Upgrade Links

Create Upgrade Links manually

Learn how to create non-hash Upgrade Links.

This article is a step-by-step guide to creating Upgrade Links to send to your supporters.

If your organization uses Mailchimp to send emails to your supporters, use the Mailchimp Upgrade Links instructions.

These are instructions on how to create standard links, without hash functions. When a supporter clicks a non-hash link (created as per the instructions in this article) and increases their donation, they’ll need to then also confirm the increase by clicking Confirm in an email that will be sent to them automatically.

Step 1: Gather the information you need

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You need the following information to create an Upgrade Link:

Your organization’s Basic link for upgrade. Find this in the Dashboard by going to Settings → Recurring plans → Upgrade Links. Please note: your basic link is taken from your Donor Portal URL. To change it, go to Donor Portal in the settings side menu.
The Recurring ID of the recurring plan you’re planning to offer an increase on, as well as the supporter’s Supporter ID. These can be easily exported en masse from the Dashboard.
How to export your recurring supporters’ Recurring ID and Supporter ID.

Step 2: Assemble the links

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As a reminder: this is a guide to creating Upgrade Links without hash functions. To create Upgrade Links with a hash, you need to assemble your links in a different way. See our hash functions article for instructions.

Choose which of the two types of link you want to create — main donation upgrade (to encourage supporters to increase the main donation amount) or cost coverage upgrade (to encourage supporters to start covering transaction costs). Below you can see how these individual links are constructed from the information you just exported.

Main donation upgrade

1[BasicLink]
2  ?recurring=[RecurringID]
3  &supporter=[SupporterID]

How to construct a main donation Upgrade Link. Each of these three elements is put together in sequence.

1https://mycharity.donorsupport.co/upgrade?recurring=RXXXXXXX&supporter=SXXXXXXX

An example of a main donation Upgrade Link.

Cost coverage upgrade

1[BasicLink]
2  ?mode=covering_costs
3  &recurring=[RecurringID]
4  &supporter=[SupporterID]

How to construct a cost coverage Upgrade Link. These four elements are put together in sequence to create the link.

1https://mycharity.donorsupport.co/upgrade?mode=covering_costs&recurring=RXXXXXXX&supporter=SXXXXXXX

An example of a cost coverage Upgrade Link.

Creating Upgrade Links on a large scale

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To create Upgrade Links en masse, follow these instructions.

Open our template. It has two tabs: one for building Upgrade Links for the main donation amount, and other for upgrading to transaction cost coverage. Use the tab that corresponds to the upgrade type you want to send your supporters.
Follow the instructions on the template:
1. Copy and paste the template’s contents to another spreadsheet, or create a copy of the template.
2. Replace the example basic link with your organization’s basic link (as a reminder, you can find this in the Recurring plans section of your Dashboard settings).
3. Copy and paste all the Recurring IDs and Supporter IDs from the file you exported from the Fundraise Up Dashboard in Step 1. Make sure to paste them accurately, matching the right Recurring ID to the right Supporter ID.
4. You can also paste in the supporter email, name and any other information that needs to stay alongside the Upgrade Link.
5. The first two links in the Finalized link column will be created automatically. Extend the formula down the entire column to create all the links.

Step 3: Upload and distribute the links

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Now that you have your Upgrade Links for all your supporters, you can upload them to your preferred CRM service and attach each supporter’s link to a call-to-action button in an email campaign. When they click that button, they’ll see the upgrade screen with 3 AI-chosen suggested increase amounts, or a screen encouraging them to opt to cover transaction costs.

Fundraise Up does not distribute these links in emails to supporters — this must be done by your organization for supporters to receive the links. Links can also be sent via SMS, messaging services and other direct communication channels.

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