OneCause Fundraising Platform: The Why

With nearly 15 years of industry-leading innovation in the nonprofit fundraising space, OneCause consistently strives to help nonprofits:

- Stay ahead of changing trends and donor needs
- Make giving seamless and easy
- Connect with more supporters and drive deeper engagement, and
- Raise more revenue for their missions.

With technology rapidly evolving and donor needs quickly changing, OneCause was inspired to build a new solution that offers a modern, flexible giving experience—backed and informed by thorough research and customer feedback. The OneCause Fundraising Platform reimagines fundraising and delivers a seamless giving experience for supporters, while making event setup and execution easy for nonprofits of all sizes, each with unique needs and use cases.

From in-person events to hybrid and virtual fundraisers, this all-in-one fundraising software makes it easy to connect supporters to a cause anytime, anywhere, on any device. And we’re not done yet! We’ll continue to build, innovate, and improve the giving experience with additions to the Platform that make it even easier for nonprofits to achieve their missions.

So, what makes the OneCause Fundraising Platform different from other solutions?

Let’s find out!

Platform Background

Before developing the new platform, our team conducted extensive research on the fundraising industry and uncovered the most common pain points facing today’s nonprofit fundraisers. The team wanted to build a solution that solved nonprofit and donor challenges – to help truly unlock generosity.

“We were passionate and driven to make fundraising even easier by developing software informed by research, industry best practices, and careful attention to donor behaviors and needs. Continuous innovation is vital to stay ahead of—not just follow—trends and exceed donor and nonprofit expectations.” Stephanie Ragozzino, Chief Product Officer

Industry Research

By talking with countless industry fundraisers and experienced donors, OneCause pinpointed 3 major problems facing today’s nonprofits:

Disjointed Solutions: Many nonprofits use multiple software products to accomplish their year-round fundraising goals. This means they spend more time learning new systems, getting those systems to share information, and less time focusing on growing their missions. We heard you! Nonprofits need a better way to connect their fundraising tools and save valuable time.
Effort vs. Return: From planning to execution, nonprofits dedicate a ton of hours and money to fundraising strategy, but that effort is not always reflected in fundraising ROI. Nonprofits need a solution that can help them save time and unlock generosity.
Donor Friction: Donors often become frustrated by friction points in the giving process: long, complicated giving processes are more difficult than what donors are used to in their everyday digital experiences. Daily, donors of all ages use technology that makes once complicated tasks easy and fast — and they now expect the same when it comes to giving. Nonprofits need new, innovative ways to connect donors with their causes, simplify giving, and increase generosity.

With this blueprint of fundraiser challenges, we went to work! Our product team set out to build a solution to make fundraising easier, entirely reimagine the giving experience, and set a new industry standard for what nonprofits should expect from fundraising software.

Market Research

To help create an outstanding giving experience that breaks the industry mold, OneCause examined leading consumer brands – such as Starbucks, Target, and Disney – to better understand how their technology and user experience make things easier, solve problems, and delight customers. Here’s what we confirmed:

Lines deter business. It’s simple: when customers have to wait to receive a product or service, companies are at risk of losing revenue. In today’s 24/7 culture where everything is just a click away – immediacy rules! Experiences (and software) that offer customers a way to order ahead or skip the line are a must-have.
Convenience is key. Being able to order ahead and schedule a pickup time has moved from an emerging need to a core function. People have come to expect a personalized experience when shopping. The ability to customize and edit orders after placing them provides increased flexibility and ownership in their purchasing experience. When something is convenient, you’re much more likely to complete the transaction, be satisfied, and come back for more. It’s no different for today’s donors!
Empower your shoppers (and donors). People want control over their buying experiences, especially in the form of choices and options. From buying and managing their own tickets, to changing credit card information, sharing information with others, customizing options, and reserving a spot in line – the option to self-manage and make decisions about a purchase (or donation!) needs to be part of the experience.

The Vision

With countless hours of testing and development, the OneCause team was ready to address key research themes in the new platform to meet today’s donors where they are and deliver on what they expect from the causes they support.

“We wanted to create something that gave our nonprofit customers the flexibility to handle whatever might come up in their planning, during their event, or at the end of their fundraiser, so we built a solution to solve their most pervasive pain points,” explains Ragozzino.

Let’s see how this research was applied!

Frictionless Giving

Registering for an event or donating to your organization should be an intuitive process. From start to finish, the experience needs to be seamless and easy.

The OneCause Fundraising Platform addresses this need for ease with intuitive navigation, featuring a menu bar that highlights:

Your event home page
Live and silent auctions
Donations
And more!

“Donors are consumers, and they expect software that’s easy to navigate and an on-demand, personalized experience when it comes to nonprofit events and fundraising,” said Ragozzino.

Because the OneCause Fundraising Platform contains elements and processes familiar to donors, the giving experience is quick, easy, and modern—just like they expect. They don’t have to think about it… and that’s the point! The Platform takes effort and guesswork out of donating, eliminating friction and unlocking generosity.

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Engaging Events

To maximize impact, build trust, and encourage donors to come back year after year, nonprofits must engage attendees from the moment they purchase a ticket until the time they check out at the end of an event.

With the OneCause Fundraising Platform, attendees can easily:

Find details about your event
Purchase tickets and use promo codes
Create and manage their profiles
Buy tables and assign guests to eliminate “guest of” nightmares
Start bidding prior to your event
Chat with other attendees in real-time
Leverage Express Check-in with QR codes to skip the line
Select a checkout time to expedite item pickup
Access real-time analytics and data

“The OneCause Fundraising Platform gives attendees a more streamlined experience, so they can get to having fun faster, without standing in registration lines,” Paula Eichholz, Director of Campaign Excellence at March of Dimes

Flexible Ticketing

When hosting an event, ticketing can be an important way to capture impactful fundraising dollars. Your nonprofit should look for a solution that provides supporters an easy, flexible ticketing experience and maximizes the information you collect.

The Fundraising Platform streamlines the ticketing process while empowering supporters to provide important information for event management and planning for the future.

Within the OneCause Fundraising Platform, you can:

Manage multiple ticket types
Create custom ticketing questions
Empower supporters to manage their own tickets
Easily transfer tickets
Add discounts and promo codes

Customized Messaging

To drive deeper donor engagement, the OneCause Fundraising Platform comes with flexible, customizable text message options so you can start the conversation with guests before your event… and keep it going after! You can even drive guest-to-guest engagement though live chat. This builds familiarity with and connection to your cause, creates excitement about your event, and ignites a sense of community.

Reimagined Check-in and Check-out

No one enjoys waiting in a line. That’s why we built innovative functionality into the OneCause Fundraising Platform to minimize lines at registration and checkout. With streamlined and efficient check-in and checkout processes, your nonprofit can provide a personalized, flexible experience for guests, while increasing their satisfaction, trust, and the likelihood that they’ll return/give to your fundraiser again.

Through contactless, express self-check-in, guests can skip the line and check themselves into the event prior to arrival. Once registered, guests are given a digital ticket with a QR code so event volunteers can scan it and track their attendance. Guests can quickly start enjoying the event without any delay or frustration caused by waiting in slow-moving lines.

Every nonprofit that’s hosted an event is familiar with the chaos that traditionally occurs around check-out and item pickup. With the OneCause Fundraising Platform, your nonprofit and guests will experience streamlined checkout! You can:

Set up pickup windows: attendees choose when to check out based on pre-set timeslots.
Enable future pickup times: guests don’t have to wait to pick up their item(s); they can choose to pick them up another day/time.
Utilize concierge texting: volunteers can text winners when an item is ready for pickup, preventing guests from waiting in line.

Data and Analytics

Leveraging insights provides year-round value and can increase the success and efficiency of your fundraising efforts. The OneCause Fundraising Platform provides a variety of reports that offer useful data to help you make strategic decisions both during and after your event.

During your fundraiser, nonprofits can access real-time data, including:

Table fundraising: Create a sense of friendly competition with real-time access to how much money each of your tables has raised.
Auction lot performance: Promote underperforming items with easy access to auction lot performance data.

After your event, your data is accessible on an organizational level, meaning you can see the performance of all your events in one place! Equipped with this valuable data, your nonprofit will be ready to reach more supporters and raise more funds year-round.

Wrapping Up!

The powerful new OneCause Fundraising Platform is here to help your nonprofit exceed donor expectations with a modern, flexible giving experience that mirrors what your supporters have come to expect in their day-to-day interactions with other technology… but with innovative tools built specifically to unlock donor generosity (and save you valuable time)!

Ready to learn more about how the OneCause Fundraising Platform can drive deeper supporter engagement, create a frictionless giving experience, and reduce stress for your team? Schedule a tour with one of our product experts!

TAKE A ONECAUSE TOUR

If you’re a current customer, reach out to your Customer Success Manager to chat about using the new Platform at your next event.

Want a sneak peek before your customized tour? Take a test drive here!