group’ feature, which allows you to arrange questions right next to each other, making it clear which questions are directly related to one another.
Here’s a look at how one person could set up their custom fields to gather the information needed to distribute t-shirts.
In the example above, the custom fields use a dropdown menu to collect t-shirt size, use a radio selector for preferred delivery method, and use a text box to collect the donor’s shipping address, if needed.
With the already various field types that are available, arranged in an order that’s easy for donors, you’re able to ensure you get all the information you need to effectively run your event without having to track down your donors to get their preferences and details.
2) Memorial and Honor Giving
For a lot of organizations, especially health-related ones, when a donor makes a contribution they have a personal connection with the cause.
One way to really make that connection related to their donation is by giving the option for donors to make their donation in honor of or in memory of a loved one.
With our custom fields, you’re able to add this to the donation form to give your donors that deeper meaning and personalized experience.
Here’s an example of how you can use the custom fields to run a campaign that’s driven by honor and memorial donations.
For the custom field, the radio selection makes it easy to select the kind of donation, and text line provides the ability for donors to enter in the name.
Once you receive the donor’s information, it’s good to keep note of this. You may want to send a separate thank you or shout out on social media referencing the people to whom donors dedicated their gift.
We recommend dedicating at least one blog post to the people donors gave in honor of and in memory of, so they see their loved one’s name recognized and displayed publicly.
Adding this to your campaign can really tie a donor’s gift closer to their heart more than ever before, and help develop your relationship with them even further.
3) Registration
Aside from grouping questions, we now have a couple of different custom field formats: a normal custom field and a repeating custom field.
A normal field is a field that can only be filled out once, which is typically used in situations where only your donor is answering questions only on their own behalf.
A repeating field is a field that the donor can add rows to, so that the question you asked can be answered multiple times. This is best used in a situation where a donor is answering questions on behalf of multiple people.
The perfect application of this is for races or event registrations.
In this case, donors can contribute a certain amount to register for a race, but a lot of times one donor is also donating to register for multiple people.
Here’s a look at how you can now collect this information using custom fields:
In the example above, a normal custom field dropdown menu is displayed to confirm how many people are participating in the 5k.
Then, a repeating custom field group is added, with the participant name and participant address, with rows that can be added to match the number of participants entered above.
This mix of normal custom fields and standard custom fields makes it really easy to ensure you have the information you need to get everyone registered for the race without any hassle or confusion.
4) Rewards
One of the greatest applications of custom fields, especially with our updated capabilities, is for rewards.
Since the beginning of crowdfunding and online peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns, rewards have often been used to incentivize donors to give, and for fundraisers to raise more.
While we often recommend framing donations as being impact-driven, it’s no doubt that rewards or raffles add a fun aspect to campaigns, and custom fields make it really easy to receive the information needed to provide these rewards.
Here’s one example of how a group of custom fields can be used to collect this information:
In this example, a radio field is used to give donors the option to receive their reward, or to simply give. Providing this information can not only save your organization some funds, but it can also avoid frustrating donors that don’t want to receive a reward.
Then, a dropdown menu gives the donors the option to choose their preferred reward. This is perfect if you have several types of rewards donors can choose from, or if you’re running a raffle or auction.
With these options, donors are empowered to make their wants known to your nonprofit, helping make the fun part of your campaign easier than ever.
With these 4 ways you can use our updated custom fields feature, you’re able to power-up your fundraising campaign by making your donor’s giving experience seamless and personalized.
But how you use our custom fields aren’t limited to these four use cases.
Custom fields also help account for various types of campaign’s needs, giving you the power to control what information you receive.
Here’s a few other ways we’ve seen custom fields help enhance fundraising campaigns:
- Collecting information for corporate giving
- Finding out the best way to connect with donors (email, social media, etc)
- Determining how donors heard about the campaign/organization (through a friend, online, etc)
Since custom fields are so personalized to your needs, you’re able to collect nearly any information you can imagine from your donors, in the format that you need it. The questions you can ask your donors are nearly endless. And with the knowledge you receive, you have the power to add another dimension to your campaign that makes it easier for you, helps you develop relationships with donors, and boosts donations.
Here’s a look at how you can set up custom donation fields:
For more information about how you can set up custom fields for your site, view:
- How To Set Up Custom Donation Fields
- How To Set Up Custom Fundraiser Fields
- How To Use Custom Fields For Event Registration
- How To Set Up Your Site For Runs, Walks, and Races
