Introduction
Crowdfunding is a content-centric bundle of features that sit on top of AlumnIQ's giving services to drive a more engaged donor experience, ideally operated for a fixed period of time.
Introduction
Our approach to crowdfunding builds on top of the AlumnIQ giving module's services. The benefits?
single gift processing channel with no additional integration
direct tie-in with email module for identity passthrough and dynamic customization
familiar configuration with additional flexibility
recurring gifts (ideal for long-running projects)
instant tax receipting
We leveraged literally everything you already know about creating and managing giving operations through AlumnIQ and added a flexible, dynamic, and cause-centric interface on top of it. Best of both worlds!
Terminology
So we're speaking the same language as you proceed through these docs, here are some common terms that you'll want to keep in mind.
Campaign: top level collection of projects. Think of it as a way to group related initiatives under one umbrella.
Project: a cause, group, purpose, or other entity orchestrating a fundraiser.
Contributor: a person who maintains content for one or more projects, typically a very engaged member of the group we're raising money for
Incentive: a "reason to give" that may have specific gift thresholds (and limits) that may result in an entitlement for the donor
Path: the gift capture flow/form that a donor proceeds through as a result of clicking from a project page. Same as you've always used for traditional online giving support.
Challenge: an automated donation matching system that provides flexibility to let the matching donor to choose how they'll match donations.
Neat features of Campaigns
you can have multiple active concurrent campaigns
start and end times for auto launch and closure
friendly url for non-obscure marketing
native adjustment feature for donor and dollar counts
Neat features of Projects
same features as campaigns PLUS:
optional goal sharing of dollars and or donors
copy overrides for path intro, confirmation, and confirmation email
unique minimum gift amount enforcement
unique ask array
promotional tools via Open Graph, Facebook, and Twitter
hero image for project landing page
unique pages for a project overview, FAQ, donor wall (dynamically generated), and posts (blog-style updates about the project)
Contributor support - enlist volunteers to keep the posts and select other areas of project content updated on your behalf without a password!
Neat features of Incentives
start and end times for auto launch and closure
enforced minimum gift amount threshold to create the entitlement
enforced limits on use/applicability to prevent overcommits
unique ask array
appeal code override
Neat features of Challenges
See the challenge docs for details. They're powerful and a huge time saver!
Quick Build Process
Create or identify a path you want to use for these gifts.
Create a campaign and choose a reasonably friendly short url for it.
Create at least one project under the campaign.
Map each project to an appropriate path.
(optional) Create an incentive (if applicable) to drive donor behavior.
Share the link around and wait for the money to roll in!
Email - tokens and links
Tokens for crowdfunding come in two flavors; campaign and project. Each of the following five tokens are available for both campaigns and projects.
URL
Donor Goal
Donor Total
Dollar Goal
Dollar Total
As always, we advise building your tokens in the email module using the tools provided. This helps eliminate any typos that would result in the tokens not being converted to values.
Upcoming: We are experimenting with the idea of crowdfunding in the form of "live images". In other words, every time the image is requested, it is delivered as a lightweight SVG image with the latest value. This is one work around to static text in an email and the restriction that your stats in an email could be hours stale if rendered hours before the send. We are still working on the implementation, but if you'd like to beta test this concept, let us know in a ticket.
Appeal Codes
Just like the paths, our appeal codes continue to respect a hierarchy for crowdfunding:
Incentive > Project > Campaign > Path
The highest attached appeal code will be applied to the pledge.
Reporting and API
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