5 ways to optimize digital fundraising without IT support

Aug 4, 2025
Amy Cross
Contributing Writer

Discover how nonprofits achieved measurable results with these low-effort, high-impact strategies

You need fundraising wins now. But between donor stewardship, board reports, campaign planning, and a dozen other priorities, everything feels urgent. Meanwhile, your board is asking about ROI while donors abandon donation forms that haven't been updated since 2015, and you're still hand-entering event gifts instead of cultivating your next major gift prospect.

The good news is that you can optimize your digital fundraising funnel with just a few clicks, often without any help from IT. Check out these easy-to-use features in Fundraise Up that can help you drive immediate, measurable results.

1. Make checkouts smarter and faster

As you probably know all too well, nonprofit leaders often have limited resources for updating their digital fundraising systems. That’s why so many nonprofit donation pages appear virtually unchanged from a decade ago. They're plagued by excessive form fields, awkward navigation flows, and designs that only work well on desktop computers. Today's donors expect a better experience—and when they don't get it, they simply abandon the donation process.

That’s where Fundraise Up’s Checkout feature comes in. It’s built for modern behavior. Mobile-optimized, frictionless, and smart enough to recommend the right gift amounts and frequency, it’s designed to get donors through the finish line without hesitation.

The Greater Vancouver Food Bank saw the difference right away. After embedding Fundraise Up’s checkout, they saw a 42% lift in donation conversions in just the first month. That kind of change doesn’t require a rebrand or a big campaign. Just better UX, live on day one.

2. Launch high-impact campaigns in minutes

When every minute counts, so does every click. In moments of urgency, you need more than a standard donation form. You need the ability to launch compelling, high-converting campaigns instantly, with messaging and visuals tailored to the moment.

Fundraise Up’s Campaign Pages solution provides a branded, mobile-optimized donation experience that adjusts to the donor’s context. The result is a streamlined, relevant journey that improves conversion and supports immediate action.

The Canadian Red Cross used Fundraise Up’s Campaign Pages to launch an emergency appeal in minutes and raise significant funds within 48 hours. In a separate holiday campaign, the same feature helped them raise $7 million with a 25% conversion rate and an 84% revenue increase, proving how fast, personalized donation pages can drive major impact.

3. Accept donations anywhere with a Virtual Terminal

Fundraising doesn’t only happen on your website. It happens on phone calls with major donors, during telethons, at galas and conferences. If your tools only support online transactions, you’re missing big opportunities.

The Virtual Terminal tool makes it easy for any staff member or volunteer to accept donations on the spot. It’s built directly into your Fundraise Up dashboard, so there’s no need for extra merchant accounts or reconciliation headaches. Just login, enter the gift, and it processes immediately–securely and in sync with your CRM.

Pinky Swear Foundation put it to the test during their annual radiothon. With a mix of online and call-in donors, they needed a flexible tool that could support rapid, high-volume giving. The Virtual Terminal helped them raise over $400K in a single day and made gift processing seamless for their team.

4. Turn one-time donors into recurring supporters

Recurring giving is the lifeblood of sustainable fundraising. But all too often, that option isn’t front and center in the donor experience. Fundraise Up flips that logic with the Recurring Giving feature.

From the moment a donor lands on your checkout page, the platform aims to build a long-term relationship with them. If they give a one-time gift, it offers a well-timed prompt to turn it into a recurring one. These upsells are tested, proven, and ready to go from the moment you launch.

Animal Haven tripled the value of its recurring giving program and increased annual revenue. With the extra help, they can keep ahead of the demand for medical services and the rising costs of care. And thanks to the monthly support of hundreds of donors, Animal Haven now has a strong, predictable source of funding year-round.

5. Get your data when you need it

If you feel like you lack immediate visibility into your digital fundraising performance, you’re not alone. We often hear that fundraising pros have to wait days for reports, can’t access donor data without IT help, or have to piece together insights from multiple exports.

Fundraise Up gives you immediate access to the data that matters. Donation performance, recurring gift trends, mobile versus desktop behavior, and more, with Insights Dashboards anyone can use. You can also sync all the donation and supporter data with any other external tool, like your CRM or BI, through powerful native integrations, exports, or APIs.

Salvation Army UK had a goal of accessing clear, actionable data insights to inform fundraising strategies and make data-driven decisions. After launching with Fundraise Up, they gained instant visibility into all their fundraising data, giving them the insights they needed to optimize their strategies. Salvation Army UK achieved an incredible  49% donor conversion rate, far exceeding the industry standard of 11%.

Ready to see more impact from your digital fundraising? Book a demo today, and we’ll show you how fast smart fundraising can move.

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