How Do CanadaHelps Donation Forms Make Your Job Easier?

The fundraising technology landscape has changed drastically since 1999, when CanadaHelps was first established. Today, there are many different donation form providers out there. However, not all donation forms are made equal. One of the things we strive to do at CanadaHelps is to listen and respond to charities to make our donation forms the very best they can be, solve problems our charity partners are facing, and constantly improve according to the best practices we see in the charity sector and beyond.

What features do the CanadaHelps Donation Forms have that support your fundraising efforts and make your job as a fundraiser easier?

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1. Unlimited Forms

There is no limit on the number of CanadaHelps Donation Forms you can create. Unlimited forms are a game changer when you consider the amount of tailoring you can do for each campaign, each way of giving, and the following thank-you messages. Best practice suggests that you create separate donation forms for each so that you can tailor the experience. If you’re not sure why you’d want more than one donation form or are looking for some inspiration, read up on the variety of donations/campaigns you could be optimizing for.

We have also thought about the practicalities of unlimited forms, but rest assured:

• You can duplicate forms, so you don’t need to set things like brand colours or images up from scratch for each form
• You can deactivate your inactive forms for better organization
• You can sort your forms by Name, Date Created, or Amount Raised
• You can view the data for each of your forms separately

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2. Built-in Best Practices in its Appearance

From the get-go, we have thought carefully about how the CanadaHelps Donation forms look.  These subtle but impactful choices in their design mean they are optimized to create as little friction as possible for users looking to donate. You can do other things to help raise your donor conversion rate, but it helps to have a great-looking form that already has these things in mind.

Built-in best practices in its appearance include:

• Only necessary information such as Donation Information, Donor and Tax Receipt Information, and Payment Details are mandatory fields
• Lots of branding options, including colours, images, copy and e-cards 
• Notification if your chosen form colours do not have sufficient colour contrast for accessibility needs

• The ability to embed your donation form directly onto your website
• Slick and modern-looking interface
• Mobile-friendly and responsive
• No CanadaHelps branding when embedded in your site
• No design or coding skills needed to do any of this

You can also see exactly how your finished Donation Form will look with our live preview editor, which we redesigned recently!

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3. Security

Security is often an overlooked aspect of fundraising, but we are being trusted with personally identifiable information and payment details as fundraisers. According to Hackers for Change, charities are “often the most vulnerable targets of cyber attacks”. 

Therefore, it’s helpful to have a donation form working alongside you to prevent security breaches. CanadaHelps donation forms are built to the highest standard and compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. They are also hosted on a secure HTTPS URL, meaning the data passed through is encrypted. Donors can see this information for themselves by hovering over the lock symbol of any form.

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4. Auto “Thank You”s and Tax Receipts

One of the most significant benefits of the CanadaHelps Donation Forms are automatic thank yous sent out to donors. While the advice out there varies, it is clear that thanking donors sooner rather than later is desirable. Our donation form takes care of this for you and sends a thank you message after a donation, making it easy to acknowledge your donors' gifts.

These “Thank You” messages can be customized with your charity’s branding and let them know more information about the campaign they are donating to and the impact their gift will have. You can create different versions depending on which form they donate to, whether their donation is one-time or monthly, or whether they are English or French speakers. 

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Similarly, CanadaHelps takes care of your tax receipting. You will be able to customize your tax receipt, but you won’t need to work out the details or do any manual receipting! Those with CanadaHelps donor accounts can also log in and find their donation receipts at the end of the tax year.

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5. Expiring Card Checker, Refunds and Other Situations

One of the underrated features of using CanadaHelps for your fundraising is that we do a lot of other background work to help charities focus on what matters most. We help follow up with donors who have set up recurring gifts but have an expiring payment option on file. This can often trip up small charities expecting a certain amount of recurring revenue from their monthly donors. 

We also handle refunds and other situations for donors looking for their tax receipt information. Our friendly, bilingual donor relations team can help donors with many inquiries.

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Conclusion

CanadaHelps goes above and beyond to ensure our donation forms support charities where they need it most. We know most charities are made up of volunteers and often have ten staff or less. Our donation forms do a great job of doing the heavy lifting so that you can focus on where it matters most. 

Learn how CanadaHelps Donation Forms could support your charity today by booking a free consultation with our Charity Engagement Specialists!

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