Ops Insights #082 - 4 Steps to Assess Online Fundraising Platforms
January 22, 2025 | Read Time: 8 minutes | Written by Jenny Kleintop
Online fundraising platforms, just like the World Wide Web and your tech stack, have exploded over the last five years. It feels like it’s now over-saturated with options, and it’s hard to know what direction to go in.
Spoiler alert: I have not yet found the perfect “one” platform. Instead, I encourage you to take the time to find the one or couple that work for your team’s needs today and as you move into the future.
Having just gone through this with a nonprofit I’m working with, I’d like to lay out the steps for you to take as you lean into this endeavor. After you go through this, if you have realized staying with the one you have is the right choice, then that’s a worthwhile endeavor as well. It will satisfy “the grass is greener on the other side” conversations.
Step 1: Do discovery.
Compile the pain points. Schedule small-group sessions to facilitate conversations with your team members. Ask what is working well for them, what is not working well, and what is on their wish list. I led three separate sessions to group various team members together based on aligned workflows. Smaller groups create a more personal, safe environment where everyone can share their opinions. It’s less intimidating than a single large team session and encourages more dialogue than an emailed survey.
Here is sample language for the calendar invite: I’d like to get your take on our online fundraising platforms and, more broadly, on our needs for online giving, events, auctions, and peer-to-peer platforms. Questions we’ll cover:
What is working well with our existing platforms?
What does not work with our existing platforms?
What is on your wish list if we were to switch platforms?
Compile your tech stack. This is not just for online platforms; it's for your entire tech stack. It will start to reveal how many you have, and then you can isolate the section for online giving platforms for this effort. Open Visio, Excel, or a Google Doc and start listing out all the various technology tools you use. Personally, I use Visio as I feel it presents the best visual on a one-page view, but any tool will work.
When I listed all the software and platforms we use, our existing tech stack, we had 105 different tools we used. Granted, 60 of them were matching gifts and third-party sites, but 45 were not. Here’s how I grouped them:
Fundraising: These included our fundraising database/CRM, online giving platforms, integrated software across various platforms, wealth screening tools, payment processors, and miscellaneous software we used for fundraising efforts, such as prospecting for sponsorships.
Marketing: These included our e-blast tools, website host, social media tools, and random tools we used, such as image creation tools, QR code generators, and URL creation tools.
Operations: These included office products, virtual meeting and storage tools, board software, and other random tools like document e-sign and AI tools.
Project Management: These included our project management software and help desk/ticketing tools.
Compile your list of vendors. Start a Google or Word document and begin to list the vendors you want to look into. This will be your working document as you move through all the steps.
The list would include:
Ones you are familiar with and have had good experience with.
Ones your team members are familiar with and have had good experience with.
Ones you hear about or search for in industry community groups.
Ones you hear from peers that they are using and having a good experience with.
Even ones you find using a Google search, Perplexity AI, or ChatGPT.
Compile your list of task force team members. Talk with your leader to see who they feel should be included in a task force that will assess the various vendors, provide feedback, and ultimately help make the decision. If you are a small shop, that may be everyone. If you are a larger shop, it will likely be a select group of team members from various functional units. The important thing here is that you open it up to people outside of philanthropy operations. Meaning you don’t want only technical-minded people in these groups. It’s important to have end users, especially ones who may be non-technical-minded. During the discussion with your leader, include your thoughts on who to include.
Step 2: Hold initial conversations with vendors.
After you review the vendor’s website and gather prior experiences from others, it’s time to set up initial conversations with the vendors. When I had these calls, they were 15-30 minutes, and I did them myself at this first stage. If you feel it would help to have another person to bounce post-call feedback off of, include them. But I would not include everyone on the task force at this stage, as it’s often not worth everyone’s time.
I had a list of the top questions I wanted the vendor to answer to see if they could address our main pain points and needs with their platform. This allowed me to bucket them into 3 groups. The first group was a definite move to the next round; the second was holding on now but resurfacing if needed; and the third group was a hard no.
With your top choices in mind to move to the next round, now it’s time to conduct the next round of sessions with these vendors.
Step 3: Conduct the next round of vendor sessions.
This time, include the team members who are on the task force. These sessions should include an actual demo of the platform along with time for Q&A. I let team members ask the questions that were top of mind for them. Then I made sure to ask the remaining questions to ensure they covered our pain points and needs. This way, I could collect feedback from the team afterwards.
Following is a post-vendor session survey I sent to team members that you can use.
I asked them to reply to the email with their answers, then copied the responses into the Excel sheet I had, as it was the best method for this team. However, you can use an online survey tool or form to collect the responses if that works for your team.
Subject: Post-Demo Feedback – Fundraising Platform Evaluation
Thanks for attending the [Platform Name] demo. To help us make the best choice for our team, please take a few minutes to respond to the questions below. Your honest input will be valuable in comparing each platform’s strengths and weaknesses.
Please reply directly to this email with your answers by [add date].
🔹 General Impressions
How well did the platform meet the needs of our fundraising goals? (1 = Not at all, 5 = Perfectly):
Was the platform easy to understand and navigate during the demo? (1 = Very confusing, 5 = Very intuitive):
Do you feel the platform would be user-friendly for our fundraisers and us? (Yes/No):
What were your overall impressions of the platform? Write your response here:
🔹 Functionality and Features
Rate the platform’s peer-to-peer fundraising capabilities. (1 = Poor, 5 = Excellent):
Did the platform support all necessary features (donations, peer-to-peer, DIY fundraising, auctions, text-to-give, etc.)? If not, what was missing? (Yes/No):
What features or functionality stood out to you as strengths? Write your response here:
Were there any critical features missing or not well explained? Write your response here:
🔹 Integration and Technical Fit
Rate the platform’s potential to integrate smoothly with our CRM. (1 = Not compatible, 5 = Seamless):
Does the platform appear capable of importing offline donations? (Yes/No):
Was the data exporting and reporting functionality clear and easy to understand? (Yes/No):
🔹 User Roles and Communication
How effective did the platform appear in supporting team captains and participant communication? (1 = Not effective, 5 = Highly effective):
Could the platform support multiple team captains, team banners, and messaging functions as described? (Yes/No):
🔹 Overall Thoughts
Would you recommend shortlisting this platform for final consideration? Why or why not? Write your response here:
Thank you again for your thoughtful feedback!
Step 4: Make the decision and plan for roll-out.
Use the survey responses to rank the platforms by highest rating. This is the quantitative perspective. Then fill in the qualitative perspective, as in the long-form answers, feedback, and your gut feeling, by reviewing all these platforms.
Then talk with your leader to provide your thoughts on the number one choice, as well as the next two runners-up, along with the reasons. Here are the questions that are top of mind for leaders:
Cost of the new platform, and whether it would replace any other platform costs that we may be moving away from?
Functionality of the new platform. Does it address all the current pain points we have, and bring us into the future we need to go?
Missing features that may be missing as a platform may be the best choice, but may still be lacking some features or functionality. The important thing is, how will we solve these missing features? For us, I recommended two online platforms. One for peer-to-peer initiatives and another for our general donation pages. The peer-to-peer platform did not have a direct sync with our CRM, so we needed to purchase a third-party tool to handle this. I was very clear on the why and the cost it would add.
Timing to roll out the new platform. Who will be involved, and when will it be rolled out? Will it require outside help, or can we handle it all internally? In this part, also make sure to bring up what may need to be taken off people’s plates to ensure we can roll this out successfully.
Then you are ready to sign the agreement with the vendor and put plans in motion to implement the new platform.
Take Action
When you need to assess if a new online fundraising platform is the right choice for you, follow these 4 steps:
1 ➡ Do discovery.
2 ➡ Hold initial conversations with vendors.
3 ➡ Conduct the next round of vendor sessions.
4 ➡ Make the decision and plan for roll-out.
You’ve got this!
👋 See you next time,
Jenny
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