Considerations for Launching a Crowdfunding Platform

Annual Giving Online Fundraising Education Fundraising Platform

min read

Launching a crowdfunding platform can be a daunting task: from effectively training your team to understanding the technical specifications to choosing the metrics you’ll use for reporting, there’s a lot to consider. That’s why we developed this systematic roadmap to walk you through the considerations you and your team should make.

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OBJECTIVES

1. Why are you considering the addition of crowdfunding to your fundraising toolkit?
2. What do you hope to accomplish by integrating a platform?
   • Are you trying to attract net new donors, younger donors, and/or foster higher engagement by existing donors?
   • Are you trying to foster innovation within your organization and/or fund initiatives more cost effectively?
3. How will crowdfunding and/or day of giving integrate with your current fundraising efforts?
   • Do you have a baseline of existing online giving you want to improve?
   • Will the marketing and stewardship processes for your platform have overlap?

BUDGET

1. What can be budgeted towards the effort to deploy a platform?
2. Which budget(s) will pay for the platform and resources?
3. Who will be in charge of managing the budget?

TEAM

1. Who is involved in deciding the technology and platform specifications?
2. Who is involved in integration and implementation?
3. Who is involved in ongoing management?
   • How many people?
   • How many hours per week?
4. Who will be responsible for product training?
5. Who do reports and updates go to?
6. Who will develop or manage campaign standards and the approval process?

TRAINING & SUPPORT

1. What type of strategy will your organization use?
   • Ex. set overall team goals or assign “departments” (i.e. groups respectively responsible for technical questions, best practices, platform-specific restrictions, etc.)
2. What type of training does your organization need/expect?
   • Ex. technical, operational, marketing, campaign creation, execution, and support
3. How does your organization want users to access support?
   • Ex. phone, chat, email, knowledge base, forum

SPECIFICATIONS

1. Should you buy or build?
2. What other technologies does the platform need to interact with?
   • Ex. payment processor, social media, existing online platforms
3. Is it mobile friendly?
4. Does it work with all browsers?
5. Does it offer CSS Styling?
6. Is there social media Integration?
7. Is it easily embeddable on any URL?

FEATURES

1. Can you fully customize pages?
2. Do you have the ability to do offsite fundraising?
3. Can the product accommodate donation matching?
4. Does it incorporate gamification?
5. Can you offer rewards to supporters?
6. Can campaigns post updates?
7. Can supporters post comments?
8. Can businesses sponsor and donate rewards?

TIMELINE

1. How long will it take to train staff and faculty?
2. How long will it take from platform build to launch?
3. How many campaigns do you want to have active for platform launch?
   • How long will it take to get this number submitted?
   • How long will it take to vet and train campaign creators?
   • How long will the campaigns run?
4. How long between campaign cycles?

METRICS

1. What metrics should you use for baselines/reporting?
   • Number of projects
   • Total amount raised
   • Number of net new donors
   • Number of young donors
   • Number of returning donors
   • Social media impact
   • Traditional media impact
   • Effectiveness of message channel(s)
   • Number of campaign participants overall
   • Number and participation level of engaged businesses
   • Successful projects