How to Leverage the Power of Free Fundraising Event Software for Your Nonprofit Event Management

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Fundraising is challenging. Fortunately, the digital revolution is making it easier for nonprofits to hit their revenue goals. The introduction of fundraising event software is changing the space at a rapid pace. 

Fundraising event software makes it easier for nonprofits to host events, attract the right donors and volunteers, and reach a bigger audience. Promotion of events through social media and the advent of broadband streaming means nonprofits can broadcast hybrid events to a wide audience of targeted individuals, allowing the organization to get more attention on their cause and efforts.

Many companies offer fundraising software solutions for nonprofits. There are dozens of providers, each with a unique offering. Despite the differences in these systems, they all serve the same purpose: to drive more donors and revenue to the user. 

While event fundraising software solutions are highly effective, many nonprofits avoid integrating them into their strategy. The cost of these systems is the primary driver of hesitancy in organizations interested in making the transition to a digital solution.

To compensate for this issue and attract more nonprofits to use their software, many providers offer free solutions, removing the financial risk. If your organization wants to give an event software a try, starting with a free system introduces you to the power they have in capturing more donors, attracting more volunteers, and boosting event attendance. 

The last decade in nonprofit fundraising saw more firms offering digital solutions and building out systems with incredible functionality. Nonprofits that embrace this powerful technology give themselves an edge in their fundraising efforts, bringing them closer to achieving and exceeding their goals and mission with their event strategy.

This post unpacks the benefit of trying out a free event fundraising software solution and recommends the top industry providers. We’ll look into the benefits of these systems and how they can revolutionize your fundraising efforts. 

The Benefits of Using Free Fundraising Event Software

Why integrate free event fundraising solutions into your fundraising event strategy? What benefits do they offer your mission, vision, and goals? Let’s look at the advantages of integrating these systems into your upcoming events.

Cost Savings

Promoting a fundraising event is a huge marketing expense for nonprofits. Beyond the costs of planning and executing the event, the marketing expenses for these projects are massive and are often the most significant cost involved.

Free fundraising event software helps to reduce your marketing expenses. It provides a platform where you can manage your digital promotional campaigns for improved results over traditional marketing strategies. 

Accessibility and Simple UX

Fundraising event software vary in complexity and functionality. However, most solutions provide a simple user experience that's easy and intuitive to navigate. There’s minimal training involved in learning how to use the system and support from the provider to assist in the effective execution of campaigns using the software.

These software platforms are highly accessible, and free solutions give every nonprofit a chance to try them out at their next event without digging into their operating budget to utilize these 

Features to Enhance Donation Collections

Free software platforms come with customizable pages and payment processors to make donating easy for supporters. There are templates and landing pages offering full customization to the nonprofit's needs, allowing for one-click donations that increase conversion at events.

Nonprofits don't need to collect donations at physical event locations. The software provides a virtual collection system where anyone can make a gift to the organization's campaign through a digital interface. 

Capture and Manage Donor Data and Analyze Event Data

Free event software solutions offer nonprofits a way to effectively manage their donor database and focus marketing efforts on increasing donor lifetime value and KPIs that increase donation size and frequency. 

Manage the donor lifecycle and understand which supporters make the most valuable contributions and which prospective donors are close to converting into new supporters of your cause. The software platform provides options for securing one-off or recurring donations

Software solutions also provide KPIs on your event success. Analyze critical data surrounding who attends your event online or offline, how they interact with your donation campaign, and how to improve your next event. 

Campaign Branding and Personalization

Free event software solutions offer white-label platforms conforming to your nonprofit's branding and identity, giving your virtual events a unique look and feel. 

Top Free Fundraising Event Software Solutions

So, which free event software should your nonprofit onboard into your organization? With so many providers in the space, it’s challenging to assess the right platform for your organization's needs. 

We took the hard work out of assessing the right platform for your event management requirements. Here are the top free platforms available. Each of them offers unique features and systems catering to your specific organizational goals and needs.

PayBee

When it comes to free fundraising event software, PayBee is the cream of the crop. This innovative platform offers a unique feature where your donors can cover the subscription costs, eliminating this expense.

PayBee specializes in fundraising events, offering an intuitive platform with several features unavailable in other software solutions. There are modules for event ticketing, allowing for integration and compatibility with mobile devices for a seamless, simple ticketing experience for your attendees. 

PayBee offers solutions for digital check-in for physical and virtual attendees, eliminating the need for guest capturing at the door and online. Attendees don't need to stand in lines and waste time; they get immediate access to the event, improving their event experience. 

Nonprofits get a complete payment processing solution, allowing for easy collection of virtual and live donations from supporters. There’s full mobile compatibility, with multiple payment processing options available. 

The PayBee platform provides features that automate processes like bid/name/table sheets and silent auction bid sheets, eliminating the bottlenecks caused by the manual processing and capturing of data at events. 

Overall, it’s the best software solution for nonprofits looking to integrate their systems into one holistic solution that benefits their event fundraising efforts. 

Give Lively

This free event fundraising solution offers nonprofits a comprehensive digital solution with many of the same features as PayBee. It provides live display features that are highly interactive and easy to navigate, with a great support team to walk you through any issue you have executing your campaigns. 

Give Lively shines with its event ticketing systems, providing a fully automated solution for visitors to improve their event experience. It’s a highly flexible system offering unlimited event pages and text codes, along with custom ticketing tiers for advertising and sponsors. There are modules for live donation tracking in real-time and custom fields for donation forms.

GoFundMe

This fundraising event tool is a popular choice with nonprofits looking to launch crowdfunding campaigns. You get features allowing for the easy sharing of your event details with your social media accounts and posting updates on your event progress to share your attendee's event experience. GoFundMe offers easy setup, and intuitive navigation and execution of your events. 

Use your dashboard to thank your donors for attending and contributing to your cause and a payment processor linked directly to your account for seamless donation collection. While this platform isn't as comprehensive as options like PayBee and Go Lively, it’s a great choice for smaller nonprofits looking to supercharge their event success. 

Zeffy 

Formerly known as “Simplyk,” this platform is 100% free and focuses on event ticketing and capturing donations. The platform has plenty of beneficial features, such as intuitive donation modules for capturing donor support and launching raffles and lotteries at your event. You get full ticketing automation, sending your visitor's scannable e-tickets they present at the door to save time. 

Zeffy offers customizable e-ticketing and accepts all major credit cards, along with Google and Apple Pay. Nonprofits keep 100% of all ticket sales, and full integration with ACH and PAD systems. Add your nonprofit's branding and identity to tickets and provide options for group or individual tickets. Create multi-date ticketing forms and automate the sending of tax receipts.

Facebook Fundraising

This platform from the social media giant charges no fundraising fees. Despite this innovation, the payout channel you decide on may affect the speed of receiving your donations. The platform has several features and benefits for your events, with an FAQ section for your website, and step-by-step instructions for setting up your fundraiser page. 

Get in touch with existing and prospective donors via Facebook Messenger and invite them to your event. The sort and filter tool lets you view supporters who donated to past fundraisers, allowing you to thank them through your social media accounts. With over $5 billion raised for nonprofits since 2015, it’s a viable free option for your next fundraising event. 

PayPal for Nonprofits

This online payment processor offers nonprofits an easy way to capture donations for their cause. You get a tool that many people already use, allowing for seamless collection and distribution of your donations from a single platform. Add a donate button to your fundraiser page and capture donations with a single click.

Give your supporters multiple options for pre-determined donation amounts and accept recurring donations to improve donor lifetime value. You get low-friction donation processing with support for QR codes, email, and shareable URLs. 

How to Choose the Right Free Software for Your Event

When selecting your preferred software partner, it’s essential to ensure they align with your nonprofit's organizational needs. What do you want out of a fundraising event platform, and how will it improve the success of your next event? Free software platforms should offer the following features to add value to your upcoming fundraiser.

Online Event Pages

Online event pages act as mini-websites for your upcoming event. They should feature customizable and pre-built page templates with microsite ad landing page options. It must include branding matching your organization's identity and mobile optimization. Look for search engine optimization and accessibility functions and tools.

Ticketing Services

The software must include ticketing services to streamline your event operations. Look for intuitive ticketing features such as online forms, options for free and paid tickets for online and offline events, and online RSVP management to ensure you know how many attendees to expect. The system should automate receipt issuance and offer multiple ticket tiers and packages for VIPs and regular attendees. 

Payment & Donation Processing

Your team must have access to payment processors for your online and virtual events, allowing for the seamless capturing of donations from attendees. The payment processing features must allow for accepting in-person and online payments, with options for mobile payment processing. 

The software must integrate with various payment processors, such as PayPal, Stripe, Google Pay, and Apple Pay. There must be integrations for paying for event tickets, pledges, merchandise, and anything else you’re selling on the event day. 

The software must provide automation for receipt issuance to give your donors everything they need for tax purposes. 

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Capability

The software should feature peer-to-peer fundraising tools to drive engagement and improve the success of your events. It should offer customizable fundraising pages, and gamification tools like badges, thermometers, and prizes. It must also offer options for donation and pledge processing and fulfillment.

Auction Management

Auctions are highly profitable for nonprofit events, and the software should offer features for item procurement and tracking. It must facilitate silent, live, virtual, and hybrid auction events with real-time tracking and analytics. 

Data Reporting

Fundraiser events collect a mountain of valuable data from your organization. Your event software should create attendee and supporter profiles that track engagement, revenue, and budgeting tools to help you calculate event ROI. It must feature real-time analytics reporting, giving you a 30,000-foot view of your event results in real time. 

Matching Gift Automation

Many corporations offer gift-matching facilities for their employees who give to fundraisers. These organizations implement this strategy as part of their corporate social responsibility programs. However, many employees are unaware of their employer's gift-matching program. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be aware of it and use it as a potential strategy to bolster the donations collected at your events. 

Matching gift features in your event software should capture the employment information of your supporters and offer donors and attendees employer-specific gift-matching guidelines such as online forms and eligibility criteria. The software should automate the process of following up with the employer to optimize domination collection. 

Support and Resources

The platform should offer support services to train your team on how to use the platform and a way to connect with the provider for any troubleshooting inquiries. The platform should have a ready-made library of resources to make the transition to executing the software easy for your organization.

Implementing Free Fundraising Software for Your Event

Your free event fundraising software is only effective as your execution of the platform. When choosing the right partner for your organization's event goals, you’ll need to consider the setup and execution of your campaigns through the platform and how they add value to your operations. 

Platform Setup

The first step after selecting your fundraising event software partner is to set up the software and customize it to your needs. This process requires a complete understanding of how the platform works and how to use it effectively. Your software partner should offer training on how to use the platform effectively.

Some software systems have a very basic setup support, with FAQs and basic step-by-step instructions. Others offer live support via chat or through telephone communication, and others provide email troubleshooting. Other platforms offer tutorials or webinars to teach your team how to plan and execute campaigns through the software.

Choose the partner offering the best support possible. If something goes wrong while hosting your event, you can't wait for a support rep to get back to you via email. You need an immediate solution on-site to help you overcome the challenge. 

Platform Customization

Free software providers usually offer customization options, allowing nonprofits to whitelabel the solution and customize it with their branding and identity. The customization options allow you to set up the platform to your requirements, including and excluding the modules you do or don't need for your event management requirements. 

Strategy and Tool Integrations

Your free fundraising event software should feature integrations with the tools your nonprofit organization uses in daily operations. Software integrations allow your free event systems to communicate with the existing tools you use in other areas of your fundraising strategy. 

The platform should connect to your social media accounts, allowing for real-time updates from your event to spur attendee engagement and show the progress toward achieving your event goals. The platform should integrate with your online donation tools, ensuring seamless capturing and distribution of your donations and engagement with your donors after they send a gift. 

The event software should integrate with any current peer-to-peer fundraising platforms your nonprofit uses and all corporate giving software. It must have integrations for data management systems to track your event and organizational success and integrate with all your marketing systems, such as email solutions.

These integrations provide the unification of your existing systems, adding value to your overall systems' architecture and functionality. The goal of the event software isn't to act as a standalone system. It should provide a holistic empowerment of your systems, adding value to the entire process. 

Challenges and Considerations When Using Free Software

Free fundraising event software might sound like the bee's knees when it comes to optimizing your event reach and the donations you collect. However, it’s not without its challenges and limitations. 

The system you utilize may not have a comprehensive offering, leaving out some of the features you need. That's why it’s critical to ensure you select a software partner offering services that align with your organization's fundraising objectives. 

Your free event software should offer value to your fundraising efforts, not detract from them. So, understand the software’s functions before committing to the platform. It’s essential to undergo thorough training on the platform to understand how to operate it effectively. 

The provider should offer ongoing support and training for its platform, giving your team the information they need to operate it effectively. Providers like PayBee offer comprehensive training and support, ensuring you understand how to maximize the opportunities it offers our online and virtual events.  

The free event software package should complement your offline event strategy. While online events are a great way to bolster your reach and prospective donor base at your event, it shouldn't be the nonprofit's sole event strategy. The software should add value to your offline events and integrate with your current systems to provide a seamless interface between your online and offline operations. 

Nonprofits need a balance between their digital and traditional fundraising efforts, allowing them to capture as many donors and gifts as possible. After all, events are expensive to organize and host, and your software solution should provide the best return on investment possible. 

Technology can greatly benefit any nonprofit’s event success. However, if incorrectly managed, it could also sink your organization. Like all other virtual platforms, event software captures valuable data, and that presents a target for bad actors to penetrate these systems to steal or corrupt that data.

So, you need a software partner offering secure capturing and storage of donor and event data away from the prying eyes of hackers. Ensure you understand the platform's security protocols and research the software online. Look for any instances of data breaches; you don't want your organization to fall prey to these attacks. 

Reach out to the team at PayBee and discuss your needs for event fundraising software. Their team will advise you on the best package for your nonprofit's event objectives and goals. Working with the right team and platform will add value to your upcoming fundraisers. 

FAQs on Free Fundraising Event Software 

Q: What features should I look for in free fundraising event software?

A: Free fundraising software solutions have a slew of features that help your nonprofit optimize your fundraiser's success and donation collection. However, some have different features from others, or they might specialize in one specific area of fundraising events, such as ticketing. Choose the provider offering the services you need. It might seem tempting to go for a provider offering a full-house service for your organization's fundraising needs, but do you really need it? 

Will you utilize the entire service package, or are you looking for a solution to one specific area of your fundraising events? Do you need a partner providing services for virtual and hybrid events? Or are you a smaller nonprofit looking to keep the process as simple as possible? Choose the software solution that matches your needs. 

Q: How can I maximize donations using free software?

A: Free fundraising event software comes with many beneficial features to help nonprofits maximize their donation opportunities. One of the ways to implement these tools is in the use of hybrid events, where you launch physical and virtual events simultaneously. This feature allows you to broaden your event reach, capturing more attendees and prospective donors. 

Attract more attendees and make it possible for them to donate at the event and online to optimize your donation collections. Fundraising event software also features modules for auctions that allow for bidding and additional donation collection that isn't available with traditional fundraising events tasks. 

Q: Are there any hidden costs associated with free fundraising platforms?

A: In most cases, the platform provider will be totally transparent on any financial commitment they expect from you. However, it’s your job as the nonprofit to ensure you understand the provider's terms and conditions before committing to their services. 

Ensure you read through reviews from other nonprofits in your sector on which provider they use and their research on the solutions available before committing your resources to any specific platform. Read through the terms of service before signing up with any provider to ensure you have a complete understanding of how they operate. 

Q: How do free fundraising platforms sustain their operations?

A: It depends on their model. Some platforms take a percentage of your donations, usually ranging from 2% to 6%. Others offer limited services, using the free version as a loss leader to entice the user to upgrade their membership to a paid tier. Some platforms, like PayBee, allow users to let their donors pay for the platform’s services. It’s important to check the provider's remuneration policies before committing to a platform. 

You don't want any surprises later down the road. The last thing you need is to commit to an event platform and spend time training your team on how to use it, only to find you can't afford a monthly fee when a free trial period ends or that the provider is taking a larger percentage of your donations than you expect. 

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