How to Use Crowdfunding for a Paid Registration Event

Especially during summer months when weather is great, non-profits will often host a run/walk, bike event, dance-off, etc. where participants are encouraged to fundraise. Often, a paid registration may be required before a participant can fundraise. With the Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising activity, this is as easy as creating a new form and assigning it to one of the buttons.

Step 1: Create Your Activity

Create your Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising activity and ensure your Fundraising Page, Donation form and Sign Up form are set up to your campaign needs. This is fully described in the How to Set Up a Crowdfunding and Peer to Peer Campaign article, here.

Step 2: Create a Registration Form

Now we need to create the paid registration form that we will have our participants use.

In your Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising activity, click on the Online Forms category on the left.

You should see your Donation form and at the top, there is the option to create new forms. Click Create New Form.

Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Create New Form

Name your Registration form and choose a type of form to use. Depending on the functionality you want with your registrants, you will likely choose either a Ticketing form or a Registration form. We'll use the Ticketing form to take advantage of the extra features for this example.

Make sure to leave the Default as No since we still want our default online form to be our donation form. Click Save.

Create Registration Form

Ticketing: The advantage of using the Ticketing form is that it will automatically send your registrants their tickets that can then be scanned at your event to check them in and more. Review the Ticketing Activity articles to learn more about Ticketing in general, here.

Registration: If you don't have a need to check in your registrants, you may find the Registration form more appropriate. When you choose a Registration form, you can then choose to make it a Payment or a Non-Payment form in the design of the form. Since this is normally used as an RSVP form, the default setting is a Non-Payment form.
Registration Form Pay Non-Pay

For clarity, you may wish to rename your Donation form (labeled Online Form by default) so there's no confusion when you select forms. Go to the Action menu (the ... under Actions) and choose to edit the form and rename it.

Action Edit Form

Create your Registration form using the Ticketing Activity steps (described here). Feel free to make it as fancy or as simple as you desire, using different Form Elements and Dynamic Actions. Examples of things to include might be a line for birthdate, t-shirt size, acknowledgment of reading the waivers, etc.

With the Registration form ready, it's time to put it into your Fundraising page.

Step 3: Registration on the Fundraising Page

In this step, you will change your Fundraiser button to make it go to the Registration form.

In your Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising activity, go to your Fundraising Page category on the left.

Go To Fundraising

Go into the Buttons section and click Edit content on the Fundraiser Button.

Edit Fundraiser Button Select

  • Edit the Fundraiser Link Text to define the registration wording.
  • Use the Dropdown to change the Sign up button link to point to your Registration form.
  • Click Save.

Edit Fundraising Button

And you're done! Your Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising activity has quickly and easily transformed into a Paid Registration activity that is dynamic and easy to navigate. And it still can function as a donation page, an update page, and still, even a more traditional Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising page:


How does a Registrant Sign Up to Fundraise?

The above process transforms your Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising activity into a registration page. But what if you want to ask your registrants to take their involvement to the next level by signing up as a fundraiser for your organization and event?

Go back to the Online Forms category on the left, and then open your Registration form by clicking on the title. This process will work with any type of payment form.

  • Open the Form Submit section
  • Enable the Option to sign up as fundraiser.

That's it! Now when someone registers for your event, they will get a pop-up screen asking if they want to fundraise too.

Confirm and Sign Up

If they choose to sign up, they will automatically be registered as a fundraiser and taken to the confirmation page where they can personalize their own Volunteer Fundraiser page.

Note: If you do not see the Option to sign up as fundraiser, contact GiveSmart Fundraise Support so they can engage it for you.

Advanced Concepts

Virtual Registrants / Participants / Fundraisers

Maybe you have supporters who want to help, but the timing is wrong or the idea of going on a Run doesn't thrill them. Then provide "Virtual Registrations" using the Item Element on your Ticketing Form.

The Item Element is the same style and design as a Ticket Element. So, if you have an extra "ticket" choice for your Registrations for the non-participants, you can use the Item Element so they won't receive the email with a ticket where they'd check-in for the event. On the form, it will look like any other ticket, but in your design, you can see that it is an Item instead.

Formatting your Impact Tab

Sometimes you want to give your supporters the option to fundraise without becoming a participant. Maybe you want to include an option for Sponsorships. While your Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising buttons are going to be your supporters' links to the most used or important forms, that doesn't mean you can't have more options. Use your impact tab to the fullest.

To get to you Impact tab, in your Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising activity, select the Fundraising Page category on the left, then open the Tabs section. The first Tab is your Impact tab. Click on Main Text to start writing.

Impact Tab - Main Text Select

Use the Rich Text Editor in the Main Text to design anything you like: Add Images, Video, Links and more. If you have a web designer, they can even edit the HTML directly.

Edit Main Text

Create as many forms for different purposes, so you can specifically target that audience, and then just use the link from those forms as you describe your event in the Impact tab.