Why We Built Our DIY Fundraising Solution
Every hour you spend downloading data, cleaning spreadsheets, and manually sending emails is an hour you’re not spending with your fundraisers.
That’s the challenge we kept hearing from nonprofit teams. And that’s why we built our DIY fundraising solution.
The problem we saw
Fundraising teams are stuck in a cycle of manual work. Here’s what the typical process looks like:
A supporter registers on your website using a lengthy form. Then they need to create a fundraising page on a separate platform. You download their registration data. You clean it up. You upload it to your email tool. You manually send activation emails. And that’s just for one supporter.
Multiply that by dozens or hundreds of DIY fundraisers, and you’ve got a significant chunk of your week gone. The real cost isn’t just time. It’s the opportunity cost. While you’re buried in spreadsheets, you’re not:
- Calling your high-value fundraisers
- Building relationships with engaged supporters
- Identifying who needs extra support
- Actually growing your program
The data challenge
Here’s another issue teams face: incomplete visibility. Your registration data lives in one place. Your JustGiving fundraisers are in another system. Your email tracking is somewhere else entirely.
When you want to understand how your DIY program is performing, you’re pulling data from multiple platforms. You’re trying to piece together the full picture. And you’re never quite sure you have all your supporters accounted for.
It’s hard to track progress when your data is scattered. It’s even harder to identify your high-value supporters when you can’t see everything in one place.
The manual email issue
Then there’s supporter communication. You know timely emails matter. A supporter who registers in January for a spring event needs different messaging than someone running in the winter.
But sending relevant, timely emails means:
- Extracting data based on event dates
- Segmenting supporters by activity type
- Manually scheduling sends for different groups
- Doing it all over again for the next batch
Most teams either spend hours on this or settle for generic emails that go out to everyone at the same time. Neither option is ideal.
Our approach to solving it
We built our DIY solution around a major pillar: automation that actually saves time. Not automation for the sake of it. Automation that eliminates repetitive work so you can focus on what matters.
Integration from the start
- Instead of multiple disconnected tools, we integrated everything into one platform. Registration, fundraising page creation, and email automation all happen in one flow.
- Your supporter completes one form on your website. Their fundraising page gets created automatically. They enter our system without any manual data work from you.
Smart email triggers
- We built email automation based on what actually matters: event type and individual event dates.
- You set up your email program once. From there, supporters receive relevant messages based on their specific timeline. No manual sends. No data extracts.
Complete data capture
- Through our Smart Match algorithms, we automatically bring your JustGiving DIY supporters into your campaigns each day.
- This means all your DIY data lives in one place. You can track progress, identify high-value supporters, and understand your program performance without jumping between platforms.
What this really means
You get your time back.
No more manual data downloads and uploads. No more lengthy, complicated forms that try to serve everyone. No more piecing together reports from multiple sources.
Instead, you can spend your time nurturing relationships with fundraisers who need support and growing your program strategically.
That’s why we built this.
Want to see it in action? Book a demo and we’ll show you how our DIY solution can streamline your entire process.