How to Maximize Immediate Value from Your Fundraising Platform

Realizing immediate value from your fundraising platform is essential for your organization’s success and sustainability. In the fast-paced world of nonprofit fundraising, every moment counts.

Leveraging your platform efficiently and effectively from the start can significantly improve your fundraising outcomes and donor engagement, helping ensure you’re ready to respond to immediate needs without downtime.

Below, discover how Classy makes this process easier for nonprofits with streamlined onboarding and powerful features. Plus, learn how World Changers Church International benefited from our streamlined platform activation process to achieve stellar results.

Understanding the need for quick value

The ability to quickly realize value from your fundraising platform isn’t just advantageous. It’s essential. Seeing prompt results from your investment can set the tone for your organization’s future success and sustainability, including:

• Accelerated return on investment: Accelerated ROI means funds get to your programs faster, allowing donors to see the impact quicker. This boosts confidence among your board and staff, reassuring them of your decisions.

• Optimized campaigns for a strong start: New technology and platform features, like Classy’s Intelligent Ask Amounts, drive higher conversion rates and larger average gift sizes. Plus, tools like a donor dashboard and flexible payment options empower supporters to take charge of their giving experiences. This blend of personalization and control significantly enhances donor engagement from the start.

• Immediate impact on fundraising goals: Early success allows you to reach your fundraising targets faster, which can be essential for funding urgent projects or addressing immediate needs.

• Greater levels of donor engagement: Quick wins can energize your donor base, encouraging them to stay involved and contribute more frequently, knowing their contributions make a swift and tangible impact.

• Enhanced organizational morale and confidence: Early achievements can boost your team’s confidence and morale, reinforcing their belief in your mission and the effectiveness of your strategies. Plus, quickly launching showcases to board members and decision-makers that you’ve made the right decision in purchasing a new platform, providing proof of concept.

• Stronger foundation for long-term success: Quickly demonstrating the value of your platform lays the groundwork for sustained fundraising success, setting a precedent for future campaigns and donor relationships.

Quick value realization ensures that your organization can maximize its impact from the outset, but what are the right steps to ensure a strong return on your platform investment?

Must-have elements of an effective onboarding program

The first step is asking vendors about their onboarding programs and how much assistance they provide. Key elements to listen for include:

• Initial setup: Will they work with you to ensure necessary campaign features get activated, necessary admins have account access, and everything runs smoothly?
• Campaign creation: Do they provide hands-on help in building your first fundraising campaign according to their recommended best practices?
• Training and familiarization: Is there continued education on how to use the platform effectively and adopt its latest offerings?
• Testing and optimization: What services do they provide to fine-tune your campaign before a launch?
• Launch-day preparation: How do they help you prepare everything for the big day, like ensuring donations transact properly and pages load as quickly as possible?
• Performance analysis: What tools do they have to monitor your campaign post-launch and evaluate its performance?

Key steps to onboard onto Classy in one week

By choosing Classy, you choose to see fast results. Here’s our streamlined action plan to support you in getting launched within your first week:

Within your first seven days on Classy, we’ll work with you to:

✓ Set up your payment processor: Ensure your payment system is ready to accept donations.

✓ Add a billing method: Configure your billing settings.

✓ Create your first campaign: Build and customize your initial fundraising campaign.

✓ Edit donation receipts: Personalize receipts to enhance the donor experience.

✓ Publish your campaign and add it to your website: Make your campaign live and accessible.

✓ Test the donation flow: Verify that the donation process works smoothly.

We also understand that the process doesn’t end when you launch your first campaign. While it’s a big accomplishment, it’s just the beginning. Classy offers a range of resources to help you accelerate your success after that first week, including:

• Seven weekly training sessions focused on essential fundraising skills
• Getting Started workshop for a hands-on walk-through of Classy Studio, enabling you to launch your campaign that same day
• What’s New in Classy workshop that covers new features you can leverage to optimize and enhance your existing or future campaigns (available on a recurring basis)
• Guided help along the way to ensure you meet key milestones
• Interactive lessons on Classy Academy to enhance your online fundraising skills
• Step-by-step guidance for driving revenue in your first event on Classy Live

See it in action: World Changers Church International

The World Changers Church International team faced a critical challenge: transitioning to a new, reliable fundraising platform without disrupting or confusing their supporters during the giving season.

To ensure a smooth switch to Classy, they proactively set clear implementation expectations before joining the platform. This strategic move paid off, as the transition provided a dependable giving experience, leading to higher conversion rates, increased fundraising revenue, and a more significant impact on their mission.

More specifically, World Changers Church International achieved:

• 14,000+ donations in their first two months on Classy
• 12% increase in their average one-time donation size
• 72% conversion rate on their homepage donation form (over 4x the industry standard)

Empowering success from day one

Onboarding is a pivotal step in unlocking the full potential of your fundraising platform. It not only sets the stage for future efforts but also reinforces your confidence in the technology and streamlines your path to achieving your goals.

While we understand that adopting a new platform can be daunting, Classy’s intentional onboarding process and hands-on support ease those concerns. Our ultimate goal is to ensure you get off to a great start, providing you with the tools and knowledge needed for success.

Copy Editor: Ayanna Julien