Creative Ways To Use Blackbaud Online Express Donation Pages

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve heard from so many organizations how they’re having to quickly develop new strategies for working differently. This includes new ways of encouraging donors to contribute online. We usually post to this blog about new features and new ways of using Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®. With so many other things about your work processes subject to change right now, you may not want to start using brand new tools. So, we put together this collection of our best advice for using a tool you may already have in your tool chest: Blackbaud Online Express™.

These techniques and strategies will help you fully and creatively leverage Blackbaud Online Express donation page functionality.  

Did You Know You Can…? 

• Create unlimited Blackbaud Online Express forms, allowing you to use unique form types for different campaigns and segments. These forms can match your campaigns and the amount you are seeking.
• Implement donor cover with SmartTHING, a Blackbaud partner – and it's free. This allows donors to “pay the transaction fees”.
• Convert existing recurring gifts to automated recurring gifts (for Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT customers) – and if processing using Blackbaud Merchant Services™ (BBMS), enable Credit Card Updater to ensure credit card information is always up-to-date, and payments aren’t missed. (Contact Customer Support for more information about converting.)
• Include “impact” statements alongside ask amount buttons on your donation forms (e.g. “$50 buys 10 meals”). 
• Integrate matching gift lookup on donation forms (Contact your Account Executive for more information).

Eleven Strategies to Consider 

1. Segmentation. Segment your constituents and direct them to different donation pages. Use magic links to control how giving amounts and designations appear. 
2. One-Time Contribution. Create a one-time Blackbaud Online Express donation campaign, “$25 from everyone” for a one-time contribution. Consider using the progress bar, which is a very effective marketing strategy.  
3. Gifts in Kind. Use bill me later functionality to collect gifts in kind. Tell your constituents what you need and record that instantly in Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT. 
4. Events. Repurpose events to gather volunteer interest. (e.g. “I am interested in helping with stewardship calls.”) 
5. Enhance Your Donation Forms. Collect additional information on donation forms, leveraging gift attributes. (e.g. “Why are you donating?” or “How did you hear about us?”). And allow for comments, it’s nice to have people be able to communicate with you (as long as you can do something with those comments, like make calls).   
6. Sustainer Gifts. Special/dedicated campaigns and donation pages to promote recurring giving. Surface Annual Givers (through analytics or if you don’t have analytics, create a list of prior repeat donors of a certain amount) and direct them to a dedicated recurring giving donation form. 
7. Get Social. Enable Givealanche in Blackbaud Online Express, a way for donors to share their contribution on Facebook, Twitter, and via email.  
8. Utilize Email. Use the confirmation email (post-donation) as an engagement/stewardship tool. Include a link to your website so they can read more about your mission.  Or include a link to Blackbaud Peer-to-Peer Fundraising™, powered by JustGiving™ (which is included for free in Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT subscriptions). 
9. Encourage ACH giving online. Create a special form for direct debits and target those that you know like to send checks with a campaign to direct them to this form. 
10. Analyze performance and optimize. Analyze the form and email performance, page views/conversion rates, etc. to get a sense for what types of emails are resonating, i.e. match the email with the form you are directing them to. 
11. Embed code in a lightbox. You can create a “donate now” light box which is a small window that appears front and center when an individual navigates to your website.

Resources to Support You
To help you address immediate challenges, we’ve created new resources and made others available to you at no charge, including the following:  

New Road to Success webinars in April, with topics that include:

• Pointers for Gift Entry While Working from Home
• Using Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT Across the Donor Lifecycle to Support Your Efforts in the Current Fundraising Environment
• Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT: Tune Up Your Database and Create a Data Management Plan
• Establishing a Recurring Gift Program in The Raiser's Edge with Blackbaud Online Express Forms

Blackbaud University is now offering free, universal access to its entire curriculum of recorded eLearning resources, including Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT: Basics of Online Express on-Demand eLearning.


Authors: Lisa Fay Wellek and Lisa Nurminen, Technical Solutions Engineers