GivebearFundraising Guide
Decide when to use funds, campaigns, public giving pages, recurring gifts, and website embeds.
Fundraising in Givebear starts with one question: what should the donor believe they are giving to? The answer determines whether you need a fund, a campaign, an event, a kiosk path, or a website widget.
Choose the right fundraising object
| Donor need | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| "I want to support the organization generally." | Fund | A fund is a stable destination that can stay online for a long time. |
| "I want to support this seasonal appeal." | Campaign | A campaign wraps a story, goal, and deadline around giving. |
| "I want to buy a ticket or register." | Event | Events track ticket types, forms, registrations, and check-in. |
| "I am standing at a kiosk." | Kiosk donation | Kiosks use synced funds and device settings for in-person giving. |
| "I am on the organization's website." | Widget or SDK | Embeds bring Givebear giving into an existing site. |
Do not make a new campaign for every accounting category. Use funds for destinations. Use campaigns for moments.
Funds
Funds are the most important fundraising primitive. A fund should be easy for donors to understand and easy for finance to reconcile. Examples include General Fund, Zakat, Building Fund, Youth Program, Food Pantry, or Mission Trip.
When creating a fund, focus on:
- Name: Donor-facing, short, and recognizable.
- Story: What the money supports and why it matters.
- Image: A real image or brand asset that fits the appeal.
- Amounts: Suggested values that match donor expectations.
- Status: Publish only when the page is ready to receive real gifts.
Use a small number of funds at launch. Too many destinations make donor choice harder and cleanup harder.
Campaigns
Campaigns are best for narrative fundraising. Use them for Ramadan, year-end giving, disaster relief, capital projects, pledge drives, back-to-school drives, or other focused appeals.
A strong campaign answers:
- What is the need?
- Why now?
- What amount or milestone matters?
- Where does the donor's gift go?
- What should the donor do next?
Campaigns can point donors toward one or more giving destinations, but the donor should not have to understand your internal structure to complete the gift.
Recurring gifts
Recurring donations are for donors who want an ongoing commitment. In the payment code, recurring online donations create Stripe subscriptions on the organization's connected account and apply the current Givebear application fee percentage.
Use recurring gifts when:
- The destination supports ongoing work.
- Staff know how to answer cancellation or update questions.
- Finance expects repeated charges in reporting.
- The donor page language makes the interval clear.
Kiosk recurring donations require an internet connection. Offline kiosk mode is only for supported card-present one-time payment behavior.
Public giving pages and embeds
Use the public Givebear page when you want the fastest donor path. Use website widgets when the donor should stay on an existing site. Use the SDK when a developer needs to control rendering or analytics in code.
Website widgets
Developer SDK
A practical launch structure
For most organizations, start with:
- One General Fund.
- One or two mission-specific funds.
- One launch campaign or seasonal appeal.
- A public organization giving page.
- A website donation widget only after the public page is tested.
After launch, add tags, segments, tasks, and email campaigns so follow-up work has a clean donor record underneath it.