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A young man told me a story tonite, he has been having a "hard time". He has been trying to follow the Lord ..but not really successfully....yet better than before (you know how that is)

Anyways, he has not had transportation in a long while and has had no money to make it happen.
Without transportation it is hard to keep a steady job, etc. etc.

This past week he had looked into getting a small loan for a "beater" ~ something to get around in. He found something and went back to get the promised loan, only to find out it had fallen through. He was so upset and downtrodden.

He tells me how he was in his room just railing at God. "What the heck Lord??" "How am I supposed to make this happen?" Again I surmise you know the lingo..

3 hours later there's a knock at the door.
A man stands there.
He shares how God has told him to buy a truck for this young man. Now, mind you, not just any old truck but a NICE one with a new snowplow!
He also explains how he argued with God about this command, saying "I think 'this kid'  should have to work for his truck like we all have to."

The Lord's reply was clear, "who got you your vehicle?  Was it not I that provided for you?"   The argument was finished and the man obeyed. He handed over the keys and title to the sobbing young man ~ who just COULD NOT BELIEVE ~ that God, his Heavenly Father~ would do such a thing for him.

How cool is God????

Friend~ Its not when we have it all together. Not when our tithe is on time and our ducks are all in a row*.
Our Father loves us ~ just cause!!!
We are His children and
He JUST LOVES US!!
period!

Do I hear an AMEN?!

Crowdfunding or any type of fundraising can be a bit daunting. Asking friends and family, acquaintances and strangers to donate, no matter how good and noble the cause can feel somewhat uncomfortable. 

One secret we can share that we see from most successful campaigns is how the campaign owner/recipient responds to donations. They say Thank You.  They let their givers know they appreciate the sacrifice and love behind the gift. 

There is a story in the Bible where Jesus gives a gift of healing 10 men that were outcast, suffering from their skin decaying on their body, 10 lepers.  They called out to Jesus as he was passing by and Jesus stopped and spoke the word, and healed ALL TEN!  Talk about life changing, From one minute to the next  the walking dead, to the restored. 

But what happens after? 

Of the ten lepers Jesus healed, however, only one came back, and of all the lepers, he wouldn't be anybody who could be expected to do it: I had heard this story many times but never notices the one who came back was a Samaritan. Not a Jew but the enemy of the Jews.  Yet in Luke it says: 
"And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned with a loud voice glorifying God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan." (Luke 17:14-16)

When you are truly thankful, and your life's action reflects that gratitude, it moves the very heart of God. It also moves the hearts of donors. 

To help we put together a list of ways to say Thank You to your donors: 

1. Use the  Audio message feature on your campaign to record a verbal, personal thank you each time someone gives. ( you can find this on your campaign dashboard on a computer (not mobile device) ) 

2. Send a Handwritten Note
This is one of the coolest things you can receive in our digital media age.  

3. Send a public shout out on social media 
Show your gratitude on Facebook, Twitter, or the platform your donors use most. A simple shout out on Facebook is a great way to shine a spotlight on your supporters and say thank you to donors. Learn how to write for different social media platforms to perfect your message.


4.  Send a private message or personal email.   In it, remember The donor is the hero. You are thanking them for their awesomeness. Make sure your thank you note is all about them. Not you and what you are doing. 

5. Share updates letting everyone know if it wasn't for your donors ( you can name them specifically) you wouldn't be doing what you are doing. 

6. Pay it forward. When your donor community has a cause they’re fundraising for, reciprocate by offering your help. 

7. Make sure you go through the recent donation section of your campaign page and "like" or 'love" each donation

8. Say thank you by phone call or in person. People love personal.  When you see the person make sure you let them know how much you appreciate their gift. If you know you wont see then soon give a quick call.  

How ever you say thank you, just make sure it comes from the bottom of your heart with sincerity. Remember each donation given was a sacrifice made by someone. 

 

So, you started a crowdfunding campaign. You went through the 3 steps of building your campaign and connecting it to our processor and now have begun to share it.  Did you know you now have a whole dashboard for your campaign that offers options and extras that help you share,customize and track your campaign?  

First login to your GSG dashboard and hover over your campaign. Click on 'Campaign Dashboard' to go to that campaigns dashboard. Once there, you should see a menu of all the different options available to you. Lets go over them: 

You should first see your Weekly reports displayed on the dashboard. How many donors, amount raised, etc.  This is what is shown when the Analytics tab is clicked on.  Above the Analytics tab on the left hand side you can click view campaign to go to your actual campaign url, and above that is your name and an enabled/disable button that you can toggle back and forth to enable and disable your campaign. 

Underneath the Analytics tab is the Audio message. 
You can record a 60 second audio message from any desktop or laptop computer (mobile devices do not have this option to record, but they can listen to a recording)  This audio message will show on your campaign page under the header image with a little play button. You can change this message as often as you would like to give people a personal message or update when they visit your campaign. Its an unique feature to GiveSendGo and can make your campaign connect to even more people. Be creative in using this as people will be drawn back to your campaign if they know it has been updated. 

Next we have the Recipient Details tab. 
Under this tab you will see who was set up as the recipient of the campaign and whether they have connected successfully to our processor. You can also login to the processor from this page if you want to check your balances and payout schedules etc.  At the bottom of this page you will see a place for a secure upload of verification documents. This is not needed often. Only upload a document if you have been in communication with someone from the GSG team they have discussed needing you to upload additional verification. 

The Campaign Edit tab will allow you to edit all the steps you went through when creating your campaign. Your goal amount, your campaign title, header image/ video, campaign story. This tab will open up and will look just like what you saw during set up. 

The Comments tab will show all the comments people have made on your campaign. The encouraging words, prayers and more. We have filters on comments to keep out bad language etc, but please let us know if any ever get by the filter. Only people who have given to your campaign can write a comment. It is not just for public commentary. 

The Coupon code tab is something we are still developing as we are working with processors to try to negotiate lower rates so we can offer those to you or your organization.  

You should really stop by the Custom Thank you tab to edit your thank you that gets sent out to every donor.  A generic thank you email goes out unless you customize the Thank You email in this tab.

The Donation list tab is self explanatory as it give you a list of all the donations that have been given to your campaign. 

Donation Reports is a little different as it gives you the option to view the reports for both donations you have made ( as long as you used your same email address)  and it will show received donations and then in the third tab it  will give the option to Download reports.  There is also a place here to download the email address of the people who have clicked the pray now button and submitted a prayer for your campaign. 

Donation settings lets you customize what shows on your campaign page under recent donations. You can make all your Givers name show as anonymous if you would like, You can turn on/off allowing people the ability to comment when making a donation and the option to just show Giver names and not the donation amounts given.  Default is that anonymous is off, comments are on , and donation amounts are shown. 

You can choose to set an End Date on your campaign on the next tab. That will remove the Give Now button and disable your campaign when that date comes to pass. 

If you want to add more images to your header so it becomes a scrolling header, you would add and remove images under the Gallery Images Tab.

Mailing Address allows you to collect mailing addresses of your Givers. This is set as default to off as people want to give as little information about themselves online . You do not want to discourage givers if they do not want to add a mailing address. But we also understand that you may need to collect addresses so you do have the option of requesting your givers to fill out their address after giving the donation. (We do make it optional even if you request it.) 

Offline Donation is a place to put any donations you have received that has not been processed through your campaign. Maybe someone gave you a check for $200 and you want to make sure it shows in your campaign total. Fill out the Offline Donation tab and it will show on the campaign page.  You can fill as many or as few details. If you put an email address the Giver will get a thank you and a receipt for their gift. 

Private Settings is usually counter intuitive to how crowdfunding works as usually you want every one to find your campaign, but we realize occasionally there may be a private fundraiser that you only want to share with certain people and not the world . You can then turn this on and only people with the link will be able to find the campaign. It wont be seen in searches etc on GSG. 

You can turn off the ability for people to send you prayer messages. Just click Prayer Messages and toggle allowing prayer messages on or off. 

Add Prayer Requests to your campaign page to let people know specific things they can be praying for.  They will show in the prayer request box underneath your campaign story. 

When your campaign has ended or you have reached your goal, visit the Success Story tab to share a testimony of what you were raising fund for and how your fund raising went. We love to hear the stories of how God used you! 

The Teams tab is not yet fully functional, but we are working to figure out the best way to allow you to fundraise as a team! 

The Updates tab allows you to post updates and share them with your friends and followers. Post often to allow Givers to continue to be a part of your story. 

Click Widgets to get a snippet of code to embed on your website or blog to share your campaign there. 

And last but not least, we have the delete tab, just in case you need to delete your campaign for any reason. 

Like I said, we have so many features and options. Now stop just reading about them and go check them out! 


Happy Fundraising!
Shine Brightly!