Online Fundraising 101

Rally.org makes it easy for individuals, groups, social causes, schools, and non-profit organizations to fundraise online. There are no time limits to your crowdfunding campaign, allowing you to raise funds indefinitely. On Rally.org, anyone can raise money for something they care about.

Rally.org removes the friction between getting inspired and giving money, making it easy for supporters to donate when they read a moving story, view a personal photo, or watch a powerful video.

Rally.org helps you quickly create an effective, attractive, social donation page. Your donation page accepts credit cards and eCheck payments online. All donation details and fundraising progress is available to review on your dashboard. Donation pages have social sharing tools built in to them so donors can share your Rally with their friends and motivate them to give as well!

Rally.org helps you build a network of supporters who want to stay updated about your progress. When you share messages, photos, and videos, your supporters receive an email update and have an opportunity to join the conversation about your Rally.

Rally.org empowers your supporters to raise money for you! If supporters decide to become Fan Fundraisers, they can personalize a version of your Rally to share with their friends and family and raise money for you. They can also post their own photos, videos, and messages to show why they care.

Anyone who wants to raise money for a cause or project and has a US bank account can create a Rally. It can be for any kind of reason — a personal project, a political campaign, or for a school or charity. Your organization does not need to be registered as a 501(c)3 to use Rally.org.

Sign up with just your email address or through Facebook. To withdraw the money you've collected, link your Rally.org account to a bank account.

You must have permission from a cause to create a Rally for them. If you want to help raise money for a specific cause but aren't directly affiliated with them, we encourage you to ask them to create a Rally on our platform so you can become a Fan Fundraiser for them.

Finally, you must be 18 or older to create a Rally, or get permission from a parent or guardian.

Rally.org is free to setup and charges 5% + credit card fees (2.9% + 30 cents) for each donation processed. If you are an agency or representing a large organization, please contact us for special rates.

Your username is the email address you signed up with. Check your email inbox for earlier correspondence from Rally.org to determine which email you provided. If this doesn't work, contact us; we'll gladly get it sorted out for you.

If you forgot your password, you can reset it by clicking on "Forgot your password?" on the Sign In form on Rally.org.

Sign into your account and click on the drop-down menu in the upper right hand corner. Choose Edit Profile. From there, you can customize all of your personal settings such as your name, email, and password. Also upload your photo as your User Icon so that your picture appears next to your personal comments, and decide who you want to hear news from in your email notifications.

We take security seriously. Rally.org offers bank-level security, following industry-standard best practices to ensure your data and your money are safe.

If your Rally is over, simply contact us and we will end it for you. If at any point you would like to start fundraising again, just email us and we can re-activate it. If your Rally account is completely inactive for at least 6 months, we will and close your Rally automatically for you. After your Rally is closed, you can still log in to export CSV reports and donor information.

To be compliant with Anti Money Laundering regulations, we are required to collect additional screening information from our campaigns prior to releasing funds to your bank account.

This requires an organization to provide their Employer Identification Number as well as significant owner information which includes but not limited to:

• The significant owner's name
• Address
• Phone
• Social security
• Date of birth

Your information is safe and secure on Rally and is used for compliance purposes only.

Invite Supporters: After you’ve created your crowdfunding campaign, simply invite family and friends to join your Rally via Facebook or email. Every time you share news on your Rally page, they will receive an email update. We’ve found the most successful fundraisers post several times a week. Think you don't know enough people who will support your Rally? Think again! Check out The Guide to Gather More Supporters for suggestions on how to build your contact lists.

Post Updates: Tell supporters what you’re rallying for. Be specific. Be descriptive. Supporters are more likely to give an online donation if you post photos, videos, and frequent updates. Supporters believe in what you’re doing, so keep them updated. Browse The Guide to Turning Your Story into Support for ideas on what to post.

Widgets: Get the word out by placing a Rally.org Donate widget on your website or blog. See "How should I integrate Rally.org into my website?" below for more ideas.

Show your fundraising goal on your Rally to share the progress you are making! In your Settings under Basic Setup, enter the amount you want to raise, and Rally.org automatically calculates your progress and displays it on your Rally page.

Here are a few creative ways to integrate your Rally with the rest of your web presence:

Include a link to your website on your Rally page. Add this in Basic Setup under Settings.

Display a Donate button and donation meter on your own website or blog. Drive donors directly to your donation page. Embed the widget in Settings, under the Sharing section.

Display an activity-stream widget on your website or blog. This helps keep your visitors up-to-date with the news you are sharing on your Rally page. Get the code to embed the widget in Settings, under the Sharing section.

When you start an online fundraiser, you can immediately accept donations by all major credit cards or eCheck. All donations are built within a safe, secure, and trusted payment-processing system. The donor will receive a receipt within 24 hours of each donation, and you will receive an email notifying you each time someone donates. You can also check your donations by checking Analytics where you can manage your fundraising progress.

Chargebacks:

When a donor denies a contribution they made on Rally.org with their credit card company or bank and issues a chargeback, Rally.org attempts to clarify the matter. If the refuting donor wins, Rally.org will refund the donor their donation in full. Rest assured! Rally.org will always notify the Rally Leader in these circumstances and provide detailed information about what is happening.

Please note that each time a chargeback occurs from a donor denying a contribution with their credit card company, the Rally Leader will be charged a $29 administration fee.

Refunds:

On occasion, a donor will contact the Rally Leader or Rally.org directly to request a refund. For these requests, Rally.org will credit the donor and will debit the cause owner for the donation amount. The Rally.org transaction fee per donation (5% to cover use of our platform, plus a 2.9% plus 30 cent credit card/bank processing fee) remains regardless of donation status. After 45 days, you must issue refunds outside of Rally.org.

Go to the Donation Details section in Settings and look for the Add Extra Input Fields section. Type the names of your desired extra fields (e.g. Birth Date, Hometown, etc.). Click Save. Donors will see these fields in the Additional Information section on your donation page.

Note: These fields will be required to make a donation, so don't overwhelm your supporters with requirements.

In Analytics, you can examine graphs that show donation and supporter growth over different periods of time. Discover which types of content (photos, videos, or messages) are most highly viewed and raise the most money.

In Updates, you can also study statistics that highlight the number of donors and dollars raised underneath each piece of content that you post.

Post an update, and all the people in your supporter list will be updated via an email that contains a preview of what you posted (photos, videos, or messages) and a link back to the full story. Supporters can always choose how often they receive updates or unsubscribe altogether. When posting, you can also choose to share on Facebook and Twitter to reach even more people.

Invite supporters to your supporter list so when you post news, they receive email updates about your Rally. To invite supporters go to the Supporters section of your Dashboard. People may also become supporters by visiting your page and clicking I’m In. To help build your supporter list, make sure to share your crowdfunding page on Facebook, Twitter, and by email.

Yes! You can easily set a maximum donation amount. This sets the limit for your donation page as well as all of your Fan Fundraisers' donation pages. You can do this in the Donation Details section under Settings.

There are 3 different ways to accomplish this. Each can be specified in the Donation Details section of your Settings and appear on your donation page.

Turn on default additional donor-information fields by clicking the checkbox that requires donor to provide gender, date of birth, employer, and occupation before making a donation.

Add a custom field by entering the name of a desired field into the Add Extra Input Fields section of your Donation Details in Settings. Donors are required to provide the information requested before completing their donation.

Enter text in the legal-compliance box to require donors to agree to conditions you specify before proceeding with the donation. Enter the text that you require donors to agree to in the legal compliance box in the Donation Details section of Settings. The text will appear on your donation page after a checkbox and the phrase "I agree to the following."

Customize your Rally donation page to include footer text that explains your organization's non-profit and tax-deduction status. Even include your EIN number if you want. You can do this in the Donation Details section of your Settings by entering your text in the Disclaimer.

Anyone who volunteers to raise money on behalf of a cause using Rally.org is a Fan Fundraiser. They personalize a Rally page that mirrors the main cause with the goal of motivating their friends and family to donate funds.

Although all donations go directly to the cause, Fan Fundraisers can view who has donated through their crowdfunding page.

Go to the Rally page of the cause you support and click Become a Fundraiser. When prompted, personalize your duplicate Rally page and reach out to potential supporters. It takes less than 5 minutes to get started.

If the cause you are passionate about is not on Rally.org yet, invite them to join and then follow the steps above!

Any email you receive from Rally.org will include links at the bottom for you to unsubscribe and manage your email settings. You can also sign in to Rally.org and under Edit Profile (located in the upper right corner) select which causes you would like to receive email updates from.

Rally.org s a new online crowdfunding tool created by the same company that built Piryx. If you're curious to try Rally.org, no problem! Just sign up and start fundraising.

Rally.org streamlines the features you love in Piryx and infuses them with the power of storytelling and social connections. With Rally.org, you can:

• Easily share messages, photos, and videos about your cause on an attractive page.
• Empower your supporters to raise money for you with social-sharing tools.
• Customize beautiful donation pages.

Currently, most of the features available in Piryx are available on Rally.org. We are constantly listening to feedback and over time, Rally.org will continue to become even better.